Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of fly-tipping incidents in South East Cornwall constituency.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Fly-tipping is a serious crime which blights local communities and the environment, and we appreciate the difficulty and cost that it poses to landowners.
Local councils are usually best placed to tackle fly-tipping in their areas, and they have a range of enforcement powers to help them do so. These include fixed penalty notices of up to £1000, seizing and crushing of vehicles and prosecution action. We encourage councils to make good use of their enforcement powers and are taking steps to develop new enforcement guidance. We have also announced a review of council powers to seize and crush vehicles of fly-tippers, to identify how we could help them make better use of this tool.
In our manifesto we committed to forcing fly-tippers to clean up the mess that they have created as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour. We will provide further details on this commitment in due course.
In the meantime, Defra continue to chair the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group through which we work with a wide range of stakeholders, such as local authorities and the National Farmers Union, to share good practice on preventing fly-tipping, including on private land. Various practical tools are available from their webpage which is available here.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
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 set out the role (a) seagrasses and (b) marine nature-based solutions will have in his Department's net zero plans.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has set out a clear mission to make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower and accelerate progress towards Net Zero. Achieving this ambition within Defra sectors requires enhanced decarbonisation efforts alongside strengthened nature-based solutions.
The Net Zero pathway for Carbon Budgets 4-6 includes nature-based measures aimed at protecting existing ecosystems, restoring degraded landscapes, and creating or sustainably managing new ecosystems. Defra is actively exploring the role of marine nature-based solutions, such as seagrass and saltmarsh restoration, to deliver both carbon sequestration and biodiversity benefits.
Through the UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership (UKBCEP) Defra is working with Devolved Governments and DESNZ to address key blue carbon research questions, including assessing their carbon storage potential. The UKBCEP has established a working group and earlier this year Defra published a roadmap to help to address the evidence gaps preventing the inclusion of coastal wetlands in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
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 potential impact of seagrass decline on (a) climate change, (b) fisheries and (c) the rate of coastal erosion.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Seagrass habitats offer a range of benefits to people and nature. They store and sequester carbon, support a variety of fish species and help prevent coastal erosion. These benefits would diminish were the habitats to decline in future.
To improve our understanding of the impact of climate change on marine and coastal ecosystems such as seagrass, Defra are supporting the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP). MCCIP synthesise the latest evidence on climate change impacts and predicted trends and publish evidence updates on topics including fisheries, coastal erosion and have previously published a report card specifically on seagrass habitats.
Natural England published their “Definition of Favourable Conservation Status for seagrass beds” in 2023. This report outlined seagrass habitat status accounting for historical decline, future pressures – including as a result of climate change – as well as listing beneficial functions seagrass beds provide including for a number of fish species.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
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 introduce any (a) fiscal and (b) policy incentives to support longer-term leasing arrangements between (i) landowners and (ii) tenant farmers.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Department recognises the benefits that longer-term tenancy agreements can provide for both tenants and landlords. The joint Defra-Industry Farm Tenancy Forum is working on guidance and best practice to encourage more landlords and tenants to enter into longer-term agreements. Alongside this we continually look at how fiscal and policy interventions across the Department may impact on landlord decisions to offer longer-term agreements. In addition, we are in the process of appointing a Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector to help embed fair practice across the sector.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage landowners to offer longer-term leases to tenant farmers.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Department recognises the benefits that longer-term tenancy agreements can provide for both tenants and landlords. The joint Defra-Industry Farm Tenancy Forum is working on guidance and best practice to encourage more landlords and tenants to enter into longer-term agreements. Alongside this we continually look at how fiscal and policy interventions across the Department may impact on landlord decisions to offer longer-term agreements. In addition, we are in the process of appointing a Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector to help embed fair practice across the sector.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
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 assessment of the effectiveness of the type approval process for inshore vessel monitoring systems in 2021.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Four devices were granted type-approval in 2021, based on evidence provided that devices met the I-VMS device specification of requirements, with the roll-out starting in 2022. Following feedback of quality assurance concerns, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) paused the roll-out and commissioned a third-party testing laboratory to undertake assurance testing of the four devices in 2022/23. Those devices were evaluated according to the I-VMS device specification of requirements. As a result of that testing, two devices passed and retained MMO type-approval status. The roll-out recommenced in 2023 with those two devices.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
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 help tackle the octopus bloom in Cornwall following discussions on 20 May 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Defra, Government scientists (Cefas), the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and local Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authorities (IFCAs) met on 20 May to discuss this phenomenon, the evidence, the impacts on the crab and lobster stocks and potential actions.
Since this meeting Defra has commissioned a report from Cefas on the background, available stock science and potential causes of the bloom. The Devon and Severn IFCA have issued guidance on the regulations regarding fishing for octopus. A meeting with industry is due to take place on 6 June,
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
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 the Global Biodiversity Framework commitment to reduce excess nutrients lost to the environment by at least half by 2030, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of domestic targets (a) to reduce (i) nitrogen, (ii) phosphorous and (iii) sediment from agriculture by 40% and (ii) to reduce phosphorus loadings from treated wastewater by 80% by 2038.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has published a full National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) and UK National Targets that commit us to achieving all 23 targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at home, including Target 7 which features a pledge to reduce excess nutrients lost to the environment by at least half by 2030.
An assessment of progress toward achieving the UK National Targets and implementation of the GBF will be set out in the UK 7th National Report, due to be published in February 2026.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
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 assessment of the merits of including traceability requirements in the UK Forest Risk Commodities regulations.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is committed to supporting the progress of traceability and transparency in global supply chains, as we appreciate they play an essential part in supporting sustainable commodity production, trade and consumption.
The UK Government recognises the need to take action to ensure that UK consumption of forest risk commodities is not driving deforestation and we will set out our approach to addressing this in due course.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
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 his speech at the 2025 Oxford Farming Conference on 9 January 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposed permitted development rights on farms.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Ministers are holding Ministerial round tables in June with a diverse range of agricultural stakeholders to understand how existing planning measures are supporting farmers and to better understand the key asks to go further.