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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the impact of factory farming on (a) rivers and (b) other waterways.

The Government is committed to minimising pollution from all types of farming, including production systems where animals are housed indoors for some or all of the year and which accumulate manures and slurries.

Our legal standards, including the Nitrates and Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil regulations, all require manure produced in livestock housing (including slurry) to be stored responsibly and for a long enough time to ensure it is spread in a way that minimises water pollution. The Farming Rules for Water and Nitrates regulations require these manures to be spread according to appropriate volumes, locations and timescales to minimise pollution.

In addition, our farming schemes provide revenue and capital funding to help farmers build the infrastructure necessary to manage manures to reduce pollution. For example a dairy farmer is able to utilise Sustainable Farming Incentive Funding for measures to reduce soil erosion and runoff from their fields, and Slurry Infrastructure Grant funding to expand and cover their slurry store according to best practice.