Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where the Environment Agency deployed its mobile pumps in December 2015.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Mobile pumps were moved to locations as required as part of our dynamic response to the various incidents that happened in December. The Environment Agency sent 42 pumps from other areas to the north of England including Cumbria, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire. This was to support existing equipment in use within the area.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many mobile pumps the Environment Agency owns.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Environment Agency owns a total of 245 mobile pumping units which can be deployed to respond to flooding incidents.
During the flooding in December 2015, 425 mobile pumping assets owned and held by responding organisations, including the Fire Services and the Environment Agency, were identified as being available to Strategic Coordination Groups (Gold Controls).
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the Environment Agency did not deploy mobile pumps to York when the fixed pumps in that area were insufficient.
Answered by Rory Stewart
All 8 of the fixed pumps at the Foss Barrier were fully operational during the onset of flooding in York. The capacity of these pumps is sufficient in all but the extreme conditions which were experienced in December 2015. It is an assessment that the speed and the rise of the water level of the Foss would have overwhelmed the capacity of any potential temporary pumps, particularly given the design of the barrier, which restricted the area available for pumps.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many miles of waterway the Environment Agency dredged in the last 12 months.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Environment Agency estimates that the length of watercourse where dredging was carried out was approximately 120 miles (200km) in 2014/15.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many fixed location pumps the Environment Agency uses to control water flows in England.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Environment Agency operates and maintains 347 fixed pumping stations in England.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many miles of rivers and waterways the Environment Agency is responsible for.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Environment Agency’s flood risk management powers cover over 22,600 miles of ‘Main River’. They are also the navigation authority for over 621 miles (1000km) of waterways in England.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many new EU directives and regulations have been transposed into UK law by her Department since May 2010.
Answered by George Eustice
According to departmental records, Defra has transposed a total of 36 EU Directives into UK law since May 2010, 9 of which were transposed without the need to introduce new legislation.
We do not hold a central record of all directly applicable EU regulations coming into effect since 2010. Details of all current European legislation are on the Euro-Lex website:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/browse/summaries.html
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times the UK has lost EU infraction proceedings since May 2010 which relate to matters that fall within her Department's responsibility.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled, on 18 October 2012, that by failing to ensure appropriate collection and associated treatment of urban waste water at London and Whitburn, the United Kingdom had failed to fulfil its obligations under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (Case C-301/10). The Department is currently in discussion with the European Commission on how to give effect to the Court’s judgment. Since May 2010, no other infraction cases in respect of matters for which my Department is responsible have resulted in adverse judgements against the UK by the European Court.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what levels of stock his Department holds of (a) stationery, (b) printer cartridges, (c) treasury tags and other fasteners and (d) other office consumables.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Core Defra does not hold this information because some stocks are held locally and some are ordered centrally.