Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure water companies are held accountable for sewage discharge.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is clear that the amount of sewage discharged into our waters is unacceptable. We will not let companies get away with illegal activity and we have taken a series of actions to ensure that where breaches, are found companies will be held to account.
Government directed water companies to increase their storm overflow monitoring in 2013 and achieved 100% coverage before the end of 2023.
Meeting this target is a significant achievement in creating positive environmental change and holding water companies to account. The wealth of data collected from these monitors will ensure that we know the full extent to the problem – increasing transparency, revealing the worst-offending overflows, and enabling regulators to continue to hold polluters to account.
The Environment Agency can now impose unlimited penalties on water companies for a wider range of offenses following Government’s changes to broaden of the scope of the existing civil sanctions regime and remove the previous cap on penalties.
The Government also has recently announced a consultation to ban water bosses’ bonuses when criminal breaches have occurred, quadrupled company inspections- by the end of March 2025, fast-tracked £180m investment to cut spills, and launched a whistleblowing portal for water company workers to report breaches.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding his Department has allocated to the farming sector in South Holland and the Deepings constituency since 2022 by (a) funding type and (b) recipient.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rual Payment Agency has supported the farming and rural sector through payments under a range of schemes.
Since January 2022, the RPA has released 954 payments to farmers, worth around £21.3m, in South Holland and the Deepings constituency broken down as follows.
Vol/Val | Basic Payment Scheme | Countryside Stewardship Scheme | Environmental Stewardship | Sustainable Farm Incentive | Other Grants | Total |
Volume | 756 | 140 | 5 | 25 | 28 | 954 |
Value (£) | £ 17,960,030.90 | £ 1,863,631.02 | £ 98,297.09 | £ 384,085.30 | £ 963,624.28 | £ 21,269,668.59 |
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps with local authorities to increase access to mobile household recycling centres in cities.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) play an important role in helping people manage the waste they produce in a convenient and sustainable way. Local authorities are responsible for managing HWRCs and determining how best to support their residents to manage waste responsibly. We encourage any innovative approaches that local authorities take to improve access and availability of their waste services.
Asked by: George Eustice (Conservative - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will designate the swift under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 on birds which are protected by special penalties.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are no plans to amend Schedule 1 or Schedule ZA1 at this time.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 Table 1.2 of his Department's national statistics entitled Farm business income in England 2023/24 forecast, updated on 14 March 2024, whether his Department plans to provide financial support to dairy farmers in the context that their average farm business income in real terms is forecast to decrease by the greatest percentage among all farm types from financial year 2022-23 to financial year 2023-24.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient and dynamic dairy sector which operates in an open market where the value of dairy commodities, including farmgate milk price, is established by those in the supply chain. The average Farm Business Income is at a 20-year high in 2022/23 following a previous 20-year high in 2021/22. The forecast decrease for 2023/24 would bring average Farm Business Income for dairy farm businesses back closer to historic trends. Through a range of government schemes, there is support for investment in dairy businesses through the Sustainable Farming Incentive, the animal health and welfare pathway and various productivity and innovation grants.
We have also recently introduced new legislation, The Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024, which creates new rules for dairy contracts covering issues such as pricing provisions, unilateral changes to contracts and notice periods. Ensuring fairer contracts will provide greater certainty for farmers and help the dairy industry thrive into the future.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on the potential ban on importing dogs and cats under the age of six months; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of that ban on levels of illegal pet trade.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra regularly engages with relevant stakeholders, on tackling the illegal pet trade, including prohibiting the import of puppies and kittens under the age of six months.
The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by Selaine Saxby MP on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom including prohibiting the import of puppies under six months old. By its very nature, it is difficult to assess the full extent of the illegal pet trade. The measures in the Bill will close loopholes exploited by unscrupulous traders, help reduce the low welfare movement of pets into Great Britain and crack down on the illegal smuggling of dogs and puppies.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 he has made of the adequacy of resources allocated to enforcement agencies responsible for checking pets entering the UK to effectively counter puppy and kitten smuggling.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra regularly engages with enforcement agencies regarding tackling illegal pet smuggling and appropriate resourcing.
Local authorities and the Animal and Plant Health Agency are responsible for enforcing pet travel and commercial import requirements.
Authorised carriers and pet checkers have the delegated responsibility for conducting pet checks on non-commercial movements. They can refuse travel for non-compliant animals or share intelligence with the Animal and Plant Health Agency who can intercept at the port or border if non-compliance is suspected.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the cost of the Pollack compensation scheme; and how his Department plans to fund this scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Using MMO landings data from 2023, approximately 50 vessels would be eligible for the scheme. In 2023 these vessels landed around 220 tonnes of pollack, with a value of around £800,000. Compensating for 50% of the 2023 value would cost around £400,000. This data is being verified by MMO.
Funding for the compensation will be found from Defra’s existing budget.
Asked by: George Eustice (Conservative - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will designate the swift as a species of bird which re-uses its nest under Schedule ZA1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are no plans to amend Schedule 1 or Schedule ZA1 at this time.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he made an assessment of the potential merits of providing support to small scale fleets that follow a seasonal fishery and will not achieve the 30 per cent of landings value required by the Pollack compensation scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The direction given was to support those businesses that have been most impacted by the bycatch-only TAC this year. As there is finite funding available, the pollack compensation scheme is focused on providing funding to vessel owners whose income is mainly derived from pollack and who made at least 30% of their reported landings income in 2023 from pollack.
Pollack fishers who are not eligible for compensation are still able to apply for grant funding from the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme, which provides funding on a first come first served basis.