Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the Bycatch Mitigation Initiative referenced as a policy to meet the Fisheries Act objectives under the Joint Fisheries Statement.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Defra officials are working closely with the Devolved Administrations to finalise the UK Bycatch Mitigation Initiative (BMI).
The BMI will identify policy objectives and potential actions to achieve part of the Fisheries Act’s ecosystem objective to minimise and, where possible, eliminate incidental catch of sensitive marine species. This initiative will set out a joint vision for bycatch across the UK. Each administration will be responsible for developing solutions that are tailored to local needs.
Once finalised, we will publish the document in the first half of the year.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
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 support sustainable farming.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Sustainable Farming Incentive is one of three new Environmental Land Management schemes that reward farmers and land managers for producing public goods. It will pay farmers for actions they take (going beyond regulatory requirements) to manage their land in an environmentally sustainable way. The aim is to make the Sustainable Farming Incentive attractive and accessible to a wide range of farmers, to help them maintain or introduce sustainable practices as a foundation for more advanced improvements available through other components of Environmental Land Management. We are working with English farmers, in partnership, to design our new systems and support the choices that they make for their own holdings.
This year we will start to roll out core elements of the scheme, before gradually expanding the scheme until all elements are available from 2024/25 onwards. The core elements of the Sustainable Farming Incentive that will be available in 2022 are: arable and horticultural soils standard; improved grassland soils standard; moorland and rough grazing standard; and Annual Health and Welfare Review.
We plan to open the Countryside Stewardship 2023 offer in February 2022 with offers for Higher tier, Mid-tier, Wildlife offers, and Capital grants, for agreements starting on 1 January 2023. The scheme will also be open to new applicants in 2023 (for agreements starting in 2024). We will help farmers in Countryside Stewardship make the transition to our new schemes from 2024. We have also increased payment rates under Countryside Stewardship, which saw a 40% increase in applications this year.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to take steps in response to the Food and Agriculture Organisation's recommendation that the agricultural sector switch to EN 17033 biodegradable thin mulch films to reduce plastic contamination in soil.
Answered by Jo Churchill
In April 2021 we published our response to the call for evidence on the need for standards for bio-based, biodegradable, and compostable plastics. Concerns were raised regarding the extent to which plastics marketed as biodegradable actually biodegrade, as such our focus is on increasing reuse and recycling of plastics.
Defra has commissioned an external expert organisation to look into plastic within digestate and compost. This short project, ending early this year, includes searching existing literature on the potential risks of compostable and non-compostable plastic fragments added to agricultural soil from digestate or compost, and will highlight further evidence gaps. We will carefully consider the findings of this project, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recommendations in considering next steps and any potential actions in this area.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
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 in response to the failure by water companies to significantly reduce storm overflows.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The current failure of water companies to adequately reduce sewage discharges is unacceptable and we have made clear that much more must be done to protect our rivers and tackle this issue. We will not hesitate to take further action if needed to deliver our commitments in this area.
We're the first Government to take steps to address this by setting an expectation on water companies to significantly reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows through the draft Strategic Policy Statement for Ofwat. We have enshrined this expectation in legislation as a new duty in the Environment Act.
This world-leading Act includes a raft of measures to protect and restore our water environment. The following key duties have been made law:
More information on ambition and timescales will be provided during the upcoming price review period - the Government, Ofwat and the Environment Agency all have roles to play in clarifying this detail. We expect to issue guidance to water companies early in 2022. We have also been clear the statutory plan legislated for in the Environment Act is the right place to set our guiding principles to reduce harm from storm overflows and this will be consulted on in Spring 2022.
The recently published Storm Overflows Evidence Project considers a wide range of policies and scenarios to reduce storm overflows. It is right that we consider the findings carefully to achieve the maximum benefits for the environment and human health whilst minimising the impact on the public's water bills.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will set targets for the (a) limiting and (b) ending of sewage overflow into rivers and coasts.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The current failure of water companies to adequately reduce sewage discharges is unacceptable and we have made clear that much more must be done to protect our rivers and tackle this issue. We will not hesitate to take further action if needed to deliver our commitments in this area.
We're the first Government to take steps to address this by setting an expectation on water companies to significantly reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows through the draft Strategic Policy Statement for Ofwat. We have enshrined this expectation in legislation as a new duty in the Environment Act.
This world-leading Act includes a raft of measures to protect and restore our water environment. The following key duties have been made law:
More information on ambition and timescales will be provided during the upcoming price review period - the Government, Ofwat and the Environment Agency all have roles to play in clarifying this detail. We expect to issue guidance to water companies early in 2022. We have also been clear the statutory plan legislated for in the Environment Act is the right place to set our guiding principles to reduce harm from storm overflows and this will be consulted on in Spring 2022.
The recently published Storm Overflows Evidence Project considers a wide range of policies and scenarios to reduce storm overflows. It is right that we consider the findings carefully to achieve the maximum benefits for the environment and human health whilst minimising the impact on the public's water bills.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to take steps to set species recovery targets for (a) the Manx Shearwater and (b) other birds of conservation concern.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
As a core part of our commitment to leave the environment in a better state than we found it, the Environment Act now requires a new legally binding target to be set to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. This will drive actions to deliver wide-ranging improvements to biodiversity, including for UK birds. The Act also includes provisions to set other, long-term legally binding environmental targets, including for biodiversity.
We are taking a strategic look at how we can support species recovery to help achieve our targets, and will set out our approach to meet our Environment Act targets in our update of the Environmental Improvement Plan in 2023. The UK's seabirds, including the Manx Shearwater, are an important part of our natural heritage, and their protection is a high priority for this Government. We are working with Natural England to develop a comprehensive English Seabird Conservation Strategy. This strategy will aim to assess the vulnerability of each seabird species in light of the pressures they are facing and propose actions to address them.