Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent funding his Department has allocated to Coastal Partnership East following recent tidal surges in Pakefield, Lowestoft.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government announced in March 2020 a record £5.2 billion investment over six years in flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities across England. East Suffolk Council is the responsible risk management authority for the coast at Pakefield and has been working on erosion management issues in the area. The Environment Agency administers Government Flood Defence Grant in Aid funding to all risk management authorities. To apply for funding the authority needs to submit a business case to the Environment Agency outlining the various technical aspects of the project including economic, environmental and technical feasibility appraisals. To date, no business case has been submitted to the Environment Agency. The Environment Agency is aware that Coastal Partnership East, on behalf of East Suffolk Council, has been working with the community in Pakefield since 2016 to explore the coastal management options, including into the longer term, for the whole frontage.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of coastal erosion to the local (a) community and (b) economy in Lowestoft.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Coastal erosion is a natural process that always has and will shape coastlines around the world.
Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) are developed and owned by the local councils and coastal protection authorities. These provide long-term strategic plans which identify approaches for managing the flood and coastal erosion risks at every stretch of coastline. The EA are supporting local authorities to update and strengthen the SMPs by 2024 through a technical refresh project to ensure they are up to date, using the best evidence in their recommendations and focus attention on priority areas for investment and adaptation. Over £2m will be used for this project and will include the development a new digital on-line tool to improve access, understanding and use of SMPs.
We are investing £5.2 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. In addition, we are investing £200 million as part of the Flood and Coastal Innovation Resilience Programme in 25 areas across England to take forward wider innovative actions that improve resilience to flooding and coastal erosion.
As part of this programme, Defra has provided £8.4 million funding to East Suffolk Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council. The Resilient Coasts Project will offer a complete suite of planning, engagement, technical and financial tools to support coastal transition for communities. The learning will be shared with other coastal authorities and could also be applied to the rest of the UK coast.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress the Government has made towards establishing a deposit return scheme framework that is consistent across the devolved nations in line with the provisions of the (a) Resources and waste: provisional common framework and (b) Internal Market Act 2020.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In May 2023, UK Government published a position statement setting out that DRS’s across the UK should be interoperable to reduce complexity for businesses and consumers, and to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade. Defra is working closely with devolved administrations at pace on the next steps to deliver interoperable schemes across the UK.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with his relevant (a) Welsh, (b) Scottish and (c) Northern Irish counterparts on the potential merits of aligning the scope of deposit return schemes in those nations.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In May 2023, UK Government published a position statement setting out that DRS’s across the UK should be interoperable to reduce complexity for businesses and consumers, and to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade. Defra is working closely with devolved administrations at pace on the next steps to deliver interoperable schemes across the UK.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to take steps with Cabinet colleagues to provide support to smallholder farmers in developing countries to meet the legal requirement to not contribute to deforestation under the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK plays a leading role in supporting global efforts to protect and restore forest landscapes, driving international action to tackle deforestation and ensure forests are sustainably managed. This effort is underpinned by a commitment of £1.5 billion to international forests between 2021 and 2026.
The Government works with both businesses and smallholder farmers to improve sustainable practices and encourage forest-friendly business. The Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use programme (2015-2024) supports the development of new business models which provide jobs and livelihoods while protecting and restoring forests. The programme is implemented through a set of complementary interventions including Partnerships for Forests (P4F) (£120 million), which provides grant funding and technical assistance to catalyse investment into sustainable agriculture and forest management. To date, P4F has mobilised £1.25 billion in private investment into forests, brought 4.5 million hectares of land under sustainable management and directly benefitted over 250,000 people.
The UK’s Mobilising Finance for Forests programme is working to increase private investment in activities that create value from standing forests and/or incorporate forest protection and restoration into sustainable agricultural commodity production. This programme is complementary to P4F, targeting larger and more mature opportunities that will mobilise investment into sustainable land-use at scale.
The UK also supports companies in their transition to sustainable supply chains. The UK is a co-funder of the Tropical Forest Alliance, a public-private initiative hosted by the World Economic Forum which mobilises over 170 companies, governments and NGOs to tackle commodity-driven deforestation.
We also continue to work with consumer and producer country partners in forums such as the Forest, Agriculture, and Commodity and Trade (FACT) Dialogue, which the UK and Indonesia launched together as co-chairs in 2021. The FACT Dialogue convenes 28 major producers and consumers of internationally traded agricultural commodities to agree principles for collaboration and developed a Roadmap of actions which was launched at COP26, to protect forests and other ecosystems while promoting sustainable trade and development, in a way that respects all countries’ interests.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
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 bring forward secondary legislation under the Environment Act 2021 to require businesses to ensure that their supply chains do not contribute to deforestation.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Government has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to help tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains.
We ran a consultation from 3 December 2021 to 11 March 2022 to seek views on the details of regulations that will implement the Environment Act provisions, to ensure that these are designed effectively. The Government published a summary of responses to this consultation on 1 June 2022 and is committed to implementing due diligence provisions at the earliest opportunity through secondary legislation.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
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 her Department's press release entitled First farmers receive Sustainable Farming Incentive early payment, published 18 October 2023, how many and what proportion of Sustainable Farming Incentive (a) 2023 and (b) 2024 applicants have received their first payment as of 19 October 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many expressions of interest her Department has received from farmers wanting to enter the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2024; and how many farmers have been invited to apply to the scheme up to the removal of the expression of interest stage of the application process.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer for 2024 is being finalised and we will release further details to farmers ahead of its launch next year.
By 19 October 2023, when the majority of farm businesses are able to apply directly for the 2023 offer for the SFI scheme, the Rural Payments Agency had invited 15,275 farmers to apply.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that its data on levels of packaging waste is accurate.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have commissioned an update to the research, known as PackFlow, to ascertain the level of packaging and packaging waste generated annually in the UK. It is intended to set a new baseline for packaging placed on the market in 2022 and projections based on this for future years until 2027. This report is due in December.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of dog legislation enforcement officers in each year since 2010.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra does not hold data on the number of dog legislation enforcement officers. This information is held by individual police forces.