Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 6 September 2023 to Question 195904 on Food: Public Sector, when his Department plans to publish its response to the consultation on Public sector food and catering policy.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Officials are continuing to finalise the updated Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services and supporting guidance, which will showcase the use of sustainable, high welfare, quality produce in the public sector.
We expect to publish the consultation findings, alongside the updated standards and guidance, in the coming months.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of battery recycling capacity; and if he will take steps to help increase the recyclability of batteries.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials are currently reviewing the UK Batteries Regulations ahead of a consultation expected next year. The purpose of this review is to ensure as much waste battery material as possible is collected and managed efficiently, whether that be through reuse, repurposing or recycling routes.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the debate that took place in the House of Lords on 8 September 2021 on the Environment Bill, column 867HL and the Answer of 4 January 2023 to Question HL4404 on Soil, for what reason his Department has not published a soil health action plan.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The policies the Government had intended to put in a soil health action plan for England were included in the 2023 Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP). The Government is required under the Environment Act 2021 to report on EIP commitments in the Annual Progress Report, which is independently monitored by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP). The next report is due to be published by July 2024.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of land management practices on the amount of carbon stored in grassland soil.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In June 2019, the Environment Agency published a State of the Environment: Soil Report, which identified that intensive agriculture, such as ploughing up permanent pasture for arable crops or temporary grassland, usually reduces soil organic matter (including carbon).
We are paying for a range of actions through farming schemes such as Sustainable Farming Incentive to support farm decarbonisation and Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery to store more carbon in the landscape. The schemes will help farmers deliver environmental outcomes on the land they manage while helping their businesses become more productive and sustainable.
Arable soils are known to be more depleted in soil carbon than grasslands, so the potential for future sequestration is lower in grasslands than when compared to arable soils. Sampling to a meter’s depth is preferable so that as much of the soil carbon store as possible may be measured. However, in order to provide a balance between practicality and robust measurements, sampling to a depth of up to 40cm would generally be appropriate as this is the depth to which most land management practices affect the soil profile most significantly.
Robust and accurate carbon audits which are based on or from business-level data can be valuable in benchmarking performance, and help farm businesses plan and action decarbonising measures and enhance management of negative emissions. To help farmers confidently understand the emissions on their land and take advantage of the new financial opportunities this will unlock, we are committed to developing a harmonised approach to measuring carbon on farms. We are also considering how we can best support the implementation of carbon audits through a controlled expansion of the Defra Farming and Countryside Programme sustainable farming advice offer.
We recognise the challenges in improving the robustness and consistency of carbon auditing tools. To help harmonise these tools and how they are used, Defra is currently funding a 'Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture' project to assess differences between a number of market leading carbon calculators, understand the causes of this divergence and how it impacts tool users and how to improve harmonisation.
Defra is also working to provide greater access to the calculations and the models developed as part of the UK’s Agricultural Inventory of Ammonia and GHG Emissions to interested third parties. This will support longer term alignment between the UK’s national GHG accounts and primary data gathered from farms.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the (a) carbon sequestration potential of grasslands and (b) impact of sampling depth on the amount of carbon stored.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In June 2019, the Environment Agency published a State of the Environment: Soil Report, which identified that intensive agriculture, such as ploughing up permanent pasture for arable crops or temporary grassland, usually reduces soil organic matter (including carbon).
We are paying for a range of actions through farming schemes such as Sustainable Farming Incentive to support farm decarbonisation and Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery to store more carbon in the landscape. The schemes will help farmers deliver environmental outcomes on the land they manage while helping their businesses become more productive and sustainable.
Arable soils are known to be more depleted in soil carbon than grasslands, so the potential for future sequestration is lower in grasslands than when compared to arable soils. Sampling to a meter’s depth is preferable so that as much of the soil carbon store as possible may be measured. However, in order to provide a balance between practicality and robust measurements, sampling to a depth of up to 40cm would generally be appropriate as this is the depth to which most land management practices affect the soil profile most significantly.
Robust and accurate carbon audits which are based on or from business-level data can be valuable in benchmarking performance, and help farm businesses plan and action decarbonising measures and enhance management of negative emissions. To help farmers confidently understand the emissions on their land and take advantage of the new financial opportunities this will unlock, we are committed to developing a harmonised approach to measuring carbon on farms. We are also considering how we can best support the implementation of carbon audits through a controlled expansion of the Defra Farming and Countryside Programme sustainable farming advice offer.
We recognise the challenges in improving the robustness and consistency of carbon auditing tools. To help harmonise these tools and how they are used, Defra is currently funding a 'Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture' project to assess differences between a number of market leading carbon calculators, understand the causes of this divergence and how it impacts tool users and how to improve harmonisation.
Defra is also working to provide greater access to the calculations and the models developed as part of the UK’s Agricultural Inventory of Ammonia and GHG Emissions to interested third parties. This will support longer term alignment between the UK’s national GHG accounts and primary data gathered from farms.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support his Department provides to (a) farmers and (b) land managers to protect grasslands.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are a wide range of grassland offers available for both farmers and land managers within our current Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship offers. Grants available cover all types of grassland from agriculturally productive grasslands to priority habitat grasslands, such as support for actions for the protection and management of species rich grassland and wet grassland for waders and wildfowl. In addition, we are looking at introducing a number of new actions to help protect grassland including managing floodplain meadows.
As of April 2023, there were a total of 755,640 hectares of grassland managed and enhanced in both Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship schemes.
In January 2023, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published an “Environmental Land Management update: how government will pay for land-based environment and climate goods and services”. This publication sets out all the activities we’ll pay farmers and land managers to carry out from 2024, to improve the environment alongside food production. We will publish further details on the 2024 offer shortly.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the (a) prevalence and (b) impact on the level of methane emissions of the use of 3-nitroxyproponol by the (i) food and (ii) farming sectors in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We consider methane-suppressing feed products as an essential tool to decarbonise the agricultural sector, and in England we will work with industry to incentivise the uptake of high efficacy products with proven safety once suitable products enter the market.
3NOP (3-nitroxyproponol) is a promising product that is claimed to reduce methane emissions from ruminants by up to 30%. 3NOP was approved by the European Food Safety Authority for use in Europe (and by extension Northern Ireland) in 2022.
The prevalence and impact of these products on farming sectors in Northern Ireland is devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive and the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the role of the National Cycle Network in providing access to nature.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of walking, cycling and other forms of sustainable transport in accessing nature.
We are working to ensure that consideration of access to nature is integrated with our work on active travel and the Government is fully committed to the ambitious vision that by 2030, half of all journeys in towns and cities are walked or cycled.
The National Cycle Network provides 12,000 miles of signed routes for walking, wheeling and cycling which includes over 5,000 miles of traffic-free paths.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
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 Government response to the consultation on Improved Food Waste Reporting By Large Food Businesses in England was withdrawn; and what his policy is on mandatory food waste reporting for large food businesses.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains committed to tackling food waste. Following further engagement with stakeholders the Secretary of State has decided to re-examine how best to secure the benefits of food waste reporting, including mandatory measures. We now intend to gather further evidence and re-consider all options on improving food waste reporting for large businesses using the latest available data.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Leader of the House on when a Bill to ban live animal exports will be introduced.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with the Leader of the House on a range of issues. We are determined to deliver our manifesto commitment on live exports. We will bring forward the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill in due course.