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
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
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
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
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).
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 emissions reductions his Department’s existing and proposed policies deliver in the 4th, 5th and 6th carbon budget periods.
Answered by Jo Churchill
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport on 18 October 2021, PQ UIN 57322.
Note: NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) is the midpoint of CB5.
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 the projected emissions are for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use over the period of the 4th, 5th and 6th carbon budget periods.
Answered by Jo Churchill
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Ludlow on 18 October 2021, PQ UIN 56291.
Note: NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) is the midpoint of CB5.
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 his Department has set an emissions reductions plan.
Answered by Jo Churchill
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Ludlow on 18 October 2021, PQ UIN 56296.
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 the projected emissions are from waste over the period of the 4th, 5th and 6th budget periods.
Answered by Jo Churchill
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport on 18 October 2021, PQ UIN 57324.
Note: NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) is the midpoint of CB5.
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 mandatory implementation of sustainable drainage systems for new developments to help achieve biodiversity net gain targets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In August 2021 the Government announced a review of the case for implementing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, which started this autumn. This review will look at the benefits and impacts of implementation as well as alternative methods for ensuring that sustainable drainage systems, or SuDS, are incorporated in future developments and maintained after construction.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2021 to Question 54035 on Environment Protection: Finance, what proportion of the 130 funded projects were nature-based defence projects; and what proportion of the total number of applications received by his Department were nature-based defence projects.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Between 2015 and 2021, government funding enabled the completion of over 700 projects to better protect 300,000 homes from flooding. Of these, 130 projects included nature-based solutions to reduce flood and coastal erosion risk.
The Environment Agency allocate money based on where there is the greatest need for a scheme to help manage flood risk to communities. A variety of solutions from hard defences to more natural measures are assessed once funding has been allocated. Information on the number of ‘applications’ for nature-based defence projects is therefore not available.