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Written Question
Environment Agency: Termination of Employment
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Environment Agency staff have left that organisation in each year since 2015.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The number of Environment Agency staff who left and joined the organisation in each financial year since 2016/17 is detailed below. We are unable to provide data from 2014/15 or 2015/16 as this information is not readily available.

(April 2016 - March 2017)

(April 2017 - March 2018)

(April 2018 - March 2019)

(April 2019 - March 2020)

(April 2020 - March 2021)

(April 2021 - March 2022)

(April 2022 - March 2023)

(April 2023 - Jan 2024)

Number of EA staff who left the organisation within a financial year

999

1988

836

966

754

1149

1315

829

Number of EA staff who joined the organisation within a financial year

977

912

888

1008

364

890

2297

1640


Written Question
Sewage: Pollution
Friday 8th March 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

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 made an estimate of the number of homes affected by sewage rising into (a) gardens, (b) toilets and (c) sinks after heavy rains.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Discover Water, a water company performance data website which brings robust already-available company data from a range of sources together includes detail on sewer flooding incidents. In 2022-23; 47,176 areas of private land or gardens were flooded by sewage and 4,794 properties were internally flooded by sewage.

Sewer flooding may occur for a number of reasons, including a failure of the sewerage system; blockages; or when the sewerage system is overwhelmed when too much rainwater enters the sewers from surrounding roads, houses and land. Storm overflows stop sewage backing up into homes by releasing wastewater when the system is overwhelmed during periods of heavy rain. A growing population and ageing infrastructure, means these storm overflows are being pushed beyond their intended limits and that needs to change. As part of our Plan for Water, water companies are delivering the largest infrastructure programme in history - £60 billion of investment over 25 years. We continue to hold water companies to account and will not hesitate to act where there is evidence of wrongdoing.

Government recognises the importance of having a robust drainage system both now and for future demand. As per commitments in the Environmental Improvement Plan and the Plan for Water, Defra will legislate to require water companies in England to produce Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs). DWMPs set out how a water company intends to improve their drainage and wastewater systems over the next 25 years, accounting for factors including growing population and changing environmental circumstances. When producing DWMPs, water companies will be required to identify solutions in collaboration with other partners such as lead local flood authorities (LLFAs) and other flood risk management authorities.

Flooding from heavy rain and thunderstorms is known as surface water flooding. In England 3.4 million properties are at risk of such flooding. The responsibility for managing local flood risk, including from surface water, falls to LLFAs, in partnership with highways authorities and water companies. LLFAs are required to identify and agree local objectives for managing these local flood risks and to set them out in their statutory Local Flood Risk Management Strategy.


Written Question
Environment Agency: Legal Opinion
Monday 26th February 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff were in the Environment Agency's legal services team in each year since 2015.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The data in relation to Environment Agency Legal Services full-time equivalent numbers is detailed below:

Legal Services

Mar-15

137.1

Mar-16

144.6

Mar-17

136.8

Mar-18

137.8

Mar-19

141.5

Mar-20

146.4

Mar-21

142.7

Mar-22

137.2

Mar-23

145.4

Jan-24

148.4


Written Question
Hill Farming
Monday 26th February 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

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 publish the upland farming Pathways to Success modelling analysis prepared between 1 March 2022 and 1 August 2022.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The work referenced was not completed. However, we have provided information on the potential impact of our farming reforms. For example, the evidence compendium was most recently updated in September 2022 and the Agriculture in the UK Dashboard was published in November 2023. These set out the contribution of Direct Payments on farm incomes, including analysis by sector, location in England and type of land tenure.


Written Question
Swimming: Water
Wednesday 14th February 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which bathing waters have been de-designated in each region since 2015.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Since 2015, the following bathing waters have been de-designated in the Environment Agency areas listed below:

Area

De-Designated bathing waters since 2015

Cumbria and Lancashire

2

Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

3

East Anglia

1

Solent and South Downs

1

Wessex

2

Yorkshire

2

The names of these sites are:

  • Staithes
  • Newhaven
  • Lyme Regis Church Cliff Beach
  • Rock
  • Silloth
  • Instow
  • Allonby South
  • Clacton (Groyne 41)
  • Burnham Jetty North
  • Ilfracombe Wildersmouth
  • Tunstall

Written Question
Swimming: Water
Wednesday 14th February 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many applications for bathing water status have been (a) made, (b) granted, (c) and (d) pending decision since 1 January 2023.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra has received 30 bathing water applications since 1 January 2023. All applications are currently being assessed by Defra officials against the eligibility criteria and evidence requirements set out in the bathing waters application guidance, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bathing-waters-apply-to-designate-or-de-designate.

In addition, Defra designated four sites as bathing waters in 2023, although the applications for these sites were received in 2022. These four sites were:

  • Sykes Lane Bathing Beach, Rutland Water
  • Whitwell Creek, Rutland Water
  • Firestone Bay, Plymouth
  • an area of the River Deben Estuary at Waldringfield, Suffolk


Written Question
Environment Agency: Staff
Monday 12th February 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff have been employed by the Environment Agency for each year since 2015.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)


Environment Agency Workforce numbers (as at 31 March each year)

Year

Total

2014/15

10235

2015/16

10340

2016/17

10896

2017/18

10006

2018/19

10429

2019/20

10790

2020/21

10586

2021/22

10924

2022/23

12368

Dec-23

13282


Written Question
Flood Control: Local Government and Private Sector
Friday 9th February 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

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 publish a list of areas which lack (a) local authority resources and (b) private sector contributions to manage flood risk.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is investing a record £5.2 billion between 2021 and 2027 in flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities across England. Local authorities, which deliver some of these schemes, benefit from this investment.

Local authorities are also resourced to fulfil their statutory duties and have access to a range of revenue streams including the Local Government Finance Settlement. The local government finance settlement for 2024-25 will make available over £64.7 billion next year, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion or 7.5% in cash terms on 2023-24. The Government announced an additional £3 million in grant funding for 2024/25 to support local authorities severely impacted by the increase in levies from internal drainage boards. The majority of local government funding is un-ringfenced, recognising that local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the major service pressures in their local areas.

The Government is conducting an assessment of local flood and coastal risk compared to local authority spend. This work is ongoing and is expected to conclude by March 2024.

The Government’s £5.2 billion investment is distributed across the country where the risk is highest and the benefits are greatest. Around 60% of flood and coastal erosion projects are fully funded by this investment. Where the full costs of the project are not covered, contributions are needed from partners, the local community and other organisations. This provides a fair and consistent approach for allocating GiA and securing wider benefits where others stand to benefit from a defence scheme.

As of June 2023, the current capital programme had already secured £128 million in private sector contributions – more than double the £55 million secured across the whole of the previous six-year programme (2015 to 2021).

Government has also provided additional funding to schemes which meet specific objectives, to ensure that they can progress. For example, 23 projects have benefitted from additional government investment, on top of the £5.2 billion programme, through the £170 million Economic Recovery Funding announced in 2020.


Written Question
Sewage: Waste Disposal
Friday 9th February 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times each water company breached their storm overflow permits in 2023.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency will publish the 2023 Event Duration Monitoring data for storm overflows in March 2024.

The data for previous years is available here: Event Duration Monitoring - Storm Overflows - Annual Returns - data.gov.uk.


Written Question
Farmers: Mental Health Services
Monday 29th January 2024

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

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 take steps to help support the mental health of farmers during the transition from the Basic Payment Scheme to the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is introducing ambitious new schemes for farmers and land managers in England, which will help their businesses become more productive and sustainable by rewarding them for farming in a way that will deliver environmental and animal welfare outcomes. We are also reforming the way we regulate, with greater emphasis on advice and improvement, so farmers and regulators work together to improve the countryside.

We are providing support during the early years of the transition via the Future Farming Resilience Fund. One of the key required outcomes for the Resilience Fund is that farmers’ mental health and wellbeing are supported. Some delivery providers are offering this support from in-house experts and others are signposting support available from external expert services. We have worked with the Yellow Wellies charity, to provide advice and information on how to identify potential mental health issues and provide tools for addressing them.