Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding she will make available for flood defences in each of the next five years for (a) Witham constituency and (b) Essex.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is investing at least £10.5 billion until 2036 to construct new flood schemes and repair existing defences, protecting communities from the devastating impacts of climate change. Through the largest flood programme in history, this record investment will benefit nearly 900,000 properties.
The list of schemes receiving funding for 2026/27 was published in March and can be found here.
Projects to receive future government funding will be agreed in the usual way, on an annual basis, through the Environment Agency’s annual refresh process, which includes local representation from Regional Flood and Coastal Committees.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
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 19 June 2026 to UIN 8527, when she plans to assess the financial impact of FSA charges on abattoirs.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not plan to assess the potential financial impact of FSA charges. The FSA is responsible for setting and reviewing its charging framework, which includes considering any impacts on abattoirs.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support she is providing to abattoirs; what assessment she has made of the potential impact on abattoirs of the charges from the Food Standards Agency; and what discussions she has had with (a) representatives from abattoirs; (b) the Department for Health and Social Care; and (c) the Food Standards Agency on the potential implication for her policies of the judgement in [2026] EWHC 1327 (Admin).
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Food safety is non-negotiable. Vets and Meat Hygiene Inspectors carry out essential work every day that protects public health, upholds animal welfare, and underpins the £11.3 billion meat industry. The ruling does not challenge the principle of inspection charging. We know businesses will want clarity on what this will ultimately mean in practice, the FSA will provide further information as quickly as the legal process allows.
Defra engages regularly with other government departments and stakeholders across the farming, food and abattoir sector on matters within the Department’s remit.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Mauritian government on the future of the Marine Protected Area surrounding the Chagos Archipelago.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State for the Environment Steve Reed met the Prime Minister of the Republic of Mauritius, Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, in the margins of the third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France. They discussed the importance of the continued management and protection of the Chagos Archipelago Marine Protected Area - an area of significant importance due to its rich biodiversity and as a refuge for endangered species.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
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 impact of the Windsor Framework on the trade in seeds between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Windsor Framework permits the movement of all seeds from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Previous movements of seeds would require a Phytosanitary Certificate which can be costly and burdensome. Since 1 October 2023, professional operators have been able to move seeds from Great Britain to Northern Ireland under the Northern Ireland Plant Health Label scheme, allowing seeds to move freely around the United Kingdom. Defra continues to engage widely and regularly with relevant stakeholders to understand the impact of the Windsor Framework on the plant and seed trade.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his Department's policy is on providing support to householders who believe that actions taken by the Environment Agency have caused flooding to their properties.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) take flood risk incredibly seriously and have a long-term plan to upgrade and invest in flood defences across England to benefit local communities. When building flood defences there is a legal requirement that they cannot increase the flood risk of communities either upstream or downstream.
Creating climate resilient places lies at the heart of the EA’s National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England (FCERM Strategy) and Roadmap to 2026. The EA’s role in flood and coastal erosion risk management is outlined here. The EA is also a Category 1 responder set out by The Civil Contingency Act (2004).
The EA are in the third year of the current 6-year £5.2billion Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) investment programme. The funding can be spent on projects that better protect properties in England as well as the development of future projects.
At the end of March 2023, the EA estimated that approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested with over 200 flood risk schemes completed.
Around 60,000 properties have benefited from better protection since the start of the current 6-year programme (between April 2021 to March 2023). This takes the total number of properties protected to 374,000 since 2015.
During Storms Babet and Ciarán around 2,400 properties sadly flooded but defences protected a further 110,000.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what financial support his Department provides to National Plant Collection holders who have suffered (a) flood and (b) storm damage.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government acknowledges the terrible impact Storm Babet and Storm Ciarán have had on householders and businesses and sympathises with those affected. There is no specific funding for National Plant Collection holders however, the Government has triggered the Flood Recovery Framework, to provide funding for affected households and businesses as a result of severe flooding caused by the storms.
In addition, the Government will be activating the Defra Property Flood Resilience Repair Grant Scheme for areas affected by Storm Babet. Eligible flood-hit property owners will be able to apply for up to £5,000 to help make their homes and businesses more resilient to future flooding.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Leader of the House on parliamentary time for legislation prohibiting the sale of peat in the horticultural retail trade.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
It remains our policy that we intend to legislate to restrict, and ultimately ban, the sale of peat and peat containing products when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact of the Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (England) Regulations 2023 on businesses that already operate closed loop recycling collections.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Packaging Waste (Data Reporting) (England) Regulations 2023 require producers of packaging to collect, retain and report data on the packaging they supply to others or discard themselves. These regulations place no greater reporting burden on producers that already operate closed loop recycling collections than they do on comparable producers that do not operate closed loop recycling collections. The costs of producer data reporting are assessed in an Impact Assessment published in 2022 alongside the Governments response to the 2021 Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) consultation.
We are aware of the concerns of producers that operate closed loop recycling systems and have sought further views on this through a consultation on the proposed EPR Regulations which closed on the 9th of October. We are now reviewing the responses to the consultation, and we intend to publish a high-level summary of responses in spring next year.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
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 agricultural export businesses in Essex.
Answered by Mark Spencer
In May, the Prime Minister announced a programme of support for UK agricultural exporters including: