Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to replace the single farm payment.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We intend to phase out untargeted Direct Payments in England by the end of 2027.
We are making a range of offers available to suit all farm types. Everything we are offering contributes to our 3 goals: supporting viable businesses; maintaining food production at its current level; and achieving animal health, welfare and climate outcomes.
We are offering a range of environmental land management schemes. In addition, we are offering other schemes and grants to help achieve our 3 goals. We launched funding for equipment, technology, and infrastructure that improves farm productivity and benefits the environment through the Farming Investment Fund.
Through the Farming Innovation Programme, we intend to unlock further innovation within the farming sector and contribute towards growth by supporting the development and adoption of new innovation by farmers and growers to ensure it can make a real difference.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government by what date the Department for Work and Pensions will resume the sharing of Healthy Start take-up data with the Department for Health and Social Care.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
DWP are working with DHSC to make data available by the end of 2022.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they can provide an update on the current status of the roll-out of the environmental land management schemes; and when they expect the schemes to be fully rolled out.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The first Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot agreements started in 2021. We started to roll out core elements of the Sustainable Farming Incentive from June 2022, and we will expand those elements until we have the full offer available in 2025.
In February 2022, farmers and land managers were invited to apply for funding for Landscape Recovery, and following a competitive application process, Defra confirmed the 22 selected projects on Friday 2 September 2022. We will release more information on round 2 in due course. We will also publish more information on Local Nature Recovery by the end of the year.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to establish an automatic opt-in to Healthy Start vouchers via (1) doctors surgeries, and (2) other points of contact, for those receiving benefits who are (a) pregnant, or (b) have young children; and if so, when they intend to implement such plans.
Answered by Lord Kamall
All applicants must apply to the Healthy Start scheme in line with legislation, where they meet the eligibility criteria. All successful applicants must also agree to the terms and conditions of the new pre-paid card prior to receiving it. The NHS Business Services Authority is therefore unable to automatically enrol all families onto the Healthy Start scheme.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to enable recipients of Healthy Start coupons to use their prepaid cards online to purchase items that are covered by the scheme.
Answered by Lord Kamall
All beneficiaries with a prepaid card can use it in all retailers which accept Mastercard payments and sell the permitted Healthy Start food items. There are no current plans to extend this online.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee of the House of Commons on 23 November (Q324), when they will issue a response on the source of pellets used by Drax; and whether they will publish the evidence used in their analysis.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
I refer the noble Lady to my response to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, which was published on 15 December and is available at: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/41426/default/. A copy is also attached to this answer.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the response by Lord Callanan on 13 December (HL Deb, col 3) that the "evidence is independently audited", who undertakes such assessments; what percentage of imports are assessed; and how many independent audits have found that biomass products used have not met the sustainability criteria.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The assessments are performed by independent auditors who are qualified to perform assurance engagements in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised) and the relevant legislation (Article 84(3) of the Renewables Obligation Order 2015).
Annual sustainability audit reports are performed in line with the ISAE 3000 (Revised) standards. The auditor will select a limited assurance sample, taken from all biomass products, based on a risk assessment.
Ofgem publish independently verified information on how generators have reported against the sustainability criteria in their annual biomass datasets and RO annual reports, which can be found on Ofgem’s website. The information for Drax in these datasets shows that no instances have been found where fuels at Drax have been reported as unsustainable.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Callanan on 13 December (HL Deb, col 2), what are the "strict sustainability criteria" by which biomass operators abide; and whether these criteria allow operators to source wood pellets from virgin forests.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK has strict sustainability criteria in place for biomass use. For biomass power generation supported under the Renewables Obligation scheme, the sustainability criteria are outlined in Schedules 1, 2, and 3 of the Renewables Obligation Order, which are publicly available on the legislation.gov.uk website.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the vetting process will be for organisations applying to host COP26 fringe meetings and events; and what plans they have to publish that process.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are looking to work and partner with organisations committed to taking positive action to tackle climate change. We will be launching a registration process for organisations wanting to be involved in UK Government managed events around COP26 in the new year. The process is currently under development and further detail will be released in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that sponsors and other organisations involved with COP26 are demonstrably committed to tackling climate change; and what criteria they intend to use to assess that commitment.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has set strict sponsorship criteria for COP26 and will only partner with companies who have committed to or set net-zero commitments by 2050 or earlier, and have a credible and aligned short-term action plan to achieve this. We conduct due diligence on all potential sponsors, and ensure compliance with our standards. The Government is encouraging companies with strong climate credentials to apply for sponsorship through the COP26 website.