Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
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 her Department made of the potential merits of amending the Hunting Act 2004 to allow only for the retrieval of a dead or wounded animal by a single dog.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department has not made any such assessment of the potential merits.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent modelling has her Department made of the impact of the Hunting Act 2004 on fox populations and welfare.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department has not undertaken any recent modelling of the impact of the Hunting Act 2004 on fox populations or welfare.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department made of the potential impact of deer populations on rural environments.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra supports survey programmes that assess the ecological condition of woodlands in England. This includes the National Forest Inventory woodland ecological condition assessment, which indicated in 2020 that 40% of woodland habitat in unfavourable condition due to herbivore damage, including from deer. A further large-scale woodland survey, known as the Bunce survey, reported in 2024 that 33% of English woodlands are impacted by deer.
Defra funded an assessment of the cost of invasive non-native species to Great Britain in 2023 as part of the GB Invasive Non-native Species Strategy. This included invasive non-native species of deer and indicated that their impacts result in costs to society of around £47.7 million annually.
Defra provides a range of support to help manage deer impacts on woodlands. This includes grants for deer management, projects and capital items such as fencing, and funding a dedicated team of Deer Officers within the Forestry Commission to provide advice.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of introducing overproduction czars at the local government level that would (a) assess local overproduction of produce and (b) offer it to hospitals and schools.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Both the Secretary of State and the food minister meet routinely with Parliamentary colleagues and key food organisations to discuss matters relating to the sector.
The Government is taking action to deliver effective management of food production, and we recognise the environmental, economic and social benefits of redistributing surplus food to organisations who can use it. Defra funds and engages a working group of industry and redistribution sector organisations to develop best practice on how to redistribute surplus food quickly and safely, and through our new £15 million farm surplus fund we are working with food producers and charities to ensure more produce gets to those who need it most.
The total amount of surplus food redistributed in the UK in 2023 was 191,000 tonnes, this equates to nearly 456 million meals with a value of around £764 million.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
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 announce the opening of applications for the relaunched 2026 Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer that will better target the SFI in an orderly way towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. Information and plans for the next iteration of the scheme will be published in due course.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what does she plan to set the spending cap at for the relaunched 2026 Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer that will better target the SFI in an orderly way towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. Information and plans for the next iteration of the scheme will be published in due course.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on the (a) physical and (b) mental health of (i) farmers and (ii) the agricultural sector.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We regularly liaise with farming welfare charities and industry stakeholder groups to understand the issues affecting farmers mental health and any impacts resulting from poor mental health.
Since 2024, Defra has funded the Farmer Welfare Grant, which supports projects that improve the mental health and wellbeing of farming people in England. The projects are all designed to offer tailored support to farmers and their families as well as prevent further cases of poor mental health by helping to build resilience within farming communities.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on raising the cap for 100% Agricultural Property Relief to £5 million.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues, Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to incentivise private investment in large nature recovery projects.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has put in place a number of interventions to scale up private sector investment in nature recovery projects across England. These include:
We are analysing responses to our call for evidence on expanding the role of the private sector in nature recovery and will set out next steps in due course.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on integrating nature risks into broader security and risk planning.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Nature risks are recognised in the Government’s National Security Strategy 2025: Security for the British People in a Dangerous World. Its implementation will ensure these risks inform security and risk planning across Government.
Together with my Cabinet colleagues the Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, and Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband, I was pleased to attend the recent Countdown to COP30: mobilising action for climate and nature event hosted by the Natural History Museum. My ministerial team and I look forward to continuing cross- government discussions as we prepare for the 30th United Nations climate change conference in Bélem, Brazil.