Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2025 to Question 26635 on Domestic Waste: Waste Disposal, whether (a) his Department and (b) WRAP has undertaken research on restricting residual waste volumes by capping the quantity of bin bags provided to local households for collection.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No, Defra has not undertaken research on this. WRAP, supported by Defra, and with input from local authorities, has developed good practice guidance on household and commercial waste collections designed to help local authorities deliver quality waste and recycling services to citizens in England. This will include guidance on residual waste collection and is intended to be published shortly.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2025 to Question 32568 on Litter: Fines, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse being non-statutory on levels of compliance with that guidance.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse, as it relates to cleaning standards, is statutory guidance. The code was amended in 2019 to include advisory guidance on litter enforcement. We do not intend to make an assessment of levels of compliance with the enforcement guidance. The Government is however currently examining the benefits of making it statutory.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2025 to Question 32571 on WRAP: Finance, how much funding to WRAP has been budgeted for the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A WRAP grant provision of £5,952,500 for 2025-26 is planned, this is provisional subject to agreement of the 2025-26 programme proposal from WRAP.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2025 to Question 32568 on Litter: Fines, if he will take steps to issue guidance to local authorities on establishing a mechanism to (a) appeal and (b) review fixed penalty notices.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is no formal right of appeal against a fixed penalty notice. If an alleged offender does not accept their liability for the offence, there is no requirement on them to pay the fixed penalty. They may have to defend their case in court. We consider it good practice for councils to operate an informal dispute process to minimise the number of cases that reach court.
Advisory enforcement guidance attached to the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse provides enforcing authorities with advice on how to operate a process for informally disputing liability. The Government is currently considering the benefits of placing this guidance on a statutory footing.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2025 to Question 26631 on WRAP, if he will publish the contract or memorandum of understanding between his Department and WRAP that provides the basis for his Department funding WRAP.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Details of the WRAP grant agreement are published on the Grants register held on GOV.UK. The WRAP grant agreement details the purpose and objectives of the grant, standard terms and conditions, performance monitoring and financial assurance.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 has funded any publications produced by WRAP in each of the last three years.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Yes, Defra has funded a number of publications produced by WRAP in each of the last three years including publications on food waste reduction, recycling and textiles.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2025 to Question 32569 on Domestic Waste: Recycling and Waste Disposal, whether WRAP provided guidance on the Simpler Recycling reforms to residual waste collection.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
WRAP, supported by Defra, and with input from local authorities, has developed good practice guidance on household and commercial waste collections designed to help local authorities deliver quality waste and recycling services to citizens in England. This will include guidance on residual waste collection and is intended to be published shortly.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 reduce compliance costs for agricultural subsidies.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
“Compliance costs” are the costs of complying with Government regulation. Our Environmental Land Management Schemes provide farmers and land managers with the support they need to help restore nature, which is vital to safeguard our long-term food security, support productivity and build resilience to climate change. Participation in these schemes is discretionary, and so they do not of themselves carry compliance costs.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how his Department validates estimates of compliance costs provided by regulated industries.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
“Compliance costs” are the costs of complying with government regulation. These will typically include familiarisation costs, costs relating to monitoring or data reporting, and costs related to inspections where relevant. When analysing impacts on businesses of any new or amended policy, Defra complies with the Better Regulation Framework alongside HMT’s Green Book and Magenta Book principles.
Where required, Defra will conduct post implementation reviews (PIRs) of legislation.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 is taking steps to (a) monitor and (b) reduce compliance costs for fisheries regulations.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Costs of compliance for regulations are assessed through Impact Assessments when regulations are introduced according to the Better Regulation Framework. Defra regulators keep all regulations under review to understand their effectiveness. We are also mindful of the desire of the fishing industry to have bespoke regulation, appropriate for the stocks and circumstances. This can add complexity and costs, something we are considering as we develop and implement Fisheries Management Plans.