Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 potential impact of the revised bird gathering licensing regime on animal welfare, including the ethical rehoming of captive-bred birds and the maintenance of genetic diversity in breeding populations.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As there has been no revision of the bird gathering licence regime, no impact assessment has been required.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the evidential basis is for the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s amendments to licensing conditions for bird gatherings, particularly the prohibition on the sale and exchange of captive-bred birds at licensed events.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
Regulation 6 of the Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (England) Regulations 2006, as amended, sets out the legal basis for permitting gatherings (such as shows) of poultry or other captive birds. In England, a licence to hold a bird gathering may be granted by Defra if a veterinary risk assessment has been carried out, and if the gathering, including the movement of birds to and from it, would not significantly increase the risk of the transmission of avian influenza virus. Detailed risk assessments can be found on GOV.UK.
The most recently published qualitative 2025 risk assessment (November 2025) sets out the risk of transmission of avian influenza at gatherings. The exact conditions of issued licences, including activities which can take place at a gathering (such as sales), are determined based on the assessed risk of each gathering.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what consultation the Animal and Plant Health Agency undertook with avicultural event organisers, birdkeeping societies and representative bodies prior to the introduction of revised bird gathering licensing requirements.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials engaged proactively with stakeholders during summer 2025 including show organisers, auctioneers and breed societies, to better understand achievable conditions for gatherings. Engagement was via a number of stakeholder groups which occur regularly, and a series of individual discussions with key impacted parties. This process helped to shape a set of template conditions which could mitigate the disease risk associated with some gatherings.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 plans to review the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s bird gathering licensing framework to allow (a) unified and (b) compatible licensing for mixed-species exhibitions with a demonstrated record of compliance and biosecurity.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
The decision as to whether to allow gatherings by way of a general licence is kept under regular review and is informed by regular qualitative risk assessment containing the latest scientific and ornithological evidence and veterinary advice. Defra can also exercise discretion to permit gatherings by granting specific licences. For each application for a licence to hold a gathering of poultry, an individual risk assessment will be completed, and mitigating conditions will be set out in the licence.
In England the general licence for gatherings of Psittaciformes (e.g. parrots and budgerigars), birds of prey and racing pigeons permits a gathering including a mix of these birds. If the organiser of a gathering is granted a specific licence to hold a gathering including other orders of birds, that gathering can also include birds covered by general licence. It is therefore possible, subject to licence, to hold mixed-species exhibitions.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the evidential basis is for the introduction of separate licensing regimes for (a) psittaciformes and (b) poultry and passerines.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
The most recently published qualitative 2025 risk assessment (November 2025) sets out the overall risk of transmission of avian influenza associated with gatherings for each order of birds. The overall risk associated with psittaciformes is assessed as low, whereas the overall risk associated with poultry (galliformes) or passerines is assessed as medium.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any documented cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza have occurred in the UK within captive Psittaciformes kept under indoor, high-biosecurity conditions.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 2022 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed on 9 premises of which each had at least one captive Psittaciform bird. The department cannot comment on biosecurity of individual premises, as this is not public information; of these premises, three were domestic households, two were recorded as breeders, one was an educational establishment, and the others were open farms or sanctuaries.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of peatland assessed as degraded is (a) lowland farmland in the Fens,(b) other lowland cropland, (c) grassland, (d) modified heather dominated upland, (e) woodland and (f) land used for peatland extraction; and what proportion of carbon emissions is produced by each category.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The England Peat Map (EPM) does not classify peatlands by land-management definitions or directly test peat health. It provides a detailed national map of peat extent and depth, vegetation and land cover, upland drainage channels, and bare peat—features that are strong indicators of condition.
The Department’s statement that “around 80% of England’s peatlands are in dry and degraded states” reflects widely accepted UK-wide estimates and is consistent with analysis of the EPM. This figure (80%) is cited by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in its UK Peatland Strategy and Commission of Inquiry on Peatlands. It is also referenced by the Office for National Statistics. The figure was neither produced by Natural England nor derived from the EPM. However, analysis of the EPM does show that around 80% of England’s peatlands are associated with vegetation and land use cover associated with drier habitats, such as bare peat, arable land, and heather-dominated vegetation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 press release entitled England’s peatlands mapped for first time in major step towards their recovery, published on 12 May 2025, whether her Department's assessment of the proportion of peatland that is degraded was based on (a) land management definitions and (b) testing the health of peat.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The England Peat Map has not assessed peatland as degraded or not and so cannot determine the proportions of degraded peatland in each category mentioned.
Work is currently ongoing to incorporate England Peat Map outputs into the Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which will help assess the carbon emissions from England’s peatlands.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the weighted scores given to the academic studies reviewed by Natural England in its paper on the effects of managed burning (NEER155); and if whether she will publish them.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No such assessment has been made by Defra. This is because NEER155 went through rigorous peer review prior to publication, with all external peer reviewers being leading peatland experts at major universities and other expert institutions.
NEER155 is the most comprehensive evidence review available on the effects of managed burning on upland peatlands.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 her Department has made of the effectiveness of water companies in reducing storm overflow discharges.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government published a report on 11 December which highlights that while progress has been made to reduce spills from storm overflows, the amount of sewage entering our waterways is still unacceptable. This government is committed to transparency around the scale of this challenge and we’re taking decisive action to tackle it.
Over £10 billion will be spent in the next five years to upgrade 2,500 overflows in England, alongside more monitoring and inspections than ever before.
Our landmark Water (Special Measures) Act will introduce independent monitoring of every sewerage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows, in addition to storm overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within an hour of the initial spill. This will create an unprecedented level of transparency, enabling the public and regulators to see where, and how often, overflows are discharging, and hold water companies to account.
Our Water White Paper will set out long-term reforms to strengthen regulation, tackle pollution, and accelerate the delivery of vital infrastructure.