Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 Department's press release entitled Ofwat to be abolished in biggest overhaul of water since privatisation, published on 21 July 2025, whether the new water regulator will be responsible for flooding.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government has confirmed that it will abolish Ofwat and bring water functions from four different regulators into one – a single regulator responsible for the entire water sector. Until the single water regulator is fully established, the existing regulators will continue to carry out their functions and responsibilities in full. The Government will respond to Sir Jon Cunliffe’s recommendations in full via a White Paper, published for consultation this autumn.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to legislate to mandate the installation of smart meters for water usage.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies are already able to install smart meters in homes as part of their planning and, in areas of water stress, can charge on a mandatory basis where there is overall customer support and value for money for consumers has been proved. The Government is working alongside the Ofwat Smart Meter Delivery Group to review recommendations made by Baringa in a recent report on learning lessons from energy smart metering, which includes ensuring money saving benefits for consumers are realised.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 make an assessment of the potential impact of reducing funding for Natural England's programme to (a) designate and (b) expand National Landscapes on economic growth.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Given the pressures on public finances, Defra has had to make difficult decisions about funding. It was not affordable to continue Defra funding to Natural England to continue the new National Landscapes designations programme in 25/26. As such, Natural England have made the decision to stop work on some of the planned programme. Other elements of the programme, including the Surrey Hills boundary review and potential new National Landscape in the Yorkshire Wolds, are being maintained and progressed by Natural England as they considered the work was further advanced.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 15 May 2025 to Question 50987 on Cheetahs: Hunting, how species of conservation concern will be determined.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Species of conservation concern is determined in the criteria set out under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). CITES lists species in its Appendices according to the level of threat international trade has on their conservation status, with Appendix I being the most threatened species.
A species may be listed in CITES Appendix I and II if it meets certain criteria, such as:
- a small or declining wild population,
- high vulnerability to external factors,
- fragmented population..
This criteria is set out in CITES Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev. CoP17).
In the UK, CITES is implemented by the Wildlife Trade Regulations (WTRs), with Annexes A and B of the WTRs broadly corresponding to CITES Appendices I and II.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 6 June 2025 to Question 55512 on Flood Control: Owner Occupation, if he will direct the Environment Agency to hold a community engagement event on flood risk in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since the flooding across Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire in Autumn last year, the Environment Agency (EA) has hosted community events alongside other partner agencies. These were well received and strengthened local engagement around flood risk.
In the Mid Bedfordshire constituency, the risk of flooding is predominantly from surface water or watercourses that are the responsibility of Local Authorities or Internal Drainage Boards, who would be better placed to take a lead role on community engagement around these sources of flooding.
The EA is however working closely with all Flood Risk Management Authority partners to ensure communities are prepared and resilient to all sources of flood risk. They will support any community engagement events led by others wherever possible.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 6 June 2025 to Question 55512 on Flood Control: Owner Occupation, how much funding (a) his Department and (b) the Environment Agency have allocated for promoting awareness of flood risk in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Raising awareness of flood and coastal erosion risk is one of the Environment Agency’s (EA) key priorities and supports actions set out in the National FCERM Strategy.
Flood resilience engagement advisors lead the EA’s work with communities at risk of flooding at the local level. Funding for these activities comes from resource allocations. There is no national database tracking the money specifically allocated to these activities as they often form part of a larger project or programme of work.
Flood Action Week is the EA’s annual public action week, raising awareness amongst the public of their flood risk, the actions they should take, and the work the EA does to prepare and respond during a flood. Flood Action Week 2025 is planned for October and will focus on raising awareness amongst communities of our flood warning service and what to do when they receive a warning, and about property flood resilience measures.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the waste hierarchy to encourage councils to assign more black bin waste to the production of sustainable aviation fuels.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Falkirk on 8 May 2025 to Question 49143.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department spent on the Chilterns National Landscape Boundary Review project.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The total cost of Natural England’s consultancy contracts on the Chilterns National Landscape Boundary Review project is approximately £430,000.00. This cost includes the production of all the technical reports as well as support for some engagement work with stakeholders. The total cost expensed internally by Natural England is detail we do not hold as many different teams and individuals have been involved in the project since its inception.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 restore peatland in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of England’s peatlands, and in our manifesto, we committed to expanding nature-rich habitats such as wetlands and peat bogs. This will contribute to ensuring nature’s recovery, one of Defra’s five priorities. We have ambitions to restore hundreds of thousands of hectares of peatlands across the country, and we are working to ensure that we have the most effective mechanisms in place to go further than we have before.
In the Mid Bedfordshire constituency, Defra is currently funding a Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot project in the Flit Valley. It is one of a series of projects supporting local partnerships to gain understanding of how water can be better managed to rewet and preserve peat soils in these landscapes and collaborate to develop costed water plans. The project is due to complete in March 2026.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
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 make an assessment of the potential impact of peatland recovery on the level of flood risk in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The improvement of peatlands brings multiple benefits for biodiversity, reduction in carbon emissions and also flood-risk management.
In the Mid Bedfordshire constituency, Defra is currently funding a Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot project in the Flit Valley. It is one of a series of projects supporting local partnerships to understand how water can be better managed to rewet and preserve peat soils and to collaborate on development of costed water plans, and this project includes flood risk within its scope.
Defra is also funding research to investigate the relationship between rewetting peat and flood-risk mitigation in lowland peat areas.
Both projects are due to complete in March 2026.