Liam Byrne: Defra: Written Answers (11)

Written Question

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Public Expenditure

Wednesday 6th December 2023

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which spending programmes their Department devolves for administration to (a) local government in England and (b) other local spending bodies; and what the budget is of each such programme for each year for which budgets are agreed.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government has set itself a mission that, by 2030, every part of England that wants one will have a devolution deal, with powers at or approaching the highest level of devolution, with a simplified, long-term funding settlement. At Spring Budget, the Government announced the trailblazer devolution deals with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), which included a commitment to introduce single funding settlements at the next Spending Review (SR) for these Combined Authorities. At Autumn Statement, the Government published a Memorandum of Understanding with GMCA and WMCA, setting out how the single settlements will work. The Government also announced an ambitious new ‘level 4’ of the devolution framework, including a single transport funding settlement for eligible institutions, and a ‘consolidated’ pot at the next multi-year SR covering two Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities investment themes – local growth and place, and housing and regeneration. Following successful delivery of the ‘consolidated’ pot, and learning from the trailblazers, Level 4 institutions will then become eligible to receive a single settlement from the subsequent multi-year SR.

Details of major funding programmes, including those administered by local government or other local bodies, are available on gov.uk.

Written Question

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Public Expenditure

Tuesday 8th March 2022

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

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 (a) list the spending programmes his Department devolves for administration to local government in England and other local spending bodies and (b) specify the value for each programme for every year for which budgets are agreed.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

The programmes listed below are devolved to local authorities using grant funding:

Air Quality Grant Scheme to Local Authorities

Bathing Water Signage

Clean Bus Technology Fund

GAP Clean Air Hub

IFCA Grant - Hampshire Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Support

NO2 Plan Clean Air Fund

NO2 Plan Implementation Fund And Feasibility Studies Funding

Part 1 of Commons Act 2006

Support for Third Wave Local Authority Targeted Feasibility Studies

Supporting local authority Feasibility Studies for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide

Waste Infrastructure PFI Grant

Expenditure and other details of each programme are published centrally by the Cabinet Office under the Government grants information system.

The 2018/19 publication is shown here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-grants-register-2018-to-2019

The 2019/20 publication is shown here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/government-grants-statistics-2019-to-2020

Data for 2020/21 is not yet complete and is expected to be published in September 2022.

Written Question

River Tame: Flood Control

Monday 27th September 2021

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his timeframe is for (a) completing flood defence work on the river Tame in Hodge Hill constituency and (b) restoring play facilities located there.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency (EA) has been working hard to improve flood defences at Bromford and Castle Vale, which will see more than 1,500 homes better protected from the risk of flooding. The scheme is expected to be completed by winter 2022/23.

The EA hopes the embankment area which is of particular concern to residents and Birmingham City Council will open in winter 2021/22. This is pending Section 278 approval from Birmingham City Council required before the EA can complete flood embankment works.

The EA has committed more funding to complete the scheme and deal with the various challenges the project has faced. The contractor’s senior management has also provided commitments to improve delivery confidence. They are both fully committed to completing this scheme at the earliest opportunity.

While work has been happening, some areas have had to close for the safety of the workforce and community, such as the play area in Bromford. The EA ensured the Multi Use Games Area and Skatepark adjacent to the under 12’s play area re-opened at the start of the summer holidays and has provided safety barriers to enable the community to run pop-up play sessions for younger children towards the end of the holidays. Birmingham City Council is responsible for progressing and re-opening the play area and I cannot comment on its timescales.

Written Question

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Coronavirus

Friday 26th February 2021

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) policies and (b) grant and funding programmes his Department has introduced to provide support to individuals and organisations in response to the covid-19 outbreak; and what funding has been allocated to each of those programmes in the 2020-21 financial year.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

Since March the Government’s priority has been to save lives and protect jobs, businesses, and livelihoods. To support workers and businesses across all sectors the Government has provided an unprecedented package of support worth more than £280 billion.

My Department has introduced a number of support packages to avoid the loss of productive capacity, prevent disproportionate harm to the economy or society and to protect vulnerable groups against the effects of Covid-19. These are as follows:

Clinical Extremely Vulnerable individuals – in March 2020, Defra put in place £212m of packages to support individuals defined as Clinically Extremely Vulnerable. This included food boxes delivered to those that were shielding and the set-up of the National Shielding helpline.
Food for economically vulnerable individuals – In April 2020, Defra secured funding, via a DCMS managed scheme for the voluntary and charity sectors, to support the distribution of grants worth £16m to front line charities who were best placed to respond to the immediate needs of economically vulnerable people. The majority of this funding was provided to FareShare. In November 2020, building on the support given to the most vulnerable during the initial months of the pandemic, the Government announced a winter support package of interventions to support the economically vulnerable. The winter package included a further £16m of funding for Defra to support food charities with the purchasing and distribution of food to the vulnerable over a 16-week period starting from the beginning of December. This funding stream is being managed by the food redistributor FareShare.
The Local Authority Emergency Assistance Grant – a further scheme to support people struggling to afford food and other essential supplies was announced on 10 June 2020. The £63m package of support was distributed to Local Authorities to make discretionary one-off emergency payments to people in their communities in need.
Emergency surplus food grant – In April 2020, through the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), Defra launched a series of grant opportunities to support the redistribution of surplus food to those most in need. Defra made £3.25m available for this Covid-19 emergency grant. The primary focus of the fund is to enable not-for-profit organisations both large and small to overcome barriers to the distribution of surplus food that would otherwise be wasted in the wake of Covid-19.
Zoo Animals Fund – In May 2020 the Government launched the Zoo Support Fund. This initial £14 million envelope for zoos was increased to up to £100 million (with final expenditure subject to zoos’ submitting successful applications) in August 2020 when the Zoo Support Fund was replaced by the Zoo Animals Fund. These funds have been created for the purpose of providing for zoos which, due to a coronavirus-related drop in income, are experiencing severe financial difficulties and need support in caring for their animals. These funds were introduced to ensure the welfare of zoo animals, including when zoos are closing, downsizing or rehoming their collections.
Fisheries Response Fund (FRF) – The FRF provided up to £9 million in funding for catching and aquaculture businesses with payments to individual businesses capped at £10k. The FRF covered fixed costs for the period April to June 2020. A further £1 million was also made available for projects to encourage domestic selling through the Domestic Seafood Supply scheme.
Seafood Response Fund (SRF) – The SRF was announced on 21 February to support catching and shellfish aquaculture businesses across the UK which continue to be impacted by Covid-19. The scheme will be similar to the FRF, providing grants to eligible businesses to assist them in covering their fixed costs for the period January-March 2021. Further details are expected shortly, with the scheme opening to applications in early March.
Dairy Response Fund (DRF) – The DRF was a fund to provide support to eligible dairy farmers in England who have been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak. Eligible farmers were entitled to up to £10,000 each to cover 70% of their losses incurred across April and May as a result of a drop in price. The fund opened on 18 June 2020 and closed on 11 September 2020. The DRF paid 132 farmers a total of £1,017,250.
Changes to the Textile Grant Fund – Defra also worked with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to alter the requirements of the Textile Grant Fund so that the grant could be used for capital costs to reconfigure a business to comply with Covid-19 safety measures, where this forms an integral part of an innovative proposal/project; and to streamline the application process so that these funds could be allocated more quickly.
Arms length bodies – A number of Defra arms-length bodies including RGB Kew and the Forestry Commission have been seriously impacted by the pandemic, in particular through a significant reduction in revenue generating activity. We have worked closely with HMT to address this and provided additional budget cover of £19m to provide some protection and a viable operating model going into 21/22.
Green Recovery Challenge Fund – This fund enabled environmental charities and their partners to kick-start a range of nature projects that had been adversely affected by the pandemic. Funding was made available quickly in order to create and retain jobs in the nature sector. £40m was allocated to the fund in 20/21.
European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) – £800k was also made available in England through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19. This included £300k for improvements to health and safety on board fishing vessels and £500k for ports or harbour infrastructure projects which reduce the impact of Covid-19. This funding has now been committed and is no longer open to new applications.

In addition, Defra has worked with delivery bodies and partners to introduce a number of regulatory easements to ensure regulatory obligations remain proportionate in these challenging circumstances, including in the areas of veterinary medicines, environmental regulations and marketing standards inspections. Specific interventions were also made with key Departments to ease regulations to support food supply, including competition law exclusions and driver hours flexibilities.

Written Question

Air Pollution: Birmingham

Monday 9th September 2019

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure the delivery of the software required for the implementation of the Birmingham Clean Air Zone by February 2020.

Answered by George Eustice

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Written Question

Clean Air Zones: Birmingham

Monday 9th September 2019

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to provide support to Birmingham City Council to implement a system to collect payment for the Clean Air Zone.

Answered by George Eustice

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Written Question

Air Pollution: Birmingham

Monday 9th September 2019

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to pass on any fines Birmingham City Council may incur as a result of breaches in air quality attributable to the late implementation of the charging Clean Air Zone.

Answered by George Eustice

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Written Question

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Legatum Institute

Thursday 7th December 2017

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what meetings Ministers of his Department have had with representatives of the Legatum Institute in the last 12 months.

Answered by George Eustice

Details of Ministerial Meetings are published in the Department's Quarterly Transparency Returns, which are made publicly available on GOV.UK.

Written Question

Bees

Monday 14th July 2014

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

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 reasons for the decline in the bee population; what steps he is taking to tackle such a decline; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Dan Rogerson

Changes in our bee and pollinator populations are due to a range of environmental pressures, including intensification of land use and loss of good quality habitat; pests and diseases; invasive species; use of pesticides; and climate change.

In 2013 Defra's Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Ian Boyd, commissioned a report on the ‘Status and Value of Pollinators and Pollination Services' to review the current evidence on the impact of environmental pressures on pollinators. A copy of this report will be placed in the House Library. We have just begun a two year project to develop a framework and test methods for monitoring pollinator abundance.

In the autumn we will publish our National Pollinator Strategy, which includes a series of policy actions to safeguard pollinators. In the meanwhile, we will continue to raise public awareness through the launch this July of our call to action, ‘Bees' Needs: Food and a Home'. This is a simple message for all land managers on the essential needs of pollinators and how to fulfil them.

We want to see a thriving bee and pollinator population in the UK, to enhance biodiversity and support our food production.

Written Question

Bees

Monday 14th July 2014

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

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 place in the Library a summary of his Department's Chief Scientific Adviser's latest analysis of the decline in the bee population.

Answered by Dan Rogerson

We want to see a thriving bee and pollinator population in the UK, to enhance biodiversity and support our food production.