Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon and Consett)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact of food price inflation on levels of demand for emergency parcels from food banks.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Tackling inflation is this Government’s number one priority. We continue to support households through our £94 billion package, worth £3,300 on average per household this year and last. We are also providing £100 million of support for charities and community organisations in England targeted at supporting critical frontline services.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon and Consett)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of introducing a single social tariff for water.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
As the Secretary of State stated during the House of Lords inquiry into the work of Ofwat, Defra is minded not to introduce a single social tariff scheme due to the complexities involved with a national scheme, as well as due to legislative timetables, which would mean we would not be able to introduce a single social tariff to align with the start of the next price review – 1 April 2025.
However, I am very mindful that consumers are concerned about their bills. My officials continue to explore options to improve existing social tariff arrangements, focussing on improving consistency and fairness across existing regional social tariff schemes - a sensible and pragmatic approach given time constraints.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon and Consett)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment for the implications of her policies of Dogs Trust’s recommendation to introduce a requirement to visually check animals entering the country at ports to ensure that the pet animal is (a) the same as the animal listed on the pet passport, (b) the age stated, (c) not heavily pregnant and (d) not suffering from poor welfare conditions.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
We do not intend to make such an assessment. We already operate one of the most rigorous and robust pet travel checking regimes in Europe. All non-commercial dogs, cats and ferrets entering Great Britain on approved routes (every route other than Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Crown Dependencies) under the Pet Travel rules undergo 100% documentary and identity checks by authorised pet checkers.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon and Consett)
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 the reduction in the Environment Agency's funding in the last 10 years on the control of sewage output into the natural environment.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra and its agencies received an additional £4.3 billion in the last Spending Review much of which is invested, through the Environment Agency, in protecting our environment. This included new funding for the Environment Agency to undertake 500 additional water company inspections over the spending review period. This is in addition to their routine regulation of water companies, funded through annual subsistence charges. We are also introducing new legal requirements to increase the monitoring of sewage discharges.