Bim Afolami

Decisions around the future funding of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) beyond this financial year will be communicated in due course.

The Department is taking many steps to encourage SMEs to transition to Net Zero and to support SMEs through the barriers which prevent the transition.

Ahead of COP26, BEIS has launched the Together for Our Planet Business Climate Leaders’ campaign, which has encouraged over 1,900 small and micro businesses across the UK to join the Race to Zero by making the SME Climate Commitment.

In order to help SMEs overcome barriers to investing in energy efficiency BEIS launched the Boosting Access for SMEs to Energy Efficiency innovation competition. The competition offered up to £6m to fund the development of new, innovative market solutions that can provide businesses with tailored energy efficiency advice, as well as simplifying the energy efficiency investment processes through the creation of one-stop-shop platforms.

I have recently given the British Business Bank a new mission to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by supporting access to finance for smaller businesses. Between 2014 and the third quarter of 2020 a total of £160m has been invested into clean technology businesses by equity funds backed by the British Business Bank.

Significant cash increases to school funding will help schools to manage these higher costs. Overall, core schools funding (including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs) is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 compared to the previous year.

Schools in Hitchin and Harpenden are attracting £81.6 million in total this year, a 4% cash increase. This reflects 3% more per pupil in their pupil-led funding compared to 2021/22. Schools’ actual allocations in 2022/23 will be based on local authorities’ local funding formulae.

On top of this funding through the National Funding Formula, schools in Hitchin and Harpenden are seeing £2.4 million through the Schools Supplementary Grant.

Schools will also benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which will run until at least the 31 March 2023. This will reduce how much schools need to spend on their energy, and give schools greater certainty over their budgets over the winter months.

Any school which has signed a fixed energy contract since April 2022 will be eligible for support if, at the time they signed their contact, wholesale prices for the next 6 months were expected to be higher than the Government supported price of £211/MWh for electricity, and £75/MWh for gas.

For example, a school which uses 10 MWh of electricity and 22 MWh of gas a month and signed a fixed contract giving them a current monthly energy bill of about £10,000, would receive support based on the difference between expected wholesale prices when they signed their contract and the Government supported price. For a contract signed in July 2022, this could be worth £240/MWh for electricity and £70/MWh for gas, meaning the school receives a discount of £4,000 per month, reducing their original bill by 40%.

Support will also be available to schools on variable, deemed and other contracts.

There will be a review in 3 months time to determine how the scheme should best be targeted beyond this period to focus support on vulnerable sectors.

The details of the scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers.

More broadly, the Department allocates annual capital funding to improve the condition of school buildings, including through improving energy efficiency. The Department has allocated over £13 billion in condition funding since 2015, including £1.8 billion this financial year. In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme will transform 500 schools over the next decade, with all new buildings delivered through the programme designed to be net zero carbon in operation. Schools can also access funding specifically for carbon reduction and energy efficiency measures through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund.

Every school’s circumstances are different, and where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

To qualify for student finance in England, a person must have settled status or a recognised connection to the UK. This includes persons who are covered by EU law, have long residence in this country, or who have been granted international protection by the Home Office.

Subject to meeting the normal eligibility requirements, Hong Kong British Nationals (overseas) status holders will qualify for student finance once they have acquired settled status in the UK, as is the case for the majority of persons who are on a five-year route to settlement.

Schools in Hitchin and Harpenden are attracting £4,862 per pupil through the schools national funding formula (NFF) in the 2021-22 financial year. This will increase to £5,007 per pupil in the 2022-23 financial year and is based on notional school-level NFF allocations.

The department is investing a further £4.7 billion by the 2024-25 financial year for the core schools budget in England, over and above the Spending Review 2019 settlement for schools in 2022-23.

This includes a further £1.6 billion for schools and high needs in 2022-23, on top of the notional school-level NFF allocations set out above. The department will announce the distribution of this additional funding for 2022-23 shortly. The department will make announcements on the breakdown of the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial year core school budget in due course.

The department is conducting a competition to deliver our manifesto commitment to establish 8 more high quality Institutes of Technology (IoT). The selected 8 will join the 12 IoTs that have already been established. While it would not be appropriate to comment on the merits of any individual proposal, the department can confirm that we have received an application for the Hertfordshire area. Proposals are being assessed and we plan to announce the outcome of the competition in the autumn.

We will maintain current average levels of investment in farming of £2.4 billion per year in England over the life of this Parliament. All funding released from reductions in Direct Payments are being re-invested into delivering new schemes that contribute to our three goals: supporting viable businesses, maintaining food production at its current level, and achieving animal health, welfare and climate outcomes.

For example, we are introducing three new schemes that reward environmental benefits including the Sustainable Farming Incentive which farmers and land managers can now apply online for.

Defra has also launched the new Farming Investment Fund which offers funding for equipment, technology, and infrastructure that improves farm productivity and benefits the environment.

Last October, we launched the Farming Innovation Programme with an initial £17.5 million, which encourages groups of farmers, growers, businesses, and researchers to get involved in collaborative research and development. This will support and drive adoption of new innovation by farmers and growers to ensure it can make a real difference.

Since 2020, farmers have continued to receive financial support for delivering environmental outcomes through the Environmental Stewardship and Countryside Stewardship agri-environment schemes. Since 2021, Defra has made a number of changes to improve the application process for farmers for Countryside Stewardship, and updated payment rates.

We work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ensure that planning supports agriculture and food production as well as delivering other goals. This is reflected in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework makes clear that local planning authorities should take into account all the benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land.

Where significant development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, planning authorities should seek to use poorer quality land in preference to that of a higher quality.

Farming in England is now going through the biggest change in a generation. As government, our approach to working with the farming sector is changing too. Food is still the primary purpose of farming, and always will be. But if we want farming and food production to be resilient and sustainable over the long term, then farming and nature can and must go hand in hand.

In 2022 we started to roll out some core elements of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). We will gradually expand the scheme until all elements are available from 2024/25 onwards. In its early years, the scheme will focus on supporting and maintaining environmentally sustainable farming improvements that most farmers can make, such as soil and livestock management, pesticide use and fertiliser use. The core elements of the SFI that are available as of June 2022 are: arable and horticultural soils standard; improved grassland soils standard; and moorland standard which will be followed by the Annual Health and Welfare Review.

Local Nature Recovery is the improved and more ambitious successor to the Countryside Stewardship scheme in England. It will pay for locally-targeted actions to make space for nature in the farmed landscape and the wider countryside, alongside food production. We plan to make an early version of the scheme available to a limited number of people in 2023 as part of our plans for testing and rolling out the scheme. We will then roll out the scheme across the whole country by the end of 2024.

The power to consider areas for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) designation lies with Natural England (NE), which then makes an order to be confirmed by the Secretary of State.

NE's designation assessment process includes the consideration of the statutory criterion for AONB designation (outstanding natural beauty), including relevant factors of landscape and scenic quality, relative wildness, relative tranquillity, and the contributions made to natural beauty by natural and cultural heritage features and associations. NE's assessment process also includes working collaboratively with local partners to ensure there are good engagement and consultation opportunities during the process, which will take into consideration the impact of views presented by farmers, local communities, statutory bodies, stakeholder organisations, landowners, and the wider public.

The power to consider areas for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) designation lies with Natural England (NE), which then makes an order to be confirmed by the Secretary of State.

NE's designation assessment process includes the consideration of the statutory criterion for AONB designation (outstanding natural beauty), including relevant factors of landscape and scenic quality, relative wildness, relative tranquillity, and the contributions made to natural beauty by natural and cultural heritage features and associations. NE's assessment process also includes working collaboratively with local partners to ensure there are good engagement and consultation opportunities during the process, which will take into consideration the impact of views presented by farmers, local communities, statutory bodies, stakeholder organisations, landowners, and the wider public.

The power to consider areas for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) designation lies with Natural England (NE), which then makes an order to be confirmed by the Secretary of State. NE announced its current designation programme in 2021, which includes considering a variation to extend the boundary of the existing Chilterns AONB.

The Area of Search which is being assessed for potential designation includes an area in the Hitchen and Harpenden Area. Some areas of Hitchin are already included in the current Chilterns AONB.

The designation process will include a detailed assessment of the natural beauty of the area proposed for designation, and the desirability of designating the area.

In its assessment of the proposed extension, Natural England will work collaboratively with local partners to ensure there are good engagement and consultation opportunities during the process including statutory bodies, stakeholder organisations, landowners, farmers and the public.

Our England Trees Action Plan (ETAP), published in May 2021, sets out the long-term, generational vision for trees and forestry to 2050. It recognises the vital contribution trees can make, including to nature recovery, Net Zero, and health and wellbeing.

ETAP details how we will treble tree planting rates in England by the end of this Parliament, contributing to 30,000 hectares of new trees per year across the UK by 2025. The Plan is supported by the £675 million Nature for Climate Fund.

This includes launching the England Woodland Creation Offer with over £15 million available in this year alone to support woodland creation from as little as 1 hectare, in blocks of 0.1 hectares. The Offer includes funding for natural colonisation, which allows trees to seed and grow naturally next to existing trees.

The Government is continuing to support the creation and enhancement of wilder landscapes as part of our broader approach to nature recovery including, where appropriate, species reintroductions. However, we recognise that as an approach, rewilding is not appropriate in all situations, and is not the only means of delivering the Government’s environmental goals.

Locally we have supported a variety of tree planting and establishment projects including over £25 million for our Woodland Creation Partnerships this year, establishing three new Community Forests with over 1,000 hectares of new woodland being planted across the total 13 Community Forests since 2020, up to £4.4 million available to rural communities through the Local Authority Treescapes Fund, and launched the ground-breaking Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund, which will have a total value of just under £8 million to provide financial support to local authorities to increase their capacity and specialist skills.

The Forestry Commission estimates that there were at least 400,000 newly planted trees with Government support in woodland in the 12 years 3 months from 1 April 2010 to 30 June 2022, in the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency.

Bathing waters are designated through an application process and Defra welcomes applications for designation for both coastal and inland waters such as rivers. Local authorities, groups and individuals can apply for sites to be designated. Defra encourages this by writing to the Chief Executive of every local authority in England and other key stakeholders such as swimming associations. It is these local authorities and stakeholders who will best know which popular bathing areas may be suitable for designation.

For further information, please visit our web page on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bathing-waters-apply-for-designation-or-de-designation

The Government and the Environment Agency (EA) is implementing actions identified in the Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) Chalk Streams Restoration Strategy, including improving its assessment of the flow pressure in chalk streams and working with partners to identify actions to improve flows.

Within the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency, the EA is working with the Catchment Partnership to develop river restoration projects on chalk streams near Whitwell. Further downstream on the River Mimram, it is engaging with landowners and working with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust on sites at Digswell and Panshanger Park to narrow over wide and straightened channels.

On the River Lea, the EA is working with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust to improve sites at Batford Springs Nature Reserve and at the Meads in Wheathampstead, stabilising banks and improving in channel and bankside vegetation.

On the River Ver, the EA is working with St Albans District Council to revitalise the water environment in Verulamium Park, restoring the River Ver to a more natural chalk stream, more resilient to climate change, and better able to support iconic chalk stream biodiversity. It has also been engaging with the Gorhambury estate to develop restoration projects.

The EA is currently in discussions with Affinity Water concerning an environmental improvement project for the River Hiz and securing funds though Ofwat’s Price Review process. In addition, since 1996, an augmentation scheme has been operational for the Rivers Hiz and Oughton to supplement flows from groundwater in times of dry weather to mitigate against the impact of abstraction.

The Government and the EA will continue to work with Water Resources East and Water Resources South East to define the long term environmental ambition for the area, including that for chalk streams.

The Forestry Commission publishes statistics on new planting of woodland, and trees outside woodland, in England. For most Government supported new planting of woodland there are accompanying related geospatial data on its location. From these datasets our best estimate is that there were at least 400,000 newly planted trees with government support in woodland in the 12 years 3 months, from 1 April 2010 to 30 June 2022, in the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency.

For some farmers, the hot, dry weather has had an impact on crop growth, yield and quality and has been of concern to growers in the arable and horticulture sectors. The main impacts appear to be on non-irrigated horticulture crops dependent on rainfall and the availability of grass for both grazing and conservation as winter animal feed.

The impacts will vary by region, crop and soil type among other factors. It is still too soon to say with certainty the final impact of the hot and dry conditions on crops.

To support farmers in the immediate term we have instructed the Environment Agency to take a flexible regulatory approach to its water abstraction decisions. Additionally, on 17 August we announced easements on Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship rules allowing farmers to cut or graze areas of land set aside in their agreements. These measures will last until the end of 2022, making it easier for farmers to provide food for livestock.

We continue to keep the situation under close review and have increased engagement with industry to supplement Government analysis with real-time intelligence. This provides the Government with the best possible intelligence on how the sector is coping.

This Government published the Action Plan for Animal Welfare on 12 May 2021, setting out over 40 commitments on animal welfare and conservation. Since its publication, a programme of primary and secondary legislation has started to take forward many measures, alongside some non-legislative reforms.

We delivered our Manifesto commitment to increase the maximum prison sentence for animal cruelty from six months to five years through the Animal Sentencing Act. This came into force in June 2021.

The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill has successfully completed its Parliamentary passage and is awaiting Royal Assent. It establishes an Animal Sentience Committee to consider how individual central government policy decisions take account of animal welfare. It also recognises that decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs are sentient.

The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill has completed its Commons Committee Stage and, following the passing of a carryover motion by the House, will continue its passage in the next Session. The Bill delivers manifesto commitments relating to banning live exports, banning primates as pets, and tackling puppy smuggling. It also includes the new pet abduction offence in response to a recommendation from the cross-government Pet Theft Taskforce.

We are supporting two Private Members Bills. The Animal (Penalty Notices) Bill is awaiting Royal Assent and the Glue Trap (Offences) Bill is awaiting its Third Reading in the House of Lords.

Alongside these legislative reforms, Defra has launched Calls for Evidence on welfare labelling and the fur trade and launched consultations on puppy smuggling and zoo licensing standards. Defra has also published government responses to consultations on implementing and enforcing the Ivory Act, banning the shark fin trade, introducing welfare in transport reforms, mandating cat microchipping and banning trophy hunting.

The investigation launched by the Environment Agency on 18 November aims to determine the extent of any non-compliance with environmental permit conditions relating to flows treated and discharged from sewage treatment works within England. The Environment Agency is unable to share any specific details of the investigation at this stage as this may prejudice future legal action. However as the pumping station you refer to at Pirton is not a sewage treatment works it does not form part of this particular investigation. For any concerns about pollution arising from the pumping station, please report these to the Environment Agency on its pollution hotline 0800 80 70 60.

We know that a number of local planning authorities and developers are already seeking biodiversity net gains from development and we are continuing to speak to industry and the planning sector to understand the issues and needs arising from pre-commencement practice.

Some aspects of the biodiversity net gain policy were tested, and evaluated, as part of the biodiversity offsetting pilots which took place from 2012 to 2014. We will shortly be consulting formally on more details of biodiversity net gain’s implementation and will consider which components of the approach might benefit from pre-commencement testing as part of this.

The Government is committed to tackling fly-tipping wherever it takes place, including in rural communities.

Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG), through which we work with a wide range of interested parties such as the National Farmers Union, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Countryside Alliance and the Country Land and business Association, to promote and disseminate good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping, including on private land.

In April 2021 we commissioned a research project considering the drivers, deterrents and impacts of fly-tipping tipping, which will include consideration of rural areas. This research project is due to be completed before the end of this year and will support informed policy making. We are exploring additional funding opportunities, including supporting digital solutions.

Fly-tipping investigation and enforcement is the responsibility of local authorities, and the Environment Agency in certain circumstances. We expect enforcing authorities to investigate all incidents of fly-tipping and make use of the enforcement powers available to them where there is sufficient evidence; such as by issuing a fixed penalty notice or prosecuting fly-tippers and recovering investigation, enforcement and clearance costs where possible. We also encourage councils and others to publicise their enforcement activity.

Through the Environment Bill we are seeking powers to introduce an electronic waste tracking system. A comprehensive digital waste tracking system will help regulators detect when waste doesn’t reach the next stage, which may indicate illegal activity. This, along with other measures being introduced as part of the Bill (for example amendments to the section 108 powers of entry) will help to tackle waste crime, including fly-tipping.

We are working with the NFTPG to develop a fly-tipping toolkit which will help local authorities, landowners and others work in partnership to tackle this crime. The toolkit will cover, among other things, how to present robust cases to the courts to support suitable sentences.

Local Authorities (LAs) are best placed to understand the needs of the people they serve and respond in the most appropriate way. My officials worked closely with colleagues in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Local Authorities to design the grant scheme in a way that ensured support was delivered quickly to those in need while maintaining appropriate controls and oversight. They did this through issuing guidance on what the money should be used for in general terms (for example, vouchers for food and essential supplies). Reporting requirements were designed to be light touch to make sure the money was spent on supporting people not administration. LAs are reporting expenditure to MHCLG as part of their normal processes and Defra will be collecting further evidence on how the money was spent.

Biodiversity loss and climate change are interlinked crises and cannot be tackled in isolation. This is why nature will be one of the key areas of focus at UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow and why we will be pushing for the agreement of ambitious global targets for biodiversity at CBD COP15 in China.

To amplify the linkages between the two agendas, at COP26 we will be encouraging countries to use nature based solutions as a way to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change including mobilising more finance for nature, investing in sustainable and resilient agriculture and protecting important ecosystems such as forests. We will work with China to ensure that the outcomes of both COPs are mutually supportive.

We are committed to ensuring that the UK leads the world to promote a green, fair and resilient global recovery from the impacts of Covid-19 and central to that is the importance of resetting the global relationship with nature.

We will support the adoption of ambitious and practical targets on nature at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Summit (COP15) in China next May, strengthened by coherent implementation mechanisms that will deliver a new global biodiversity framework that is commensurate with the scale of the challenge. Nature is also a top priority for our upcoming Presidency of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (COP26) next year and we are pushing for tangible and ambitious commitments from partner governments to champion nature and nature-based solutions. Given this, and the multi-faceted benefits of nature-based solutions, we are working with the Chinese Government, who are hosting COP15, to press for mutually reinforcing outcomes at the two Conferences. In addition, we will continue leading global ambition on conserving endangered species, following our hosting of the international Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in 2018.

On marine biodiversity, we are driving forward efforts to protect and enhance the ocean and eliminate harmful fisheries practice as we have done domestically and in 2018 we launched the Commonwealth Clean Ocean Alliance with Vanuatu, which now convenes 34 Commonwealth countries to tackle plastic pollution. We have also committed to a new, £500 million Blue Planet Fund, and are building on the ‘30by30’ campaign which the UK launched at the UN General Assembly in 2018, leading the Global Ocean Alliance calling to protect 30% of the world’s global ocean by 2030. This ambitious target is underpinned by domestic commitments through the Blue Belt Programme, which is on course to deliver over 4 million square kilometres of protected ocean around the British Overseas Territories by the end of 2020.

Our international leadership on nature must be underpinned by credible action at home. In England, our 25 Year Environment Plan marked a step change in ambition for nature and the natural environment. We are taking action to fulfil this ambition by introducing bold new legislation and new funding to support nature’s recovery.