Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will include pet treatments as a significant source of pesticides as part of the UK Pesticides National Action Plan 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Pesticides National Action Plan 2025 relates to plant protection products, and therefore does not cover pet treatments.
Veterinary medicines are regulated under a separate legislative framework to pesticides: the Veterinary Medicines Regulations (VMR) 2013, as amended. These regulations ensure that all veterinary medicines undergo rigorous scientific assessment, including environmental risk assessments, before being authorised for use. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate has formed the Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PiE) Group as a UK cross-government platform to enable discussion and knowledge exchange relating to pharmaceuticals in the environment from human, veterinary and, where there is cross over, agricultural and non-agricultural sources. They have recently set out a roadmap of activities to address the levels of fipronil and imidacloprid detected in UK waterways.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 including pet treatments as a significant source of pesticides as part of the UK Pesticides National Action Plan 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK pesticides National Action Plan 2025 (NAP) was published in March 2025. The NAP relates to plant protection products and therefore does not cover pet treatments.
The NAP introduces a UK domestic target to reduce the potential harm from pesticides to the environment by 10% by 2030. This target is specifically focused on the arable agricultural sector, which accounts for approximately 90% of pesticide use in agriculture and horticulture.
Veterinary medicines are regulated under a separate legislative framework to pesticides: the Veterinary Medicines Regulations (VMR) 2013, as amended. These regulations ensure that all veterinary medicines undergo rigorous scientific assessment, including environmental risk assessments, before being authorised for use. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate has formed the Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PiE) Group as a UK cross-government platform to enable discussion and knowledge exchange relating to pharmaceuticals in the environment from human, veterinary and, where there is cross over, agricultural and non-agricultural sources. They have recently set out a roadmap of activities to address the levels of fipronil and imidacloprid detected in UK waterways.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what interim regulatory measures will be introduced before a successor regulator to Ofwat is established.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government has put in place the building blocks to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. We have increased accountability by giving the regulators more teeth through the Water (Special Measures) Act with a ban on unfair bonuses, severe and automatic penalties for breaking the law, and jail sentences for serious offences.
The Independent Water Commission has examined how to strengthen the regulation and delivery of water services to better support long-term water security, sustainable growth, and environmental protection. The Commission’s final report was published on 21 July 2025. The Secretary of State provided an Oral Statement to Parliament in response to the final report.
The Government is immediately taking forward a number of Sir Jon’s recommendations.
Subject to consultation this autumn, the Government will abolish Ofwat and merge its functions with water functions across the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Drinking Water Inspectorate to form a single new regulator.
Until the single water regulator is fully established, the existing regulators will continue to carry out their functions and enforcement responsibilities in full. The Government will clarify its expectations through a transition plan, expected to be published later this year.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to tackle human health risks associated with spot on pet treatments containing (a) fipronil and (b) imidacloprid.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Veterinary Medicinal Products (VMPs) undergo a thorough assessment by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) before they are authorised for marketing in the UK. This includes a product-specific user risk assessment that considers all those that may come into contact with the medicine, including adults and children. This assessment considers the identified hazards of the medicine, the likely exposure to adults and children when VMPs are used as recommended and concludes on the likely risks to humans. The identified risks are mitigated using appropriate packaging and user safety warnings on the product information supplied with the medicines. Once authorised for marketing, pharmacovigilance reporting provides further data from use of these medicines in real-world situations, and these data are used to consider any changes required to reduce identified risks, such as updating the user safety warnings. All VMPs are authorised based on a Benefit:Risk assessment, which accounts for the therapeutic benefits to the treated animals, the potential for reduction of zoonotic diseases in humans, and the possible risks identified to humans and animals. The benefits must outweigh the risks before a product can be authorised and may be removed from the market if shown that this is not the case after authorisation.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 apply sufficient (a) regulatory and (b) financial pressures on water and sewerage companies to ensure the provision of drainage connections to rural communities.
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. As part of the Environment Act 2021, a new duty has been created for sewerage undertakers in England and Wales to produce Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs).
DWMPs set out how sewerage undertakers intend to improve their drainage and wastewater systems over the next 25 years, to account for growth, development and climate change.
These plans will help sewerage undertakers to fully assess the capacity of the drainage and wastewater network and develop collaborative solutions to current problems and future issues. The plans will bring together various stakeholders including local authorities and industry regulators.
Under Part IV of the Water Industry Act 1991, sewerage undertakers are required to provide, improve and extend a network of public sewers as to ensure that their areas are, and continue to be, effectually drained. Section 106 of the 1991 Act gives provisions for new connections to be made to the public sewerage network, including for the discharge of both foul and surface water.
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: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 consider the human health risks to (a) children and (b) adults of spot on pet treatments containing (i) fipronil and (ii) imidacloprid; and if he will take steps to address this.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Veterinary Medicinal Products (VMPs) undergo a thorough assessment by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) before they are authorised for marketing in the UK. This includes a product-specific user risk assessment that considers all those that may come into contact with the medicine, including adults and children. This assessment considers the identified hazards of the medicine, the likely exposure to adults and children when VMPs are used as recommended, and concludes on the likely risks to humans. The identified risks are mitigated using appropriate packaging and user safety warnings on the product information supplied with the medicines. Once authorised for marketing, pharmacovigilance reporting provides further data from use of these medicines in real-world situations, and these data are used to consider any changes required to reduce identified risks, such as updating the user safety warnings. All VMPs are authorised based on a Benefit: Risk assessment, which accounts for the therapeutic benefits to the treated animals, the potential for reduction of zoonotic diseases in humans, and the possible risks identified to humans and animals. The benefits must outweigh the risks before a product can be authorised and may be removed from the market if shown that this is not the case after authorisation.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 plans to introduce regulatory limits on the volume of water extracted out at sea, following the 2025 UN Ocean Conference.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to protecting the natural environment and will consider any relevant issues and options as they arise.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken to process rural payments.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) understands the importance of cashflow for farmers and rural businesses. It makes payments for schemes and grants against published performance indicators and continues to look at opportunities to issue payments as promptly as possible.
Performance in relation to the financial year (1 April to 31 March) is reported each year within the RPA Annual Report and Accounts and will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 plans to introduce a ban on the import of foie gras.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Government shares the British public's high regard for animal welfare and has made clear that the production of foie gras from ducks or geese using force feeding raises serious welfare concerns.
We have been clear that we will use our Trade Strategy to promote the highest food production standards.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with water companies on expanding the usage of community testing.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) engages with citizen science groups on a site-by-site basis regarding bathing waters along with water companies who do the same.
The EA uses citizen science data to provide supplementary insights. Citizen science initiatives focused on sewage and wider catchment pressures include Riverfly, The Big River Watch, Great UK WaterBlitz, and SmartRivers.