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.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the availability of specialist disability employment advisers within Jobcentres.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Every Jobcentre has access to a Disability Employment Adviser (DEA). We have over 700 FTE DEAs across our Jobcentre network.
We regularly monitor the number of staff allocated to this role.
DEAs are trained as Work Coaches, followed by additional role specific learning designed to support their role. This learning enables DEAs to treat each claimant as an individual, understand the impact of different disabilities and health conditions, and provide tailored support to help overcome barriers to employment. Our other Jobcentre staff will make referrals to our DEAs for this specialist support where appropriate.
We have a range of specialist support to help individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. DEAs work with the local community to advocate for customers, collaborate with local partners such as employers, voluntary organisations, the NHS and local government services to facilitate support that meets local needs and promote other programmes such as Disability Confident and Work Well.
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 the Department is taking to expand access to nature-based carbon sequestration schemes for landowners.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Nature-based solutions are essential for tackling the climate and biodiversity crises together. Ecosystems such as forests, saltmarshes and grasslands actively absorb carbon and enhance climate resilience, while England’s peatlands, our largest terrestrial carbon store, play a critical role in preventing emissions when kept in good condition. Protecting and restoring these systems is indispensable for the Government’s net zero pathway and for safeguarding habitats that support native species.
The Government is investing significantly in nature’s recovery, including £1 billion in tree planting and support for the forestry sector over this Parliament, alongside funding to improve and restore peatlands to protect and enhance natural carbon stores and sinks. This will make a significant contribution to the Environment Act targets, including improving the quality of water and spaces for wildlife so biodiversity can thrive.
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 her Department has made of the number of waste-processing facilities currently operating with expired permits.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Environmental Permitting Regulations require operators of industrial/waste facilities to get permits from regulators to control pollution to air, land, and water, ensuring compliance with set conditions, and protecting public health through legal frameworks. Waste management site permits do not expire; they have to be surrendered by the permit holder. Therefore, there are no sites operating with expired permits.
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 volume of plastic packaging placed on the UK market in the last year.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For 2024, there are two available estimates for the volume of plastic packing placed on the market for the UK. These estimates are based on different methodologies and data sources (PackFlow and Reported Packaging Data) and so produce slightly different figures.
PackFlow is a report commissioned by Defra to provide information on the total flows of packaging in the UK and has historically been used to estimate the total amount of material placed on the market.
The Reported Packaging Data provides new data on total packaging supplied and placed on the UK market and became available after the Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) came into force on 1 January 2025.
Table1: Estimates of the volume of plastic packaging placed on the market, UK
Data source | Packaging waste arising estimate for 2024 (thousand tonnes) |
PackFlow | 2,265 |
Reported Packaging Data | 2,149 (provisional) |
Note: The arisings data sourced from the Reported Packaging Data system is based on data for H1 and H2 for 2024 (as submitted in October 2024 and April 2025). Data as of 2 June 2025
The full methodology and figures relating to previous years, can be found in the UK Statistics on Waste publication.
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 the Department is taking to improve enforcement against illegal waste dumping.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will reform the waste carriers, brokers and dealers regime and the waste permit exemptions regime. This will make it harder for rogue operators to find work in the sector and easier for regulators to take action against criminals. In addition, our planned digital waste tracking reforms will make it harder than ever to mis-identify waste or dispose of it inappropriately.
The Environment Agency’s (EA) total budget for 2025 to 2026 has increased and includes £15.6m for waste crime enforcement. This is a more than 50% increase from 2024/25. Overall, the EA has been able to increase its frontline criminal enforcement resource in the Joint Unit for Waste Crime and area environmental crime teams by 43 full-time staff. This resource will target activities that are waste crime priorities and will make best use of enforcement activity data and criminal intelligence to do so. Activities include tackling organised crime groups, increasing enforcement activity around specific areas of concern such as landfill sites, closing down illegal waste sites more quickly, using intelligence more effectively, and delivering successful major criminal investigations.
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 accelerate tree planting to meet statutory environmental targets.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing £1 billion in tree planting and support to the forestry sector over this parliament. Tree planting in England is at the highest recorded rate in over 20 years, with over 7,100 hectares planted in 2024/25. As part of this investment the government is delivering on the manifesto commitment to create three new national forests and will fund tree planting across England, through Woodland Creation Partnerships and Forestry Commission grants, while also providing wider sector support. This support includes investing in apprenticeships and tree nurseries, ensuring we have the skills and jobs we need and a supply of healthy seeds and trees to create the forests of the future.
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 adequacy of the condition of Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As of December 2025, around 41% of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) features are in favourable condition across all of England, and the percentage in favourable or unfavourable recovering condition is around 62%.
The Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) published on 1 December sets out our ambition to bring 75% of SSSIs into favourable condition by 2042.
In the EIP, we have also set an interim target for 50% of SSSI features to have actions on track to achieve favourable condition by December 2030, which will support the achievement of the 2042 ambition.
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 total cost of river restoration projects undertaken in the last financial year.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Water Restoration Fund was launched in April 2024. It is reinvesting funding based on water company environmental fines and penalties into projects to improve the water environment.
Natural England supports and advises the Rural Payments Agency and the Environment Agency on administration of funds for river restoration, ensuring we get the greatest value for money in terms of nature recovery and wider societal benefits.
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 trends in the level of biodiversity loss over the last 12 months.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not have data on biodiversity loss covering the most recent 12‑month period. However, a range of official publications and monitoring frameworks provide the latest picture of biodiversity trends and the government’s most recent assessment of progress, such as Indicators of species abundance in England, England biodiversity indicators, and Wild bird and Butterfly statistics.