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, whether he has set a date for the South Yorkshire flood summit.
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. I have been in contact with hon. Members from the South Yorkshire area on the issue of a round table.
Prior to lockdown, Defra officials were working to set this up. However, the coronavirus pandemic has caused delays. Officials continue to work on the logistics for holding a meeting in response to the November 2019 flooding and I expect to be able to confirm a date very soon.
Yesterday (21 September) the Government announced an extension of the £5,000 grant scheme available to homes and businesses affected by flooding last winter.
The Property Flood Resilience (PFR) scheme will be extended by nine months to take into account delays to repair work and the additional pressures placed on local authorities by coronavirus. The extension will give homeowners and businesses more time to carry out repairs and local authorities a greater period to process the grants.
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 his Department has spent on flood defence by region in the UK in the last 12 months.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
Defra provides most of its funding for flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) to the Environment Agency (EA) as grant-in-aid, which is the mechanism for financing non-departmental public bodies such as the EA. The EA spends this funding directly on managing flood risk, but it also passes some of this funding on as capital grants for flood or coastal erosion defence improvements to local authorities or Internal Drainage Boards.
The EA allocated capital grant-in-aid for 2019/20 per Office for National Statistics (ONS) region as follows. This information is a forecast only, based on the EA’s current consented FCERM investment programme (approved and published in April 2019).
ONS Region | 2019/20 £ |
East Midlands | 67,321,698 |
East of England | 55,614,346 |
London | 40,116,579 |
North East | 10,119,997 |
North West | 58,167,332 |
South East | 58,641,225 |
South West | 39,507,690 |
West Midlands | 32,554,347 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 117,484,419 |
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 meetings he has had on the winter 2019-20 flooding with hon. Members whose constituencies were affected.
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. Following the winter 2019-20 flooding, the Secretary of State, myself and the department have been actively engaging with hon Members whose constituencies were affected.
The Secretary of State has made a number of site visits and hosted an event following the winter floods in November 2019 and February 2020. These included visits to Ironbridge and Shrewsbury. He has also met individual Members including the hon Member for Halifax and the Rt Hon Member for Newark to discuss flooding in their constituencies.
In addition, I have taken part in a Westminster Hall debate on the South Yorkshire flooding with several affected Members. I have also met hon Members to discuss flooding in their constituencies including the hon Member for North East Derbyshire, the hon Member for Brigg and Goole and the hon Member for Don Valley. I have also attended an end of day debate with the hon Member for West Worcestershire.
I also attended an all-party meeting about the Severn Valley, held on 21 July 2020. The hon Members for Shrewsbury and Atcham, Gloucester, Montgomeryshire, West Worcestershire, Ludlow, North Herefordshire, Stroud, Stafford, and Defra's Parliamentary Private Secretary, the hon Member for Brecon and Radnorshire, attended.
I have been in contact with hon Members from the South Yorkshire area on the issue of a round table and I expect to be able to confirm a date very 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, how many meetings he has held with regional stakeholders in South Yorkshire on (a) the winter 2019 floods and (b) flood defence support in the last 12 months.
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. Following the winter 2019-20 flooding, the Secretary of State, myself and the department have been actively engaging with regional stakeholders.
As Minister for floods I engaged in a Westminster Hall debate focused on the flooding in South Yorkshire over the winter. This was attended by the hon Members for Barnsley East, Kingston upon Hull North, Rother Valley, Newport West, and the Rt Hon Member for Doncaster North. I have also met with the hon Member for Don Valley to discuss the impact of the winter floods and Sheffield City region's planned investment programme.
A number of hon Members from South Yorkshire have also written to Defra since November 2019. These include the hon Members for Barnsley Central, Don Valley, Rother Valley, and the Rt Hon Members for Doncaster North and Wentworth and Dearne.
Recently South Yorkshire, Sheffield, Upper Don Valley and the Upper Don Catchment NFM programme schemes received an allocation of the £170 million announced on 14 July, £15.4 million for the Sheffield Upper Don scheme and £600,000 for the NFM programme. Following this announcement, I met with the Member for Penistone & Stocksbridge to discuss flooding.
I have been in contact with hon Members from the South Yorkshire area on the issue of a round table and I expect to be able to confirm a date very soon.
Additionally, my officials have been engaging actively with eligible local authorities on the Property Flood Resilience Fund to provide clarity on the guidance for these schemes and to provide clarity on delivery questions.
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, whether it is his policy that a zero total allowable catch limit be set for the herring stock in ICES divisions 6a and 7b-c.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Whilst joint scientific advice is issued for the herring stock in ICES divisions 6a and 7b-c, they are managed separately. Since 2016, a small Total Allowable Catch (TAC) has been set based on ICES advice to enable monitoring of the stock, specifically the levels of mixing between different stocks North and South. TAC setting for 2021 will be a matter for negotiation, using this and any other available scientific evidence.
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 steps the Government has taken to ensure that non-assessed fish stocks are not overfished.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government has and will continue to use the best scientific advice available in setting fishing opportunities for species that are subject to a Total Allowable Catch (TAC). This includes those stocks which do not have a Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) assessment.
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 steps the Government has taken to meet Aichi Target 6 under the Convention on Biodiversity; and what assessment the Government has made of its effectiveness in seeking to meet that target.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Within the confines of the Common Fisheries Policy, the UK has made significant progress in introducing sustainable fisheries measures, including a landing obligation, subsidies and incentives for more selective gear, accreditation schemes, and area-based management measures.
For 2020, the UK will have 67% of its Total Allowable Catches set at Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) out of total of 54 stocks with MSY assessments.
We recently published our Marine Strategy Part One assessment on the health and resilience of our marine ecosystems, including our progress towards the achieving our objective of good environmental status (GES) in UK waters. This encompasses the scope of Aichi Target 6.
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 to the Environment Agency's water quality monitoring programme, what number of (a) samples have been taken and (b) sampling points there have been in (i) each year since 2010 and (ii) each month since January 2020.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The table below shows the number of water quality samples taken by the Environment Agency, and the number of sample points, in each year since 2010:
Year | No. samples taken | No. sample points |
2010 | 131602 | 18079 |
2011 | 137251 | 17286 |
2012 | 155394 | 16790 |
2013 | 159737 | 18498 |
2014 | 135452 | 17962 |
2015 | 121755 | 16088 |
2016 | 111951 | 15428 |
2017 | 94879 | 15335 |
2018 | 86737 | 13086 |
2019 | 97587 | 14439 |
The table below shows the number of water quality samples taken, and the number of sample points, in each month since January 2020:
Month | No. samples taken | No. sample points |
January | 9475 | 8175 |
February | 7740 | 6612 |
March | 7196 | 6189 |
Data for April is not yet available.
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 plans his Department has to resume sampling of rivers, groundwater and bathing waters to measure water quality.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In line with Government guidelines to reduce the spread of Coronavirus, the Environment Agency (EA) has paused all monitoring activities that are not essential to prevent serious harm to people or the environment, or to support responses to major incidents.
The EA will keep this under review and will restart non-critical activities (including routine environmental monitoring) in due course, in line with Government guidance on lockdown measures.
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 samples of England's designated bathing waters have been taken to monitor water quality (a) since 2010 and (b) in each month of 2020.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
From 2010 to the end of 2019, the Environment Agency (EA) collected and analysed 78,250 samples to monitor water quality at England’s designated bathing waters. The EA has not taken any samples yet in 2020 because the sampling season starts on 1 May and has been disrupted due to the Coronavirus emergency.