Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
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 publish an impact assessment of the structure of payments within the Environmental Land Management schemes.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government will always back British farmers which is why in January we increased the payment rates across our Environmental Land Management schemes by 10% on average and will open an expanded offer this July. We have made almost 13,000 Sustainable Farming Incentive agreement offers to farmers. As part of this offer, we are constantly assessing the impact of outside events while making sure all farm types can access funding and support that works for them.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many sewage releases there were in Luton South constituency in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Over the past eight years the Environment Agency and Defra have worked with water companies to introduce Event Duration Monitors (EDMs), which provide them with much more information about where and when storm overflows are occurring. Water companies submit annual returns of their EDM data, which are publicly available here. The annual returns for 2023 are not yet available. The 2022 return shows that there were 32 storm overflows reported by Thames Water within the Luton South constituency. Only 5 of these storm overflows had EDM installed in 2022. EDM recorded 12 spills from these 5 overflows in 2022, lasting a total of 8.62 hours. Of the remaining 27 overflows without EDM, 2 were reported as being no longer operational, and their discharge permits have now been revoked. The other 25 overflows were all due to have EDM installed by December 2023. At the end of 2023, the Government target of having all storm overflows in England monitored was met, so EDM data on these sites should soon be available as well.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether sewage was released into the chalk aquifer in Caddington in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Caddington sewage treatment works has a discharge permit to discharge treated sewage effluent to ground. The permit states that the discharge must consist solely of treated sewage effluent and that the point of discharge is to ground via a soakaway. The borehole soakaways infiltrate into the unsaturated zone of the underlying Middle Chalk. The permit includes limiting values for the chemical composition of the effluent being discharged, to minimise the potential for pollution to arise from the discharge. This is what is known as an “indirect discharge” insomuch that it discharges to the unsaturated zone. Direct discharges to the saturated zone of the Chalk are forbidden.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
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 publish the 25-Year Environment Plan Board’s meeting minutes from 1 January 2020 to 22 June 2022.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Defra-led cross-Government 25 Year Environment Plan Board was established in December 2020. The Board is responsible for overseeing, co-ordinating and driving forward action to implement the 25 Year Environment Plan and associated requirements under the Environment Act 2021. It aims to join up, secure and accelerate action across government to deliver the Government's commitment of leaving the environment in a better state than we found it. It focuses on delivering the ten goals set out in the Plan, as well as implementation of the Government's 30x30 commitment and the Greening Government Commitments.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
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 publish the terms of reference for the 25 Year Environment Plan Board.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Defra-led cross-Government 25 Year Environment Plan Board was established in December 2020. The Board is responsible for overseeing, co-ordinating and driving forward action to implement the 25 Year Environment Plan and associated requirements under the Environment Act 2021. It aims to join up, secure and accelerate action across government to deliver the Government's commitment of leaving the environment in a better state than we found it. It focuses on delivering the ten goals set out in the Plan, as well as implementation of the Government's 30x30 commitment and the Greening Government Commitments.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
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 impact of increased homeworking during the covid-19 outbreak on his Department’s carbon footprint.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department monitors and reports on its greenhouse gas emissions - information on this is published in the Greening Government Commitments Annual Report.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
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 measure its carbon footprint.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Greenhouse gas emissions are published annually in the Greening Government Commitments Annual Reports.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
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 published a plan setting out the steps it plans to take to transition to net zero emissions.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is committed to reducing emissions and energy consumption wherever possible, as part of the UK’s transition to net zero. The Department’s current targets to make progress on reducing emissions have been published, as part of the Greening Government Commitments.
The Government published the Net Zero Strategy in October 2021, which sets out policies and proposals for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet our net zero target by 2050.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
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 implemented a training programme to provide civil servants with skills to support its transition to net zero.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A seven-hour blended Carbon and Climate Change training package was made available to Environment Agency (EA) staff in 2021. The EA is the largest of Defra's arm's length bodies and represents over a third of Defra group staff. Following evaluation of this training, Defra plans to implement the same training package for all Defra group staff this year.
In addition, the new Government Curriculum will include modules on the implications of Net Zero, climate change and wider environmental issues for government. In the first phase, the Government Skills & Curriculum Unit (GSCU) is working with other Departments (including BEIS, Defra and FCDO) to create an awareness level training resource for all civil servants. This will be piloted from April 2022. In the next phases, GSCU will look at tailored provision for specific Functions and Professions, and will signpost the training and other resources on Net Zero which are already being provided internally at practitioner and expert levels by Government Departments.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether a senior manager in his Department has been given the portfolio for leading on departmental sustainability.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to making its estate and operations more sustainable and resilient, through the Greening Government Commitments. We report on these commitments every quarter. In Defra, this is led by an appointed minister with support from senior officials.