Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support local authorities in collecting food waste to send to to anaerobic digestion facilities.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has brought forward up to £295 million in capital funding to roll out weekly food waste collections across England. This will cover the reasonable new burdens costs of additional bins and vehicles. Initial grants have now been issued to local authorities for their transitional capital funding allocation for the 2023/24 financial year (FY). Transitional resource costs will be paid from FY 2024/25. Ongoing resource costs will be paid to all local authorities from 1 April 2026.
We have committed to work with sector specialists the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to develop guidance and good practice on communications and scope additional areas of support for local authorities and other affected stakeholders. WRAP has recently published standard specifications developed with industry to support local authorities in the procurement of vehicles and containers.
Local authority disposal of food waste is also being supported through the construction of new anaerobic digestion (AD) plants facilitated by the Government’s Green Gas Support Scheme, which provides a tariff supporting the price of biomethane injected into the gas grid at AD sites.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 left his Department in each year since 2015.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for Defra, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty."
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of appeals dealt with by local authorities with respect to amending definitive maps of public rights of way in the last 12 months; and whether he is issued recent guidance to local authorities on dealing with such requests.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Planning Inspectorate considers appeals for definitive map modification orders on behalf of the Secretary of State in accordance with Schedule 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. In 2023-24 the Planning Inspectorate considered 21 appeals with 19 decisions issued.
Guidance on Schedule 14 appeals can be found here. Further guidance for local authorities can be found in Rights of Way Circular 1/09 here.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 holds data on the number of Industrial Emissions Directive environmental permits that have been issued by the Environment Agency in each year since 2015.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Environmental permits are issued under the Environmental Permitting Regulations (England and Wales) 2016, which implement the Industrial Emissions Directive. Of the activities listed in the Industrial Emissions Directive, the Environment Agency (EA) is responsible for regulating larger (known as A1) sites under the 2016 Regulations in England, whereas local authorities regulate smaller sized (known as A2) sites.
The number of permits issued by the EA under the 2016 Regulations relating to activities in the Industrial Emissions Directive is set out below. Data for the whole year 2023 is incomplete.
Year | Total issued |
2015 | 236 |
2016 | 303 |
2017 | 284 |
2018 | 265 |
2019 | 161 |
2020 | 167 |
2021 | 178 |
2022 | 118 |
2023 | 70 |
The number of permits issued is governed by regulatory, economic and social drivers. The capacity of the regulator and application quality and application size and complexity are all relevant factors.
Some drivers that may have affected the number of new applications:
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 holds data on the number of environmental permits issued by the Environment Agency for the purposes of discharging (a) liquid effluent and (b) waste water to (i) surface water and (ii) the ground in each year since 2015.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The number of environmental permits issued by the Environment Agency for the purposes of discharging liquid effluent and waste water (both surface and ground) each year since 2015 is as follows. Note that the figure for 2023 does not represent the total for that year as the data set is incomplete.
2015 – 943
2016 – 1206
2017 – 1134
2018 – 1108
2019 – 1085
2020 – 1245
2021 – 1208
2022 – 1388
2023 – 1370
Total – 10687
These figures indicate the number of new water quality permits issued by year.
Under Section 22 of ‘the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016, the Environment Agency has the power to revoke an environmental permit in whole or in part. This can happen for several reasons including operator competence or poor compliance with regulatory (permit) requirements, which means not all permits issued remain in place.
More widely the Environment Agency is strengthening the way it regulates the water industry, with 100% of storm overflows in England now monitored and more than 12,000 storm overflow permits updated with stricter conditions since 2015. This ongoing work to modernise our permit stock will ensure the unacceptable number of spills into our waterways is reduced.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 holds data on the number of water abstraction licences that have been issued by the Environment Agency in each year since 2015.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The number of new water abstraction licences that have been issued by the Environment Agency (EA) in each year since 2015 is as follows (the data set may not be complete for December 2023):
Year | Number of abstraction licences |
2015 | 931 |
2016 | 815 |
2017 | 931 |
2018 | 815 |
2019 | 1357 |
2020 | 1014 |
2021 | 377 |
2022 | 369 |
2023 | 536 |
Grand Total | 7145 |
In addition to issuing new licences, the Environment Agency also processes applications to vary, revoke, reduce, lapse, vest, apportion and transfer abstraction licences. Under the Water Resources Regulatory Regime, as well as abstraction licences the EA also processes impoundment licence applications. In total the EA has processed 13,844 applications since 2015.
The number of water abstraction licences issued each year varies due to the number of time limited licences that are due to expire in each year. If a licence holder wants to continue to abstract water after the date the licence expires, they must apply to the EA to renew the licence.
New regulations came into effect on 1 January 2018 to improve the management of water resources and to ensure protection of the environment. Licensing exemptions that previously allowed the use of water from ground or surface water sources without the need for a licence were mostly removed. This process is known as New Authorisations. Between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2022, the EA issued 1,322 New Authorisations licences. These are included in the table above.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve water quality in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Rivers in the West Midlands urban centres are affected by historical industrial development and physical modification of water courses and food plains. The Environment Agency (EA) has generously contributed to funding Warwickshire Wildlife’s Tame Valley Wetlands project. Working alongside Natural England, the project will enhance biodiversity and improve the ecological status of the River Blythe by creating a wide range of habitats on over 140 hectares of land within the River Blythe SSSI (Site of special Scientific Interest). The restoration work will include bank re-profiling, floodplain reconnection, in-channel habitat creation, invasive species management and the creation of new terrestrial habitats to enhance biodiversity.
Nationally, the Government published the Plan for Water in April 2023 – our comprehensive strategy for managing our water environment, including our rivers. It brings together the significant steps we have already taken with a suite of new policy actions. The Plan is underpinned by Increased investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, how many boats were registered to use the River Thames in 2023.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2023 the Environment Agency (EA) has issued 12,790 boat registrations for boats used or kept on the non-tidal Thames. The Canal and River Trust (CRT)/EA operate a Gold Licence scheme which allows boaters to use all EA and CRT waterways for a single fee.
The data for figure of CRT/EA Gold licences issued in 2023 will be available in March 2024. As a guide, in 2022, the CRT/EA Gold scheme equated to a further 1,265 registrations for boats on the non-tidal Thames.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, how many licences for impounding water were issued by the Environment Agency in 2023.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2023 the Environment Agency (EA) issued 11 new impoundment licences. The EA also issued 1 normal variation to an existing impoundment license in 2023. Please note that the data may not be complete for December 2023.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many CL51 licenses were issued by Natural England in 2023.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Here are the number of class licence registrations issued during 2023:
CL50: 34 licences issued
CL51: 52 licences issued
CL52: 30 licences issued
Total: 116 class licence registrations issued in 2023