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 the Department has made of the effectiveness of policies to protect pollinator populations.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following the conclusion of our National Pollinator Strategy in 2024, Defra will deliver a refreshed Pollinator Action Plan, as part of the broader Environmental Improvement Plan. This will set out key actions for pollinators in England.
Defra partly funds the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (UK PoMS) providing systematic data on the abundance of key pollinators at a national scale. This data contributes to measuring trends in pollinator populations and targets conservation efforts.
The Health and Safety Executive has published updated guidance for emergency authorisations of pesticides. This is the next step in delivering on the commitment the government made in December 2024 to end the use of banned neonicotinoid pesticides in England.
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 the Department has made of potential food security risks arising from supply chain disruption.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient food supply chain that is well equipped to deal with situations that have the potential to cause disruption. Defra works closely with industry and across Government to identify and monitor food security risks.
In compliance with the Agriculture Act 2020, the United Kingdom Food Security Report (UKFSR) is presented to Parliament at least once every three years, most recently in 2024. This examines past, current, and future trends relevant to food security and presents a full and impartial analysis of UK food security. In the intervening years, the UK Food Security Digest (UKFSD) is published containing a selection of summary statistics on issues relevant to a range of aspects of food security, drawn from national and international sources. This year’s report was published on 11 December 2025.
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 steps her Department is taking to support the development of sustainable aquaculture.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to supporting sustainable, industry‑led growth of the aquaculture sector through a range of measures.
These include publishing new guidance on seaweed aquaculture regulation this year and offering clarity for businesses and regulators. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, working with Seafish and industry partners, is centralising aquaculture data for England and Wales to improve transparency and evidence‑based decision making. The Environment Agency continues to regulate wastewater discharges to safeguard waters used for commercial shellfish production.
While many aquaculture issues are devolved, the Government will champion sustainably produced aquaculture products from across the UK internationally. A thriving sector requires a strong trading framework, and the government is committed to building relationships with key trading partners.
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 steps her Department is taking to improve water quality monitoring in designated bathing areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) monitors designated bathing waters above the minimum frequency required in the Bathing Water Regulations during the bathing water season. Most sites are sampled weekly, following World Health Organisation recommendations and to reduce misclassification risk.
On 28 October 2025, the Department laid before Parliament a Statutory Instrument introducing reforms and technical amendments to the Bathing Water Regulations, which predominantly came into force 21 November 2025. The reforms include the discretion to determine a different bathing season for a site, enabling tailored seasons and monitoring periods that reflect when people use the bathing waters, strengthening public health messaging. The technical amendments align legislation with modern sampling practices, allowing the EA to improve efficiency and delivery for the public.
The EA also has an active Research and Development programme exploring innovative contamination detection at bathing waters and participate with other UK and international agencies on the development of analytical techniques.
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 steps her Department is taking to support farmers with input costs.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Whilst it may not reflect all agriculture subsectors, Defra’s Agriculture Price Index (API) data show rises in output costs over time outstripping rises in input costs. We continue to monitor all key agricultural commodities and work with the food industry. The UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade, and recent developments.
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 estimate the Department has made of the proportion of agricultural land participating in Environmental Land Management schemes.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
50% (4.3m ha) farmed land in England actively managed in schemes, another 14% (1.3m ha) covered by assessments and plans.
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 estimate the Department has made of the number of communities that remain without modern flood-defence infrastructure.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA)’s National Flood risk assessment data and national coastal erosion risk map provides the best evidence to inform our long-term risk assessment and the development of flood mitigation strategies to protect communities from flooding.
The EA maintains over 90,000 assets, which reduce the risk of flooding to 2.6 million properties in England.
The EA is delivering the Government’s flood and coastal risk management (FCRM) Investment Programme of flood and coastal defences, investing £2.65 billion over 2024/5 and 2025/6 with a target of 52,000 properties better protected.
A new 3-year £4.2 billion FCRM Investment Programme will start in April 2026, progressing projects already in construction and new projects that are either currently in development or still to be developed.
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 measures to reduce agricultural ammonia emissions.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The latest UK projections of air pollutants were published in the informative inventory report 2025 in March this year.
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 steps her Department is taking to improve resilience to flooding in high-risk communities.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is investing at least £10.5 billion until 2036 – the largest flood programme in history – a record investment that’s projected to better protect nearly 900,000 properties. We are already making a difference. We delivered 151 schemes in our first year in Government and £108 million was reprioritised into urgent flood and coastal defence maintenance to halt the decline of flood asset condition following years of under-investment.
Following consultation in October, the Government announced major changes to its flood and coastal erosion funding policy. The new funding policy will optimise funding between building new flood projects and maintaining existing defences and will ensure that deprived communities continue to receive vital investment.
Flood Re is a UK-wide flood re-insurance scheme with the purpose to provide reinsurance in such a way as to promote affordability and availability of insurance for UK households at high flood risk. It also aims to manage, over the period of operation of the scheme, the transition to risk-reflective pricing of flood insurance for household premises.
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 availability of permitted landfill capacity for industrial waste in the North East.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency publishes data of landfill capacity on an annual basis which can be accessed here: Remaining Landfill Capacity - data.gov.uk