Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
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 Northumbrian Water on sewage from storm overflows in the Ouseburn.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ministers and officials have regular discussions with a range of stakeholders, including water companies, on many issues related to the water sector including sewage pollution.
This Government has put in place the building blocks to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas.
The Water (Special Measures) Act introduced independent monitoring of every sewerage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows. This matches the pre-existing duty for storm overflows and create an unprecedented level of transparency. This will meet the Government commitment to ensure monitoring of every outlet.
The Independent Water Commission has examined how to strengthen the regulation and delivery of water services to better support long-term water security, sustainable growth, and environmental protection. The Former Secretary of State provided an Oral Statement to Parliament in response to the final report.
As Part of Price Review 24, which runs from 2025-2030, Northumbrian Water will be investing £1.1 billion to reduce the use of storm overflows by delivering on 159 spill reduction schemes. Northumbrian Water across 2025-2030 will undertake multiple site specific investigations in respect of the effects of intermittent discharges in respect of Environment Act objectives.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
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 31 March 2022 to Question 146628 on Free School Meals: North East, when he plans to publish the national food strategy white paper.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The forthcoming Government Food Strategy will set out the Government’s ambition and priorities for the food system, considering the evidence set out in Henry Dimbleby’s independent review and building on additional topics.
We are actively collaborating across Government to cover the entire food system and consider the unforeseen challenges that the agri-food sector has faced this last year since the independent review was published.
We expect to publish the Government Food Strategy shortly.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with garden centres and other retailers selling horticultural items on phasing out the sale of peat-based compost.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
My officials met with retailers, and other interested parties, at a roundtable on 24 August 2020 to consider the use of peat in the horticultural sector. The roundtable was part of a series of roundtables to discuss the England Peat Strategy. The Government continues to be committed to phasing out the use of peat in horticulture in England, and we will set out plans to speed this up in the England Peat Strategy. We plan on publishing the strategy later this year.
Data on the quantity of peat sold in the UK is only available for 2018 and 2019. The total volume of peat sold in 2018 was 2.11 million m3, and 2.06 million m3 in 2019.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the quantity of peat-based compost sold in garden centres and by other retailers in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
My officials met with retailers, and other interested parties, at a roundtable on 24 August 2020 to consider the use of peat in the horticultural sector. The roundtable was part of a series of roundtables to discuss the England Peat Strategy. The Government continues to be committed to phasing out the use of peat in horticulture in England, and we will set out plans to speed this up in the England Peat Strategy. We plan on publishing the strategy later this year.
Data on the quantity of peat sold in the UK is only available for 2018 and 2019. The total volume of peat sold in 2018 was 2.11 million m3, and 2.06 million m3 in 2019.