Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much the Environmental Agency has spent on flood defence measures in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Expenditure on flood and coastal erosion risk management by the Environment Agency 2010/11 – 2018/19 can be found in table 2 (page 5) of the document available at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/funding-for-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-in-england.
Environment Agency spend taken from the above reference document is as follows:
Financial Year | EA Resource (£m) | EA Capital (£m) | Total (£m) |
2010/11 | 291.6 | 360.0 | 651.6 |
2011/12 | 287.8 | 260.7 | 548.5 |
2012/13 | 268.0 | 269.1 | 537.1 |
2012/14 | 250.6 | 315.3 | 565.9 |
2014/15 | 282.6 | 466.7 | 749.3 |
2015/16 | 274.5 | 390.7 | 638.2 |
2016/17 | 314.6 | 446.9 | 761.5 |
2017/18 | 339.2 | 403.1 | 742.3 |
2018/19 | 304.8 | 453.0 | 757.8 |
Figures for 2019/20 spend are still in the process of being audited and will be available in an updated document on the GOV.UK website soon.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimates the Environment Agency has made on funding needed for future flood risk mitigation.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency’s Long Term Investment Scenarios for England estimate that an average spend of over £1 billion per year is needed on flood and coastal protection over the next 50 years. Investment at this level will avoid existing flood and coastal erosion risk increasing and illustrates the challenge of managing these risks in the face of climate change.
The estimated investment need refers to all sources of funding and not just central Government investment.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
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 undertake a formal public consultation on economic link reform in relation to fisheries management and landing a higher proportion of fish in the UK.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government will consult on proposals for reform of the economic link imminently. As fisheries management is a devolved matter the consultation will cover England only.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, under what statutory authority Ministers may dispense with the Fish Quota Allocation to the commercial fishing sector on behalf of the Crown.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The fish quota is distributed by the Secretary of State under common law powers. This is set out in the publicly available UK Quota Management Rules and in the Quota Management Rules for of the Fisheries Administrations.
We are also seeking related powers in the Fisheries Bill which would supplement these common law powers in future. Clause 2(2) provides for the Joint Fisheries Statement to include policies relating to the distribution of quota. Clause 25 sets out criteria for the distribution of quota.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference his Department's 25 year environment plan progress report of 11 June 2020, what recent assessment he has made on progress towards meeting the Government's long-term target of at least three-quarters of water bodies, including rivers, lakes, canals, coastal waters, and groundwater, to be restored to as close as possible to their natural state.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency's latest water body classification results 2019 showed that 16% of waters overall and 14 % of rivers are at Good Ecological Status. This is the same result as the data for 2016 which means progress in improving the ecological status of England's surface water has plateaued. More needs to be done and we need to go further and faster. The Government remains committed to bringing at least three quarters of our water to as close as possible to its natural state as soon as is practicable and in support of this, we will be bringing forward a further legally binding target in the Environment Bill. We are tackling pollution from poor farming practice with regulation, financial incentives and educational schemes for farmers. Water company investment is being scaled up to £4.6 billion, the highest yet, in the next five-year period. A new task force comprising the Government and water companies will help address the problem of sewage discharge from storm overflows and our new chemicals strategy will build on a robust statutory regime to ensure chemicals are managed and handled safely.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
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 22 September to Question 91696, which hon. Members from the South Yorkshire Area the Minister has been in contact which and when on the issue of a roundtable.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the impact that flooding has had on individuals, local communities and businesses and sympathises with all those affected.
The hon. Member for Sheffield South East and the hon. Member for Barnsley Central have written to my office, and I replied, discussing the issue of holding a roundtable.
In addition, I have engaged in the House with the hon. Members for Barnsley Central and Barnsley East on the issue of a roundtable through Parliamentary Questions on this and in a Westminster Hall debate.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of water bodies are in good ecological health in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland, and (d) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency's latest classification results for England show that 16% of surface water bodies meet the criteria for good ecological status or good ecological potential. We are committed to improving our water with a legally binding target in the Environment Bill and we are making a concerted effort on many fronts. This includes working with water companies who are investing £4.6 billion in improvements, educating and incentivising farmers to reduce harmful run-off and developing a new chemicals strategy.
Water quality in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many water samples have been taken in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The numbers of water samples taken each year since 2010 are:
Year | Number of Samples Taken |
2010 | 131,602 |
2011 | 137,250 |
2012 | 155,394 |
2013 | 159,737 |
2014 | 135,452 |
2015 | 122,103 |
2016 | 112,022 |
2017 | 95,247 |
2018 | 87,605 |
2019 | 100,037 |
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
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 information on the (a) known and (b) potential areas within the UK's exclusive economic zone of sensitive or vulnerable deep-sea habitats for (i) coldwater corals, (ii) deep-sea sponges, (iii) mud and sand emergent epifauna, (iv) bryozoan patches and (v) xenophyophore patches.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Information on the extent, or area covered, and distribution of marine habitats is currently publicly available in different formats.
Created by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) in 2018, UKSeaMap provides a broad-scale overview of the coverage of different physical seabed habitats in the UK. In addition to this, the JNCC’s UK Marine Protected Area mapper portal provides up to date detailed information on the known distribution and extent of sensitive deep-sea habitat types such as deep-sea sponge aggregations and cold-water corals, and also provides information on their protection status. Through the Canyons Marine Conservation Zone, located in the far south-west of the UK, Defra is protecting the only known example of cold-water corals within English waters, so action is being taken. All other instances of cold-water corals in the UK are recorded from Scottish waters such as the Rosemary Bank Seamount, East & North West Rockall Bank, Anton Dhorn Seamount and Darwin Mounds.
We are also currently in the process of mapping and analysing data on the condition of biogenic reefs, hard structures made up of living organisms, and underwater rocky communities, specifically looking at those habitats with sensitive emerging epifauna, such as corals and sponges. The results are not yet publicly available, although we are in the process of finalising the report for external publication.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many areas of less that 800 metres depth in UK territorial waters have been closed to bottom trawling following identification of a vulnerable marine ecosystems since the implementation of the Deep-sea Access Regulation (EU) 2016/2336.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The deep-sea access regulation provides the European Commission with delegated powers to establish a list of areas where Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs) are known or likely to occur below a depth of 400m. Once identified, those areas will be closed to fishing with bottom gears in accordance with the regulation. The Commission requested advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in October 2019, and details of a related ICES workshop report and the advice request can be found at the links below. The workshop report also includes a summary of existing VME protection measures through national conservation initiatives, including in UK waters (ref. pages 8 and 9).
http://www.ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Advice/2019/Special_Requests/eu.2019.19.pdf
The UK, while still a Member State, submitted UK-related VME data to assist the implementation process of the deep-sea access regulation. When ICES provides its advice the Commission will proceed with implementation in EU waters. As this will happen after the end of the transition period the UK will be in a position to develop the retained regime in our waters from next year, taking the ICES UK-related advice into consideration as we do so.