Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 effectiveness of hedgerow protections.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There has been no formal assessment made of the effectiveness of hedgerow protections. The majority of hedgerows on agricultural land were previously managed in accordance with rules contained in cross compliance that were conditioned to payments made through the Basic Payment Scheme and some agri-environment schemes. As we moved away from the Basic Payment Scheme at the end of last year, cross compliance and the hedgerow management rules also ended. The Government consulted last year on the best approach following the end of cross compliance and on the 16 April laid new regulations that, if approved, will put management practices for hedgerows on agricultural land into law.
Certain hedgerows are also protected from removal under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997 if they meet specific criteria. These regulations are enforced by Local Planning Authorities, who can utilise their understanding of the local context and landscape character.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what is the minimum acceptable distance between a leachate treatment plant and housing developments.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
National planning policy is clear that local plans and decisions should prevent new and existing development from contributing to, being put at unacceptable risk from, or being adversely affected by, unacceptable levels of soil, air, water or noise pollution.
Owners of industrial, trade and business premises are expected to use the best practicable means available to reduce odours, effluvia and other potential sources of statutory nuisance emanating from their place of work in the first place. If this is not happening, then local authorities have powers through the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to investigate and issue abatement notices to stop the problem from re-occurring if they determine a statutory nuisance exists.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of the minimum acceptable distance between housing and open windrow composting sites.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency’s standard rules permit for composting does not allow operations within 250m of housing. Operations may be allowed closer to sensitive receptors, provided that a site-specific assessment has been made, that aerosol release is controlled, and that monitoring is in place to confirm the efficacy of such controls. Such an operation would require a bespoke permit. Decisions about location of new housing are made under the separate local authority-led planning system.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 his Department has made on the potential effect of (a) operating and (b) defunct landfill sites on health outcomes for residents who live within a one kilometre radius of those sites.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Whilst we have made no overall assessment of the potential effect of either operating or defunct landfill sites on health outcomes for residents who live within a one kilometre radius of those sites, the Environmental Permitting regime regulates the network of permitted and exempt waste sites that safely treat or dispose of waste.
The regulations protect against pollution which could cause damage to the environment or human health. The regulations include requirements for how sites operate and powers for the Environment Agency to intervene to address poor performance or tackle illegal activity. It is an offence to treat or dispose of waste outside of an appropriate permit or exemption. A defunct landfill may well not be subject to the permitting regime, which means it can be assessed by a Local Authority to establish whether it should be classified as contaminated land. Where serious contamination exists, the Local Authority can refer responsibility for the site to the Environment Agency.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 has had recent discussions with the Treasury on funding to reduce pollution in the river Wear.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government funds a wide range of schemes designed to tackle the pressures on the water environment. For example, we have nearly doubled the annual budget for Catchment Sensitive Farming to £30 million to provide free one to one advice to farmers to help them reduce pollution. We have also recently launched a new ‘Woodlands for Water’ project designed to facilitate the creation of riparian wildlife woodland corridors which can provide a variety of benefits for aquatic habitats.
Pollution from abandoned mines is the key problem on the River Wear which benefits from the government funded Water and Abandoned Metal Mines programme, with an expected £19 million capital budget over the next three years. Government investment has improved 100 km of rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines since 2011, and we have proposed a new statutory target to further drive this work under the Environment Act, which we are consulting on now.
The Environment Agency is working with partner organisations on various projects funded by Defra’s Water Environment Improvement Fund. This includes the Return to Eden project to educate local businesses about the effects of industrial drainage and transport of pollutants, and the Wear Estuary project aimed to improve 3 km of habitat conditions along the estuary edge, which will provide subsequent benefits to overall water quality.
In addition to government funding, between 2020 and 2025, water companies will invest £7.1 billion in environmental improvements in England.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 has had recent discussions with Durham County Council on funding to reduce pollution in the river Wear.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government funds a wide range of schemes designed to tackle the pressures on the water environment. For example, we have nearly doubled the annual budget for Catchment Sensitive Farming to £30 million to provide free one to one advice to farmers to help them reduce pollution. We have also recently launched a new ‘Woodlands for Water’ project designed to facilitate the creation of riparian wildlife woodland corridors which can provide a variety of benefits for aquatic habitats.
Pollution from abandoned mines is the key problem on the River Wear which benefits from the government funded Water and Abandoned Metal Mines programme, with an expected £19 million capital budget over the next three years. Government investment has improved 100 km of rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines since 2011, and we have proposed a new statutory target to further drive this work under the Environment Act, which we are consulting on now.
The Environment Agency is working with partner organisations on various projects funded by Defra’s Water Environment Improvement Fund. This includes the Return to Eden project to educate local businesses about the effects of industrial drainage and transport of pollutants, and the Wear Estuary project aimed to improve 3 km of habitat conditions along the estuary edge, which will provide subsequent benefits to overall water quality.
In addition to government funding, between 2020 and 2025, water companies will invest £7.1 billion in environmental improvements in England.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 enshrine Sustainable Development Goals pertaining to food waste into law.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The UK is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 target, which seeks to halve global food waste at consumer and retail levels by 2030. There is a programme in place to achieve this domestically including support for the Courtauld Commitment 2030 voluntary agreement with industry and consumer campaigns. Robust estimates of national food waste volumes are made periodically and used to monitor and report progress against the SDG 12.3 target. The Government has no plans to make this target legally binding.
Since 2007, action to reduce food waste in the UK has contributed to a reduction in post-farm gate total food waste between 2007 and 2018 of around 15% (1.7Mt). Excluding inedible parts, the reduction was 21%.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 effect of individuals self-isolating on the ability of small family-run farms to continue to operate during that isolation.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We understand the challenges that farmers are facing as a result of the coronavirus crisis and appreciate that many farms are very small and often family-run so there is limited capacity to cover sickness. We have been working with the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and others to work out ways how to address this.
The Government's priority has always been to reduce the number of COVID-19 infections by keeping workers safe and protected, and we have been clear that anyone showing symptoms of coronavirus infection, however mild, must self-isolate by staying at home for seven days from when the symptoms started, following public health guidance.
The Government took a number of early steps to help our farmers and to ensure they have the support they need during these challenging times. These included designating employees in the food sector as key workers and temporarily relaxing the normal rules on drivers' hours, enabling the sector to keep supply chains running, including deliveries from farm gate to processors. We have worked closely with banks to ensure farmers have access to financial support, including the Government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and the Bounce Back Loan scheme.
We remain in regular contact with our food and farming sector, and are working closely with the main farming charities, meeting them regularly, to ensure we are doing all we can to support them. A Government-backed package of £370 million has been made available to help small charities and we are encouraging farming charities to apply for funding through this route.
Further information on what support is currently available can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19