Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with the Chief Medical Officer on the impact of sewage pollution on levels of contraction of (a) Hepatitis A and (b) E.coli as a result of sewage pollution.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has many meetings with senior members of government and officials, and discussions between departments continue.
In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history - Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan.
In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible.
E. coli is one of the standard faecal indicator organisms prevalent in sewage discharges but can also be found in agricultural runoff and road drainage. Bathing waters at beaches, lakes and rivers are designated under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to protect bathers’ health against faecal pollution. E. coli is one of the standards bathing waters are monitored for.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential risks of contracting (a) Hepatitis A and (b) E.coli as a result of sewage pollution into rivers and water courses.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has many meetings with Cabinet Ministers and discussions between departments continue.
In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history - Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan.
In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible.
E. coli is one of the standard faecal indicator organisms prevalent in sewage discharges but can also be found in agricultural runoff and road drainage. Bathing waters at beaches, lakes and rivers are designated under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to protect bathers’ health against faecal pollution. E. coli is one of the standards bathing waters are monitored for.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 protect future risk to human health from sewage pollution in (a) rivers, (b) lakes and (c) beaches.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history – Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan. Our strict targets will see the toughest ever crackdown on sewage spills and will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.
In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible.
In February 2023 the Secretary of State asked water and sewerage companies to set an action plan on every storm overflow in England, prioritising those that are spilling more than a certain number of times a year, and those spilling into bathing waters and high priority nature sites.
Further, in April, we announced a legally binding target to crackdown on sewage spills from storm overflows.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her has Department made of the impact of sewage pollution in (a) rivers and (b) lakes on biodiversity.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The impact of sewage discharges on ecology varies depending on the pollutants it carries, their concentration, and the nature of the receiving water body.
In England, we have now set and committed to four legally binding targets for biodiversity.
Action to restore or create freshwater habitats will support species in our indicator that live in and rely on lakes and rivers such as kingfishers, silver bream, perch, and minnow.
Our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan sets clear and specific targets for water companies, regulators and the Government, to work towards the long-term ambition of eliminating the ecological harm from storm overflows. These targets contribute to the Environment Act targets on biodiversity.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding opportunities are available for fishermen impacted by Crustacean Mortality in North East England; how much has been allocated to date; and where that information is published.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The panel of independent experts set up to assess the cause of crustacean mortality could not find a definitive cause for the mortalities, and concluded that maintenance dredging and capital dredging were very unlikely and exceptionally unlikely to have been the cause. A range of support is provided to the English seafood sector through the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS) and the £100 million UK Seafood Fund. FaSS includes grants of up to £100,000 to support diversification, such as gear to target new species and processing equipment to develop new products. Since opening in April 2021, FaSS has provided £2.2 million to seafood businesses in the North East and is open for applications now. In addition, the Fisheries Industry Science Partnerships (FISP) scheme, part of the UK Seafood Fund, is providing over £260,000 to a project led by the North-Eastern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (NEIFCA) that will help establish an ongoing survey programme for the inshore lobster fishery. Further information on this project can be found here: FISP projects: grants and contracts awarded in round 1 of the scheme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what steps her Department is taking to work with manufacturers to reduce the use of unrecyclable packaging.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Government wishes to see unnecessary or excess packaging on products reduced and, where used, for the packaging to be easy to recycle. These are key objectives of our new Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) policy, which will be introduced across the UK from 2024. This will include measures which will require businesses that use packaging to pay fees to cover the costs of collecting and treating household packaging waste handled by local authorities. This means that – for the first time - businesses will be responsible for the cost of managing their packaging once it reaches its end of life. From 2025, the fees producers pay will also be varied (modulated) so that fees for easily recyclable packaging will be lower than those for packaging that cannot be recycled. This will place a strong financial incentive on packaging producers to reduce the overall amount of packaging they use, encourage businesses to design and use packaging that is easily recyclable, and encourage the use of reusable and refillable packaging. This will reduce the amount of unsustainable packaging that is used each year, and ensure that the packaging that is used can be recycled and the materials returned into the economy.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the South West in 2021-2022.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the East of England in 2021-2022.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the West Midlands in 2021-2022.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the East Midlands in 2021-2022.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).