Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
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 support (a) Lakeside EfW and high temperature incinerator and (b) other waste industry organisations in providing services to local authorities and NHS trusts during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Government is continuing to work closely with the waste industry, including operators of incineration and EFW plants such as Lakeside, to understand the impact of Covid-19 on the sector and to provide the necessary and appropriate support to ensure the provision of services.
The Chancellor announced unprecedented support for businesses in general, including a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, deferral of VAT payments for firms until the end of June and £330 billion of Government-backed and guaranteed loans including a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Early in the pandemic, Defra worked with the waste industry to develop an online platform to facilitate the sharing of resources between local authorities and commercial operators. The platform, WasteSupport, was launched on 16 April. In addition, the Environment Agency has been taking a proportionate approach to regulation and published a number of COVID-19 Regulatory Position Statements, to address specific concerns around compliance with permit conditions, for instance on exceeding waste storage limits at permitted sites. These can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/covid-19-regulatory-position-statements
Throughout the outbreak, we have worked closely with the NHS to monitor the position in relation to clinical waste. We have clear, sensible contingency plans in place and continue to keep the position under review.
Defra has worked with local government, other Government departments and the waste industry to produce and publish guidance to help local authorities manage their waste collection services and household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The guidance on reopening HWRCs was developed in conjunction with Public Health England and the Home Office and sets out how to operate HWRCs in a way that protects human health while?maintaining safe systems of working. The HWRC guidance is available at:
Since publication of our guidance nearly all local authorities are now able to offer a HWRC service and local householders can make trips to these sites as needed.?Weekly surveys indicate that, due to the hard work of those in the sector, nearly all English authorities are operating household waste collections as normal, with only a small percentage reporting minor disruption.
The Minister for Regional Growth and I wrote to local authorities on 5 May to thank those working to deliver waste services during the Covid-19 outbreak for the vital role they are playing in protecting the environment, public amenity and people’s health. We wrote a further letter on 28 June asking local authorities to ensure that as much access as possible is provided to HWRC services where this can be done safely.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to allocate funding from the public purse to flood defences after 2021.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government is investing a record £2.6 billion from 2015-2021 to better protect 300,000 homes in England from flooding, and £1bn to maintain existing defences. Since 2015 some 600 new schemes are already providing better protection to over 200,000 homes across the country. The level of funding for flood defences beyond 2021 will be decided as part of a future Budget settlement, and will be informed by a range of evidence and forecasts, including the Environment Agency’s Long Term Investment Scenarios report.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to implement the recommendation in the report by the Environment Agency entitled, Long-term investment scenarios 2019, that flood and coastal erosion risk management in the UK will require an average annual investment of £1 billion until 2065.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government is investing a record £2.6 billion from 2015-2021 to better protect 300,000 homes in England from flooding, and £1bn to maintain existing defences. Since 2015 some 600 new schemes are already providing better protection to over 200,000 homes across the country. The level of funding for flood defences beyond 2021 will be decided as part of a future Budget settlement, and will be informed by a range of evidence and forecasts, including the Environment Agency’s Long Term Investment Scenarios report.