Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report entitled, Business Management Practices on Farms, England 2016/17, published by his Department in February 2018, what steps he is taking to increase the number of farm businesses that undertake (a) business and (b) land management planning; and what assessment he has made of the effect of new Environmental Land Management system as outlined in the statement of 12 September 2018 on the ability of farmers to produce land management plans.
Answered by George Eustice
The new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme will give farmers and land managers incentives to deliver a wide variety of environmental benefits. We are exploring the role of land management plans in the ELM scheme, including through undertaking a number of tests and trials on the use of land management plans.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what measures will be included in a future environmental land management scheme as outlined in the policy statement of 12 September 2018 on health and harmony: the future for food farming and the environment in a green Brexit, to ensure all farm businesses can create land management plans and participate in the new payment schemes.
Answered by George Eustice
The new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme will give farmers and land managers incentives to deliver a wide variety of environmental benefits through paying public money for delivering environmental public goods. In developing ELM, we are exploring how to maximise participation to increase the environmental benefits that are delivered. To support this, we are undertaking a number of tests and trials which include the role of land management plans and expert advice for farmers and land managers.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
[Suggested redraft] To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of farms at risk of closing down as a result of a new systems of agricultural payments as outlined in the Government's policy paper of 12 September 2018 on health and harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a green Brexit, what the size of those farms are; and the type of farming undertaken by those farms.
Answered by George Eustice
In September 2018, alongside the Agriculture Bill and policy statement, the Government published an ‘Analysis of the impacts of removing Direct Payments’. This provided an overview of the potential impacts to different farm types and sizes of moving away from direct payments and introducing a new system of public money for public goods.
Direct payments are arbitrary payments based on land area that tend to favour larger land owners rather than smaller family farming businesses. In England we will phase out direct payments during an agricultural transition, giving time for farmers to adjust. Phasing out direct payments will free up money so we can reward farmers for delivering public goods, including environmental outcomes and animal welfare.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what measures will be included in a future environmental land management scheme as outlined in the policy statement of 12 September 2018 on health and harmony: the future for food farming and the environment in a green Brexit, to promote farm cluster working and landscape-scale enhancement projects.
Answered by George Eustice
The new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme will give farmers and land managers incentives to deliver a wide variety of environmental benefits through paying public money for delivering environmental public goods. In developing the ELM scheme we are exploring the role of farm cluster working and landscape scale enhancement, and how to incentivise this to maximise the delivery of environmental benefits.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on volumes of food waste collected in the event of local authorities introducing food waste collections separate to other waste collections.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Our analysis shows that if all local authorities provide at least kerbside properties (as opposed to flats) with a separate food waste collection service, this would increase the amount of food waste collected by 1.35 million tonnes by 2029.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of delinking basic payments from the land as outlined in paragraphs 91 to 99 of the explanatory notes to the Environment Bill on patterns of land ownership in rural areas.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Alongside the introduction of the Agriculture Bill last September we published an analysis of the impacts of phasing out and delinking Direct Payments. Delinking may encourage a faster transition of farming businesses and may help those who choose to leave farming. This could increase the ease with which new entrants can acquire land for farming.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the equity of the transition to environmental land management payments for farms of different sizes.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The seven year agricultural transition period in England, as set out in the Agriculture Bill, will make sure there is a gradual transition from the current system to the new, avoiding a cliff edge for farm businesses of all sizes. It will give all farmers sufficient time to adapt and prepare for the new Environmental Land Management system which will be piloted and rolled out during the transition.
During the transition, we will apply reductions to Direct Payments in a fair way, with higher reductions initially applied to amounts in higher payment bands.
This method balances the views of those who feel recipients of the highest payments should initially face higher reductions with the strong calls for the reductions to be shared amongst all farmers from the start of the transition.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report of the Committee on Climate Change entitled, Progress in preparing for climate change, published on 10 July, for what reasons good progress was not made in any of the 33 sectors assessed by that Committee on actions needed to manage climate change risks.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government welcomes the report by the Committee on Climate Change. We are committed to taking robust action to improve resilience to climate change, and will formally respond to the Committee’s detailed recommendations in October, in line with the timetable set out in the Climate Change Act.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what comparative data and analysis his Department holds on (a) operational practice and (b) waste content in municipal waste incineration sites in (i) England and (ii) Italy (iii) Scandinavia and (iv) other Member States of the EU.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
None; however data and analysis on these systems is held on the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau’s (EIPPCB) Best Available Techniques Information System.
Information on the operational practice of waste incineration plants across Europe is also contained within the current draft of the Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document published by the EIPPCB, available here http://eippcb.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reference/BREF/WI/WI_BREF_FD_Black_Watermark.pdf