Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 the National Disability Strategy published on 28 July 2021, which of her Department’s commitments in that strategy that have not been paused as a result of legal action have (a) been fully, (b) been partially and (c) not been implemented.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
In January 2022, the High Court declared the National Disability Strategy (NDS) was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations.
The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs had the following commitments included in the National Disability Strategy:
Work on the King Charles III England Coast Path is progressing with over 850 miles now open to the public. At 2,700 miles, when complete it will be the longest waymarked and maintained coastal walking route in the world. We are making the King Charles III England Coast Path as accessible as possible and have recently approved proposals that have included a brand-new wheelchair-friendly ramp to a popular seawall walkway in Essex, a 600m accessible boardwalk on the Wirral and significant improvements to a well-used stretch of the South West Coast Path which will improve the width, surface quality and gradient of the existing trail.
We are continuing work designating Wainwright’s existing coast to coast path across the North of England as a new National Trail by 2025.
Our Access for All programme has committed £14.5m of funding to make targeted access improvements in our protected landscapes, national trails, forests and the wider countryside, to help bring the benefits of spending time in nature to everyone. More than £3.5m has already been spent on making our protected landscapes more accessible, including on: resurfacing paths; replacement of stiles with accessible gates; new benches and resting stops; accessible viewing platforms and the provision of new all-terrain trampers to support disabled people to access the countryside. The Government has extended its Farming in Protected Landscapes programme to improve accessibility in our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including installing interpretation panels, replacing gates and stiles to improve access for people who use wheelchairs.
The Green Social Prescribing programme which closed in March 2023 achieved over 7,000 referrals to nature-based activities over the course of the programme, and the evidence suggests that the programme has had a very strong service take-up compared with traditional mental health support services. We are committed to supporting the scale-up of green social prescribing across England, as confirmed in our Environmental Improvement Plan.
We remain fully committed to supporting disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society. To support this, the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs will be providing further details of our recent achievements to improve disabled people’s lives in the forthcoming Disability Action Plan consultation due for publication in the summer.
Ahead of this, the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work will write providing a list of these achievements and will place a copy in the House Library.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
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 the National Disability Strategy published on 28 July 2021, which of her Department’s commitments in that strategy that have not been paused as a result of legal action have (a) been fully, (b) been partially and (c) not been implemented.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
In January 2022, the High Court declared the National Disability Strategy (NDS) was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations.
The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs had the following commitments included in the National Disability Strategy:
Work on the King Charles III England Coast Path is progressing with over 850 miles now open to the public. At 2,700 miles, when complete it will be the longest waymarked and maintained coastal walking route in the world. We are making the King Charles III England Coast Path as accessible as possible and have recently approved proposals that have included a brand-new wheelchair-friendly ramp to a popular seawall walkway in Essex, a 600m accessible boardwalk on the Wirral and significant improvements to a well-used stretch of the South West Coast Path which will improve the width, surface quality and gradient of the existing trail.
We are continuing work designating Wainwright’s existing coast to coast path across the North of England as a new National Trail by 2025.
Our Access for All programme has committed £14.5m of funding to make targeted access improvements in our protected landscapes, national trails, forests and the wider countryside, to help bring the benefits of spending time in nature to everyone. More than £3.5m has already been spent on making our protected landscapes more accessible, including on: resurfacing paths; replacement of stiles with accessible gates; new benches and resting stops; accessible viewing platforms and the provision of new all-terrain trampers to support disabled people to access the countryside. The Government has extended its Farming in Protected Landscapes programme to improve accessibility in our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including installing interpretation panels, replacing gates and stiles to improve access for people who use wheelchairs.
The Green Social Prescribing programme which closed in March 2023 achieved over 7,000 referrals to nature-based activities over the course of the programme, and the evidence suggests that the programme has had a very strong service take-up compared with traditional mental health support services. We are committed to supporting the scale-up of green social prescribing across England, as confirmed in our Environmental Improvement Plan.
We remain fully committed to supporting disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society. To support this, the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs will be providing further details of our recent achievements to improve disabled people’s lives in the forthcoming Disability Action Plan consultation due for publication in the summer.
Ahead of this, the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work will write providing a list of these achievements and will place a copy in the House Library.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has held discussions with law enforcement agencies on members of the public filming (a) police officers and (b) police station car parks.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Policing by its very nature can be a demanding job. The wellbeing of our police is a priority for this Government and it is vital that we protect our officers from any form of harassment, abuse or assault as they work bravely to protect our communities. We will continue to work closely with policing partners and help Chief Constables in their duty to support their workforce effectively.
There are no provisions in place which prohibit an individual from taking photographs or filming in public places. This extends to the filming of police officers and buildings unless the behaviour of the person filming represents a genuine security risk or risk to the personal information of staff to be misused.
Whilst individuals are not prohibited from filming in public places, behaviour which intentionally causes harassment, alarm or distress is prohibited under the Public Order Act 1986. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 also makes it a criminal offence to pursue a course of conduct amounting to harassment. Whether these offences apply to individual cases will depend on the circumstances.
The NPCC have released national guidance on persons recording police in public spaces. This also sets out the legislation that does apply when the officers suspect terrorism: NPCC Guidance.
The College of Policing have also published guidance as part of their Media Relations APP and the Public Order APP.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham 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 (a) access to and (b) safety in parks for women and girls.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
(a) As part of our commitment outlined in the Environmental Improvement Plan, we are actively working across government to ensure that everyone can live within a 15-minute walk of a green or blue space. This includes delivering policies such as completing the King Charles III England Coast Path, which will be the longest coastal walking route in the world and creating new open access land within the coastal margin; designating Wainwright’s coast to coast path across the North of England as a new National Trail; and Delivering the £9m Levelling Up Parks Fund to improve green space in over 100 disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
(b) The Government has invested £125 million through the Safer Streets and Safety of Women at Night Funds to make streets safer for women and girls, including in public spaces. The current round of the Safer Streets Fund, Round 4, focuses on tackling violence against women and girls in public places. It has allocated £50 million for 111 projects, supporting interventions such as enhanced street lighting, CCTV installation, bystander training programs, taxi marshals, and educational and awareness raising initiatives. These measures aim to create safer environments and enhance public safety, contributing to increased trust in the police and making communities feel safer. The Government is also supporting the Sex-Based Harassment in Public Bill which would make public sexual harassment a specific offence. The Department for Transport is revising the Manual for Streets guidance which will bring out more explicitly the role that measures such as better lighting and natural surveillance can play in helping women, particularly, feel safer.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to take steps to increase the number of playgrounds that are accessible to disabled children.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Through our national design guidance we encourage public spaces, including play areas, to be designed in an accessible and inclusive way.
The department is investing £9 million through the Levelling Up Parks Fund to regenerate green spaces across the UK as part of our Levelling Up agenda.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will also play a role in enabling local authorities to develop parks and open spaces to create greater pride in place through cleaner, greener and safer spaces, if places chose to fund these interventions.
The Government is currently developing its Disability Action Plan, which will set out the immediate action it will take in 2023 and 2024 to improve disabled people's lives, as well as laying the foundations for longer term change.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that police officers are able to tackle antisocial behaviour.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 27 March we published the ASB Action Plan. The ASB Action Plan commits to tackling ASB across five key themes: stronger punishment, making communities safer, building local pride, prevention and early intervention, improving data, reporting and accountability for action.
This plan is backed by £160m of funding. This includes up to £60m to fund an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. Initially we will work with 10 police force areas, including Cleveland, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales.
We are also providing up to £50m to support the provision of Immediate Justice, by issuing out of court disposals with conditions to swiftly repair any damage – the aim being for them to start within 48 hours of the offence. This will start in 10 initial trailblazer police force areas, including Cleveland and be rolled out across England and Wales from 2024.
As part of the Action Plan, we are also giving the police and local authorities more tools to tackle the problem – increasing on the spot fines for graffiti and fly tipping, filling empty shops, restoring local parks, and regenerating local green spaces.
Cleveland Police has recruited 267 additional uplift police officers against a total three-year allocation of 239 officers, as at 31 March 2023. Cleveland Police’s funding will be up to £162.1m in 2023/24, an increase of up to £5.1m when compared to 2022/23.
The Office for National Statistics annually publishes anti-social behaviour incidents reported to the police by Police Force Area and no further lower level breakdown is currently available. There are plans to publish new Community Safety Partnership (CSP) breakdowns later this year. The latest available data covering year to March 2022 can be found here: Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she is taking steps to create a network of shorter walks to encourage people to engage with walking.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
England has a fantastic network of paths with some 120,000 miles of linear access through England’s countryside, and we are taking steps to improve this further. For example, we are designating Wainwright’s Coast to Coast route across the north of England as a new National Trail, crossing some of our most precious national landscapes making it accessible to cyclists and horse riders where it is feasible to do so. One of the benefits of designating the route as a National Trail includes circular paths and link routes making the trail more accessible to those interested in taking shorter walks locally.
The Bridlington to Filey stretch of the King Charles III England Coast Path (KCIIIECP) was also recently opened, connecting thousands of people to the Yorkshire coast. Over 850 miles of the path are now open to the public, with over 2,000 miles having now been approved as KCIIIECP. The path links to many existing walking routes, increasing the number of shorter and circular routes available.
We are also improving the way in which rights of way are recorded by implementing a package of reforms to reduce bureaucracy and speed up the process for new rights of way to be added to the legal record for everyone to enjoy.
More broadly, we are taking steps to increase the availability of green and blue spaces for everyone to enjoy, which will also increase the availability of walking routes. In January, we announced a new commitment to work across government to help ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space. This commitment builds on work that is already happening across government. Initiatives such as DLUHC’s Levelling Up Parks Fund, Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework, DfT’s funding for active travel, and Defra’s Urban Trees Challenge Fund are all contributing already.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will take steps with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to help promote low-cost visits and stays in the natural environment for targeted groups with the purpose of supporting individuals' wellbeing.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Within Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (ES), we provide opportunities for school pupils and care farming clients to visit farms and engage with farming and the environment. There are approximately 800 live CS agreements and 500 live ES agreements offering educational access. We will continue to provide funding for educational purposes making it possible for more school pupils and care farming clients to access these nature rich environments.
The Department for Education launched the Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy for Education and Children’s Services in April 2022. The strategy includes the National Education Nature Park which will bring together all the land from across education settings into a virtual nature park enabling children and young people to get involved in taking practical action to improve the biodiversity of their setting. This will start to roll out from Autumn 2023 and is being delivered in partnership with the Natural History Museum, the Royal Horticultural Society and its prestigious partners. The Climate Action Awards will also provide opportunities to recognise the great work that young people and settings do to improve their local environment. A Natural History GCSE will also be introduced in 2025.
The Government is also providing funding to offer the Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE) to all mainstream secondary schools in England by 2025, allowing many more young people to benefit from this experience. DofE offers opportunities for young people to spend time in nature, including through an outdoor expedition away from home.
With funding from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund the 16-month Generation Green project connected young people to nature through new jobs, training, volunteering roles, residentials and outdoor and online learning experiences.
A number of England’s National Parks and AONBs are undertaking initiatives to provide opportunities to connect young people with nature.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on the potential merits of teaching (a) primary and (b) secondary school children about engagement with the natural environment.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Within Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (ES), we provide opportunities for school pupils and care farming clients to visit farms and engage with farming and the environment. There are approximately 800 live CS agreements and 500 live ES agreements offering educational access. We will continue to provide funding for educational purposes making it possible for more school pupils and care farming clients to access these nature rich environments.
The Department for Education launched the Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy for Education and Children’s Services in April 2022. The strategy includes the National Education Nature Park which will bring together all the land from across education settings into a virtual nature park enabling children and young people to get involved in taking practical action to improve the biodiversity of their setting. This will start to roll out from Autumn 2023 and is being delivered in partnership with the Natural History Museum, the Royal Horticultural Society and its prestigious partners. The Climate Action Awards will also provide opportunities to recognise the great work that young people and settings do to improve their local environment. A Natural History GCSE will also be introduced in 2025.
The Government is also providing funding to offer the Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE) to all mainstream secondary schools in England by 2025, allowing many more young people to benefit from this experience. DofE offers opportunities for young people to spend time in nature, including through an outdoor expedition away from home.
With funding from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund the 16-month Generation Green project connected young people to nature through new jobs, training, volunteering roles, residentials and outdoor and online learning experiences.
A number of England’s National Parks and AONBs are undertaking initiatives to provide opportunities to connect young people with nature.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on the potential merits of providing funding for (a) residential and (b) other school visits to nature rich environments.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Within Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (ES), we provide opportunities for school pupils and care farming clients to visit farms and engage with farming and the environment. There are approximately 800 live CS agreements and 500 live ES agreements offering educational access. We will continue to provide funding for educational purposes making it possible for more school pupils and care farming clients to access these nature rich environments.
The Department for Education launched the Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy for Education and Children’s Services in April 2022. The strategy includes the National Education Nature Park which will bring together all the land from across education settings into a virtual nature park enabling children and young people to get involved in taking practical action to improve the biodiversity of their setting. This will start to roll out from Autumn 2023 and is being delivered in partnership with the Natural History Museum, the Royal Horticultural Society and its prestigious partners. The Climate Action Awards will also provide opportunities to recognise the great work that young people and settings do to improve their local environment. A Natural History GCSE will also be introduced in 2025.
The Government is also providing funding to offer the Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE) to all mainstream secondary schools in England by 2025, allowing many more young people to benefit from this experience. DofE offers opportunities for young people to spend time in nature, including through an outdoor expedition away from home.
With funding from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund the 16-month Generation Green project connected young people to nature through new jobs, training, volunteering roles, residentials and outdoor and online learning experiences.
A number of England’s National Parks and AONBs are undertaking initiatives to provide opportunities to connect young people with nature.