Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 an estimate of the number of cucumbers that were imported in February (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Provisional HMRC Overseas Trade Data shows the UK imported 16,600 tonnes of cucumbers in February 2022. Data for February 2023 is not yet available.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 an estimate of the number of tomatoes that were imported in February (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Provisional HMRC Overseas Trade Data shows the UK imported 32,300 tonnes of fresh tomatoes in February 2022. Data for February 2023 is not yet available.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times raw sewage has been released into the River Graveney in the last 12 months.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Every April the Environment Agency (EA) publishes a report showing the number and duration of spills over the previous year here:
https://environment.data.gov.uk/dataset/21e15f12-0df8-4bfc-b763-45226c16a8ac.
The EA will publish the data for 2022 in April 2023.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to answer Questions 72403 and 72402 tabled on 26 October.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Both questions UIN 72403 and UIN 72402 have now been answered.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times raw sewage has been released into the River Wandle in the past 12 months.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
This government has increased monitoring requirements on water companies to ensure greater transparency, requiring them to have event duration monitors on all Combined Sewer Overflows to enable spill counting. An annual report, which includes the number and duration of spills that occurred on the River Wandle in 2021, is available here: Defra Data Services Platform
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 potential impact of raw sewage discharges on the River Graveney's eco-system.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
This is the first government to take such significant steps to tackle sewage overflows, including those on the river Graveney. We have been clear to water companies that they must tackle sewage overflows urgently, and the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan will deliver the largest infrastructure investment in water company history to clean up our rivers. Under the Environment Act we have improved monitoring and the transparency of data related to sewage overflows. Event Duration Monitors will be fully rolled out by 2023. This will help monitor local sewage impacts and hold water companies to account to deliver rapid improvements.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 potential impact of raw sewage discharges on the River Wandle's eco-system.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Environment Agency (EA) carries out regular ecological monitoring into the health of river ecosystems focussing on parameters including, aquatic invertebrates and plant communities, fish populations, and habitats. Examination of routine physico-chemical monitoring data for points on the River Wandle from 2010 to present day shows no significant decline in water quality, using the measures most often associated with sewage pollution (ammonia and dissolved oxygen). Data is collected monthly. The River Wandle is assessed as being at moderate ecological status under the Water Framework Directive.
Data obtained from invertebrate monitoring programmes provides the most relevant evidence of any ecological impacts from sewage inputs. The EA currently monitors two sites on the river Wandle. Data from these sites since 2000 has shown no evidence of any deterioration in ecological health.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 implications for her policies of the World Health Organisation's air pollution limits on particulate matter; and what plans her Department has to adopt those targets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In July 2019, the Government published a report assessing the progress that will be made towards World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines under a range of scenarios. The report concluded that while significant progress would be made, additional action would be required in large urban areas such as London. The analysis did not outline a pathway to achieve the WHO guideline level for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) across the country, and did not take into account full economic viability and practical deliverability.
The Environment Bill, which will be introduced shortly, will establish a legally binding duty to set a target for PM2.5, demonstrating our commitment to action on the air pollutant that has the most significant impact on human health. We are committed to setting challenging targets and following an evidence based process, seeking advice from a range of experts, in addition to giving consideration to the WHO’s air quality guidelines. We need to ensure that the target is based on realistic pathways, robust science and full economic analysis to ensure that it is both ambitious and achievable, and focus on how the greatest public health benefits can be achieved.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government has taken to ensure the adequacy of water supplies during heatwaves.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers under the Water Industry Act 1991, whatever the weather. To fulfil this duty there is a statutory requirement to maintain water resources management plans, which balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future.
The Government, the Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat issued guidance to water companies in 2016 on how they should be planning to supply water to a growing population, while protecting and enhancing our environment, including taking appropriate action to respond to climate projections. Water companies are currently revising their plans.
The Government is working closely with other water regulators and the water industry to improve the resilience of water supplies. The Government recognises continued action is required and it is committed to a ‘twin track approach’, of reducing demand for water and increasing supply in parallel.
The Government is taking steps to improve water resources planning to ensure that there is better collaboration between water companies and other water using sectors on their water supply resilience. This includes the EA developing a National Framework for water resources, which use evidence to illustrate the regional and national challenge of water availability. The Government has also consulted on legislative improvements to ensure that water companies’ plans are informed by effective collaboration.
Water companies have statutory drought plans in place to mitigate the impacts of prolonged dry weather and drought. Water companies are prepared for spikes in demand during high temperatures and manage their water resources to prevent impacts on customer supplies.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government has taken to protect future water supplies against potential disruption caused by climate change.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers under the Water Industry Act 1991, whatever the weather. To fulfil this duty there is a statutory requirement to maintain water resources management plans, which balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future.
The Government, the Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat issued guidance to water companies in 2016 on how they should be planning to supply water to a growing population, while protecting and enhancing our environment, including taking appropriate action to respond to climate projections. Water companies are currently revising their plans.
The Government is working closely with other water regulators and the water industry to improve the resilience of water supplies. The Government recognises continued action is required and it is committed to a ‘twin track approach’, of reducing demand for water and increasing supply in parallel.
The Government is taking steps to improve water resources planning to ensure that there is better collaboration between water companies and other water using sectors on their water supply resilience. This includes the EA developing a National Framework for water resources, which use evidence to illustrate the regional and national challenge of water availability. The Government has also consulted on legislative improvements to ensure that water companies’ plans are informed by effective collaboration.
Water companies have statutory drought plans in place to mitigate the impacts of prolonged dry weather and drought. Water companies are prepared for spikes in demand during high temperatures and manage their water resources to prevent impacts on customer supplies.