Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will increase funding to the Environmental Agency to help tackle illegal operators in the (a) metals recycling and (b) waste and recycling sector.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Waste regulation is a devolved matter. Following our consultation on reform of the waste exemptions regime in England and Wales we plan to remove the T9 exemption for the recovery of scrap metal and the U16 exemption for using vehicle parts dismantled from end-of life vehicles. These operations will now require an environmental permit.
My Department has made no assessment of the potential impact of waste crime on the waste and recycling sector or the UK economy. Research for the Environmental Services Association (Counting the Cost of UK Waste Crime, 2021) estimated that waste crime costs the economy in England £924 million in 2018/19.
The Government has provided an additional £10 million per year for the Environment Agency to tackle waste crime. This additional funding has been invested into three key areas of waste crime – tackling illegal waste sites, illegal dumping and illegal exports.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help make it easier to recycle packaging waste.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following support at public consultation, the Environment Act 2021 introduced new requirements for all local authorities in England to make arrangements for a core set of materials to be collected for recycling from all households: paper and card; plastic; glass; metal; food waste and garden waste. All businesses in England must make ar-rangements to recycle the same set of recyclable materials, with the exception of garden waste. In 2021 we consulted on the detail of this policy, including implemen-tation dates and materials in scope of collection – we will publish a consultation re-sponse shortly.
Additionally, we intend to increase the amount of packaging that can be recycled. By March 2027, the government will require the collection of plastic film packaging for recycling from all households and businesses.
To make recycling easier, packaging producers will be required to label packaging as ‘Recycle’ or ‘Do Not Recycle’ adopting a single label format which incorporates the Recycle Now symbol. All primary and shipment packaging (except for plastic films and flexibles) will be required to be labelled by 31 March 2026. An additional year will be permitted for plastic films and flexibles (31st March 2027) to align with the re-quirement for local authorities and businesses to have recycling collections in place for these materials.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve water quality in Hertfordshire.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Improving water quality remains a government priority. We have set new targets under the Environment Act to address major pressures on water. This will significantly reduce pollution from agriculture, wastewater treatment works and abandoned metal mines pollution.
In August 2022 HM Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. We have increased the number of storm overflows monitored across the network from 10% in 2015 to almost 90% now monitored, and we will reach 100% cover by end of this year. It is this increase in monitoring which has revealed the extent of the sewage discharge problem, rather than the problem becoming worse over the years.
Water company investment in environmental improvements has been scaled up to £7.1 billion over the period 2020-25. This includes £3.1 billion invested in storm overflow improvements on approximately 800 storm overflows, 8 of which are in the Hertfordshire and North London area. In Hertfordshire, actions water companies take during this planning period will improve or protect over 200km of watercourse and support meeting Water Framework Directive objectives.
HM Government has doubled the budget of the Catchment Sensitive Farming partnership to £15m per year and provided new funding to the Environment Agency (EA) to increase farm inspections to at least 4,000 inspections a year in 2023. The EA works with local farmers across Hertfordshire to mitigate and prevent agricultural pollution. EA teams have visited 15 farms in the Hertfordshire and North London area already this year.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure (a) the preservation of national treasures and (b) that a greater proportion of those treasures are placed on public display.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We are committed not only to preserving national treasures but to making sure that the public have the greatest possible access to them. In support of that aim, we have announced our plans to introduce a new class of treasure under the Treasure Act 1996, which will be the subject of debate in both Houses.
The current definition of treasure is limited mainly to finds made of precious metals: the proposed new class will extend that definition to base metal finds of outstanding historical, archaeological or cultural importance. This will mean that finds such as the Crosby Garrett Helmet will be offered to accredited museums to acquire, rather than being lost to private ownership. We are also introducing a revised Code of Practice which will make the treasure process clearer and easier to negotiate.
In addition, we have a number of statutory schemes like the UK’s export licensing system for cultural objects which includes measures which seek to prevent national treasures from being permanently exported abroad by providing an opportunity for acquisition by a UK buyer committed to ensuring public access. Alongside that we also have the Cultural Gift and Acceptance in Lieu schemes – tax rebate schemes which seek to encourage people to donate national treasures to public institutions.
The care, protection, access and display of cultural property is the responsibility of museums. Programmes like the £4 million DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund help enable this, providing funding for museums to open up their galleries and collections more for public access as well as DCMS’s £82 million Museum Estate and Development Fund, which is helping scores of regional museums to undertake essential maintenance and safeguard access to their buildings and collections.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress her Department has made on the reduction of levels of pollution caused by harmful metals from abandoned mines in rivers.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Defra Sponsored Water & Abandoned Metal Mines (WAMM) Programme was established in 2011 in partnership with the Environment Agency and the Coal Authority. The programme currently operates three mine water treatment schemes which tackle the pollution caused by contaminated groundwater flowing out of drainage tunnels dug by the miners. These schemes decrease pollution levels in 20Km of rivers by capturing around 140 tonnes of the Environment Act target substances each year along with about 600 tonnes of iron. A number of diffuse interventions have also been completed to tackle the pollution caused by rainfall washing metals out of contaminated wastes the miners left at the surface. These interventions are designed to decrease pollution levels in a further 80km of rivers.
The new legally binding abandoned metal mines water target will deliver a ten-fold increase in the WAMM programme, upscaling the existing three treatment schemes with 40 more by 2038, to tackle pollution by six substances: arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc. Collectively, these have been referred to as “harmful metals”. The delivery plan for this target is outlined on page 119 of the Environmental Improvement Plan.
Two new mine water treatment schemes are under construction and will start operating in 2023 (the Nent Haggs scheme in the North East and the Coombe scheme in Cornwall).
More information on the WAMM Programme can be found at the .GOV pages on Metal Mine Water Treatment and Cleaning up rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
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 offering patients routine NHS testing for poisoning from heavy metals and volatile organic compounds when poisoning is suspected.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has made no assessment of the potential merits of offering patients routine National Health Service testing for poisoning from heavy metals and volatile organic compounds when poisoning is suspected.
Testing for heavy metals where diagnosis of heavy metal poisoning is a possibility may include blood testing, 24-hour urine collection, long bone X-ray in children and chest X-ray as listed in the following link:
https://patient.info/doctor/heavy-metal-poisoning#ref-4
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on the Resources on Waste Strategy ambition to reduce the amount of plastics ending up in landfills.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In October 2020 we legislated to prevent the incineration or landfilling of certain separately collected material, including plastic, paper, metal and glass, unless it has undergone a treatment process first and only if landfill or incineration is the best environmental outcome. This is in addition to existing permit conditions that already prevent acceptance of recyclable material at landfills and waste incinerators.
We also want to make recycling easier. Following support at public consultation, the new s45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 stipulates that all local authorities in England must make arrangements for a core set of materials to be collected for recycling from households, including plastic packaging. In April last year, we brought in the Plastic Packaging Tax. This will stimulate increased levels of recycling and collection of plastic waste. The introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility in 2024 will also encourage businesses to think carefully about how much plastic packaging they use, to design and use plastic packaging that is easily recyclable and encourage use of reusable and refillable packaging. These measures will reduce plastic waste and divert plastic packaging away from landfill and incineration.
We have restricted the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds and introduced a carrier bag charge which has reduced the use of single-use carrier bags in the main supermarkets by over 97%. More recently we announced the supply of single-use plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and beverage containers will also be banned in England from October this year.
We are committed to going further and addressing other sources of plastic pollution, which is why we also ran a call for evidence to help us gather information to help inform future policy on other problematic plastic items and help inform future policy making. Our response can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/single-use-plastic-banning-the-supply-of-commonly-littered-single-use-plastic-items/outcome/summary-of-responses-and-government-response.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps her Department has taken to reduce single-use plastic waste.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In October 2020 we legislated to prevent the incineration or landfilling of certain separately collected material, including plastic, paper, metal and glass, unless it has undergone a treatment process first and only if landfill or incineration is the best environmental outcome. This is in addition to existing permit conditions that already prevent acceptance of recyclable material at landfills and waste incinerators.
We also want to make recycling easier. Following support at public consultation, the new s45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 stipulates that all local authorities in England must make arrangements for a core set of materials to be collected for recycling from households, including plastic packaging. In April last year, we brought in the Plastic Packaging Tax. This will stimulate increased levels of recycling and collection of plastic waste. The introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility in 2024 will also encourage businesses to think carefully about how much plastic packaging they use, to design and use plastic packaging that is easily recyclable and encourage use of reusable and refillable packaging. These measures will reduce plastic waste and divert plastic packaging away from landfill and incineration.
We have restricted the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds and introduced a carrier bag charge which has reduced the use of single-use carrier bags in the main supermarkets by over 97%. More recently we announced the supply of single-use plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and beverage containers will also be banned in England from October this year.
We are committed to going further and addressing other sources of plastic pollution, which is why we also ran a call for evidence to help us gather information to help inform future policy on other problematic plastic items and help inform future policy making. Our response can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/single-use-plastic-banning-the-supply-of-commonly-littered-single-use-plastic-items/outcome/summary-of-responses-and-government-response.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
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 help ensure that businesses separate recyclable waste from general waste.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We want to increase the recycling of packaging material, food and other recyclable material in the ‘non-household’ municipal sector, which includes businesses, public organisations (e.g. schools, universities, hospitals and government buildings) and other organisations. This will help us to increase the amount of material that we recycle and reduce the amount of waste that we send to landfill.
Following support in response to initial consultation, the Environment Act 2021 stipulates that all businesses will be required to arrange for the collection of a core set of materials (glass; paper and card; plastic; metal; and food waste) for recycling in England
In 2021 we published a second consultation on recycling consistency. This consultation sought views on increasing consistency in recycling, including on the materials in scope of collection; exemptions; statutory guidance for waste collectors and cost reduction options for micro firms.
We are finalising our policy positions and analysis for impact assessment – we aim to publish the consultation response soon.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
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 improve water quality in the River Tyne.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water quality in the River Tyne is influenced significantly by historical metal mines in the region. Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) are working in partnership with the Coal Authority on the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines Programme. The River Tyne is a priority for action. The Nent Haggs mine water treatment scheme, expected to start operating in summer 2023, will capture up to 3 tonnes of zinc and cadmium each year and improve water quality in 60km of rivers. The similar scale Nenthead mine water treatment scheme is also being developed. This year, contaminated sediment containing about 0.3 tonnes of zinc, lead and cadmium was removed from two check-weirs, in the River Nent and River West Allen, decreasing the amount of metals accumulating in the Tyne Estuary sediments.
In August, we also launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows of any government. Our new strict targets will see the toughest ever crack down on sewage spills and will require water companies to secure the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. Our Plan will protect biodiversity, the ecology of our rivers and seas, and the public health of our water users for generations to come.
The EA will not hesitate to take the strongest enforcement action against polluters – up to and including prosecution, when this is required. The EA is currently conducting 2 investigations into pollution entering the River Tyne and both investigations have the potential to result in a prosecution.