Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress his Department has made on developing a soil reuse and storage depot scheme.

Following the announcement of the Soil Re-Use and Storage Depot Pilot Scheme in the Environmental Improvement Plan, the Environment Agency commissioned a research project to look at soil storage and reuse systems currently in use internationally and to make recommendations as to how such a system might operate here in England. This report will be published by spring 2024 and it will be used to inform the design of the scheme for piloting to begin in 2026.