Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to monitor and evaluate whether conservation measures delivered through the Nature Restoration Fund materially outweigh the environmental impacts of development.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Throughout an Environmental Delivery Plan’s (EDP) duration, monitoring will play a critical role in providing the scientific evidence and confidence that conservation measures are achieving the desired effect.
Natural England are required to publish reports covering an EDP’s start date to its mid-point, and its mid-point to end date. Natural England may also choose to publish a report at any other time.
These reporting requirements will provide transparency around the environmental improvements that each EDP has delivered and whether it is having the required impact.
Where monitoring shows these measures are insufficient, Natural England will ensure backup measures are deployed.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Tree Action Plan will support the restoration of ancient woodland, particularly on smaller plantations on ancient woodland sites and harder to restore sites.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will continue to support the restoration of ancient woodland. Woodlands as small as 0.5ha are now eligible for the Countryside Stewardship supplements “Manage and restore Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWs)” and “Manage native woodland including Ancient Semi-Natural Woodlands”, ensuring support is available to landowners and managers of smaller ancient woodlands.
In 2025, we also updated our Countryside Stewardship offer by simplifying our baseline Woodland Improvement grant.
These steps will help to bring more of our smaller ancient woodlands into restoration and management.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 ensure that domestic timber production does not adversely impact biodiversity and habitat creation targets.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We encourage woodlands in England to be planted and managed in compliance with the UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) which is an agreed UK wide approach to sustainable forest management. In commercial woodlands which are managed in line with the UKFS or where specific biodiversity positive actions are taken, biodiversity benefits can be gained. We will continue to look at how all kinds of woodlands can contribute to our biodiversity targets through the upcoming Land Use Framework.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the amount of developer contributions to be paid into the Nature Restoration Fund in each of the next five years.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) will be financed through a developer levy.
As set out in our NRF Implementation Plan, the first Environmental Delivery Plans will cover developers’ obligations related to nutrient pollution mitigation.
The overall level and profile of receipts will depend on the timing and scale of developments coming forward under each individual Environmental Delivery Plan.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support will be provided to local authorities to engage with the development and implementation of Environmental Delivery Plans.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra and Natural England will provide comprehensive guidance on the Nature Restoration Fund for Local Planning Authorities.
Natural England will also continue to work closely with Local Authorities throughout the development and implementation of Environmental Delivery Plans.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her proposed timeline is for publishing the Tree Action Plan.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will publish a new Trees Action Plan in 2026.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) the Department and (b) its agencies broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct in the past twelve months.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office employs approximately 17,500 staff across hundreds of locations worldwide, many of which operate with locally managed HR arrangements and procedures. While we are able to say that around 15 per cent of these individuals worldwide were marked in the top performance box last year, the other information the Hon Member has requested is not centrally held, and could only be collated and verified at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office employs approximately 17,500 staff across hundreds of locations worldwide, many of which operate with locally managed HR arrangements and procedures. While we are able to say that around 15 per cent of these individuals worldwide were marked in the top performance box last year, the other information the Hon Member has requested is not centrally held, and could only be collated and verified at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will take steps to review the effectiveness of her Department's policies on reducing road accidents.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
On 7 January 2026, we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all. The Strategy sets an ambitious target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65% by 2035. This target will focus the efforts of road safety partners across Britain, with measures to improve road design, protect vulnerable road users, and review motoring offences. All of this will be supported and monitored by a new Road Safety Board chaired by the Minister for Local Transport.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) the Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 3 December to Question 94436.