Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many shellfish waters were categorised into class (a) A, (b) B, (c), C and (d) below class C for E.coli concentration in each year between 2019 and 2024.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following 17 classification zones have been prohibited for more than one year: Bailey’s Hard; Prinstead; Thurstaston East; Turnaway Point Relay; Wisemans; Mersey, specifically Wallasey; Dodnor; Aldingham; Plym; Tamar; Lytchett Bay; Fareham Lake Middle; Ribble Channel; Silloth South, specifically Catherinehole Scar; Itchen River; Eling; and Hythe. The following table provides a breakdown of classifications awarded, and the number of areas designated as prohibited for commercial harvesting, each year between 2019 and 2024:
| A | B | C | Total classifications | Areas prohibited for commercial harvesting |
2019 | 27 | 232 | 29 | 288 | 17 |
2020 | 32 | 226 | 30 | 288 | 16 |
2021 | 39 | 253 | 18 | 310 | 17 |
2022 | 60 | 222 | 13 | 295 | 18 |
2023 | 66 | 240 | 9 | 318 | 22 |
Current classifications | 63 | 229 | 8 | 300 | 19 |
Notes:
Annual classification for 2024 will be published on 1 December 2024, however, the current classification stands at 63 class A, 229 class B and 8 class C beds.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which shellfish waters have been categorised as below class C, or prohibited, for more than one year.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following 17 classification zones have been prohibited for more than one year: Bailey’s Hard; Prinstead; Thurstaston East; Turnaway Point Relay; Wisemans; Mersey, specifically Wallasey; Dodnor; Aldingham; Plym; Tamar; Lytchett Bay; Fareham Lake Middle; Ribble Channel; Silloth South, specifically Catherinehole Scar; Itchen River; Eling; and Hythe. The following table provides a breakdown of classifications awarded, and the number of areas designated as prohibited for commercial harvesting, each year between 2019 and 2024:
| A | B | C | Total classifications | Areas prohibited for commercial harvesting |
2019 | 27 | 232 | 29 | 288 | 17 |
2020 | 32 | 226 | 30 | 288 | 16 |
2021 | 39 | 253 | 18 | 310 | 17 |
2022 | 60 | 222 | 13 | 295 | 18 |
2023 | 66 | 240 | 9 | 318 | 22 |
Current classifications | 63 | 229 | 8 | 300 | 19 |
Notes:
Annual classification for 2024 will be published on 1 December 2024, however, the current classification stands at 63 class A, 229 class B and 8 class C beds.
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 meetings Ministers in his Department have held on Asian hornets in the last 12 months.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Asian hornet is an invasive non-native species, and a current GB alert species, which means that systems are in place to detect and then implement contingency plans to rapidly eradicate them in order to prevent establishment.
It is regularly discussed as an item on the agenda of monthly Minister-led meetings reviewing biosecurity priorities. In addition, officials have provided one briefing meeting specifically on Asian hornets in the last 12 months.
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 inspections of shellfish waters his Department has conducted in each year since 2015.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is responsible for designating shellfish water protected areas. Investigations are carried out by other organisations that have a role in water quality in shellfish waters, such as the Environment Agency and water companies (if directed to do so by the Environment Agency). Defra does not oversee these investigations to provide a figure.
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 much his Department has spent on tree planting in each year since 2015.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Data on tree-specific funding is only available from 2020, when the Nature for Climate Tree Programme was established. Since then, Defra has had a capital spend (CDEL) of £232 million on planting trees in England. The spending on tree planting in each year since 2020 is shown below:
| 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | 23/24 | Total |
Total Spend (£m) | 17.215 | 33.569 | 59.446 | 122.045 | 232.275 |
Additionally, the planting of trees has also been funded by the Countryside Stewardship Scheme. Since 2016, £120 million has been claimed under the scheme for planting and managing trees and for managing and enhancing woodlands.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have worked under the poultry Seasonal Worker visa scheme in each year since 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Data on the number of grants of Seasonal Worker visas is published in table Vis_D02 of the Entry clearance detailed dataset. Data on visa grants by occupation can be found in table Occ_D02, of the Sponsored work visas by occupation and industry dataset. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook.
The latest data relates up to the end of December 2023.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applicants have secured a Seasonal Worker visa in each year since 2019.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Data on the number of grants of Seasonal Worker visas is published in table Vis_D02 of the Entry clearance detailed dataset. Data on visa grants by occupation can be found in table Occ_D02, of the Sponsored work visas by occupation and industry dataset. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook.
The latest data relates up to the end of December 2023.
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 hectares of trees have been planted in each year since 2015.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I would refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Chesterfield on 2 April 2024 to Question 19841.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many applications were (a) made and (b) rejected to access funding under schemes within the flood recovery framework in the last two years; what total amount was that has been paid out through the flood recovery framework; and how many and what proportion of applicants received the maximum pay out of £25,000 under the flood recovery framework.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
In the last two years the Flood Recovery Framework has been activated twice – following Storm Babet in October 2023 and Storm Henk in January 2024. The decision to accept or reject applications for flood recovery funding is made by local authorities who are responsible for administrating all schemes, apart from the Farming Recovery Fund. To date, eligible local authorities have made payments of over £7.8 million to 8,510 impacted households and businesses. We expect this figure to rise substantially as further payments are made over the next 18 months.
With regards to the specific question on the £25,000 available under the Farming Recovery Fund scheme. DEFRA have only opened this once within the last two years on 9 April 2024 to provide farmers support to recover from uninsurable damage. The scheme provides grants of between £500 and £25,000 to return land to the condition it was before exceptional flooding of Storm Henk. The fund was initially opened in nine English local authority areas, however, DEFRA committed actively to review the areas to be included in the fund. Those farmers who were initially identified as eligible farmers have been contacted directly by Rural Payments Agency. DEFRA will be contacting all eligible farmers following completion of our review.
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 to have beavers introduced under the wildlife licensing scheme, CL50, have been (a) made and (b) accepted.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Class Licence CL50 allows for re-release of captured or rescued beavers back into existing wild-living beaver populations, and is intended to enable conflict management, rescue for welfare reasons, and research. CL50 cannot be used for introduction of beavers to river catchments where they do not already exist. There have been 12 applications made to Natural England to re-release beavers under CL50, all into the same river catchments that they were captured or rescued from. Of these, 9 were granted, and 3 were withdrawn or not granted.