Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what date the Hand Gathering (Restrictions and Permitting) Bylaw 2021 will be approved.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Hand Gathering (Restrictions and Permitting) Bylaw 2021 has not yet been submitted to Defra for approval.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether senior officials from his Department have travelled to China since January 2019.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Yes, senior officials have travelled to China since January 2019.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
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 report entitled Stepping Forward - The Stakeholder Working Group on Unrecorded Public Rights of Way: Report to Natural England, published in March 2010, what progress her Department has made on developing a rights of way reform package.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Secretary of State is keen to ensure that rights of way policy is delivering for users, landowners and local authorities. The 2026 cut-off date is currently under review and we will provide a further update shortly.
The Government is committed to implementing the rights of way reform measures which will streamline processes for recording rights of way with landowners, local authorities and users benefitting from a faster, more cost effective, less confrontational and less bureaucratic process. We will also introduce the right to apply regulations which will give landowners a statutory right to apply to have rights of way diverted or extinguished in certain circumstances, such as where paths pass through hazardous farmyards.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her department intends to implement a cut-off date of the 1 January 2026 for registering historic rights of way claims with local authorities.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Secretary of State is keen to ensure that rights of way policy is delivering for users, landowners and local authorities. The 2026 cut-off date is currently under review and we will provide a further update shortly.
The Government is committed to implementing the rights of way reform measures which will streamline processes for recording rights of way with landowners, local authorities and users benefitting from a faster, more cost effective, less confrontational and less bureaucratic process. We will also introduce the right to apply regulations which will give landowners a statutory right to apply to have rights of way diverted or extinguished in certain circumstances, such as where paths pass through hazardous farmyards.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
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 support local authorities to limit domestic sources of air pollution, including wood burning stoves, as the leading cause of the air pollutant PM2.5.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Local authorities have a number of powers to tackle air pollution, such as introducing speed restrictions including on school streets, enforcing anti-idling laws and environmental permitting to reduce emissions from many local industries.
On domestic sources of air pollution and specifically domestic burning, local authorities have the power to declare Smoke Control Areas (SCAs), where householders are not allowed to emit a substantial amount of smoke from a chimney. The recently introduced Environment Act makes it easier for local authorities to enforce SCA requirements by replacing the criminal offence applying to smoke emissions in SCAs with a civil penalty regime. Local authorities in England can now issue financial penalties of up to £300 to those emitting a substantial amount of smoke from their chimneys in an SCA. The Environment Act also extends the system of statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act to private dwellings in SCAs, enabling local authorities to take action against smoke emissions that are harmful to human health.
To further support local authorities, we have also provided £880 million to help local authorities develop and implement local nitrogen dioxide (NO2) reduction plans and to support those impacted by these plans. We also have awarded £11.6 million from Defra's annual Air Quality Grant Scheme to 40 local authorities in England for local projects to tackle air pollution. The scheme will reopen for applications later this year, building on more than £38 million investment so far since 2010.