Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 implications for her policies on a fully integrated, multi-sector, catchment based approach to water systems planning of the conclusions of the report by the National Farmers Union Integrated Water Management published in January 2021.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In April we published our Plan for Water, which sets out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. The Plan set out how we will take a systematic, local, catchment-based approach, in a coordinated and collaborative way to improve water management.
The Environment Agency and Defra are working closely with the agricultural sector on water resource management, water quality and flooding issues via multi-sector groups. For example, we are also supporting the creation of water resources management plans for agriculture, that will inform local catchment and wider regional water resources plans on our future water needs and help farmers improve drought resilience. We will also support farmer-led groups to identify local water resource schemes building on the success of projects like Felixstowe Hydrocycle.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 (a) make it his policy to require local authorities to provide blister pack recycling services and (b) issue guidance to local authorities on blister pack recycling.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Following support at public consultation, the Environment Act 2021 introduced new requirements for all local authorities in England to make arrangements for a core set of materials to be collected for recycling from all households: paper and card; plastic; glass; metal; food waste and garden waste. In 2021 we consulted on the detail of this policy, including implementation dates and materials in scope of collection – we will publish a consultation response shortly.
Regarding blister packs, these are difficult to recycle due to the mix of different materials they are made from and, as such, tend not to be collected through kerbside recycling services. Take-back recycling schemes, such as the Terracycle scheme, can accept more complex packaging materials at dedicated recycling facilities.
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for packaging will provide a strong financial incentive for businesses to make better, more sustainable decisions in their design and use of packaging, and to take greater responsibility for the environmental impacts of the packaging they use. As part of this policy producers of hard to recycle packaging, such as medical blister packs, who take back this packaging and have it recycled, will be eligible for a discount on their EPR disposal cost fees.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will work with the Environment Agency to develop a service level agreement with water abstraction licence holders on time for adaption when licences are changed.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In April we published our Plan for Water, which sets out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply, including environmentally sustainable water abstraction. I expect the Environment Agency to take what action is needed to reduce the environmental damage caused by abstraction – this will include changing abstraction licences.
The Environment Agency has indicated that it will consider giving abstractors time to adapt to licence changes on a case-by-case basis. Management options could include, for example, building a storage reservoir to replace a summer spray irrigation licence to abstract from a river. The Environment Agency is currently developing its approach, but current thinking is that it will be up to abstractors to justify why they need time to adapt. There will not be any fixed adaptation time but instead the period of time will be consistent with the environmental risks, the proposed adaptation and how much notice an abstractor has already had of the changes. Where an abstraction is already damaging the environment then it may not be possible for the Environment Agency to allow any time to adapt, especially where an abstraction is damaging a designated site or species. The Government also supports the agricultural sector with its Farming Transformation Fund grants for the construction of new on-farm reservoirs. We are also supporting the creation of national and regional Water Resource Management Plans for agriculture, which will help farmers plan their water resources and ensure better resilience to drought.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 potential merits of introducing a licensing or regulatory scheme for trainers to use electric dog collars in specific settings.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
A regulatory scheme would fail to offer adequate protection for cats and dogs, given the scope of these devices to cause harm. Additionally, implementing such a scheme would create a significant burden on any body charged with overseeing the use of such devices and ensuring compliance.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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) growers and (b) growers associations on the potential merits of extending the length of the seasonal workers visa for the harvesting of crops which have a longer growing season than six months.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra holds regular discussions and roundtable events with growers and growers associations.
Ministers met with industry stakeholders, including growers, at the Farm to Fork Summit on 16 May at which the Government confirmed that the number of Seasonal Worker visas available in 2024 for horticulture will again be 45,000 (plus 2,000 for poultry), with the potential for a further 10,000 visas if necessary, contingent on sponsors and growers improving and abiding by worker welfare standards as previously agreed.
The Seasonal Worker visa route was designed to support horticulture growers in the UK during peak production periods, whilst maintaining robust immigration control. It allows horticultural businesses to recruit foreign workers for up to six months to work in both the edible and ornamental sectors. It was not designed to meet the full labour needs of the horticulture sector nor to be a source of permanent labour.
Furthermore, the Seasonal Worker visa, which is applied for outside the UK and lasts for six months or less, incurs no NHS surcharge of £624 per year, unlike a nine month or longer visa which would incur this cost to seasonal workers.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 16 March 2023 to Question 164001 on the Convention on Biological Diversity, when her Department plans to publish the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan to bring it into line with the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed at COP16.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
At COP15 all Parties committed to reviewing and updating their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans to bring them into line with the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by COP16 in 2024. The UK will honour this commitment and will publish the relevant documentation ahead of the next meeting of the COP.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 make an estimate of the average time it took to import seed potatoes from France in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Records are not maintained of the time it takes to import individual consignments of seed potatoes as this is a commercial matter.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many applications for limited extended validity were made to the Environment Agency in each year since 2016; and how many were yet to be processed by year of application as of 25 March 2023.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
No application is necessary for Limited Extended Validity (LEV) and the Environment Agency does not grant LEV. By operation of the law, LEV is automatic when a time-limited water abstraction licence is due to expire, an application to renew has been made at least three months before the expiry, and the Environment Agency cannot complete the determination before the expiry date. LEV allows the licence holder to continue to abstract water under the terms of the original licence until the renewal application is determined.
As of 25 March 2023, there were 122 Water Resources licences subject to ongoing time-limited licence renewal applications where LEV has been applied. Please note that this information is not routinely retained within the Environment Agency’s data systems and therefore this figure should be used with a degree of caution. The Environment Agency does not retain a record of applications where LEV has been applied each year once renewal applications have been determined. The number of licences subject to ongoing LEV varies continuously throughout the annual renewals cycle as the Environment Agency grant/refuse applications, particularly at this stage of the cycle as the majority of time limited licences have an end date of 31 March. For those applications that the Environment Agency has not determined, LEV becomes effective once the licence expires.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any applications to the Environment Agency for limited extended validity have been granted following legal injunctions against the Environment Agency since 2016.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
There have been no applications to the Environment Agency for Limited Extended Validity (LEV) for time-limited abstraction licences following legal injunctions against the Environment Agency since 2016. LEV is not applied for and the Environment Agency does not grant LEV. By operation of the law, LEV is automatic when a time-limited abstraction licence is due to expire, an application to renew has been made at least 3 months before the expiry, and the Environment Agency cannot complete the determination before the expiry date.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 made an assessment of the extent to which recent increases in the costs of production incurred by British fruit and vegetables producers are reflected in the prices being paid by retailers to British suppliers.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Department has not made an assessment of the extent to which recent cost of production increases are reflected in the prices being paid by retailers.
We understand the importance of a well-functioning supply chain and regularly meet with industry representatives to discuss any issues being faced.