Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will take steps to adapt farming subsidy schemes to incentivise the (a) housing of all farmed animals in woodland and (b) planting of woodland in permanent pasture; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of doing so on (i) animal welfare, (ii) climate and (iii) biodiversity.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Businesses must notify the competent authorities in advance of a consignment arriving in GB when it contains High risk or Medium A risk plants and plant products as they are subject to phytosanitary controls. Upon completion of the notification an initial risk assessment is provided detailing whether an inspection is required. Drivers and notifiers are informed in one of two ways.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will extend agroforestry funding to (a) include multiple species and (b) increase tree planting density to help provide an appropriate habitat for (i) pigs and (ii) chickens.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Our in-field agroforestry offers under the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes allow flexibility for land managers to decide on tree species and densities that suit their objectives, to realise the multiple benefits that trees provide in the farming landscape. Land managers are able to establish and maintain a wide range of eligible woodland and fruit tree species, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eligible-tree-species-elm-agroforestry-action. Land managers can also be paid a species diversity bonus for planting 5 or more species of tree, to help improve the resilience of agroforestry systems.
Our ELM in-field agroforestry offers allow for a range of planting densities. Under the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme, land managers can establish and maintain in-field agroforestry systems with an average of 30-130 trees per hectare on low sensitivity land. Our Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier offers will pay land managers to maintain in-field agroforestry systems up to an average of 400 trees her hectare.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase the use of nature-based solutions to climate change.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra recognises the critical benefits nature-based solutions can provide for tackling climate change and averting its impacts – delivering multiple benefits for climate, biodiversity, and people. Nature’s recovery is one of the five top priorities for this Department.
We are taking active steps to achieve Net Zero and mitigate climate change by expanding nature-based solutions in England, driving forward our commitments to restore 280,000 hectares of peatland and increase tree canopy cover to 16.5% of land area, both by 2050. This Government remains firmly committed to the environmental land management (ELM) schemes that deliver these solutions and will continue supporting farmers and landowners in their low-carbon practices.
Defra has secured a farm support budget of £2.4 billion for the next financial year. This means we can maintain the momentum of our ELM schemes, which will rise to the highest funding levels ever by 2025/26. Through this investment, we’re helping to secure a healthy and resilient future for English farming and restore our natural landscapes for generations to come whilst continuing to support farmers and landowners in their low-carbon, nature friendly practices.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure wastewater capacity assessments by (a) Thames water and (b) other water companies account for local environmental pressures.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As set out in Paragraph 7 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, including the provision of homes, commercial development and supporting infrastructure in a sustainable manner.
The Government is clear that housing must come with appropriate infrastructure, including appropriate water infrastructure. Water and wastewater capacity issues are best dealt with at a strategic level through the plan-making process, rather than through individual planning applications. Taking a strategic approach to drainage and wastewater management, will help to identify and mitigate issues related to insufficient network capacity or damaged infrastructure.
A key planning function is to guide development to the most suitable and sustainable locations and to ensure that the associated infrastructure requirements are addressed. Effective co-operation early in the plan-making process is essential. The NPPF makes it clear that local planning authorities should collaborate with each other and with other public bodies, including infrastructure providers, to identify relevant strategic matters to be addressed, including providing for sustainable water supplies.
The Government recognises the importance of having a robust drainage and wastewater system both now and for future demand. Water companies in England are under a statutory duty to provide new water and sewerage connections to residential properties, as well as planning to meet the needs of growth as part of water resource management plans (WRMPs), and drainage and wastewater management plans (DWMPs).
DWMPs set out how a water company intends to improve their drainage and wastewater systems over the next 25 years, accounting for factors including growing population and changing environmental circumstances. These plans will help sewerage companies to fully assess the capacity of the drainage and wastewater network and develop collaborative solutions to current problems and future issues. The plans will bring together various stakeholders including local authorities and industry regulators.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) Thames Water and (b) other water companies provide (i) accurate and (ii) locally verified assessments of (A) wastewater and (B) drainage capacity for major planning applications.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As set out in Paragraph 7 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, including the provision of homes, commercial development and supporting infrastructure in a sustainable manner.
The Government is clear that housing must come with appropriate infrastructure, including appropriate water infrastructure. Water and wastewater capacity issues are best dealt with at a strategic level through the plan-making process, rather than through individual planning applications. Taking a strategic approach to drainage and wastewater management, will help to identify and mitigate issues related to insufficient network capacity or damaged infrastructure.
A key planning function is to guide development to the most suitable and sustainable locations and to ensure that the associated infrastructure requirements are addressed. Effective co-operation early in the plan-making process is essential. The NPPF makes it clear that local planning authorities should collaborate with each other and with other public bodies, including infrastructure providers, to identify relevant strategic matters to be addressed, including providing for sustainable water supplies.
The Government recognises the importance of having a robust drainage and wastewater system both now and for future demand. Water companies in England are under a statutory duty to provide new water and sewerage connections to residential properties, as well as planning to meet the needs of growth as part of water resource management plans (WRMPs), and drainage and wastewater management plans (DWMPs).
DWMPs set out how a water company intends to improve their drainage and wastewater systems over the next 25 years, accounting for factors including growing population and changing environmental circumstances. These plans will help sewerage companies to fully assess the capacity of the drainage and wastewater network and develop collaborative solutions to current problems and future issues. The plans will bring together various stakeholders including local authorities and industry regulators.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support farmers affected by flooding.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Defra’s Farming Recovery Fund (FRF) scheme has paid out over £59.1 million to over 12,500 farm businesses affected by flooding and extreme wet weather during the period October 2023 to March 2024.
On 31st March 2025 the government announced an additional £16 million boost to the internal drainage board (IDB) Fund to support greater flood resilience for farmers and rural communities. The Fund has increased from £75 million to £91 million to provide opportunities to modernise and upgrade IDB assets. More than 400,000 hectares of agricultural land and around 91,000 homes and businesses across England are expected to benefit.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to (a) improve testing methods, (b) strengthen labelling regulations and (c) help tackle honey adulteration in other ways.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Defra carries out scientific research in partnership with the Food Standards Agency to help improve testing methods help address honey adulteration.
The Honey (England) Regulations 2015 lay down detailed specifications which honey must comply with regarding its composition and quality criteria. They mandate that honey cannot be sold in England unless the country of origin where the honey has been harvested is indicated on the label. However, for reasons of practicality special provisions apply to ‘blended’ honeys, where honey producers can opt for alternative wording indicating that the honey is a blend from more than one country.
Defra works closely with enforcement authorities, responsible for enforcing our honey laws on investigating any potential fraud issues raised, to ensure honey sold in the UK is not subject to adulteration, meets our high standards and maintains a level playing field between honey producers.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve the bathing standard in the (a) River Ver and (b) River Lea.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to improving the quality of bathing water at designated sites around the country, as an important contributor to many people’s mental and physical health. However, as these two sites are not designated bathing waters they are not covered by the Bathing Water Regulations 2013. This means that the Environment Agency does not monitor for intestinal enterococci and E. coli, the bacteria used to assess bathing water quality.
They Environment Agency manages rivers and other open water locations that are not designated as bathing waters for the purpose of protecting fish and wildlife, rather than people, so health risks from using these locations may be higher than at designated bathing waters. Anyone can become unwell when swimming in open waters. UK Health Security Agency and the Environment Agency offer advice in the ‘swim healthy’ guidance, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/swim-healthy-leaflet/swim-healthy.
More information on designated bathing waters can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bathing-waters-list-of-designated-waters-in-england.
The Environment Agency also publishes the water quality data that they hold. This information can be accessed via the following link: Open WIMS data.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 is taking steps to (a) improve the (i) communication and (ii) public awareness of flooding risks and (b) integrate the risk know-how framework into its (A) flood preparedness and (B) response strategies.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has responsibilities to assess the risk of emergencies such as flooding. This includes putting in place emergency plans and preparations for the management of flooding, alongside arrangements to warn, inform and advise during an emergency.
In December 2024, the EA published a ‘National assessment of flood and coastal erosion risk in England 2024’ report. On 28 January 2025 the data will be available on Check your long term flood risk, Check coastal erosion risk for an area in England, Shoreline Management Plan Explorer and data.gov.uk
The EA provides the Check for flooding service, giving information on flood alerts and warnings as well as a 5-day forecast. Its flood warning system directly alerts 1.6 million properties in England who are registered to receive flood warnings.
The EA provides advice on what can be done to reduce the impacts of a flood, including preparing personal flood plans, adapting a home or business and getting insurance.
The EA does not currently use the “risk know-how framework” within the preparedness and response strategies to flooding. The EA uses the UK Government recommended model of “Integrated Emergency Management” (IEM) and has an internal incident management cycle which includes a comprehensive incident management framework.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 15 October 2024 to Question 5849 on Hunting: National Parks, what was the outcome of the initial discussions held with officials from other Departments on trail hunting.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter with regard to Scotland and Northern Ireland; hunting with dogs is a reserved matter with respect to Wales and therefore, the information provided relates to England and Wales only.
These discussions brought together officials with an interest in this manifesto commitment in order to consider its implications on their work. As this work is ongoing, no concrete outcomes have been determined as yet. Public announcements will be made in due course.