Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to improve air quality around schools.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Government provides support to local authorities to deliver School Streets and funds a range of school interventions including the Walk to School Outreach Programme, which give children and their families safe active travel choices and reduce congestion around schools.
To tackle air pollution around schools, local councils have powers to issue Fixed Penalty Notices for vehicle idling.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what account his Department takes of emissions from (a) wood chip and (b) multifuel power plants in overall (i) air quality and (ii) carbon budget assessments.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our accredited official statistics provide data on the emissions of key air pollutants. This includes emissions from the combustion of wood chips and other fuels in energy industries. Estimates of emissions for ‘wood chip’ are included in the total for emissions from the combustion of ‘wood’ more broadly and the data can be found here, and information on each pollutant can be found here.
The Pollutant Release and Transfer Register also provides information on the emissions from specific power stations and industrial combustion plants.
Performance against carbon budgets is assessed based on the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which includes all emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels at power stations. In accordance with UNFCCC guidelines, carbon dioxide emissions from biomass use are reported as a change in carbon stocks in the Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry sector of the country where the biomass is harvested. They are also reported as a memorandum item in the country where the biomass is used, but are not counted in that country’s total emissions to avoid double counting.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing sanctions for cases of puppy smuggling.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In August 2021, the Government launched a consultation on proposed restrictions, including enforcement measures, to the commercial import and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain. We are carefully reviewing the feedback gathered from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, and a summary will be published soon.
The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by Selaine Saxby MP on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations, including penalties and offences, for non-compliant commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 provides guidance to water companies on best practice for debt collection.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Guidance on best practice for debt collection by water companies was published in May 2022 by Ofwat, the independent economic regulator, in its Paying Fair Guidelines. These guidelines include best practice principles and minimum expectations for the provision of support to customers who are in debt and to those who are facing debt recovery action.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 Southern Water on updating its sewage infrastructure, in the context of recent sewage discharges into the River Test.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular engagement with water companies to discuss a range of issues including measures to reduce sewage discharges, and improvements to water company infrastructure.
For example, in December 2023, he wrote to all water company Chief Executives, requesting that they improve sewer maintenance programmes over the next twelve months to help prevent storm overflow discharges.
Southern Water’s forward investment plan for sewage infrastructure, including planned improvements near the Test, is detailed in their draft business plan for the next Price Review period, which will run from 2025 - 2030. This is currently being reviewed by Ofwat. Ofwat’s determination will be issued later this year.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 Environment Agency is taking to monitor levels of (a) ammonia and (b) e-coli in the River Test.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has deployed a real time Water Quality monitor both upstream and downstream of Fullerton storm overflow in February 2024. The real time monitor is providing data on the ammonium levels in the river Test.
Data from upstream and downstream is being collected and analysed regarding the impact on the overall water quality of the river along with other parameters such as turbidity.
The EA has confirmed that there is no requirement to monitor e-coli in this instance as the ammonium data is the key indicator of water quality that may be compromised by organic material from an anthropogenic process, entering the watercourse.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with regulators to (a) safeguard the interests of consumers and (b) help ensure the financial stability of the water sector.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The five yearly Price Review process is currently underway for the period 2025-30, in which Ofwat sets an overall cap on the total amount that each water company may recover from their customers. As part of this process, Ofwat balances the interests of consumers with the ability of companies to finance the delivery of their services.
Regarding safeguarding consumer interests, Government is mindful consumers are concerned about their bills. For this reason, Defra expects all water companies to make customers aware of available support, including WaterSure, social tariffs, payment breaks, and debt management assistance. We are continuing to work with industry to explore options to improve existing social tariff arrangements and welcome the planned household charging trials in 2024-25.
Regarding financial stability, Ofwat assesses and monitors the financial resilience of each company on an individual and ongoing basis and challenges companies where they identify this is needed. As part of this work, Ofwat produces an annual ‘Monitoring Financial Resilience Report’ to provide a publicly available assessment of the financial resilience of each water company. Through this publication, Ofwat aims to promote a focus on efficient investment that secures long-term resilience and delivers long-term value for money for customers and the environment.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure the (a) continuity and (b) quality of water services for people served by Thames Water.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Whilst the Government recognises Thames Water needs to take significant steps to improve its performance, Thames Water nonetheless provides some of the highest quality drinking water in the world along with other water companies in England.
Regulators ensure that companies have yearly performance commitment targets for continuity and quality of supply and hold companies to account when these targets are not reached. Government Ministers will shortly be meeting with Thames Water to reassert the importance of meeting all targets set by the regulators and ensure no customer is affected by failure to do so.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) support and (b) promote sustainable and regenerative wheat farming practices.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We understand the increasing importance of farmers having access to crop varieties that are resistant to climate change and variable weather conditions, to maintain crop quality and yields.
The recent Precision Breeding Act is a major step in unlocking growth and innovation in technologies like gene editing and supports Defra’s efforts to reinforce food security in the face of climate change. Through the Act we want to encourage researchers and commercial breeders to be at the forefront of capturing the potential benefits of precision breeding for British farmers and consumers. For instance, research into wheat that is resilient to climate change is currently underway at the John Innes Centre. Gene editing techniques have been used to identify a key gene in wheat that can be used to introduce traits such as heat resilience whilst maintaining high yield. This could help to increase food production from a crop that 2.5 billion people are dependent on globally.
Our Genetic Improvement Networks also provide a platform for knowledge exchange for breeders, producers, end users and the research base, and a means for the delivery of scientific knowledge, resources and results to add value to UK crops.
The £270 million Farming Innovation Programme supports industry-led research and development in agriculture and horticulture. All projects support productivity and environmental outcomes that will benefit farmers and growers in England. In our latest ‘climate smart’ farming themed competition, we awarded over £11 million to projects investigating novel approaches to growing and managing crops. Previous competitions have also supported crop-related research.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 made an assessment of the potential impact of importing pregnant dogs on the welfare of those dogs; and whether he has received representations from animal welfare organisations on this matter.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In August 2021, the Government launched a consultation on proposed restrictions to the commercial import and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain including restricting the import of heavily pregnant dogs. It was a wide-ranging consultation with excellent engagement with key stakeholders including animal welfare organisations. We are carefully reviewing the feedback gathered from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, and a summary will be published soon. We continue to engage with stakeholders on this issue.
The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by Selaine Saxby MP on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom including prohibiting the import of heavily pregnant dogs over 42 days gestation.