Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 protect coastal towns from flooding.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to supporting coastal communities and ensuring flood and coastal erosion risk management is fit for the challenges we face now and in the future.
Delivering on the Plan for Change, the Government is investing at least £10.5 billion by 2035/6 to construct new flood and coastal schemes and repair existing defences. This funding will better protect nearly 900,000 properties. Between April 2024 and March 2026, around £667 million is being invested into protection from sea flooding, tidal flooding and coastal erosion.
We delivered 151 schemes in our first year in Government and have redirected £108 million into urgent flood and coastal defence maintenance.
The Environment Agency (EA) has a coastal resilience team who operate at a national level. The team are supported by operational coastal specialists located in EA area teams around the coast of England who work closely with coastal local authorities to ensure that coastal flooding and erosion is managed in a coordinated way.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress she has made on the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers will launch in October 2027 across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Earlier this year we appointed UK DMO as the deposit management organisation for the schemes in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and they are continuing to progress at pace with delivery of the scheme.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to promote domestic recycling.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Simpler Recycling reforms will ensure that across England, people will be able to recycle the same materials, whether at home, work or school. Every household and workplace (businesses and relevant non-domestic premises like schools and hospitals) across England will be able to recycle the same materials in the following core waste streams: metal, glass, plastic (including cartons), paper and card, food waste, and garden waste (for households only). These reforms begun from workplaces on 31 March 2025 (except for micro-firms with less than 10 FTE), will begin from households by 31 March 2026 and micro-firms by 31 March 2027.
These reforms will make recycling easier and ensure there is a comprehensive, consistent service across England. This will reduce confusion with recycling to improve recycling rates.
This will support our ambition to recycle 65% of municipal (household-like) waste by 2035, reducing emissions from landfill and waste incineration, decreasing reliance on virgin materials, and supporting the growth of the UK recycling industry.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department’s policies of the correspondence of 6 July 2025 from The Restart Project’s on (a) product design codes, (b) the right to repair, (c) VAT on repairs, (d) reuse targets and (e) waste reduction.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to transitioning towards a circular economy. The Circular Economy Taskforce, composed of experts from industry, academia, and civil society, is helping to develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England, which we plan to publish proposals for in due course. The outputs will aim to support economic growth, deliver green jobs, promote efficient and productive use of resources, minimise negative environmental impacts and accelerate to Net Zero.
The strategy will be accompanied by a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions that the government and others will make on a sector-by-sector basis. The Circular Economy Taskforce will start with six sectors: agri-food; built environment; chemicals and plastics; electrical and electronic equipment; textiles; and transport.
Defra recognises that repair and reuse are fundamental tenets of any circular economy, and a successful transition aims to eliminate waste and promote sustainability through reuse and resource efficiency. The Circular Economy Taskforce will consider the evidence for appropriate action right across the economy throughout the development of the strategy.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the recommendations of the Just one ocean policy brief entitled, Plastic chewing gum: a hidden microplastic health hazard and plastic polluter, published on 19 June 2025.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No assessment has been made of the potential implications for policies of the recommendations made in the Just one ocean policy brief entitled, Plastic chewing gum: a hidden microplastic health hazard and plastic polluter. The Government is currently considering further actions that can be taken to address the challenges associated with single-use plastic products. We will continue to review the latest evidence on problematic products and/or materials to take a systematic approach, to reduce the use of unnecessary or harmful single-use plastic products.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to reduce the time taken for the licensing process for marine restoration projects.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials are working with arms-length bodies to understand whether improvements could be made to the marine licensing regime when considering applications for habitat restoration. This includes reviewing the time taken to grant licences for marine restoration projects to identify any opportunities that may reduce consenting timeframes.
The MMO's key performance indicator for new marine licence applications is to determine 90% of applications within 13 weeks. However, some applications, particularly those with significant public interest or complex characteristics, may take longer.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 January 2025 to Question 22902 on Flood Control: Finance, when he plans to announce the flood and coastal erosion risk management projects that will receive funding through regional flood and coastal committees in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are investing £2.65 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining and repairing flood defences. We published a full list of over 700 schemes that will receive funding in 2025/26 on Monday 31st March.
This includes an additional £140 million to fill funding gaps for 29 flood schemes, to allow them to proceed to construction. As part of this, schemes in Alverstoke and Hill Head to Portsmouth have been allocated £3,588,150 and £778,185 respectively. Further information is available on GOV.UK, at the link below. Programme of flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) schemes - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing regional Circular Economy Champions to support the Circular Economy Taskforce.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government recognises that delivering circular economy principles through local action is key for any Circular Economy Strategy. We believe it is crucial to listen to high-performing and high-ambition local, regional, and combined authorities, as well as private sector bodies, that are already, or could potentially develop and deliver, local circular economy initiatives.
As ambitious, impactful, and replicable examples which other local and combined authorities, and/or businesses could adopt, we are engaging with these organisations, together with the Circular Economy Taskforce, as we develop our Circular Economy Strategy for England.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what changes to legislation the Circular Economy Taskforce is considering to help increase the size of the repair and reuse economy.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy. We have convened a Circular Economy Taskforce, comprising experts from industry, academia, and civil society, to help develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England. The strategy will map our transition to a circular economy, supported by a series of roadmaps that detail the interventions that the government and others will make on a sector-by-sector basis.
Defra recognises that repair and reuse are fundamental tenets of any circular economy, and a successful transition aims to eliminate waste and promote sustainability through reuse and resource efficiency. We will consider the evidence for appropriate action, including legislative changes, right across the economy as we develop the strategy.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 19 November 2024 to Question 14034 on Flood Control: Gosport, when her Department plans to confirm the list of projects to receive Government flood resilience funding through the Southern Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer provided to Dame Caroline Dinenage on 19 November 2024. The list of projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be consented in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation – in order that allocations are confirmed before the start of the financial year.