Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 help protect hare populations in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has supported Lincolnshire in preparing its Local Nature Recovery Strategy, which is expected to be published shortly. This strategy will set nature recovery priorities and map specific proposals for habitat creation and improvement that will support many species, such as hares.
Nationally, protection of the brown hare population is provided through hare‑coursing legislation introduced under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. Together with improved police tactics, intelligence, and information sharing, it is reasonable to assume that these measures are reducing levels of hare coursing, which will play a part in the recovery of the species.
In addition, the Government’s recently published Animal Welfare Strategy contains a commitment to consider introducing a close season on shooting brown hares.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 help protect seabirds from offshore energy infrastructure.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Offshore wind developers must show how they will avoid and mitigate impacts on protected seabirds, and provide compensatory measures where impacts remain. Within this context, the government is delivering the Offshore Wind Environmental Improvement Package to de-risk and accelerate offshore wind consenting whilst protecting marine habitats and species, including seabirds. The package includes developing environmental standards, establishing a Marine Recovery Fund to deliver compensation at a strategic level and a strategic, ecosystem- based monitoring framework to strengthen understanding of environmental impacts on vulnerable bird species.
We have also established a Seabird Conservation Coordination Group, comprising government, experts, environmental NGOs and industry representation. This group is helping to coordinate, monitor and drive delivery of actions for seabirds across our programmes of work in England. We are working with devolved governments on next steps, as they implement their respective seabird conservation strategies.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any civil servants hired by her Department were recruited over another person on the basis of a protected characteristic in each of the last three years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Civil Service recruitment must follow the rules set out in legislation within the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaGA) 2010, which outlines the requirements to ensure that civil servants are recruited on merit, via fair and open competition.
Compliance with CRaGA is overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission, which publishes Recruitment Principles setting out the detailed rules departments must follow.
For departments who use Civil Service Jobs to manage their recruitment, applicants are asked to provide diversity data on a voluntary basis only and no details are shared with hiring managers.
The positive action measures in the Equality Act 2010 allows employers to take proportionate action that aims to reduce disadvantage, meet different needs and increase participation. More information on this can be found on gov.uk.
Employers who choose to use positive action can help people who share a particular protected characteristic to overcome certain barriers under the measures. However, employers need to ensure they do this in a way which does not unfairly disadvantage other groups as this could amount to ‘positive discrimination’, which is unlawful.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff in her Department are reliant on a visa for employment.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The requested data is not held centrally in a reportable format.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent support the Government has provided for habitat creation initiatives in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Lincolnshire County Council is the responsible authority for the preparation of the Greater Lincolnshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy. The Strategy will agree priorities for nature recovery in the area and identify and map the best locations for habitat to be created or improved to benefit nature and the wider environment.
Natural England works with local planning authorities to secure Biodiversity Net Gain through development. There are two sites in Lincolnshire on the Natural England Biodiversity Net Gain Register, one of which is in South Holland and The Deepings. Together these sites have committed 85 hectares of land to nature recovery. Private sector investment into these sites will create and enhance a mosaic of habitats including species-rich grassland, woodland, scrub and wetland.
Natural England supports Landscape Recovery Projects in Lincolnshire, including the Greater Frampton, Doddington and Boothby Wildlands schemes, which create joined-up habitats that benefit local wildlife and ecosystems.
The Lincolnshire Coronation Coast National Nature Reserve, declared in September 2023 as the first in the new King's Series, added 2,350 hectares of land managed for nature conservation. This expanded reserve supports habitat creation across sand dunes, salt marshes, mudflats and freshwater marshes of international importance.
Natural England maintains numerous Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier agreements and Higher Level Stewardship agreements across Lincolnshire, working with farmers on projects that enhance nature recovery and create habitats for wildlife.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of civil servants in her Department are (a) on temporary contract and (b) consultants.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Information on the number of civil servants employed on temporary contracts is published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics as part of the quarterly Public Sector Employment statistics. Information can be accessed for September 2025 at the following web address:
Departmental expenditure on consultancy is published within the Annual Report and Accounts. The latest report for Defra FY 2024/25 can be found at the following web address:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defras-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many full time equivalent staff in her Department have been employed for the purpose of making social media content in each of the past three years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Due to the difficulty of disaggregating the number of staff who are employed to produce social media content from staff who are employed to work on broader digital communications, it is not possible to report exact figures in response to this question.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) single sex and (b) gender neutral bathroom facilities her Department provides in its Whitehall premises.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department’s main Whitehall building, 2 Marsham Street, has (a) four single sex bathroom facilities on its five floors, consisting of three cubicles that contain a toilet, and a shared station of three washbasins and hand-drying facilities.
2 Marsham Street has (b) ten gender neutral/accessible bathroom facilities that are individual self-contained lockable toilet rooms with a toilet, washbasin and hand-drying facilities. These are also wheelchair accessible.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much OFWAT has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ofwat has spent a total of £74,983 on translation and interpretation services in the last five financial years. This expenditure is for translating key documents into Welsh given Ofwat’s role as the water regulator for England and Wales.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 reduce water bills for (a) households and (b) businesses in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Bill payers are understandably concerned that bills have risen. For too long, investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population, and climate change. Over the next four years, water companies will deliver substantial and enduring improvements for customers and the environment through a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector. This investment will accelerate improvements in infrastructure to meet these challenges, secure our water supply, and to meet new environmental requirements.
We are working to ensure that both business and household consumers can reduce their bills through decreasing their usage, including by pursuing a Mandatory Water Efficiency Label, smart meter rollout acceleration and a review of water efficiency standards in the Building Regulations.
All companies have measures in place for customers struggling to pay for water and wastewater services, and the Government expects industry to keep support schemes under review to ensure customers across the country are supported.
It is important that support is targeted at the most vulnerable. We have therefore acted decisively by consulting on reforms to WaterSure, which caps bills for low-income households in England with higher essential water use due to a medical condition or a large family. The Government also doubled compensation payments paid to consumers for service failures through the Guaranteed Standards Scheme.