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 her letter to the Chair of the Office for Environmental Protection of 25 July 2023, if she will publish (a) a list of the experts from whom her Department received advice regarding the inclusion of Regulations 9 and 10 of the National Emission Ceilings Regulations 2018 and the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1522 in Schedule 1 of the Retained EU Law Act and (b) the advice that she received; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Regulations 9 and 10 of the National Emissions Ceilings Regulations 2018 and Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1522 concern the preparation of a National Air Pollution Control Programme. The Secretary of State received advice from Defra officials following established processes in regard to these provisions and the Retained EU Law Act. The Secretary of State does not intend to publish that advice. The Secretary of State did not receive any advice from external sources.
The Secretary of State will inform Parliament when there is an update to give, in line with established protocols.
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, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) Natural England, (b) private sector stakeholders and (c) other organisations on the potential impact of the proposed changes to nutrient neutrality rules on private investment in nature recovery.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra Ministers and officials hold regular discussions with a range of stakeholders on private investment in nature recovery, including Natural England, private sector stakeholders and other organisations.
We remain committed to delivering a step change in private investment to support our ambitious goals for nature’s recovery. We are supporting this through a range of measures as set out in the 2023 Green Finance Strategy and Nature Markets Framework. By unlocking stalled development, alongside the initiatives on biodiversity net gain, the Government’s proposed reforms would increase private investment in natural recovery.
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 she will publish all correspondence sent between Natural England and her Department on changes to regulations on nutrient neutrality and the delivery of new homes since 1 May 2023; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions by Government and its Arm’s Length Bodies are not normally disclosed. More broadly, I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement of 4 September 2023, HCWS1003, outlining the benefits from the Government's proposed reforms which will improve water quality and help deliver more homes.
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 she will publish data on the number of nutrient mitigation credit schemes in the pipeline for Natural England approval in each of the last 12 months; how many pipeline schemes were paused (a) in each of those months and (b) since the Government's announcement of changes to the rules on nutrient neutrality and home building; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Competent Authorities such as Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) are responsible for conducting a Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) for new plans or projects where one is required. Natural England provides statutory advice on HRAs but does not register or accredit all nutrient credits sold by LPAs or private providers where nutrient neutrality is a condition of planning consent.
Natural England’s own Nutrient Mitigation Scheme has enabled more than 3,500 homes since its first credits were made available for sale in the Tees and Cleveland Coast catchment in March 2023.
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 her Department's expected timescale is for the draft Animal Welfare (Electronic Collars) (England) Regulations 2023 to be considered by the House.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary business will be scheduled and announced in the usual way.
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 Global Resources Initiative Final Recommendations Report, published in March 2020, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recommendation in that Report that the Government urgently introduces a mandatory due diligence obligation on companies that place commodities and derived products that contribute to deforestation on the UK market; if she will make it her policy to introduce this in the deforestation due diligence schedule under the Environment Act 2021; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Following consultation in August 2020 and building on recommendations from the GRI, the UK Government introduced world-leading legislation through the Environment Act to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. This is one part of a wider package of measures to improve the sustainability of our supply chains and will contribute to global efforts to protect forests and other ecosystems. The Environment Act provisions will make it illegal for larger businesses operating in the UK to use key forest risk commodities produced on land illegally occupied or used. Businesses in scope will also be required to undertake a due diligence exercise on their supply chains, to assess and mitigate the risk of regulated commodities having been produced on land illegally owned and used, and to report on this exercise annually. To ensure transparency, information about businesses' due diligence exercises will be published. Businesses in scope that do not comply with these requirements may be subject to fines and other civil sanctions. This law will help us to ensure there is no place on our supermarket shelves for commodities that have been grown on land illegally occupied or used and to support other countries to strengthen and enforce their forest protection measures.
The Government ran a second 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. We published a summary of responses to this consultation on 1 June 2022 and are 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, whether her department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending public rights of access as a means to deliver on the commitment in the Environmental Improvement Plan that everyone should live within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We announced in our Environmental Improvement Plan in January our intention to work across government to ensure that everyone lives within a 15-minute walk of a blue or green space and committed to work in parallel to reduce barriers to access.
We are currently focused on developing the right modelling tools and indicators to allow us to accurately measure the baseline, identify where to target efforts and to track future progress, engaging closely with stakeholders as we do so. As part of this we will consider the role of Rights on Way in helping to deliver this commitment.
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 provides for a right to roam across open access land, giving the public a right of access to most areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, registered common land and coastal margin. This means that public already has the ‘right to roam’ over many areas of wild, open countryside. We have no plans to change this.
England also has a fantastic network of footpaths with over 120,000 miles of public rights of way as well as many permissive access routes, including over 200,000 hectares of Forestry Commission freehold land.
We are also working to complete the King Charles III England Coast Path (KCIIIECP) which will create 250,000 hectares of new open access land within the coastal margin. At around 2,700 miles, KCIIIECP will be the longest waymarked and maintained coast walking route in the world and over 850 miles of the path are now open to the public.
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 oral contribution of the Minister for Environmental Quality and Resilience of 28 June 2023, Official Report, column 282, and to the Consultation on change of ownership for Southern Water Services Limited, published by Ofwat in August 2022, what steps Ofwat is taking to work with Southern Water on its financial resilience; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ofwat monitors and assesses the financial resilience of each company on an individual and ongoing basis and challenges companies where they identify the need. Each year, in its Monitoring Financial Resilience Report, Ofwat sets out its key messages and observations on financial resilience across the sector.
Ofwat has used intervention and regulatory guidance to encourage Southern Water to improve financial resilience and outcomes for customers and the environment.
In 2021, Southern Water’s investors injected around £530 million to improve operational performance and support its financial position. Southern Water was also required to prepare a turnaround plan, which sets out how it will improve its overall performance. Progress against the delivery of its plan is being closely monitored by Ofwat.
The Environment Act 2021 gave Ofwat improved powers to modify water company licenses without consent from water companies. This has enabled Ofwat to strengthen its existing ring-fence framework and to intervene at an earlier stage where companies are experiencing financial resilience challenges. This allows greater engagement between Ofwat and water companies so that they can seek timely improvements and/or mitigating actions, to better protect water customers.
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 assessment she has made of the success of her Department’s policy on voluntary access arrangements on inland waterways as a means to increase access on unregulated waters; and how many kilometres of new access has been secured for recreation in this Parliament.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Given the wide range of local circumstances, the Government does not have a role in making voluntary access agreement arrangements, nor do we monitor or hold information on them, since they are tailored to local situations enabling the needs of different users to be balanced both with each other and with the property rights of landowners.
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 paragraph 6 of Annex 1 of the Full Minutes of the meeting of the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides on 18 April 2023, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the conclusion that the Committee does not support an emergency authorisation under Article 53 of Regulation 1107/2009 for the aerial or land-based application of Asulox to control bracken due to risks that cannot be mitigated; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Bracken can overwhelm sensitive habitats and threaten grazing land and the establishment of new tree plantings. This is why, after very careful consideration, an emergency authorisation has been granted for the limited and strictly controlled use of Asulox to control bracken in England in 2023.
The application for emergency authorisation was considered according to the legal tests and it was concluded that authorisation was necessary because of a danger that could not be controlled by other reasonable means, there were special circumstances, and the use of the product would be limited and controlled, with strict conditions in place to minimise the impacts to the environment and wildlife.