Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the average daily number of documentary checks that will be undertaken at Sevington Border Control Point in the next 12 months; and how many and what proportion of these will (a) be physical checks on (i) imported food and (ii) feed commodities and (b) arrive from the (A) Port of Dover and (B) Channel Tunnel.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The formal designation of Sevington can only take place once it has been confirmed that all the requirements of the relevant legislation have been met. Work is ongoing to put everything in place to meet these requirements, and for the designation to take place ahead of the commencement of physical SPS inspections at the end of April.
Import volumes at point of entry or PHA level are not in the public domain and cannot be shared.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Farming Recovery Fund will be extended to all those affected by storms this winter.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has triggered the Flood Recovery Framework in Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, West Northamptonshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire, to provide funding for affected households and businesses as a result of severe flooding caused by Storm Henk. Farmers in these areas are likely to be eligible for a number of these funds, including the Business Recovery Grant (for up to £2,500 per SME business), the Property Flood Resilience grant (up to £5,000 per flooded property) and Business Rate relief.
We are currently assessing the full impact of the flooding caused by Storm Henk on farmland to enable us to confirm eligible areas for the Farming Recovery Fund. Eligible areas will be within the same areas announced for the wider Flood Recovery Framework. We are monitoring the situation closely and further guidance on support for farmers affected by the flooding will be published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on the Marine Spatial Prioritisation programme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is working with key Government departments, organisations such as the Marine Management Organisation, Crown Estate and North Sea Transition Authority, and the marine sectors to improve our understanding of the different demands on the English seas.
Specifically, in 2023 the programme has engaged across multiple sectors, including fishing, cabling, environment and energy, to identify opportunities for greater co-location. We will continue this engagement in 2024.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 implementing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The review and decision for making sustainable drainage systems mandatory in new developments was published on 10 January 2023. The Government has accepted the review’s recommendation to implement through Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
The Government is now looking at how best to implement, considering scope, threshold, and process, while also being mindful of the cumulative impact of new regulatory burdens on the development sector.
We will be consulting on the proposals shortly and remain committed to implementing sustainable drainage systems.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 close English waters to industrial sand eel fishing before the start of the 2024 fishing season.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea has recently published its response to a technical request on ecosystem considerations in the provision of single stock advice for forage fish species. Defra is presently assessing that response, alongside other evidence, and responses to our public consultation on sandeel management. I will announce my decision in the new year.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to publish their response to the UK Marine Strategy Part Three: Programme of Measures consultation, which closed on November 29th 2021.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We plan to publish the response to the programme of measures consultation shortly.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on the construction of the River Parrett tidal barrier.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency has made significant progress with the Bridgwater Tidal Barrier scheme. The detailed design for the barrier and downstream banks is nearly complete. Environment Agency contractors are on site carrying out enabling works (constructing site compounds and access tracks and undertaking vegetation clearance). This will allow the construction of the bypass channel, barrier structure, control building and downstream banks over the next four years.
The Bridgwater Tidal Barrier is a flagship scheme delivering protection to 12,800 properties, along with £2 billion benefits for the local area. The scheme is expected to achieve £7.50 of benefits for every £1 spent.
Like many other major capital schemes, the Bridgwater Tidal Barrier project has seen cost increases due to inflationary pressures in construction, not least on concrete, steel, energy and labour costs, all of which are major elements of the scheme’s cost. The project is exploring options for funding as well as for efficiencies and savings to ensure that an operational barrier can be delivered as planned by early 2027. Identifying the optimum construction sequence will also enable us to achieve best value.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 her Department's £200 million innovative resilience programme, how much of that funding (a) has been awarded to projects and (b) is available.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the 2020 Budget, the Government announced a £200 million Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme. The programme runs from 2021 to 2027, with the projects already underway.
The remaining available funding is being used to provide strategic support across all the projects and the evaluations of the programme.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 £5.2 billion funding to build new flood defences announced in her Department's Flood and coastal erosion risk management policy statement, published in July 2020, how much of that funding (a) has been allocated and (b) is available.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are in the third year of the current 6-year £5.2billion Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) investment programme. The funding can be spent on projects that better protect properties in England as well as the development of future projects.
At the end of March 2023, the Environment Agency estimated that approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested with over 200 flood risk schemes completed. Over £800 million will be invested in the current financial year until March 2024 and the remaining money is indicatively allocated to projects until the end of March 2027.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 her Department's press release entitled Multi-billion pound investment as government unveils new long-term plan to tackle flooding, published on 14 July 2020, how much of the up to £170 million she planned to spend to accelerate work on shovel-ready flood defence schemes that would begin construction in 2020 or 2021 (a) has been spent and (b) remains to be spend as of November 2023.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The £170m investment for work on shovel-ready schemes was commenced in 2021, as part of a package of investment measures by Government to boost the economic recovery following the covid pandemic. All 23 projects that form part of this scheme are underway and funding is being invested into these. Between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2022 the Government invested £87m into these schemes. The data from 1 April 2022 has not been classified to the sufficient level of detail to provide a response in the time frame of a Parliamentary Question. Please write to the Environment Agency directly if you still require this information.
Further details on the current investment programme and projects completed can also be found in the Flood and coastal erosion risk management report: 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).