Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department have made an assessment of the increase in water costs for metred properties against unmetered properties.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Customers with water meters installed are charged based on the volume of water consumed, while those without a meter are charged for their water and sewerage services based on the rateable value of their property.
The Government has asked water companies to increase smart metering and has enabled compulsory metering in areas of water stress, where there is consumer support and it represents value for money, as set out in the Plan for Water. This can allow bill payers to cut costs by using water more efficiently where possible and assist in reducing overall water consumption by enabling water companies to reduce leakage, further reducing bills for customers.
Some water companies also offer a lowest bill guarantee for consumers who switch to a metered charge, which guarantees the best value price for the first few years of installation and the option to switch back to unmetered charges if the meter is not helpful.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reduce the financial burden on families facing increased water costs.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is mindful that consumers are concerned about their bills. For this reason, Defra expects all water companies to help consumers who struggle to pay their bills through measures such as WaterSure, social tariffs, payment breaks and holidays, and debt management support. We expect all companies to ensure households are aware of the support schemes available to them.
We continue to work with industry and consumer groups to explore options to improve present social tariff arrangements and broader customer support, focusing on improving consistency and fairness.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 estimate of the number and proportion of businesses that are (a) without flood insurance and (b) eligible for business recovery grants.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government does not collect data on the proportion of businesses that are without flood insurance.
Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in England are in principle eligible to receive the Department for Business and Trades Business Recovery Grant as long as they:
It is for a local authority to make an assessment on who qualifies for a Business Recovery Grant in the light of all the criteria and circumstances on the ground.
If they are in an eligible area and have suffered internal flooding, they should contact their local authority to understand if they can also Defra’s Property Flood Resilience recovery grant, which provides for up to £5,000 to install measure to make eligible properties more resilient to future flooding.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 have discussions with providers of the Flood Re scheme on the potential merits of extending the scheme to cover businesses.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Flood Re scheme allows for insurers to offer discounted premiums to domestic properties. Flood Re is funded via a levy on UK household insurers. Expanding the scope of Flood Re to cover businesses would create a new levy on businesses, and could result in businesses across the country, and indirectly customers, subsidising profit-making organisations located at flood risk.
There is no evidence of a systemic problem for businesses at high flood risk not accessing insurance.
Businesses in high flood risk areas can shop around for the best insurance quote and could consider using an appropriate broker. There are a number of products being offered to businesses by the industry such as the British Insurers Brokers’ Association (BIBA) Commercial Property scheme to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and provide flood cover for those that are ineligible for Flood Re.
We are working with the insurance industry and the wider commercial sector to help businesses become more resilient to flooding through the joint government and industry Property Flood Resilience (PFR) roundtable.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to increase the information provided by food labelling.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As the Secretary of State discussed in his speech at the Oxford Farming conference, we think there is an opportunity to improve transparency for consumers and ensure fairness for producers, so consumers can be fully confident about what they’re buying. We therefore intend to launch a rapid consultation on clearer labelling.
The consultation will explore options for improving method of production labelling and country-of-origin labelling.
It will explore how we can better highlight imports that do not meet UK welfare standards, and, in terms of country-of-origin labelling, look at improving how and where origin information is displayed - including for minimally processed meat, such as bacon and ham - and what products should be in scope.
The exact details of the consultation will be published in due course.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Groceries Supply Code of Practice for (a) farmers and (b) others impacted.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) sets out how designated retailers should manage their relationship with suppliers and was intended to protect food and drink suppliers to major supermarkets from being treated unfairly. It is enforced by the Grocery Code Adjudicator (GCA), and the most recent review published in July 2023 found the GCA to be an effective regulator.
However, most farmers do not supply supermarkets directly and so they are not covered by the GSCOP. As a result, powers were introduced in the Agriculture Act 2020 to enable the introduction of statutory codes of contractual practice to protect farmers. Since then we have been undertaking supply chain fairness reviews into different sectors of farming to understand the specific issues that farmers face.
Using these powers, we will be introducing new regulations on contractual standards for the dairy sector. We plan to introduce these into to Parliament before the Easter Recess. We expect to introduce regulations relating to the pork sector later in 2024. Two new supply chain fairness reviews were announced at the UK Farm to Fork summit on 16 May 2023, into the egg and fresh produce supply chains. We will analyse the responses and provide a summary of the findings and set out next steps.
This issue was also discussed in a parliamentary debate that took place on 22 January in which Government set out its plans for supporting farmers.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 impact of the Red Tractor Assurance Scheme on the competitiveness of British farmers relative to food producers overseas.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
While Red Tractor is not a Government scheme, we recognise how important it is to work closely with industry, which is why the Food Standards Agency has an earned recognition relationship with Red Tractor. We will continue to work with industry bodies on the vital role they play in helping farmers do the right thing – giving communication and advice as well as upholding standards.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has taken steps to help ensure that the Grain Passport Scheme is carried out digitally.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The digitisation of the grain passport in the arable supply chain is an industry led initiative run through the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board led Digital Passport Leadership Group.
The group are currently consulting on delivery of the digitisation of the passport. Following this, the Group will review the responses and decide on a way forward.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 merits of empowering the Groceries Code Adjudicator to provide additional protections for farmers who are at risk of unfair practices.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has already launched a review to increase fairness in the fresh produce supply chain in December 2023, building on what we have already got underway to improve transparency and contracts in the pork and dairy markets and the. Following this, we will analyse the responses and consider the need for providing additional protections for farmers at risk of unfair practices.
This review seeks to understand issues relating to fairness in the supply chain across the whole of the UK. If responses indicate there are contractual issues that we believe we should seek to address, the powers in the Agriculture Act apply to the whole of the UK. If regulations are developed, we will engage widely with stakeholders, including the devolved administrations, to ensure that legislation works for all parts of the UK and incorporate special provision for differing circumstances, if necessary.
A parliamentary debate is scheduled for 22 January to debate reforming the grocery supply code of practice to better protect farmers where the issues you’ve raised will be discussed.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 increase protections for farmers who sell produce to supermarkets.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has already launched a review to increase fairness in the fresh produce supply chain in December 2023, building on what we have already got underway to improve transparency and contracts in the pork and dairy markets and the. Following this, we will analyse the responses and consider the need for providing additional protections for farmers at risk of unfair practices.
This review seeks to understand issues relating to fairness in the supply chain across the whole of the UK. If responses indicate there are contractual issues that we believe we should seek to address, the powers in the Agriculture Act apply to the whole of the UK. If regulations are developed, we will engage widely with stakeholders, including the devolved administrations, to ensure that legislation works for all parts of the UK and incorporate special provision for differing circumstances, if necessary.
A parliamentary debate is scheduled for 22 January to debate reforming the grocery supply code of practice to better protect farmers where the issues you’ve raised will be discussed.