Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the number of (a) (i) ash and (ii) other trees that were felled to help tackle ash dieback and (b) ash trees that have died from ash dieback in the last three years.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Forestry is a devolved matter and so this answer is for England only. The Forestry Commission issues felling licences under its regulatory powers in the Forestry Act 1967 for trees to be legally felled. The Government does not collect data on the number of individual trees that have been felled, including those affected by ash dieback. Estimating the number of trees affected by ash dieback would be challenging as felling licence applications are assessed based on intent. It is also possible that there are trees which have been affected by ash dieback which are exempt from felling regulations. This includes those presenting an immediate risk to public safety.
Forest Research, the research agency of the Forestry Commission, in collaboration with Fera, does publish a heat map of areas most affected by ash dieback. This is available at https://chalaramap.fera.co.uk/
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 push for the abolition of whale hunting in the Faroe Islands.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The UK is strongly opposed to the hunting of any cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), other than some limited activities by indigenous people for clearly defined purposes. We believe that the hunting of cetaceans is unacceptably cruel and that well-managed, responsible tourism is the only truly sustainable interaction with these animals.
While we recognise there is a long tradition in the Faroe Islands of killing pilot whales and dolphins for meat and other products, we have long expressed our concern over the welfare and sustainability aspects of the Faroese cetacean hunts and the levels of domestic regulation currently in place. We have urged the Faroe Islands to look at alternatives to the hunting of cetaceans, encouraging them to consider the many economic and social benefits that responsible cetacean watching can bring to coastal communities. Most recently, during the Joint Committee on Trade with the Faroe Islands earlier this year, we raised the UK’s opposition to the continued hunting of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands on both animal welfare and conservation grounds.
We also work through multilateral agreements to condemn these hunts. This includes leading the drafting of a letter from the ASCOBANS (Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North-East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas) Advisory Committee to the Faroese Government. In addition, at the recent IWC meeting in October 2022, the UK Commissioner made clear the UK’s ongoing concerns about small cetacean hunts in the Faroe Islands.
The Government will continue advocating at every appropriate opportunity for the end of cetacean hunts in the Faroe Islands.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her policies of Denmark’s recent announcement of a ban on the use of cages for laying hens.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government takes a keen interest in animal welfare developments in all other countries. We are committed to exploring the phasing out of cages for laying hens, supporting the industry to do so in a way which underpins UK food production and does not have unintended animal welfare or business impacts.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will outline the (a) purpose and (b) aims of Environmental Land Management Schemes.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We need and are introducing policies that work for farm businesses, food production and the environment. As part of this, the environmental land management schemes will pay for sustainable farming practices, improving animal health and welfare, reducing carbon emissions, creating and preserving habitat, and making landscape-scale environmental changes. This is an important step towards achieving our 25 Year Environment Plan ambitions and our carbon net zero goals.
We are designing the schemes to be accessible and supportive with fair compensation. We are also improving the way we set and control the rules around farming and the countryside – making it fair, proportionate and effective. We aim to take a more collaborative, less bureaucratic approach in developing this policy and the schemes' administration.
We set out the purpose and aims of the environmental land management schemes in January 2022 at this site: Environmental land management schemes: outcomes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (www.gov.uk/government/publications/environmental-land-management-schemes-outcomes/environmental-land-management-schemes-outcomes).
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any Ministers from her Department plan to attend the COP 15 UN Biodiversity Conference.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra is the lead department for the Convention on Biological Diversity, working closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCDO) and Cabinet Office. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will lead the UK delegation to the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15). Lord Benyon, Minister of State for Defra, will also attend.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 her Department has made of the effectiveness of Environmental Land Management Schemes; and whether it is her Department's policy to continue their rollout.
Answered by Mark Spencer
As the Prime Minister set out, protecting our environment is at the heart of the Government’s manifesto commitments and we will always back British farmers and our rural communities. We are working closely with farmers, land managers and environmental groups as we look at ways to improve our future farming policy so that it both strengthens our environment and supports our thriving food and farming sector. We will set out more details in due course.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the efficacy of the fines mechanism for reducing sewage discharge by water companies.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Ofwat and the Environment Agency can take enforcement action when a water company is in breach of its statutory duties and licence obligations. The Environment Agency can pursue criminal prosecution for which there can be unlimited fines. Since 2015, the Environment Agency has brought 54 prosecutions against water companies, securing fines of almost £140 million.
For the most serious contraventions, Ofwat can impose financial penalties on companies. For example, in 2019, Ofwat imposed a penalty package on Southern Water of £126 million for spills of wastewater into the environment from its sewerage plants and for deliberately misreporting its performance. The Environment Agency and Ofwat have recently launched the largest criminal and civil investigations into water company sewage discharges ever, at over 2200 treatment works, following new data coming to light as a result of increased monitoring.
We will not let companies get away with illegal activity and where breaches are found, we will not hesitate to hold companies to account.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 reduce the number of sewage discharges into (a) rivers, (b) lakes and (c) the sea.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We have been clear that the failure of water companies to adequately reduce sewage discharges is totally unacceptable. Our recently launched Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history and our new strict targets will see the toughest ever crack down on sewage spills.
By 2035, water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water; and improve 75% of overflows discharging to high priority nature sites.
Overflows that are causing the most harm will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible, and water companies will be expected to consider nature-based solutions in their planning. Our plan will protect the ecology of our rivers, seas and lakes, and the public health of our water users for generations to come.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including glass in the Deposit Return Scheme.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
HM Government has consulted twice on the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and given careful consideration to the materials that should be part of the scheme. We set out in the Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (EPR) consultation response in March 2022 that glass would not be part of the DRS in England, instead part of Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging.
We will continue to work with industry and the Devolved Administrations as we finalise policy positions and secondary legislation in order to support delivery of an efficient and effective DRS.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 protect bee habitats.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 14 June 2022 to the hon. Member for Strangford, PQ 13132.