Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the reservoir from which the proposed new town at Tempsford plans to draw its water supply.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Anglian Water has a statutory obligation to provide water supplies and will plan provision of this supply for the proposed Tempsford New Town, through the Water Resources Management Plan process.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the reservoir from which the proposed Universal Studios Bedford theme park plans to draw its water supply.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Anglian Water has an existing program to upgrade water resources in the region by 65Ml/d which will provide infrastructure to the Universal application.
Universal has committed to a program to minimise water usage through collection of on-site water resources, be that rainwater run-off, lake abstraction, water recycling or possible use of borehole abstraction, as part of the application submission.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much of the £360m Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund has been invested since the fund was announced.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 19 May 2025, the £360 million Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund was announced to support the next generation of fishers. A key principle of the fund is that we will work with the industry to target investment where it matters most. That engagement has started and will continue until the end of 2025. The fund is intended for delivery from 2026/27, so engagement is a key priority for this year. As such, no funds have yet been invested as we are working through the fund’s priorities with stakeholders. Once this engagement has concluded, further details on the fund will be provided.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of changing water regulation to permit dynamic abstraction from rivers during high river levels which cause flooding.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra recognises the value of flood and high flow water, especially in water stressed catchments.
The Environment Agency (EA) has published a Regulatory Position Statement that allows abstractors to pump water outside of normal licence conditions during flood warnings. It is also reviewing the licensing requirements for other low risk abstractions, including high flow abstraction. The EA encourages abstractors to take advantage of high flows by varying their licences. It has introduced ‘e-alerts’ to notify abstractors when flows exceed licence thresholds, is exploring the potential for automated pumping systems, and supporting a ‘smart farming’ project sponsored by MHCLG to further improve access. Water taken by abstractors will have minimal effect on reducing flooding, as pumping capacities would typically be dwarfed by flood volumes.
The planned move of water resources into the Environmental Permitting Regulations will provide even greater flexibility to ensure abstractors can access high flow and flood water.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of ICL being the UK water industry’s sole domestic supplier of sodium hydrochlorite on the security of the water supply.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra works routinely with the water sector to proactively identify and mitigate risks to safeguard the security of water supplies. The Government is preparing to respond to the recommendations of the Independent Water Commission, including on assessing potential vulnerabilities in the supply chains needed to produce safe drinking water. Reforms outlined in this response will form the basis of a new water reform bill to be introduced early in this Parliament.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
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 20th October 2025 to Question 79746 on Food: Public Sector, by when will the Government complete its assessment of what food the public sector buys and where it comes from.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Work to assess the food bought by public bodies and where it comes from is underway. When the results of this work become available, they will help inform Government’s approach on public sector food procurement.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
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 20 October 2025 to Question 79746 on Food: Public Sector, what her planned timetable is for making this assessment.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Work to assess the food bought by public bodies and where it comes from is underway. When the results of this work become available, they will help inform Government’s approach on public sector food procurement.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
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 19 September 2025 to Question 74067 on Primates: Imports, how many import licences have been issued for macaques since 5 July 2024; and for what purposes each import licence was issued.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This information is not available in the public domain.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made in delivering the Collections and Packaging Reforms programme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has passed or is on track to pass all the necessary legislation to deliver the Collection and Packaging Reforms Programme, and making strong progress on achieving our target of 65% recycling by 2035 in England, after a decade of stagnating recycling rates.
For Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR), The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations came into effect on 1 January 2025 and on Friday 27 June 2025, PackUK confirmed 2025 base fees (fees for Year 1 of pEPR) for eight packaging material categories. Packaging producers liable under the regulations have been invoiced this month.
In January 2025, the legislation for the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in England and Northern Ireland came into force. A new organisation called UK Deposit Management Organisation Ltd (UK DMO) will run the scheme, and were officially appointed in May 2025 (England & NI) and June 2025 (Scotland). UK DMO will engage regularly with shops, drinks companies, environmental groups, and the public to help design and run the scheme.
Simpler Recycling has now come into effect for all workplaces with 10 or more full-time equivalent employees in England. This requires workplaces to separately recycle dry mixed recycling (plastic, metal, glass), paper and card, and food waste. By 31 March 2026, local authorities will be required to collect the core recyclable waste streams from all households in England. This includes introducing weekly food waste collections for all homes, unless a transitional arrangement applies (a transitional arrangement is where a local authority has agreed a later implementation date set in regulations). Micro-firms (workplaces with fewer than 10 employees), have until 31 March 2027 to comply, and plastic film collections from all households and workplaces will also be required by then.
Finally, to help tackle the problem of illegal waste practices and outdated record-keeping, we are introducing mandatory digital waste tracking, which will become available for all permitted and licensed sites receiving waste in April 2026 and mandatory for permitted and licensed waste receiving sites from October 2026 in the first phase.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any flood defence infrastructure projects in Huntingdon constituency would be eligible for upgrades through the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Programme.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is investing more than £10.5 billion by the end of 2036 to protect the country against the threat of flooding and coastal erosion.
Projects from the Huntingdon constituency and all constituencies across the country will be able to benefit from this funding and apply to upgrade their defences under new spending rules, announced 14 October. The reforms will make it quicker and easier to deliver the right flood defences in the right places by simplifying our funding rules. This will increase investor confidence, close funding gaps, and reduce administrative burdens on local communities.
Around 10 projects in Huntington have already benefitted from funding this financial year, including £1.035 million for Alconbury Flood Alleviation Scheme, £694k for St Ives Sluice Moderation Project and £275k for Flood Storage Options for Great Ouse Catchment.