Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
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 assessment of the potential impact of trends in the number of (a) data centres and (b) AI infrastructure on demand for water in the next 10 years.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency will be publishing its updated National Framework for Water Resources in 2025. This will reflect the expectation that regional water resources plans explore opportunities to deliver cross sector mutual benefits, as set out in a joint letter from Government and water regulators to regional water resources groups in January 2023.
This will include the need to work with data centre and AI industries to establish and understand their potential water demands, seeking to identify potential mutually beneficial solutions.
In some parts of England which are designated as water stressed, water companies may not be able to supply the required volume of water. The data centre and AI industry will need to investigate and plan for alternative sources of water, including on site water storage and water recycling.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what advice her Department provides to people with asthma on the safe and environmentally-friendly disposal of used inhalers.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
HM Government is committed to reducing and managing waste safely and carefully. Defra supports Recycle Now, the national recycling campaign for England and Northern Ireland, which advises the public on what items can be recycled and where they can be recycled. The Recycle Now website makes clear that inhalers should be returned to pharmacies to be disposed of safely.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
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 United Utilities on the control and eradication of Japanese knotweed on land owned by that company.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has not had any recent discussions with United Utilities about Japanese knotweed.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the composition of fuel being burned at the Viridor Runcorn Energy from Waste facility been allowed to be changed from that permitted under its original permit.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The maximum throughput of waste specified in the permit for Viridor’s Runcorn Energy from Waste site is 850,000 tonnes per year. This was based on the predicted number and length of plant stoppages for inspection, maintenance and repair. In 2017 this routine shut down was shorter than expected, and the Environment Agency authorised a temporary increase of throughput on a trial basis. The total throughput of waste for 2017 was 890,933 tonnes. This increase will not have led to an unacceptable impact on the environment.
Viridor will need to apply for a permit variation in order to permanently increase its annual throughput of waste. Any such permit variation is likely to be subject to public consultation.
There has been no change in fuel composition from that specified in the permit in 2009.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the maximum tonnage of waste is that the Viridor Energy is entitled to burn at its waste facility in Runcorn under its permit; and what the tonnage of waste is that is currently being burnt at that site.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The maximum throughput of waste specified in the permit for Viridor’s Runcorn Energy from Waste site is 850,000 tonnes per year. This was based on the predicted number and length of plant stoppages for inspection, maintenance and repair. In 2017 this routine shut down was shorter than expected, and the Environment Agency authorised a temporary increase of throughput on a trial basis. The total throughput of waste for 2017 was 890,933 tonnes. This increase will not have led to an unacceptable impact on the environment.
Viridor will need to apply for a permit variation in order to permanently increase its annual throughput of waste. Any such permit variation is likely to be subject to public consultation.
There has been no change in fuel composition from that specified in the permit in 2009.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many fires were recorded at regulated and unregulated recycling or waste sites in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The table below summarises the number of incidents recorded by the Environment Agency as fires at waste management premises for 2013 and 2014. The figures include all incidents ranging from serious impact to no impact.
Type of waste management site | 2013 | 2014 |
Regulated | 225 | 249 |
Unregulated | 51 | 62 |
Total | 276 | 311 |
The figures differ from those provided in response to a parliamentary question on 12 February last year. The response to that question stated that there were a total of 295 fires at both regulated and unregulated waste management sites in 2013. The difference is due to some duplication of incident reporting in the previous answer.