Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of (a) the number of officials in his Department involved in recording retained EU legislation for the purposes of the Retained EU Law Dashboard in the latest period for which figures are available and (b) the cost to the public purse of recording that information.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra has a large body of Retained EU Law (REUL). To ensure as much of this as possible was captured, a central coordinating function was responsible for ensuring completion of the Cabinet Office commission. In addition, numerous officials from across Defra were involved in producing and contributing information for inclusion in the dashboard. This work was carried out as part of officials’ normal business activities, and we did not record the amount of staff time spent specifically on this work.
Since it has not been possible to make an accurate estimate of staff time, we cannot give an accurate estimate of costs. All costs associated with data collection were met as part of Defra’s normal administrative budgets.
There has been no additional non-pay cost to the public purse by creating the dashboard. The process was led by the Cabinet Office, who commissioned Government Departments to find REUL within their legislation and compile an authoritative account of where REUL sits on the UK statute book.
The dashboard itself is made by the Government Strategic Management Office and is hosted on Tableau Public, which is a free platform for hosting public dashboards. The dashboard will continue to be updated at no additional cost.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to prevent stop tourist companies promoting holidays that support cruel treatment of captive Asian elephants.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government takes the welfare of all animals seriously and the Government has been made aware that animals including Asian elephants, that are part of tourist attractions, can be subjected to cruel and brutal training practices to ensure their compliance.
As set out in our Action Plan for Animal Welfare, we are committed to promoting high animal welfare standards, both at home and abroad. We have engaged with the travel industry and other stakeholder organisations, and we support measures which ensure that money from tourists from this country is not channelled towards animal experiences abroad that involve the unacceptable treatment of animals.
The Government is committed to exploring available options to deliver the action plan, including to limit the advertising and offering for sale of these experiences.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding his Department has made available to support local authorities seeking to apply for bathing water status for beaches and waterways in their areas.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is no funding made available but there is guidance to help applicants on gov.uk. The information requested is the minimum needed to assess whether the site meets the requirements of the Bathing Water Regulations 2013. My department has committed to revising its guidance to make it clearer and we will reduce burdens where possible.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding his Department has made available to support organisations and charities seeking to make applications for bathing water status.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is no funding made available but there is guidance to help applicants on gov.uk. The information requested is the minimum needed to assess whether the site meets the requirements of the Bathing Water Regulations 2013. My department has committed to revising its guidance to make it clearer and we will reduce burdens where possible.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 impact of proposed reforms to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 on small burial grounds across the country.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
From September to December 2021, Defra held a public consultation on the proposed amendments to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR). The consultation proposed that the EPR should be amended to allow the Environment Agency to issue an exemption from permitting for small-scale cemeteries in low environmental risk settings. The consultation set out a draft of these exemption conditions that defined the circumstances where cemeteries could be exempt from needing a groundwater activity permit.
The Government assessed that the introduction of exemption conditions for small scale cemeteries would have only a small impact on the sector because there are no fees associated with this new approach. If an operator can comply with the rules as set out in the exemption conditions, they do not need to apply for or pay for a permit. There would be some small familiarisation costs incurred, but the exemption conditions and accompanying guidance will be concise and easy to understand for a non-technical expert.
We received a range of responses during the consultation, including from the cemetery sector. The Government is reviewing consultation responses and is undertaking further stakeholder engagement to assess the proposed cemetery exemption conditions accordingly. Our Government response to the consultation will be published in due course.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 that the alternative of bringing new water to the Thames Valley via a Severn Thames Transfer pipeline is considered effectively by the Ofwat/RAPID scrutiny process.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency’s National Framework for water resources, published in 2020, identified that between 2025 and 2050 around 3,435 million additional litres of water per day will be needed for public water supply.
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers, efficiently and economically. Statutory water resources management plans show how companies will continue to meet this duty and manage water supply and demand for at least the next 25 years. In their plans, water companies must consider all options, including demand management and water resources infrastructure.
Collaborative regional water resources groups and water companies are preparing their water resources plans for consultations during 2022. Thames Water will formally consult publicly on its draft water resources management plan at the end of 2022, on which, both Ofwat and the Environment Agency are statutory consultees. Ofwat/RAPID’s ongoing scrutiny of proposed strategic water resources schemes will also improve the statutory plans.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the average timeframe for receiving approval for an application for bathing water status.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We aim to assess and make decisions within 4-6 months of receiving an application so that new designations can be added to the following year’s list of designated bathing waters before the start of the season on 15 May. However, as every application is different, in some instances it can take longer.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 halt and reverse population declines in (a) skylarks and (b) other farmland birds.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In England, the Countryside Stewardship scheme provides funding for a range of options which support farmland birds by increasing important food sources such as seeds and pollinators, providing nesting and roosting sites, and creating habitats for birds and other species. The scheme has a specific option which supports skylarks by providing nesting habitats in winter cereal crops throughout their breeding season.
As part of our environmental land management approach, participants are able to select from an initial set of eight standards to build their own agreements. Several of these standards contain actions to support birds. For example, the Arable and Horticultural Land Standard aims to support increased farmland biodiversity, including wild bird and pollinator populations through specific actions that will provide year-round resources for farmland birds and insects. Further, the Low and No Input Grassland Standard contains an additional action in its advanced level to provide habitat for wading birds.
Schemes that reward environmental land management will support local environmental priorities while making an important contribution to the delivery of our ambitious national targets and commitments, such as the target to be set to halt the decline of species abundance by 2030 and the establishment of a Nature Recovery Network. For example, the new Landscape Recovery scheme will support the delivery of landscape and ecosystem recovery through long-term, large scale projects, such as by creating woodland and restoring wetland and peatland. The new Local Nature Recovery scheme will also include creating, managing and restoring habitats on a smaller scale.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 migratory birds, what steps are the Government taking (a) nationally and (b) internationally to mitigate species decline.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is a globally important territory for migratory birds, and that is why we continue to take steps nationally and internationally to mitigate species decline. This is underpinned by our new target under the Environment Act 2021, to halt species decline by 2030.
In England, the Countryside Stewardship scheme can help to mitigate species decline, including migratory birds, through a range of options which provide food, habitat and nesting sites. Migratory birds which can be supported through the scheme include lapwing, stone curlew, turtle dove, whitethroat, redshank and snipe.
The Government's 25 Year Environment Plan commits us to restoring 75% of our one million hectares of terrestrial and freshwater protected sites to favourable condition by 2042. Many of these sites, which in total cover over 1 million hectares, protect the habitats of migratory birds even if not specifically notified for those species. Defra and the Devolved Administrations commissioned a review of the terrestrial and coastal UK network of Special Protection Areas, some of which are designated to protect the habitats of regularly-occurring migratory birds, and we have developed an England implementation plan in liaison with Natural England.
The Government continues to support specific conservation action for species, such as the curlew, and as part of the Nature Recovery Network (NRN), we have funded a trial translocation and recovery project in the east of England. We have also supported a range of successful reintroductions for migratory raptors including the white-tailed eagle to southern England.
Internationally, the UK is a signatory to, and proactively engaged with, a number of international agreements which seek to conserve and protect migratory birds and their habitats, in particular the Convention on Migratory Species, the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement and the International Task Force on Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean. In addition to domestic financial support, the UK provides targeted funding to support the conservation of threatened migratory birds and their habitats in developing countries, in particular in Africa.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2021 to Question 59130, on Nature Conservation, when badger culls will be included in the Government's bovine tuberculosis eradication strategy in the event that epidemiological evidence points to a reservoir of disease in badgers.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are still developing our future policy of badger culling where epidemiological evidence points to a reservoir of disease in badgers. Once the policy has been developed further, we intend to consult on the proposals.