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 11 September 2025 to Question 74136 on Catering: Public Sector, how many public sector organisations currently purchase more than half their food from British producers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is currently assessing what food the public sector buys and where it comes from. This will enable us to determine the extent to which public sector organisations are buying food from British producers, providing a baseline with which to measure progress.
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 has he made in delivering the Livestock Information Transformation Programme.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra's Livestock Information Transformation Programme (LITP) is delivering significant progress towards modernising England's livestock traceability systems. LITP will enable faster response to animal disease outbreaks, provide data to help improve animal health and welfare, give further assurances on food safety, support productivity, and facilitate trade.
LITP has completed the initial design and development phase for the new Livestock Information Service (LIS), which will replace outdated species-specific systems with a single, multispecies platform capable of near real-time movement reporting.
The pilot phase for the new cattle service will begin in December 2025 with selected cattle keepers, with wider availabillity to all cattle keepers across England planned over 2026.
Livestock traceability data from England, Wales and Scotland will continue to be integrated, enabling Chief Veterinary Officers to track livestock locations and movements across the UK. This ensures we maintain a robust biosecurity management, providing a more efficient system for both Government and industry.
Following cattle implementation, additional species will be added on to LIS, with timelines to be confirmed once cattle rollout is complete.
This programme represents the Government’s commitment to modernising livestock traceability and will deliver enhanced disease control capabilities, improved animal welfare monitoring, and stronger support for trade and the country’s farmers.
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, if she will list the local authorities his Department is working with in Cambridgeshire to deliver the NO2 Programme.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is supporting 64 local authorities through the NO2 programme specifically to develop and implement measures to address their Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) exceedances in the shortest possible time. No local authorities in Cambridgeshire were identified as within scope of the NO2 programme.
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 (a) tree-planting and (b) woodland creation projects have been undertaken through the Nature for Climate Fund Programme in Huntingdon constituency since the establishment of that programme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission publishes statistics on new planting of woodland, and trees outside woodland, in England. These can be found in the Forestry Commission Key Performance Indicators. These statistics are reported annually for each financial year in hectares, with interim updates where data are available at mid-year. This government has not set specific targets for individual constituencies and the reporting statistics the hon. Member has requested are not currently available. The statistics show recorded new planting from the Nature for Climate Fund Programme and other grant schemes from administrative records with estimates for new planting without grant aid.
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 many days were lost to sickness absence by civil servants in their Department (a) in total and (b) on average per employee between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns is published annually, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence.
The next update will be for the year ending 31st March 2025.
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 1 September 2025 to Question 69995 on Primates: Imports, how many macaques have been imported into the UK for scientific research since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There were 19 import consignments since July 2024 and 1,696 macaques in total. These figures are from the number of import licences issued for macaques and where the Animal and Plant Health Agency received confirmation that the consignment had arrived in the UK.
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 has he made of the factors causing (a) agriculture, (b) forestry and (c) fishing businesses to close since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is aware of the Office for National Statistics' quarterly business openings and closures data. There are many factors unrelated to government policy that might explain why businesses would be shown as "closing" in the data source, including purely statistical factors.
Defra monitors data on the number of farm businesses registered with Defra for England published here Structure of the agricultural industry in England and the UK at June - GOV.UK.
This Government is committed to supporting economic growth. We continue to work closely with our agriculture, fishing, seafood and forestry sectors to ensure they are vibrant, profitable, and sustainable.
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, which public sector organisations are required to ensure that 50 per cent of their catering consists of British produce.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s firm ambition is that, whilst working within our legal constraints, half of all food purchased across the public sector should be locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards. In support of this ambition, we published a new national procurement policy statement (NPPS) in February this year. The NPPS sets expectations for government contracts to favour products certified to high environmental standards that we think high-quality British producers are well-placed to meet.
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 discussions he has had with the Environment Agency on the potential impact of storm overflow discharge into the River Great Ouse on levels of water cleanliness, in the context of low river levels caused by a lack of rainfall.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to taking a systematic approach to improving drainage and wastewater systems. This means looking at how these systems affect the environment, local communities, and other key priorities like flood prevention, economic growth, and urban development. Through this, we can ensure policies and services work better together to deliver real benefits for people and nature.
Through our landmark Water (Special Measures) Act, we will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector.
Anglian Water has AMP8 obligations to reduce overflows, with investigations in Huntingdon, Offord Cluny, and St Ives. In Ramsey, Anglian have committed to reducing overflows to protect the environment. Full details of obligations are in the Water Industry National Environment Programme, downloadable via PR24 Water Industry National Environment Programme.
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 many long-tailed macaques have been imported into the UK for pre-clinical pharmaceutical testing since 5 July 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Defra records the total number of macaques imported for scientific research but does not record the number of animals imported specifically for pre-clinical pharmaceutical testing.