Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
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 help support and empower local authorities in meeting WHO guidelines on air quality.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
HM Government provides a range of resources and tools to local authorities to enable them to manage air quality in their area. This includes the Air Quality Grant programme, which has provided over £80 million in funding since 1997, new Local Air Quality Management policy and technical guidance, and a strengthened framework including better enforcement of smoke control areas.
We are reviewing our Air Quality Strategy, which supports local authorities to deliver improvements in air quality, and will publish a draft for consultation soon.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
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 help improve the monitoring and reporting of air pollution.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2021/22 we invested £1 million to expand our fine particulate matter (PM2.5) monitoring network, and will have at least doubled the size of the current network by the end of 2025. We are also investing £1.5 million during 2022/23 to establish two new multi-instrument particulate matter (PM) composition measurement sites to monitor PM2.5 mass, particle speciation, particle counting, black carbon and ammonia. While expert advice is that PM2.5 mass is the most effective metric for measuring harm to health from PM, these monitors will provide new data on the composition of PM, helping us to better understand how composition changes across the country and how composition relates to health impacts, which remain a scientific challenge.
Defra, the UK Health Security Agency and the Department of Health and Social Care are also conducting a holistic review of the way we communicate air quality information and advice to the public. The outcomes will ensure the public is provided with timely and relevant information about air pollution: the actions people can take to limit their personal exposure; the impacts of air pollution on their health; and their own influence on air quality. Alongside this review a major overhaul of the UK-Air website and other Air Quality Web services is underway. This will deliver a simplified holistic service for all users. The department’s aim is to complete the whole web system review and have a clear vision for future web service provision by March 2025, with improvements being made in the interim.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to enhance environmental regulation following his Department’s review of existing EU regulation.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The United Kingdom is a world leader in environmental protection and HM Government has clear environmental and climate goals, set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan and the Net Zero Strategy respectively, as well a legally binding obligation to halt nature’s decline by 2030. In reviewing retained EU law, Defra’s aim is to ensure that environmental law is fit for purpose and able to drive improved environmental outcomes, whilst also ensuring regulators can deliver efficiently. Any changes to environmental regulation following the review of REUL will need to support the continued delivery of our environmental and international commitments, including those with the EU.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
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 impact of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022 on food standards.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is in the process of analysing its REUL stock to determine what should be preserved as part of domestic law, and what should be repealed, or amended. This work will determine how we use the powers in the Bill and therefore inform assessments of the Bill's impact, including in relation to food standards.
Maintaining the UK's high food standards remains our priority. HM Government remains committed to promoting robust food standards nationally and internationally, to protect consumer interests, facilitate international trade, and ensure that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of grow lights and other artificial lighting in agriculture on levels of light pollution.
Answered by Steve Double
The Government recognises that light pollution may have an impact on the environment and biodiversity as well as affecting the health and wellbeing of people.
Through the 25 Year Environment Plan, we have committed to reducing all forms of pollution, including light pollution. My department works with colleagues across government whose policy areas affect the use of artificial light, including the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework policies include consideration of the impact of light pollution on local amenity, intrinsically dark landscapes and nature conservation. Defra has also contributed to the development of the DLUHC Planning Policy Guidance on light pollution published in November 2019.
The Government has put in place a range of measures to ensure that light pollution is effectively managed through the statutory nuisance regime. Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, local authorities have a duty to investigate complaints about light emitted from premises which could constitute a nuisance or be harmful to health and have powers to take action where there is a problem.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the use of grow lights in sports (a) stadiums and (b) training facilities on levels of light pollution.
Answered by Steve Double
The Government recognises that light pollution may have an impact on the environment and biodiversity as well as affecting the health and wellbeing of people.
Through the 25 Year Environment Plan, we have committed to reducing all forms of pollution, including light pollution. My department works with colleagues across government whose policy areas affect the use of artificial light, including the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework policies include consideration of the impact of light pollution on local amenity, intrinsically dark landscapes and nature conservation. Defra has also contributed to the development of the DLUHC Planning Policy Guidance on light pollution published in November 2019.
The Government has put in place a range of measures to ensure that light pollution is effectively managed through the statutory nuisance regime. Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, local authorities have a duty to investigate complaints about light emitted from premises which could constitute a nuisance or be harmful to health and have powers to take action where there is a problem.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the impacts of light pollution on (a) biodiversity and (b) human health.
Answered by Steve Double
Defra has funded or co-funded national and international assessments of drivers of change on insects and wider biodiversity such as the global IPBES Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production. This report notes the effects of artificial light on nocturnal insects may be growing.
Defra has worked with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework is clear that policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenity, dark landscapes and nature conservation.
Furthermore, Defra has contributed to the development of the DLUHC Planning Policy Guidance on light pollution, published in November 2019, which emphasises the importance of getting the right light in the right place at the right time and sets out the factors that are relevant when considering the ecological impacts of lighting.
A range of measures are in place to ensure that light pollution is effectively managed through controls in the planning system, the statutory nuisance regime and improvements in street lighting.
We continue to work with partners including leading scientists to review the latest studies related to light pollution and ensure we continue to address key threats to biodiversity.
As regards to the effects of light pollution on human health, specific research is limited. In 2018, the European Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks published an opinion on Potential risks to human health of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). It concluded that there is no evidence of direct adverse health effects from LEDs in normal use (lighting and displays) by the general healthy population. Full report can be found here: https://health.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2019-02/scheer_o_011_0.pdf
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on introducing mandatory business food waste reporting.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government plans to consult on mandatory food waste reporting later this year.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to help ensure the UK becomes nature positive by 2030.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and therefore the information provided relates to England only.
This Government has set a world leading target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, which represents our commitment to leave the environment in a better state than we found it. Measures set out in the Environment Act, such as Biodiversity Net Gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, Conservation Covenants and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities, will drive action towards our targets and objectives, alongside wider action and investment.
Our forthcoming Nature Recovery Green Paper will set out proposals to better enable us to recover nature and achieve our goal to protect 30% of our land and sea for nature by 2030. We are establishing a Nature Recovery Network which will support the Government's goals of halting biodiversity loss by improving and connecting habitats and species. In establishing the Network we will also provide wider benefits, such as landscapes more resilient to climate change through improved ecosystem function, natural solutions that reduce and store carbon, and improving people's connection with nature.
The Government's Nature for Climate Fund is providing more than £750 million over the course of this Parliament to create new, and protect existing, habitats in England by helping restore 35,000ha of peatland, and supporting a trebling of woodland creation rates, by 2025. The England Peat Action Plan provides a strategic framework to improve management and protection of both our upland and lowland peatlands, to ensure our peatlands are functioning healthily. As set out in the England Trees Action Plan, we are committed to increasing tree planting in this parliament to 30,000 hectares per year across the UK, to put us on track to ensure at least 12% woodland cover in England by the middle of the century.
We are also repurposing our system of agricultural payments to reward farmers and land managers for the environmental services they provide – including creating and maintaining habitat, and sustainable farming practices. This will be delivered through three new Environmental Land Management schemes – the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery.
At sea, we have built an extensive network of 372 Marine Protected Areas covering 38% of UK waters, and are focusing on making sure they are protected properly. Using new powers introduced by the Fisheries Act 2020, the Marine Management Organisation is developing an ambitious three-year programme for assessing sites and implementing byelaws, where necessary, to manage fishing activity in all English offshore MPAs. Furthermore, the Government is introducing a number of pilot Highly Protected Marine Areas for biodiversity recovery, which will have the highest levels of protection in our seas.
These actions to protect, increase and improve habitats, and reduce pressures on ecosystems will deliver the Government's ambitious commitments on the environment.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
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 18 January 2021 to Question 137274 on Hemp, what progress he has made on the project on the potential use of underutilised, underdeveloped or novel crops, including hemp.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This research project, “Review of opportunities for diversifying UK agriculture through investment in underutilised crops,” is now underway.