Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve water quality monitoring; and how many water quality monitoring stations are currently in place.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s new White Paper sets out once in a generation reforms that will transform the water system, including improvements to water quality monitoring. It sets out our commitment to ending ‘operator self-monitoring’ and to developing a new strengthened Open Monitoring approach for monitoring wastewater.
The Environment Agency (EA) currently undertakes water quality monitoring at 13,000 locations each year. Water quality monitoring is set to expand significantly by 2030 with the introduction of continuous water quality monitors at 25% of all applicable storm overflows and waste treatment works, and the installation of event duration monitors at 50% of all emergency overflows.
More broadly, the EA is actively exploring the potential for innovation, integration of data collected by other organisations and citizen scientists, and other opportunities to improve water quality monitoring. The EA is planning to integrate new data with its own monitoring to improve its understanding of water quality.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the percentage change in the number of sewage discharges from sewage overflow from 2024 to 2025.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies are required to submit their storm overflow Event Duration Monitoring return data for 2025 at the end of February 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing a single reporting mechanism for farmers and land managers to report fly-tipping incidents.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local councils are responsible for investigating most fly-tipping incidents, including those on private land. The gov.uk site has a single page entitled ‘Report Flytipping or Illegal Waste Dumping’ which directs people either to the relevant local authority via postcode search or to Crimestoppers, depending on the scale of what is being reported.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they are bringing forward to co-ordinate joint working between police forces to tackle fly-tipping.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities are responsible for investigating most fly-tipping incidents. Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG), through which we work with a wide range of interested parties, including local authorities and the National Police Chiefs Council, to share good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping. The NFTPG has developed various practical tools including a guide on how councils can set up and run effective local partnerships, such as with the police, to tackle fly-tipping. These are available at: https://nftpg.com/.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to (1) bring forward new technologies for nutrient recovery, and (2) improve cross-body coordination of the monitoring of nutrient recovery.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will soon be publishing the Circular Economy Growth Plan, which has been developed in collaboration with our industry-led Circular Economy Taskforce, over 1,000 external stakeholders, and cross-government officials.
The Growth Plan will set out how we will stimulate the investment in green jobs and vital infrastructure and innovation needed to turn materials that would otherwise become waste into economically valuable resources for businesses across England to support growth in sectors including: agri-food; built environment; chemicals and plastics; electrical and electronic equipment; textiles; and transport. We recognise the importance of nutrient recovery, including bringing forward relevant new technologies and ensuring effective cross-body coordination of the monitoring of nutrient recovery. As we develop the Growth Plan and continue our work, we will consider the evidence for action right across the economy and evaluate what interventions may be needed.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase public awareness of the household waste duty of care and the responsibility of households not to pass their waste to a third party.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group which aims to develop and disseminate various practical tools on tackling fly-tipping. These include a guide on how local authorities can raise awareness of the household waste duty of care, which can help to prevent householders from giving their waste to a fly-tipper. The guide provides suggested messaging, including the impact of fly-tipping locally.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which measures funded by the nature restoration levy would take agricultural land out of food production.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that food security is national security and is committed to safeguarding the most productive agricultural land to maintain long-term food production. Farms also play a leading role in protecting nature and delivering environmental benefits, with nature markets an increasingly important source of income for farmers and land managers.
The impact of the Nature Restoration Fund on agricultural land will depend on the individual Environmental Delivery Plan and the conservation measures identified to address the impact of development. Natural England already considers the impact of its activities on agriculture. For example, when designing mitigation measures, the existing Nutrient Mitigation Scheme seeks to avoid the best and most versatile agricultural land. We expect Natural England to apply this approach to Environmental Delivery Plans.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what specific measures funded by the nature restoration levy will be mandatory for farms.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The conservation measures funded through the Nature Restoration Fund will depend on the specific Environmental Delivery Plan and the nature of the impact which the Environmental Delivery Plan seeks to address.
Natural England will look to collaborate with farmers as conservation measure providers, making use of their knowledge and experience to deliver for nature. It will be for farmers to decide whether to provide conservation measures on their land. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill does not provide Natural England with powers to mandate particular management approaches on farms.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the accessibility of funding from the nature restoration levy to (1) environmental and conservation groups and (2) individual farms.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We expect Natural England to deliver conservation measures funded by the Nature Restoration Fund, either directly or indirectly, through a range of organisations including environmental and conservation groups and farmers. At Committee Stage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill in the House of Lords, the government committed to publish guidance to Natural England, part of which will focus on the role of the private and third sectors in Environmental Delivery Plan development and delivery. This guidance will follow Royal Assent of the Bill and the passage of related regulations in 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which measures required under the Nature Restoration Fund take agricultural land out of food production.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that food security is national security and is committed to safeguarding the most productive agricultural land to maintain long-term food production.
The Nature Restoration Fund will offer opportunities for farming and land management businesses to diversify their business revenue through the provision of conservation measures.
The impact on agricultural land use and management will depend on the nature of the environmental service they will be paid to provide as part of a given Environmental Delivery Plan (EDP). Natural England already considers the impact of its activities on agriculture, for example, when designing mitigation measures, the existing Nutrient Mitigation Scheme seeks to avoid the best and most versatile agricultural land. We expect Natural England to apply this approach to EDPs.
By shifting to a strategic approach, we can leverage economies of scale across an EDP and reduce the need for piecemeal or disjointed mitigations secured by individual development projects. This will ensure every pound spent helps deliver our environmental goals.