Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her policies of the report by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds entitled 2021: Birdcrime: fighting raptor persecution, published 15 October 2022; and whether her Department has taken recent steps to help tackle raptor persecution.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The RSPB 2021 Birdcrime report, was published on 15th November so, as yet, we have not fully assessed the findings of the report.
The Government takes wildlife crime seriously. Raptor persecution is a national wildlife crime priority and there are strong penalties in place for offences committed against birds of prey and other wildlife. Most wildlife crimes carry up to an unlimited fine and/or a six-month custodial sentence.
Defra supports the work of Bird of Prey Crime Priority Delivery Group, which brings together police, government and stakeholders from conservation and country sports organisations to tackle raptor persecution. This year Defra has more than doubled its funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) from £165,000 per year to over £1.2 million over the next three years to target wildlife crime priorities, in particular crimes against birds of prey. In addition, we are providing funding to Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) to develop DNA forensic analysis for the police and other organisations investigating crimes against peregrine falcons.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to ensure that hedgerows are central to Environmental Land Management Schemes, including the provision of funding to plant and restore hedgerows that enhance local landscape character.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Hedgerows and field boundaries are the very essence of our British countryside. They provide vital resources for mammals, birds, and insect species. Many are also important historical and cultural landscape features. Our new environmental land management schemes will fund the management of hedgerows, in recognition of their historical, cultural and environmental value to our countryside. Capital grants to support the planting and reinstatement of hedgerows are currently available via the Countryside Stewardship scheme.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she will include capital support for planting new or reinstating hedgerows within the new Sustainable Farming Incentive.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following our exit from the Common Agricultural Policy, environmentally sustainable farming will be fundamental to our approach to England’s agricultural system. The development of our new environmental land management schemes will continue to recognise the role and fund the management of hedgerows. For example, a Hedgerow Standard has been included within the initial phase of piloting of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme. Capital grants to support the planting and reinstatement of hedgerows are currently available via the Countryside Stewardship scheme.
We are working with Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot participants to gather learning from the pilot version of the Standard and are incorporating this feedback into the development of the live version of the Hedgerow Standard and its supporting capital items, which are due to be rolled out into the scheme in 2023.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the findings of the review of the case for implementing Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
HM Government is currently undertaking a review of the case for implementing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. The review and decision on implementation will be reported in Autumn 2022.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to implement Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 to require the installation of sustainable drainage systems in new developments.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
HM Government is currently undertaking a review of the case for implementing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. The review and decision on implementation will be reported in Autumn 2022.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 implement a full ban on the use of lead ammunition in gamebird shooting.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In spring 2021, Defra asked the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA) to prepare a UK REACH restriction dossier for lead ammunition. The HSE and the EA are considering the evidence of risk posed by lead in ammunition on human health and the environment and, therefore, the case for introducing a UK REACH restriction on lead in ammunition. We expect HSE to launch a public consultation on their dossier in Spring 2022 and to publish their final opinions in Spring 2023. After which, the Secretary of State, with the consent of the Scottish and Welsh Ministers, will make a decision on the basis of this review.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 conduct a review at the conclusion of the burning season of the new licensing system for heather burning in the context of extending that system to cover all peatlands.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021 came into force on 1 May 2021, affording additional protections to approximately 142,000 hectares of England’s upland deep peat from further damage by managed burning.
At the end of the current burning season, we will assess how the new regime has worked in practice.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 accuracy of Surfers Against Sewage's recent finding that there has been an increase of 87.6 per cent in sewage discharge notifications over the last 12 months.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) does not have access to the Surfers Against Sewage notification dataset and therefore cannot comment on the accuracy of spill notifications made by Water and Sewerage Companies (WaSCs) to third party organisations. We expect that, as this data is provided in near real time to Surfers Against Sewage, there will have been limited opportunity for WaSCs to quality assure the raw data to confirm that all the alerts have resulted in spills.
The number of Event Duration Monitors has increased substantially over the last few years to cover over 80% of overflows, and will provide complete coverage by 2023. For that reason, the number of spill notifications has gone up. However, the Government has been clear that the number of spills is unacceptable and has made tackling this a priority. We are therefore the first Government to take concerted action to tackle this historic infrastructure issue, including through the Environment Act.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act specified in the Information Pack for the next Quinquennial Review of certain schedules, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the new method for listing animal species; and what assessment he has made of the impact on (a) pine martens, (b) stag beetles and (c) other wildlife in England remaining as animal species which receive statutory protection under that Act.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Quinquennial Review of Schedules 5 and 8 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (WCA) is an independent process undertaken by the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and NatureScot), working jointly through the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). The JNCC has now launched its stakeholder consultation on its recommendations for the addition or removal of species listed under Schedule 5 & 8 of the WCA. It will then make final recommendations early next year to Defra, the Scottish Government, and the Welsh Government. Changes to species protection have not yet been recommended, nor have any decisions been made.
This Government has committed to leave the environment in a better state than we inherited it, which is underpinned by our target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. Species protections are an important part of that work.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 ensure that rivers do not pose a risk to human health.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Improving water quality is a Government priority and we are taking significant action in this area for people and nature. The Environment Act sets a duty on the Government to publish a storm overflow discharge reduction plan by September 2022. This plan will address reducing the adverse impacts on public health of sewage discharges from storm overflows.
Where rivers are designated as Bathing Waters, the Environment Agency monitors water quality and classifies bathing waters in line with the health protective standards of the Bathing Water Regulations (2013) and publishes an annual classification of Poor, Sufficient, Good or Excellent. It must also exercise its pollution control powers to achieve at least Sufficient status. Currently there is one river with designated Bathing Water Status, the River Wharfe at Ilkley. This was monitored for the first time during the 2021 Bathing Water Season (15th May - 30th September). The classification result will be published in January 2022.
The Environment Agency publishes a profile for each designated Bathing Water on its Swimfo website (https://environment.data.gov.uk/bwq/profiles/), which provides water quality testing results, the annual classification and information on pollution sources affecting each Bathing Water.
The Environment Agency and the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) have published Swim Healthy guidance on Gov.UK
(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/swim-healthy-leaflet).