Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to build more desalination plants.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A secure water supply is essential for every home and business throughout the country. It is the foundation of our economy, our communities and our security.
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers, efficiently and economically and set out how they plan to continue to supply water to their customers through statutory Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs). These plans set out how each company will continue to meet its supply duty and manage water supply and demand, including fixing leaks, sustainably for at least the next 25 years. Within their plans, water companies must consider all options, including demand management and new water resources including reservoirs and water transfers.
The latest WRMPs include proposals for nine new desalination schemes in England. Further information about the schemes can be found at: Appendix C: Revised draft water resources management plans supply options - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will end emergency authorisations of neonicotinoids which are poisonous to bees.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government has been clear that we will change existing policies to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides that threaten bees and other vital pollinators by the next General Election.
Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to gather evidence on food insecurity in the UK.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
There is no single definition of food insecurity. The factors that impact on household food security are complex. There are multiple indicators such as quality, variety and desirability of diet as well as total intake, not all of which are measured consistently. It is, therefore, very difficult and potentially misleading to attempt to develop a single classification of food insecurity.
Defra publishes annual statistics to show the proportion of household income spent on food by (a) all households and (b) the lowest income 20% of households. Lower income families spend a greater proportion of household income on food (15.7% compared to 11.4% for the average household). This has remained stable over recent years: 16.5% in 2013, 16.6% in 2012, 16.6% in 2011, 15.8% in 2010 and 16.1% in 2009. The most recent statistics are in the Food Statistics Pocketbook 2015 on the GOV.UK website.
Year on year food prices have continued to fall with an annual rate of inflation of -2.7 per cent in the year to March 2016. General inflation is 0.3 per cent, unchanged from January.