Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether their Department offers its staff shared parental leave from their first working day.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
No. The Civil Service Management Code sets out that, ‘Departments and agencies may only grant shared parental leave in accordance with the statutory requirements governing eligibility for this category of leave.’ However, some staff could qualify for statutory shared parental leave on their first day of service with a particular department because they already have service with another department.
As with any changes to employment legislation, internal policies and processes will be updated as appropriate in preparation for when the Employment Rights Bill 2024 comes into effect.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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 respond to Question 25193 tabled by the hon. Member for West Worcestershire on 21 January 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
A response to Question 25193 is being prepared and will be provided as soon as possible. I apologise for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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 respond to Question 25193 tabled by the hon. Member for West Worcestershire on 21 January 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
A response to Question 25193 is being prepared and will be provided as soon as possible. I apologise for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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 Environment Agency's National Assessment of Flood Risk, published in December 2024, whether he plans to request an 88% increase in the budget for flood defences for the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency’s (EA) National Assessment of Flood risk report is not directly comparable with previous assessments due to improvements in modelling.
Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities. This Government will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences.
Longer term funding decisions will be made at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding is available for individual property-level flood protection for frequently-flooded communities.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are investing £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. Property level flood resilience measures can be funded as part of wider flood alleviation schemes.
The list of projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be consented over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees with local representation.
Build Back Better offers householders up to £10,000 to add property level resilience measures, where it can be offered as part of a flood insurance claim, over and above work to repair damage and loss caused by a flood. We want to see 100% of the UK domestic insurance market offering Build Back Better.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much he plans to allocate to the Farming in Protected Landscapes Fund in (a) 2025/26 and (b) 2026/27.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will confirm plans for Farming in Protected Landscapes in 2025/26 in due course. The budget beyond 2025/26 is to be settled in phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much he plans to allocate to the Rural England Prosperity Fund in (a) 2025/26 and (b) 2026/27.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Autumn Statement on 30 October confirmed Defra’s budgets for 2024-25 and 2025-26. Funding allocations for individual programmes for the next financial year will be determined in upcoming months through the department’s business planning exercise.
The department is working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and will update on the Rural England Prosperity Fund in due course.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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 guidance entitled Apply for CITES permits and certificates to move or trade endangered species, published on 17 July 2019, whether he is taking steps to digitise the end-to-end process for importing horticultural products into the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
A project to move CITES permitting online and improve the functionality of the system used to consider and issue CITES permits and certificates, is nearing completion. The new system is due to be formally rolled out early in the New Year. Interested traders are welcome to join the testing platform, which includes live applications. An assessment of the feasibility of e-permitting for CITES documents is scheduled for a later phase of this ongoing work.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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 merits of extending the seasonal agricultural worker scheme on a multi-year basis.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We appreciate that farmers would like longer term assurances on the Seasonal Worker visa route, and we continue to work extensively to understand employers’ needs and demands on the visa route through regular engagement with industry. It is currently confirmed until the end of 2024, with an initial visa allocation of 45,000 for horticulture and 2,000 for poultry.
To inform future decisions on labour across the sector, the Government commissioned John Shropshire to carry out an independent review considering how automation, domestic labour and migrant labour could contribute to tackling labour shortages in our sectors, including horticulture. The report was published in June 2023, with the Government Response due shortly. At the same time, the Government will set out how it will support the sector to access the labour it needs alongside actions to reduce the sector’s reliance on migrant labour including via our work on automation and promoting domestic labour procurement and training.
The Migration Advisory Committee are also carrying out a review of the Seasonal Worker visa route, considering all aspects of the route, with a report due in early 2024.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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 merits of publishing an annual assessment of the potential impact of international trade deals on agriculture.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government has published Impact Assessments for each of the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) we have agreed, which set out expected impacts for the UK economy and its regions and sectors. The agreements balance open and free trade with protections for the agricultural industry. Defra also monitors and evaluates the impact of FTAs on sectors to ensure that UK businesses are benefitting from FTAs.
Following the agreement of FTAs with Australia and New Zealand, a suite of products has been developed to help businesses understand and use new opportunities and make use of the preferential terms. This includes thematic guidance in business-friendly language on key FTA areas such as rules of origin and customs procedures, and sector-specific explainers for businesses looking to understand market opportunities and how to operationalise their export plans.