Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Environment Agency's licensing, monitoring and enforcement of the law on the dumping of waste materials.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Environment Agency regulates legitimate waste operations through a series of permits or registrations and they carry out regular monitoring of all these activities. They have effective systems to focus regulatory effort on the poor performing, high risk sites and activities. In 2016 over 92% of the 14,000 regulated demonstrated good compliance and were rated in the highest compliance bands.
The Environment Agency manages a 24-hour incident hotline and records all reports of large scale illegal dumping and illegal waste sites. They also have teams of intelligence officers and a specialist crime unit, who gather and act on intelligence reports. These are used to target higher risk crime and organised criminals.
The Environment Agency has a target to close down 45% of illegal sites within 90 days and every year stops more than 900 illegal sites from operating. In the financial year 2016/2017 they brought 138 prosecutions against businesses and individuals for waste crime offences, yielding more than £2 million in fines.
They continue to explore innovative ways of preventing and disrupting criminal activity, extending their enforcement powers and working with many partner organisations including the Police and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
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 Government's progress on helping to prevent fly-tipping on commercial premises.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Government is committed to tackling fly-tipping on commercial premises. We have recently enhanced the local authorities’ and Environment Agency’s ability to search and seize vehicles of suspected fly-tippers and strengthened the Sentencing Council’s Guidelines. The maximum penalties for fly-tipping are imprisonment of up to five years or a potentially unlimited fine. Through the National Fly-tipping Prevention Group we have provided advice and guidance to landlords on measures they can take to prevent further fly-tipping on their land. We are also working closely with the British Property Federation, who are an active member of the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, to improve the reporting of fly-tipping on private land.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many unpaid internships there are in her Department.
Answered by George Eustice
There are no unpaid internships within the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people employed in human resources roles in her Department have (a) prior experience and (b) qualifications in human resources.
Answered by George Eustice
(a) Records of prior Human Resource experience for people employed in human resources roles in the Civil Service are not held centrally within Defra. The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
(b) There are a total of 35 Human Resource staff in Defra who hold a Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) Human resource qualification and a further seven staff are currently studying for a CIPD Human Resource qualification. Details of other qualifications in human resources are not centrally held and the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of staff in her Department were (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2015-16.
Answered by George Eustice
Core Defra publishes Workforce Management Information on a monthly basis. This sets out the number of staff who are a) on payroll and b) off payroll and the published data covers financial years 2010-11 to 2015-16. It can be found at the following link: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/workforce-management-information-defra.
No civil servants within Core Defra are paid through limited companies.
The figure for spend on non-payroll staff in 2015-16 will be published in the 2015-16 Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many civil servants in her Department are paid through limited companies.
Answered by George Eustice
Core Defra publishes Workforce Management Information on a monthly basis. This sets out the number of staff who are a) on payroll and b) off payroll and the published data covers financial years 2010-11 to 2015-16. It can be found at the following link: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/workforce-management-information-defra.
No civil servants within Core Defra are paid through limited companies.
The figure for spend on non-payroll staff in 2015-16 will be published in the 2015-16 Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much was spent on non-payroll staff in her Department in 2015-16.
Answered by George Eustice
Core Defra publishes Workforce Management Information on a monthly basis. This sets out the number of staff who are a) on payroll and b) off payroll and the published data covers financial years 2010-11 to 2015-16. It can be found at the following link: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/workforce-management-information-defra.
No civil servants within Core Defra are paid through limited companies.
The figure for spend on non-payroll staff in 2015-16 will be published in the 2015-16 Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of her Department's (a) Senior Civil Servants and (b) core policy civil servants are based in London.
Answered by George Eustice
As of February 2016, 89% of Defra Senior Civil Servants and 82% of core Defra policy civil servants are based in London.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department spent (a) in real terms and (b) as a share of departmental spending on (i) temporary agency staff, (ii) consultants, (iii) non-payroll staff, (iv) administration and (v) marketing and advertising in each year since 2010-11.
Answered by George Eustice
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Bristol East, Kerry McCarthy, on 16 November 2015, PQ UIN15387.
The Department’s expenditure is audited and published each year. Annual reports and accounts for each of the last five years are available here:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-report-and-accounts-2010-11
www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-report-and-accounts-2011-to-2012--6
www.gov.uk/government/publications/defra-annual-report-and-accounts-2012-to-2013
www.gov.uk/government/publications/defras-annual-report-and-accounts-2013-to-2014
www.gov.uk/government/publications/defras-annual-report-and-accounts-2014-to-2015