Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 speech entitled Environment Secretary speech on 25 Year Environment Plan progress, published on 19 July 2023, what the geographical location is of the over a quarter of a million hectares of priority habitats that have been created and restored since 2010; what is the type of those habitats; and what proportion of those habitats are in a favourable condition.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The figure that over a quarter of a million hectares of priority habitat have been created or restored since 2010 is reflective of action taken towards target 1B (an increase in the overall extent of priority habitats by at least 200,000 ha by 2020) in Biodiversity 2020 (the Government’s biodiversity strategy for England up to 2020, published in 2011). This activity was not recorded in a spatial way, but this is something we are looking to change with reporting towards the Environment Act target to restore or create over 500,000 hectares of wildlife rich habitat outside of protected sites by 2042.
In the evidence report for the Environment Act biodiversity targets, on page 26, we published a breakdown of habitat created and restored between 2011 and 2019. Although this does not cover the whole time period referenced, it is indicative of the general split between habitat types created and restored.
Our best data on the location of priority habitat is the Priority Habitat Inventory. This is a spatial data set that shows where priority habitat has been recorded. Habitat must be of a sufficient quality to be considered priority habitat. Habitat is added or removed from the inventory as evidence on gains and losses become available.
Indicator 2a in the England Biodiversity Indicators provides more information about the condition of priority habitats in England. The indicator outlines the percentage area of priority habitats under several condition categories. Detail on how condition is assessed is given in the background section. The D1 outcome indicator of the 25 Year Environment Plan is undergoing further development and in time will describe the quantity, quality and connectivity of all major habitats across England; priority habitats would be included within this wider picture, although not at a disaggregated level.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 9 November 2023 to Question 348 on Fish Farming: Animal Welfare, when his Department asked the Animal Welfare Committee to update its 2014 opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing; and when he plans to determine any next steps.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra commissioned the Animal Welfare Committee to update its 2014 opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing on 10 June 2021 and their report was submitted to us on 16 February 2023. We continue to study the recommendations carefully to determine next steps and are meeting with relevant stakeholders.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 Answer of 16 June 2020 to Question 57159 on Environment Protection, when he plans to embed the environmental principles detailed in Section 17 of the Environment Act 2021 into HM Treasury’s Green Book.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Act 2021 places a new legal duty on Ministers to have due regard to the environmental principles policy statement when making policy. The policy statement sets out how to interpret and proportionately apply the five environmental principles, to put the environment at the heart of policy across government. The duty came into force on 1 November 2023.
Application of the policy statement in appraisals is part of the Green Book process. The Green Book landing page on GOV.UK highlights the new legal duty and revised guidance on Enabling a Natural Capital Approach provides additional detail. The Green Book itself will be updated next year to reflect the duty.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 Schedule 17 of the Environment Act 2021, what his timetable is for the publication of regulations to implement due diligence obligations on specified forest risk commodities.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We ran a consultation from 3 December 2021 to 11 March 2022 to seek views on the details of regulations that will implement the Environment Act provisions, to ensure that these are designed effectively. The Government published a summary of responses to this consultation on 1 June 2022 and is committed to implementing due diligence provisions at the earliest opportunity through secondary legislation.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if the Government will provide specific (a) guidance and (b) resources for local planning authorities to monitor and enforce the Biodiversity Net Gain system that is due to come into force from January 2024.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Government will publish a package of guidance on Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) shortly. This guidance will include advice for landowners, developers, and Local Planning Authorities around their role and responsibilities in delivering mandatory BNG. This guidance will include information on monitoring and enforcing BNG.
Significant biodiversity gains on the development site must be legally secured by planning condition, planning obligation or conservation covenant. Biodiversity net gain sites away from the development site must be legally secured by planning obligation or conservation covenant. Authorities can charge a monitoring fee through section 106 planning obligations, to cover the cost of monitoring and reporting on delivery of that section 106 obligation. Monitoring fees can be used to monitor and report on any type of planning obligation, for the lifetime of that obligation. For gains that are secured with conservation covenants, we expect costs for monitoring and enforcement activities to be reflected in the price of biodiversity units.
The planning enforcement regime will be the principal way of enforcing delivery of BNG.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 Answer of 18 October 2022 to Question 65693 on the Office for Environmental Protection, when she plans to publish the summary of the business case for the Office for Environmental Protection.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra will publish a summary of the business case for the Office for Environmental Protection.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 he has made of the potential impact of the provisions in the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 on levels of environmental protection.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It has not been necessary to carry out such an assessment. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 will only remove from the UK statute book pieces of Retained EU Law (REUL) specifically cited in the revocation schedule. These are being removed because they are obsolete, expired, duplicated, no longer relevant to the UK, or have been superseded by new legislation. The Government remains fully committed to upholding environmental standards. Ministers made commitments at all stages of the Bill’s passage not to reduce environmental standards and protections. Since the start of November Ministers have had a legal duty to have due regard to the environmental principles policy statement under the Environment Act 2021 when making policies using the REUL Act’s powers. This Government uses expert advice, including that of many independent experts, when making provisions that relate to the environment.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much grant funding was provided to the Office for Environmental Protection in financial years (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) in England is publicly funded by a grant in aid from Defra as the sponsoring department.
In 2022/23, Defra provided £7,108,583 of baseline funding and £4,364,366 of additional funding to the OEP to support establishment costs.
In 2023/24, Defra increased baseline funding to £8,130,755 and provided £1,100,000 of additional funding.
The OEP’s activity in Northern Ireland is funded separately by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information on the Government’s proposed amendments to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill on nutrient neutrality the Office for Environmental Protection had access to in the last six months.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Secretary of State discussed the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill with Dame Glenys Stacey on 31 August 2023, and sent a follow-up letter on the same day. The letter is published on the Office for Environmental Protection’s website here.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 press release entitled, Update on packaging reforms to help drive down inflation, published by her Department on 25 July 2023, what assessment she has made of the impact of deferring the extended producer responsibility scheme on the delivery of the (a) fifth and (b) sixth carbon budgets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The decision to defer producer payments under Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging was taken jointly with the Devolved Administrations in light of the pressure facing consumers and businesses in the current economic context, but internal analyses conducted by my Department prior to the announcement of the deferral estimated only a very small impact on the delivery of Carbon Budgets 5 and 6. My department will continue to engage closely with all of our stakeholders on the design of core aspects of pEPR as we look to deliver an enduring scheme that provides the systemic change required to meet our environmental objectives.