Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help support the professional horticulture sector to develop responsibly-sourced alternatives to peat that can be produced at volume and which maintain the quality of the produce.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We have supported, and continue to support, a number of research projects looking at alternatives to peat in growing media. Following our recent announcement on the detail of our proposed time-limited exemptions for professional use, we will be taking further soundings from the horticulture sector regarding technical barriers to transitioning away from the use of peat and the type of research and development projects which could benefit from Government support.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
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 make an assessment of the potential impact of the ban on the use of peat and peat-containing products in the horticultural sector on carbon emissions.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
An impact assessment was included in our consultation on the sale of peat and peat-containing products issued on 18 December 2021 and updated on 14 February 2022. This states that our policy saves an estimated 0.455 MtCO2e. The Impact Assessment will be further updated prior to introduction of legislation to Parliament. A link to the Impact Assessment can be found here.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of Environment Agency’s time is dedicated to (a) tackling permitted scrap metal operators acting illegally and (b) tackling unpermitted operators in the scrap metal sector accessing Grant-in-Aid funding.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Environment Agency spent a total of 32,446 hours on compliance activities at 7,070 permitted sites across all waste treatment sectors (Hazardous Waste Treatment, Non-Hazardous & Inert Waste Treatment and Metal Recycling) in 2022.
For the metal recycling sector specifically, the Environment Agency undertook 1,762 compliance related activities across 2,152 permitted sites. These compliance activities include site inspections, site audits, check monitoring, procedure reviews and report/data reviews. As part of these compliance checks we recorded 1,396 separate permit breaches. The Environment Agency spent a total 8,811 hours on compliance work in the Metal Recycling Sector. 7,878 of those hours were spent undertaking site inspections.
The Environment Agency does not have data available on the proportion of time spent tackling unpermitted operators in a specific sector. However, we can state that in the financial year 2021/2022 the Environment Agency spent approximately 130,000 hours or 108 FTE tackling illegal waste sites, including illegal scrap metal sites. During that same financial year, a total of 561 illegal waste sites were stopped by the Environment Agency. As an indicator, 94 of these sites were in the scrap metal sector, which represents 17% of all sites stopped. Activities to tackle illegal waste sites are currently funded through government grant-in-aid.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department plans to respond to the letter from the Klondyke Group, dated 7 April 2023, on banning the use of peat for professional growers.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
A reply is being prepared and will be sent to the correspondent directly.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to take steps to prevent steel scrap waste from being exported to economies with lower environmental standards.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Steel scrap waste is a commodity which is traded on a legitimate global market. Where the UK cannot currently recycle materials economically, exports can help ensure those materials are recycled. The UK Government therefore has no plans to restrict the exports of steel scrap for recycling.
While there is a legitimate global market for secondary materials, it must be and is subject to strict regulatory requirements. Under the UK legislation on waste shipments, businesses involved in the export of wastes are required to take all necessary steps to ensure that the waste they ship is managed in an environmentally sound manner throughout its shipment and during its recycling.
All waste exports need to be made in accordance with the relevant legislation and we have a system of inspections in place to verify compliance. The UK regulators mount targeted inspections at UK ports working with the shipping sector to help detect and prevent illegal waste shipments. Individuals and businesses found to be exporting waste in contravention of the requirements in the legislation waste can face a two-year jail term and an unlimited fine.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
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 policy paper entitled The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, published on 18 November 2020, how many nature projects have been delivered through point 9, protecting our natural environment, since the publication of that plan.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Point 9 of The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution announced a number of actions government is putting in place to protect our natural environment. Since the publication of the Plan in November 2020, these measures have kick-started a number of nature projects:
159 nature projects have been enabled by our £80 million Green Recovery Challenge Fund, a short-term competitive fund that has created and supported jobs in the nature sector across England. These projects have helped to restore nature, used nature-based solutions to tackle climate change and connected people with the natural environment.
22 projects have been selected for the first round of Landscape Recovery, all of which have pioneering ideas that will improve the rural landscape and reverse the decline in nature. The successful projects will be awarded a share of around £12 million in development grants over the next two years, to help them finalise their delivery plans before starting implementation on the ground.
25 schemes that include natural flood management (NFM) measures have secured approval to enter construction as part of the current Flood and Coastal Risk Investment Programme, with a further 27 forecast due to achieve the same stage by the end of this financial year (31 March 2023). These contribute towards an ambition of 260 schemes that include NFM measures by the end of the programme (March 2027).
Two new Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) (the Yorkshire Wolds and Cheshire Sandstone Ridge) and two extensions to AONBs (the Surrey Hills and Chilterns) are under consideration by Natural England (NE) under our landmark designation programme. This programme is expected to be completed by 2025 and will play a key role in meeting HM Government’s commitment to protect and improve 30% of UK land for nature by 2030.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
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 policy paper entitled The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, published on 18 November 2020, how much his Department has spent on the six-year capital investment programme for flood and coastal defences through point nine on protecting our natural environment since the publication of that plan.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Investment in flooding and coastal erosion in England is provided by the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra).
HM Government has invested £761 million in 2021/22, the first year of the capital Flood and Coastal Risk Investment Programme.
Information on government spending on flood and coastal erosion risk management is available on GOV.UK within the document Central Government Funding for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management in England, March 2022.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
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 ban on the use of peat in horticulture announced by the Government in September 2022, which plants he plans to exempt from that ban.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The proposed ban will be framed in such a way as to provide time limited exemptions for the professional horticulture sector, in order to allow time to overcome technical barriers to ending the use of peat. Officials are currently consulting with horticulture industry representatives to inform our detailed proposals.