Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of trends in the cost of pet insurance in the last (a) 12 and (b) 24 months.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Pet insurance providers are private businesses and are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are therefore not able to provide further information.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 adequacy of recent flooding response preparations.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Protecting communities from flooding is a key priority for this Government. Defra and the Environment Agency work together and with partners to continuously assess and improve flood response preparations.
In September 2024, the Government’s new Floods Resilience Taskforce assessed the preparedness and resilience to flooding in advance of the winter. The Taskforce met again on 5 February where members discussed the impacts and learning from flooding experienced since September.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of strengthening the provisions of the Hunting 2004.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans in a generation to improve animal welfare and that is exactly what we will do. The Government has already committed to a ban on trail hunting which will provide significant protections to wild animals including foxes and hares. Work to determine the best approach for doing so is ongoing and further announcements will be made in due course.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 trends in the level of pet insurance premiums in the last 12 months.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Pet insurance providers are private businesses and are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 potential environmental impact of bottom trawling on marine protected areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is essential to manage bottom trawling in our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) appropriately due to the significant damage it can have on protected seabed habitats. Fisheries regulators make detailed assessments of the impact of all fishing activities on the protected species and habitats in our MPAs and develop byelaws to restrict fishing when it has been assessed as damaging. These site-by-site assessments help to ensure fishing is not unduly restricted. Recent examples of these assessments can be found at Stage_2_MPA_Fisheries_Assessment.pdf and Dogger_Bank_SAC_Fisheries_Assessment.pdf.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of banning bottom trawling in marine protected areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is essential to manage bottom trawling in our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) appropriately due to the significant damage it can have on protected seabed habitats. Fisheries regulators make detailed assessments of the impact of all fishing activities on the protected species and habitats in our MPAs and develop byelaws to restrict fishing when it has been assessed as damaging. These site-by-site assessments help to ensure fishing is not unduly restricted. Recent examples of these assessments can be found at Stage_2_MPA_Fisheries_Assessment.pdf and Dogger_Bank_SAC_Fisheries_Assessment.pdf.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to improve the resilience of drainage systems.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of having a robust drainage and wastewater system both now and for future demand and expects water companies to plan their infrastructure appropriately to meet new growth.
As part of the Environment Act 2021, water companies in England are required to produce Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs). DWMPs set out how a water company intends to improve their drainage and wastewater systems over the next 25 years, accounting for factors including growing population and changing environmental circumstances. These plans will help sewerage companies to fully assess the capacity of the drainage and wastewater network and develop collaborative solutions to current problems and future issues.
Taking a strategic approach to drainage and wastewater management, will help to identify and mitigate issues related to insufficient network capacity or damaged infrastructure.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the (a) adequacy of flood warnings and (b) potential merits of steps to ensure they are as (i) timely and (ii) accurate as possible.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are 1.6 million users in England signed up to the free flood warning service by the Environment Agency (EA) which sends a message directly by voice message, text or email when a flood warning is issued. In November and December 2024, the EA issued over 1,500 Flood Warnings (977 Flood Alerts, 543 Flood Warnings and two Severe Flood Warnings), two million messages were sent directly to the public via email, phone and text. The EA is developing the next flood warning system, ready for launch by the end of 2025. This will deliver a new flood warning capability that is more resilient.
The EA issues Flood Warnings ahead of flooding so that the public can take action to protect their safety and their livelihoods. The EA undertakes reviews on Flood Warnings issued and makes appropriate improvements to the service, this includes improvements to the forecasts and processes to ensure Flood Warnings are as accurate and timely as possible. As a resilience measure the EA has developed an automated warning system to make sure that communities receive Flood Warnings at all times, even for example when there is significant flood risk across the country.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the number of additional homes in (a) Runcorn and Helsby constituency and (b) the North West at risk of flooding by 2050.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 17 December 2024 the Environment Agency published the ‘National assessment of flood and coastal erosion risk in England 2024’ report on GOV.UK which provides a picture of current and future flood and coastal erosion risk across England.
On 28 January 2025 they will publish the new NaFRA data on check your long term flood risk and on data.gov.uk which will cover all of England, including Runcorn and Helsby constituency. This will include the latest UK Climate Projections and the potential impact of climate change on flood risk in areas across England.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to prevent flooding in rural communities in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In just five months in Government, we have introduced a series of measures to better protect Runcorn & Helsby from flooding including: