Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the land use strategy will include policies on managing (a) farm pastures, (b) road verges, (c) urban parks and (d) other grasslands.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government plans to publish work in this area in the first year of its time in power. A broad range of views will be under consideration.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) direct ministerial and (b) other public appointments to his Department and associated bodies have (i) been (A) removed from their posts and (B) asked to resign and (ii) made since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
No direct ministerial appointees have been removed or asked to resign from their post since 4 July 2024. Two public appointees have been removed from post since 4 July. The reasons why an appointee has left their role is the appointee’s personal information and identifiable and would elicit GDPR considerations.
All appointments, including those made since 4 July 2024 are routinely published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people, other than special advisers, have been appointed to civil service posts in his Department without open competition since 4 July 2024; what their (a) job titles and (b) salary bands are; and on what basis each was appointed.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 requires that selection to the Civil Service must be on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition. There may be instances where a role may meet the requirements for use of a Civil Service Commission exception. As part of this, the Civil Service Commission requires that departments provide a quarterly return on their use of Exceptions at SCS2 and above. This information can be found on the CSC website.
The information requested could lead to individuals being identified therefore we are not able to provide job titles and salary bands (due to the potentially low numbers of people in each).
The information about the overall number of people who have been appointed to civil service posts in Defra without open competition will take a disproportionate amount of activity to analyse and provide.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
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 30 July 2024, to Question 1246 on Greenpeace, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for the Government's policy on engagement with Greenpeace of the protest held by representatives of that organisation at the then Prime Minister's family home in August 2023.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
It remains the Government's policy to engage with a range of stakeholders, including Greenpeace.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the latest estimate is of the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value of the Civil Service pension of his Department’s Second Permanent Secretary and Defra group Chief Operating Officer in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The position of Second Permanent Secretary and Chief Operating Officer was appointed to in July 2023 by his party. The pension cash equivalent transfer values for this position will be published in the 2023/2024 Defra Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his policy is on EU fishing rights in UK waters, in the context of the Government's plans to change its relationship with the EU.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Government is committed to managing fishing access to its waters in a way that balances sustainable management with the interests of the UK fishing industry, as per our obligations under the Fisheries Act 2020 and Joint Fisheries Statement. The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides full reciprocal access during the adjustment period until June 2026, after which access becomes a matter for annual negotiation by default.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Government policy is on engagement with Greenpeace.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
As all governments do, this Government engages with a range of stakeholders, including Greenpeace.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure timely payments from the Rural Payments Agency.
Answered by George Eustice
The RPA has improved the Rural Payments service for 2016 and over 80% of BPS claims were submitted online this year.
This means the RPA has been able to focus on processing claims as quickly as possible in order to make payments to claimants from the opening of the payment window next month. They are aiming to pay 90% of claimants their BPS 2016 payment by the end of the year.