Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 28 April to Question 45559 on Nitrogen Dioxide: Pollution Control, which towns in the South East reporting zone are delaying compliance until 2028.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All NO2 exceedances delaying compliance in the Coventry and Bedworth zone are in the city of Coventry. Bradford is the only city, and Keighley is the only town, in the West Yorkshire Urban Area delaying compliance with the NO2 limit value. All NO2 exceedances delaying compliance in the Eastern zone are in the town of Basildon.
The 2023 compliance assessment reported one exceedance of the annual mean limit value for NO2 in the South East reporting zone - on the A34 in the Vale of White Horse. This road link is part of the Strategic Road Network (SRN) which is managed by National Highways.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 28 April to Question 45559 on Nitrogen Dioxide: Pollution Control, which (a) cities and (b) towns in the Eastern reporting zone are delaying compliance.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All NO2 exceedances delaying compliance in the Coventry and Bedworth zone are in the city of Coventry. Bradford is the only city, and Keighley is the only town, in the West Yorkshire Urban Area delaying compliance with the NO2 limit value. All NO2 exceedances delaying compliance in the Eastern zone are in the town of Basildon.
The 2023 compliance assessment reported one exceedance of the annual mean limit value for NO2 in the South East reporting zone - on the A34 in the Vale of White Horse. This road link is part of the Strategic Road Network (SRN) which is managed by National Highways.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 28 April to Question 45559 on Nitrogen Dioxide: Pollution Control, which localised hotspot in the Greater Manchester Urban Area reporting zone is delaying compliance until 2026.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan is currently being implemented. Greater Manchester’s modelling identifies localised hotspots in 2026 at A34 Bridge St, A34 Quay St, A664 Shudehill, Lever St in Manchester and A49 Chapel Lane and King St West in Wigan. These sites are expected to become compliant in 2026 once measures are implemented.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 plans to take to protect the ecological status chalk streams in legislation.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Cleaning up our waters, including iconic sites such as chalk streams is a top government priority. That is why on 23 October 2024, the Secretary of State announced the launch of an independent commission to fundamentally transform how our water system works.
Fixing the systemic issues in the water system is essential to address the multiple pressures facing chalk streams, namely over abstraction, phosphorous pollution and physical modifications of habitats. Restoring our chalk streams to better ecological health is part of our overall programme of reforms for the water sector.
Over the next five years water companies will spend more than £2 billion to deliver over 1,000 actions for chalk stream restoration and reduce their abstraction from chalk streams by 126 million litres per day. The Government is investing £1.8 million through the Water Restoration Fund and Water Environment Improvement Fund into chalk stream projects.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding his Department has provided to Natural England’s National Landscapes programme in each year since 2015.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are unable to provide detailed information prior to 2022 due to time/cost involved. Limited landscape designation work was delivered and funding for this was from Natural England’s baseline’ settlement.
Defra provided direct funding of £1.1 million per annum for years 2022/23 - 2024/25. As well as the four National Landscape designation cases, this covered wider work on landscape designations and alternatives.
For 2025/26 the direct funding for National Landscape designation work was not continued. Natural England is using baseline budget to fund a reduced programme of landscape designation work.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 review the adequacy of his Department's guidance on the (a) labelling and (b) information on country of origin for beef products in (i) food service and (ii) retail.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK maintains high standards on the information provided both online and on food labels and packaging so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy.
A range of Defra guidance is available on the Gov.uk platform for both consumers and retailers. This guidance sets out the requirements for general food labelling and specific product labelling, including details on the country of origin for beef and other meats.
Defra guidance on food labelling, including country of origin for beef products, is kept under regular review to ensure it remains accurate, up to date, and in line with current labelling regulations.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the proportion of beef imports from the US that will be (a) carcass and b) valuable cuts following the US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 8 May, the UK Government announced a landmark economic deal with the United States, making the UK the first country to reach an agreement with President Trump. This delivers on the commitment by the Prime Minister and the President on 27 February to agree an economic deal in our respective national interests.
This deal has created a reciprocal agreement to lower tariffs for British beef exporters to the US, while acting in the UK’s national interest by ensuring that we uphold our rigorous food standards while protecting our farmers.
The agreement on beef means that around 1.5% of the UK beef market could come from the United States, and the same quantity of British beef can be exported to them.
We have always been clear that this Government will protect British farmers, secure our food security, and uphold our high food, animal welfare, and environmental standards in trade deals. That is exactly what we have done and will continue to do.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding his Department has allocated to the Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme in each year since its inception; and how much and what proportion of that funding was spent.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Prior to 2021 the scheme was EU funded. The Secretary of State did not allocate any direct funding to The Fruit & Vegetable Aid Scheme started in 2021 governed by EU rules before this time. Since then, £117,794,154.23 has been spent
The breakdown of actual UK funding spent on the scheme post EU exit is as follows:
2021 - £39,056,567.83 (£35,999,480.17 England only)
2022 - £40,110,883.98 (£34,460,975.86 England only)
2023 - £38,626,702.42 (£35,393,728.71 England only)
2024 - claims still being assessed.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the total area of land was in (a) entry-level agreements, (b) mid-tier countryside stewardship agreements, (c) higher tier countryside stewardship agreements and (d) higher-level stewardship schemes in each year since 2022.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Total area of land covered by Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship agreements:
For Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (hectares), the figures were:
2022 - 453,789
2023 - 513,288
2024 - 603,626
2025 - 574,676
For Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier (hectares) the figures were:
2022 - 459,334
2023 - 567,482
2024 - 660,535
2025 - 594,952
For Higher Level Stewardship (hectares), the figures were:
2022 - 70,729
2023 - 63,163
2024 - 53,832
2025 - 51,792
For Entry Level plus Higher Level Stewardship (hectares), the figures were:
2022 - 975,307
2023 - 851,967
2024 - 683,271
2025 - 633,248
For Organic Entry Level plus Higher Level Stewardship (hectares), the figures were:
2022 – 63,240
2023 – 44,548
2024 – 22,874
2025 - 19,736
Please note the following points:
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 ensure food security in relation to the ongoing negotiations for the US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 8 May, the UK Government announced a landmark economic deal with the United States, making the UK the first country to reach an agreement with President Trump. This delivers on the commitment by the Prime Minister and the President on 27 February to agree an economic deal in our respective national interests.
We have always been clear that this Government will protect British farmers, secure our food security, and uphold our high food, animal welfare, and environmental standards in trade deals. That is exactly what we have done and will continue to do.