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Written Question
Horticulture: Peat
Wednesday 20th December 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have plans (1) to bring forward their proposed ban on the sale of all peat-containing products, or (2) revise the list of items exempted from the ban until 2030.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

In August 2022 we announced that we would ban the sale of peat for use in amateur gardening; we remain committed to this and plan to legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows. It remains our policy that we intend to legislate to restrict, and ultimately ban, the sale of peat and peat containing products. Our proposals, announced in March this year, include technical exemptions up to 2030. We are continuing to hold discussions with the horticulture sector on possible technical exemptions for the continued use of peat in the professional sector up to 2030, and for conservation purposes thereafter.


Written Question
Horticulture: Curriculum
Monday 15th May 2023

Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to include (a) horticulture and (b) gardening in the national curriculum.

Answered by Nick Gibb

In the Schools White Paper, published in 2022, the Department committed to make no further changes to the National Curriculum for the remainder of this Parliament.

The National Curriculum is a framework which sets out the content that schools are expected to cover in each curriculum subject. Teachers are expected to use their own knowledge and expertise to determine how they teach their pupils the content of the curriculum, tailoring their lessons to the individual needs of the pupils.

Whilst not mentioned as standalone topics, schools have the freedom and flexibility to teach horticulture and gardening. For example, in science pupils are taught about plants and living things and their habitats.

In citizenship, a compulsory part of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4, pupils undertake school and community based volunteering. Young people are encouraged to tackle local issues in their communities. This could include activities related to the environment and nature, such as community gardening.

Many schools offer enrichment activities, including gardening, to promote an understanding of nature, nutrition and wellbeing among pupils. The Department recognises the significant benefits that extracurricular activities at out of school settings, such as gardening clubs, can have for children’s mental health and wellbeing, as well as their educational and social development.

The Department is developing draft subject content for a new GCSE in natural history, to be taught from 2025, which will include opportunities for students to gain a deeper knowledge of the natural world around them.

For post 16 students, the Department is introducing employer designed T Levels in Agriculture, Land Management and Production from September this year. This course gives students the opportunity to specialise in ornamental horticulture and landscaping.


Written Question
Health: Horticulture
Wednesday 29th June 2022

Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of gardening and horticulture for people's (a) physical and (b) mental welfare.

Answered by Maggie Throup

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities has developed a natural environment and health programme, following an evidence review of the health effects of access to greenspace published by Public Health England in 2020, which is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/904439/Improving_access_to_greenspace_2020_review.pdf

The review found evidence that exposure to greenspaces, including through gardening and horticulture, can promote and protect good health, aid in recovery from illness and in managing poor mental and physical health.


Written Question
Compost: Peat
Wednesday 27th April 2022

Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)

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 with the horticulture and gardening industry to tackle regulatory and fiscal barriers to peat alternatives in growing media composts.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government has always been clear about the need to end the use of peat and peat-containing products in horticulture in England.

We have worked with the horticulture industry to develop a Responsible Sourcing Scheme for Growing Media, which allows manufacturers and retailers to make informed choices of growing media inputs to peat free products, based on environmental and social impacts.

We continue to support industry in their efforts to go peat free, this has included over £1 million on a project to provide the necessary applied science to help underpin the development and management of alternative growing media. We are co-funding monitoring with the horticultural industry on the composition of growing media (including peat) supplied for amateur and professional use in the horticultural market.

While there has been some progress, the voluntary approach to phasing out the use of peat in horticulture has not succeeded. The Government therefore published a full consultation on banning the sale of peat and peat-containing products in the amateur sector by the end of this Parliament in England and Wales. The Government also asked for any evidence stakeholders can provide on the impacts of ending the use of peat and peat-containing products, we will publish our response to this consultation in due course.

We will continue to work across Government, and the private sector, to find solutions that will enable the use of peat and products containing peat to end. This includes the ground-breaking work being conducted by Forestry England to reduce peat use within tree nurseries; and identifying regulatory barriers in respect of potential peat replacement products.


Written Question
Horticulture: Regional Planning and Development
Monday 28th February 2022

Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)

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 potential role of horticulture, including national plant collections, parks and gardens in delivering the Government's levelling up agenda from a cultural perspective.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra is leading the £5.77 million cross-Governmental project to test and evaluate green social prescribing in seven test and learn sites and to run national research work to understand its scalability. This can include the prescribing of gardening projects and activities in parks. We have also committed to treble tree planting rates in England, and bring trees closer to people, through trees on streets, in parks and urban orchards, supported through the Urban Tree Challenge and Local Authority Treescape Funds. In addition, Defra and Natural England are working with other partners and stakeholders to develop a Green Infrastructure Framework. This will show what good green infrastructure looks like, including parks, woodlands and community food growing.

In order to support all these initiatives, we will need a thriving horticulture sector to provide the necessary plants, flowers and trees, and we are looking at the opportunities and barriers that the horticulture sector faces to support sustainable growth in the sector, so that more of our plants and flowers can be sourced from our own domestic growers.

On national plant collections, Defra has also committed to funding a £15 million project to digitise a significant proportion of the Herbarium at Kew Gardens. The Herbarium is the world’s largest collection of plant and fungal specimens, with specimens collected over 170 years, including those collected by Charles Darwin. The significant injection of government funding will protect irreplaceable samples from deterioration and allow researchers from across the country and the globe to access the historic collection, help conserve nature and find solutions to some of the most critical challenges facing humanity.


Written Question
Horticulture: Coronavirus
Friday 15th May 2020

Asked by: Earl of Sandwich (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether horticulture is as critical to the national economy as agriculture; and whether they plan to treat horticulture equally to agriculture in their plans for economic recovery.

Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Government recognises the crucial role that all agricultural sectors are playing during this time.

As horticulture is part of the agricultural sector, impacts of COVID-19 on the horticulture industry are being overseen by the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group, which meets weekly to monitor UK agricultural markets and to provide forewarning of any atypical market movements. During the coronavirus outbreak, this has allowed Defra and the devolved administrations to share the latest stakeholder information and data to ensure we have an evidence base to assess the effects of COVID-19 on the agricultural industry, in specific markets, or geographical regions.

Officials are having regular meetings with the different agricultural sectors to understand the specific issues affecting each sector. It is clear that the coronavirus pandemic is having an impact on horticulture businesses up and down the country and the Government is acutely aware of the challenges facing parts of the industry at this time. We have been working closely with the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) on reviewing when and how garden centres can reopen safely and as of May 13th 2020, garden centres have been allowed to reopen. This will allow businesses to sell their products directly to the public once again and in doing so bring about the wider benefits to consumers, especially for physical and mental wellbeing, which gardening can bring. There is extensive ongoing engagement being undertaken by the department with representatives from the horticulture supply chain to capture emerging issues and to identify what short-term and long-term support the sector, as a whole, needs.

We will continue to monitor the situation and to work closely with the sector as restrictions are removed and recovery begins.


Written Question
Peat
Tuesday 3rd March 2020

Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)

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 page 45 of the 25 Year Environment Plan, what further measures he plans to bring forward to (a) phase out the use of peat in gardening composts and (b) ensure that the target to phase out the sale of retail peat by 2020 is met.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is committed to phasing out the use of peat in horticulture in England by 2030. In 2011 we introduced a voluntary target for amateur gardeners to phase out the use of peat by 2020 and a final voluntary phase-out target of 2030 for professional growers of fruit, vegetables and plants. While some progress has been made, we stated in the 25 Year Environment Plan that we would consider implementing further measures if there is insufficient movement to peat alternatives by 2020. We will set out our plans around the use of peat in horticulture in due course.

We are working with the industry to make the transition to peat alternatives and to overcome barriers to their use. This includes, for example, jointly funding research with the industry on peat replacements in professional horticulture.


Written Question
Horticulture: Education
Friday 28th July 2017

Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to promote the benefits of horticulture and gardening-based social activities (1) nationally, and (2) in schools and colleges, including as part of any reforms to the national curriculum; and if so, how.

Answered by Lord Nash

Almost all primary schools in England offer gardening based activities in one form or another. In primary, the National Curriculum for science sets out that pupils must be taught to identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants, including trees. It also recommends that schools should use the local environment throughout the year to explore and answer questions about plants growing in their habitat.

We have no plans to make changes to the National Curriculum, or to promote any specific subject. The Royal Horticultural Society, however, does great work to promote gardening in schools. Their campaign provides free resources to inspire and support schools to provide children with gardening opportunities.


Written Question
Mass Media: Subscriptions
Thursday 17th July 2014

Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what subscriptions to (a) magazines and (b) television channels his Department funds.

Answered by Dan Rogerson

a) Core Defra subscribes to the following magazines. Please note that these subscriptions are for the Private Office, Press Office and the Core Defra Library only.

Amateur Gardening

Angling Times

Country Life

Country Living

Economist

Farmers Guardian

Farmers Weekly

Field

Fishing News

Grocer

Harvard Business Review

Horticulture Week

House Magazine

ITI Bulletin

Material Recycling World

Meat Trades Journal

Poultry World

Ranger

Research Fortnight

Science

The Spectator

Veterinary Record

Veterinary Times

Waste Management & Research

b) Core Defra does not hold any subscriptions to television channels except for the Houses of Parliament TV channel; non-terrestrial television is received via Freeview.