Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of shareholder capital in English water companies.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ofwat is the economic regulator for the water industry. It is its responsibility to ensure that water companies are able to secure the financing required to conduct their operations, including through equity capital. Since December 2024 water companies have raised over £2 billion in new equity.
As part of this function, Ofwat publishes an annual Monitoring and Financial Resilience Report. This contains an up-to-date calculation of the Regulated Capital Value (RCV) of all water companies. RCV is a measure of a company’s capital base.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are considering bringing South East Water into public ownership.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
South East Water is one of the worst performers on water supply interruptions, and it’s important that its customers receive the compensation they deserve.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate is investigating the recent supply outages and will take appropriate enforcement action where required. South East Water was already under Ofwat investigation into their supply resilience. On 15 January, Ofwat announced a new investigation into South East Water’s compliance with the licence condition regarding customer service. The customer licence condition gives Ofwat powers to act against a water company which fails to provide appropriate support to its customers. This is the first investigation Ofwat has launched on the customer-focused licence condition.
Unravelling the current ownership model would cost the taxpayer around £100 billion and take years. Instead, we are focusing on tackling the real problems with the water industry with our root and branch reforms that will clean up the nation’s polluted waterways, turn around the sector’s performance and restore trust and accountability.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - 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 Hendy of Richmond Hill on 3 June (HL7863), what plans they have to introduce legislation to counter environmental noise nuisance and support local enforcement.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Statutory Nuisance Regime under Section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA) is designed to provide protection from nuisances including noise, odour, smoke, fumes, artificial light, infestations and accumulations.
Local authorities are responsible for investigating nuisance problems brought to their attention under the EPA. If they agree that a statutory nuisance is happening, has happened or will happen in the future, councils must serve an abatement notice (usually on the person responsible). This could result in an unlimited fine if the recipient does not follow the rules of the abatement notice. It could also result in prosecution and an additional fine if found guilty in a Magistrates Court.
Local Authority Environmental Health Officers are qualified to make decisions on what can be considered a statutory nuisance within the local context and issue an abatement notice immediately. At this present time, there are no plans to change the regime.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of dog attacks (1) in general, and (2) on postal workers in particular.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
We are working in partnership with the police, local authorities and animal welfare organisations to ensure that the full range of existing dog control powers are effectively applied to encourage responsible dog ownership and reduce the risk of dog attacks, including attacks amongst postal workers.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) serious injuries, and (2) deaths, have been caused by dog attacks in England and Wales in the past 12 months.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
Defra does not collect this data. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) published by NHS Digital include numbers of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) for hospital admissions in England that were caused by a dog bite or strike. The Office for National Statistics also collects details and figures on deaths registered in England and Wales, including underlying cause. Deaths registered in England and Wales – 21st century mortality - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether (1) the number of dog attacks in England and Wales has increased month by month over the past 12 months, and (2) the total number is greater than it was for the previous 12 months.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
Defra does not collect this data. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) published by NHS Digital include numbers of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) for hospital admissions in England that were caused by a dog bite or strike.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure there is a sufficient supply of fruit and vegetables in UK supermarkets.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
We remain in close contact with suppliers, who are clear that current issues relating to the availability of certain fruits and vegetables are predominately caused by poor weather in Spain and North Africa where they are produced. These issues have been caused by unseasonal weather hampering production and harvest during December and January.
We are aware some supermarkets are limiting sales of certain fruit and vegetables. While short-term supplies may be tight, overall, the supply chain is robust, and we are keeping the market under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group.
The capability, levers and expertise to respond to disruption lie with industry. The Government's role is to support and enable an industry-led response. UK food security remains resilient, and we continue to expect industry to be able to mitigate supply problems through alternative sourcing options.
We work with industry bodies across the horticulture sectors, including with the Edible Horticulture Roundtable Group, as well as with other key stakeholders, such as the British Growers Association and the National Farmers Union to monitor and assess the current market situation. We also work with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations at the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group.
The Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries, Mark Spencer, held an industry roundtable with supermarkets on 27 February to explore their plans for a return to normal supplies and contingencies for dealing with these supply chain problems.
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response, and is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Defra has a collaborative relationship with industry which allows us to respond effectively to disruption, should it occur.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve air quality in British urban areas.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Latest published figures (which go up to the year 2020) show that air pollution has reduced significantly across the UK since 2010. Air quality is a devolved policy. The UK Government and the devolved administrations work collaboratively and consult on actions needed to improve air quality across the UK.
In England, the Clean Air Strategy sets out our ambitious programme of action to reduce air pollution from a wide range of sources. This includes setting two stretching targets for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) under the Environment Act 2021. Our dual-target approach will tackle the highest concentrations of PM2.5, usually found in urban areas, and ensure continuous improvement across the country. Our modelling shows that achieving these targets would significantly improve public health, resulting in 214,000 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease, 56,570 fewer strokes, 70,000 fewer cases of asthma and 23,000 fewer cases of lung cancer.
We have provided £880 million to help local authorities develop and implement local nitrogen dioxide (NO2) reduction plans and to support those impacted by these plans. This government is also taking action across transport by supporting the switch to electric vehicles with £2.8 billion of investment, and £2 billion in funding for cycling and walking over this Parliament.
We also have recently awarded £11.6 million from Defra’s annual Air Quality Grant Scheme to 41 local authorities in England for local projects to tackle air pollution. The scheme will reopen for applications later this year, building on more than £38 million investment so far since 2010.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce noise pollution in built-up areas.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government is committed to ensuring that noise is managed effectively to promote good health and minimise disruption to people’s quality of life. We have strong protections in place to avoid significant noise impacts from transport, as well as in our planning system, our environmental permitting systems, in vehicle and product standards, and noise abatement legislation. Defra helps to manage noise, mainly from transport, through the Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 2006, which aim to reduce noise exposure in the worst affected areas.
The Regulations require, on a five-year cycle:
- The determination, through noise mapping, of exposure to environmental noise from major sources of road, rail and aircraft noise including large urban areas (known as agglomerations).
- The adoption of Action Plans based upon the noise mapping results, which are designed to manage environmental noise and its effects, including noise reduction if necessary.
- Provision of information to the public on environmental noise and its effects.
The Regulations also require that the Action Plans identify ‘Important Areas’, where the 1% of the population affected by the highest noise levels is located. This approach has been taken in order to target mitigation efforts towards those at greatest risk of experiencing a significant adverse impact to health and quality of life as a result of their exposure to noise. These areas should then be prioritised for investigation and, where appropriate, action by the relevant transport authority or the relevant local authority depending on whether the noise is being caused by railways or roads.
The next Round of mapping is due to be completed later this year, with Noise Action Plans for Railways, Roads and Agglomeration due to be published in 2023.