Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) reduce risk, and (2) mitigate the impact of lithium-ion battery fires in waste processing plants.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Sites storing and processing waste are required to have a fire prevention plan (FPP) to mitigate and manage the fire risk on site. A critical part of the FPP is to have robust waste acceptance procedures in place to ensure that lithium-ion batteries and other ignition sources are separated, stored and treated appropriately to prevent fires occurring. Defra is reviewing the existing UK Batteries Regulations with a view to consulting by end 2023. As part of this review, work is ongoing to understand the potential safety risks of lithium-ion batteries.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - 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 withdrawal of waste or recycling services as a result of lithium-ion batteries fires in waste processing plants.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra has not made an assessment of the withdrawal of waste or recycling services as a result of lithium-ion batteries in waste processing plants. Waste diversion to other authorised facilities routinely happens when a plant is down for maintenance, refurbishment or closed.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Benyon on 24 April (HL7121), what assessment they have made of the cost of fires in waste processing plants resulting from lithium-ion batteries.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra has not made an assessment of the costs of fires arising in waste processing plants. Research conducted by Eunomia and the Environmental Services Association which was published in 2021 estimated the annual cost of lithium-ion battery fires to be £158 million. A copy is attached to this answer.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what organisations are members of the electricity Storage Health and Safety Governance Group; and when it last met.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Electrical Storage Health and Safety Governance Group last met on 13th March 2023. Member organisations include: the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the National Physical Laboratory, the Health and Safety Executive, the Office for Product Safety and Standards, London Fire Brigade, Kent Fire and Rescue Services, the National Fire Chief’s Council, the Association For Renewable Energy and Clean Technology, the National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers, the British Association of Electrotechnical Allied Manufacturers Association, the British Standards Institution, the University of Newcastle, the Institute for Engineering and Technology, the Energy Institute, and representatives from both the domestic and grid-scale energy storage industry as well as engineering consultancies.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk of fires arising from solar photovoltaic panels.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Research funded by Government between 2015 and 2018 by the Building Research Establishment indicates the risk from solar PV fires is very low. Government continues to work with industry to make solar even safer and ensure best practice. In February 2023 RISCAuthority, the Microgeneration Certification Scheme and Solar Energy UK published an updated Joint Code of Practice on recommendations for fire risk prevention in UK solar systems.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - 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 number of fires in waste processing plants resulting from lithium-ion batteries.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Through desk-based research and conversations with the Fire Service, Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum and other members of the Steering Group, the Environment Agency has been able to acquire data and gain an understanding of the number of waste fires and costs that can be attributed to waste fires caused by lithium-ion batteries in the UK.
The Environment Agency estimates that around 48% of waste fires can be attributed to lithium-ion batteries; this equates to approximately 201 waste fires in the UK each year.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their Tree health resilience strategy, published on 25 May 2018, what progress they have made in each year since 2018 in respect of the goals they identified to improve the (1) extent, (2) connectivity, (3) diversity, and (4) condition, of trees, woods and forests in England.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Forestry Commission publish annual statistical reports on Key Performance Indicators. Since 2020, these reports have included data on the extent and net change in woodland area, the connectivity of woodland, and the ecological condition (including the age and species diversity) of woodlands in England.
The latest available report (published June 2022) shows a marginal increase in woodland area, an improvement in net change and little change in connectivity for the last five years of published data. The condition and diversity indicators do not yet have a time series covering five years.
Through the England Trees Action Plan, we committed to treble tree planting rates in England by the end of this Parliament. This commitment, supported by the £640m Nature for Climate Fund, is helping the sector to deliver more resilient trees, woods and forests. The Countryside Stewardship scheme and the tree health pilot scheme also provide financial support for removal of diseased trees and restocking of trees.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the amount of development on grassland habitats that could be considered irreplaceable habitats under the National Planning Policy Framework that took place each year from 2015 to 2022.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Government does not record planning decisions nationally, this is recorded locally by local planning authorities. However, the National Planning Policy Framework affords strong protection to important habitats, and is explicit that development resulting in the loss or deterioration of irreplaceable habitats (such as ancient woodland and ancient or veteran trees) should be refused, unless there are wholly exceptional reasons and a suitable compensation strategy exists. Local planning authorities will need to take this into account when making their local plans and in decision making.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the amount of development on semi-natural grassland that took place each year from 2015 to 2022.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Government does not record planning decisions nationally, this is recorded locally by local planning authorities. However, the National Planning Policy Framework affords strong protection to important habitats, and is explicit that development resulting in the loss or deterioration of irreplaceable habitats (such as ancient woodland and ancient or veteran trees) should be refused, unless there are wholly exceptional reasons and a suitable compensation strategy exists. Local planning authorities will need to take this into account when making their local plans and in decision making.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken in response to the report by the Office for National Statistics Habitat extent and condition, natural capital, UK: 2022, published on 3 May 2022; in particular, what steps they are taking in respect of the changes in the number of protected sites on semi-natural grassland (1) in favourable condition from 2020–22, (2) in unfavourable condition from 2020–22, and (3) in recovering condition from 2020–22.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Biodiversity policy is devolved. The Office for National Statistics report indicates that most of the England grassland priority habitats both in lowland and upland protected sites were broadly maintained in either favourable or recovering condition between 2018 and May 2022. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions, including lowland neutral grassland and upland calcareous grassland, showing significant change to unfavourable declining condition. In Natural England’s view, this is due to a range of factors including the reluctance of some land managers to renew or take up Agri-Environment Schemes during the period of transition to new schemes. In addition, the halting of site condition reporting during the Covid lockdown may have impact these figures.
Natural England is taking several steps to address this, including working with land managers to maximise the take up of existing and new land management schemes including Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier and Higher Tier management options.
In the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 the Government has set an interim target that by 2028 all Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) will have an up-to-date condition assessment and that 50% of SSSIs will have actions on-track to bring them into favourable condition.
Since 2018, 13 new SSSIs have been designated where grassland and those species dependent on grassland habitats is the main interest feature Natural England’s SSSI pipeline includes 7 more grassland sites for notification.