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1700475

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
	answering dept id	217
	answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
	answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
	hansard heading	BBC: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to have discussions with the Welsh Government on the BBC Funding Model Review.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	21362
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/04/2024 answer text <p>The Terms of Reference for the BBC Funding Model Review set out that the review would undertake close engagement with the devolved administrations, including the Welsh Government, as appropriate. As part of the review’s evidence gathering exercise, evidence requests have already been sent to the Welsh Government, alongside the other Devolved Administrations. The Government intends to continue engaging the Welsh Government, and relevant broadcasting stakeholders in Wales, as the review progresses.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 19/04/2024 11:54:07 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1698543

	registered interest
	date	25/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Water Abstraction: Licensing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to reform the abstraction licensing regime in England.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	20368
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/04/2024 answer text <p>As set out in the Plan for Water, Defra and the Environment Agency are undertaking a programme of changes to modernise abstraction licensing in England. We are working to move the water abstraction licensing system into the Environmental Permitting Regime. This will provide a modern, consistent and flexible legal framework upon which the management of abstraction can be developed to meet the needs of today and the future.</p><p> </p><p>Alongside the legislative changes, the Environment Agency is modernising its digital systems to maximise the opportunities the new legislation provides. This will bring new functionality to improve the way abstraction is managed, including a water abstraction eAlerts system which provides notifications directly to farmers. As the environment and our climate changes, the Environment Agency is adapting its policies in response. The Environment Agency has recently produced a regulatory position statement setting out how flood water can be abstracted for the benefit of abstractors but ensuring that the environment is protected.</p><p> </p><p>The Environment Agency is also undertaking a refresh of the National Framework for water resources, which looks at how best to manage water resources across England. Through this, abstractors from all sectors will come together to identify water needs and the best way of meeting them.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Robbie Moore question first answered 15/04/2024 13:46:37 answering member 4861 label Biography information for Robbie Moore
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1698544

	registered interest
	date	25/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Agriculture: Water Abstraction
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to improve the collection of data in agricultural water use.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	20369
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/04/2024 answer text <p>The Environment Agency regulates water abstraction in England. The information provided therefore relates to England only.</p><p> </p><p>The Environment Agency’s ‘Managing Water Abstraction Service’ enables abstraction licence holders to submit records of how much water they had taken electronically rather than on paper. The Environment Agency estimates quicker, and easier submission of returns data digitally saves abstractors £247k each year. Some 95% of returns now come into the Environment Agency digitally.</p><p> </p><p>Defra is working on rolling out a Water Farm Practices Water Survey involving crop types and volumes of water used. This will be an extension of the annual farming practices survey, which provides a snapshot of the farming landscape across England. It will give an opportunity to update data last collected in 2010 on agricultural water management.</p><p> </p><p>Natural England is this week due to report on its latest phase of Catchment Sensitive Farming water advisory visits in the Southwest of England.</p><p> </p><p>As part of the Prime Minister’s commitment at last year’s Farm to Fork Summit Defra has funded an agriculture project on supply demand balances which have been piloted in Cambridgeshire and will be rolled out to wider parts of England. The water data from this work will be used to update the next round of Regional Water Resource Plans on agriculture water requirements (together with the Environment Agency’s Water Resources National Framework which will be published next spring). A sister project funded by Defra will also include agriculture water use data to assess and screen local resource options (such as reservoirs and rainwater harvesting) to help groups of farmers improve their water resilience.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Robbie Moore question first answered 15/04/2024 12:02:38 answering member 4861 label Biography information for Robbie Moore
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1698545

	registered interest
	date	25/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Agriculture: Water Abstraction
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of making provision of data on water use rates a requirement for agricultural water licences.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	20370
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/04/2024 answer text <p>The Environment Agency regulates water abstraction in England. The information provided therefore relates to England only.</p><p> </p><p>The Environment Agency assesses water use for agriculture as part of the abstraction licence application process both when it first grants an abstraction licence and at renewal. The Environment Agency uses the following guidance to assess water need and use rates: <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Foptimum-use-of-water-for-industry-and-agricultural-dependent-on-direct-abstraction&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cpqteam%40defra.gov.uk%7Ca30c8fab4829427b970308dc4e4ebfd3%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C638471347325942629%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=r%2Bnp3JhkjH2OOlmpk6JLxmlAO%2BZAbBV3lIkuhDvxTTM%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">Optimum use of water for industry and agricultural dependent on direct abstraction - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The Environment Agency already receives information about how much water is used under abstraction licences in England. All ‘full’ abstraction licences must include requirements to measure or assess the amount of water abstracted. Licence holders must keep a record of how much water they abstract available for inspection. Licences that authorise the abstraction of 100 cubic metres per day or more must also send a return to the Environment Agency of how much water they have abstracted. The Environment Agency uses this information to assess compliance with licences and the environmental effects of abstraction. It also uses information about past usage to determine whether a time limited abstraction licence should be renewed on the same terms or for example have its quantities reduced.</p><p> </p><p>The Environment Agency collates information about abstraction from all sectors and makes it available to Defra in a report called ‘ABSTAT’. The Environment Agency is currently producing an update to the ABSTAT report and will provide it to Defra in due course.</p><p> </p><p>Defra and the Environment Agency are working to move the water resources licensing regime into the Environmental Permitting Regime (EPR). Under EPR, abstraction data will become public register information.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Robbie Moore question first answered 15/04/2024 09:53:05 answering member 4861 label Biography information for Robbie Moore
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1697883

	registered interest
	date	21/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that the use of AI in benefit fraud investigations does not discriminate against vulnerable people.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	19927
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2024 answer text <p>The Department does not use AI in its benefit fraud investigations.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 26/03/2024 11:55:00 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1695150

	registered interest
	date	11/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Free School Meals: Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the eligibility threshold for means-tested free school meals for Universal Credit recipients in line with (a) inflation and (b) national living wage increases.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	18017
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2024 answer text <p>Over 2 million pupils are currently eligible for benefits based free school meals (FSM). Close to 1.3 million additional infants receive free and nutritious meals under the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy.</p><p>A threshold must be set somewhere, and the department believes that the current eligibility threshold level, which enables pupils in low-income households to benefit from FSM while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.</p><p>The department does not have plans to change the current eligibility conditions for FSM. However, the department continues to keep eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 19/03/2024 12:24:45 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1692702

	registered interest
	date	29/02/2024
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	British Nationality
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason it is his policy that a person born between 2 October 2000 and 29 April 2006 is only considered to have British citizenship at birth if their British citizen father was married at the time of their birth to their EU citizen mother.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	16407
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2024 answer text <p>Between 1 January 1983 and 30 June 2006, a child could only obtain British citizenship through their father if the parents were married. The law changed on 1 July 2006 to allow a person to acquire citizenship through their father, irrespective of whether the parents were married, subject to proof of paternity.</p><p>The 2006 change only affects children born after 1 July 2006: the earlier law continues to apply in relation to people born before that date. The change was not made retrospective, to avoid altering a person’s status after their birth without allowing them to make an informed choice about acquiring British citizenship.</p><p>A person born before 1 July 2006 can register as a British citizen if they would have become a British citizen automatically had their parents been married. Those applying under this route do not have to pay a registration fee.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 08/03/2024 10:25:50 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1691787

	registered interest
	date	26/02/2024
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Environmental Land Management Schemes
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farmers had agreements under the Environmental Land Management Scheme as of 26 February 2024.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	15721
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2024 answer text <p>As of 26 February, the Rural Payments Agency had offered 14,035 Sustainable Farming Incentive (including SFI Pilot, SFI 2022 and SFI 2023) agreements with 12,903 accepted and 48,665 agreements under the Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship schemes. Farmers can have more than one agreement in schemes.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, from the launch of the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme (July 2021) to the end of 2022/23 (March 2023), there were over 5,000 farmers and land managers engaged in the programme and over 2,500 projects approved.</p><p> </p><p>Further to this, there are also 22 projects in Round One of the Landscape Recovery Scheme, with a combined total of 266 landowners and 51 tenant farmers. There are 34 projects in Round Two of the Landscape Recovery Scheme; however, the number of landowners and tenant farmers cannot be confirmed yet, as they are currently being enrolled onto the scheme.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Mark Spencer question first answered 01/03/2024 16:58:31 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1691791

	registered interest
	date	26/02/2024
	answering body	Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
	answering dept id	215
	answering dept short name	Energy Security and Net Zero
	answering dept sort name	Energy Security and Net Zero
	hansard heading	Biofuels: Carbon Capture and Storage
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the use of woody biomass as feedstock for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage on (a) global land use and (b) the availability of land for growing crops.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	15722
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/03/2024 answer text <p>To ensure that bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) delivers genuine negative emissions, Government will require that only sustainable biomass is used. The 2023 Biomass Strategy included an assessment of sustainable biomass availability to the UK (including woody biomass), to support the UK’s net zero target. The availability of sustainable woody biomass was estimated using updated modelling which included considerations of global land use to exclude unsustainable changes, as well as accounting for wider land use pressures such as food security and biodiversity.</p> answering member constituency West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine answering member printed Andrew Bowie question first answered 04/03/2024 07:36:00 answering member 4601 label Biography information for Andrew Bowie
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1691792

	registered interest
	date	26/02/2024
	answering body	Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
	answering dept id	215
	answering dept short name	Energy Security and Net Zero
	answering dept sort name	Energy Security and Net Zero
	hansard heading	Biofuels: Electricity Generation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she made of the potential implications for the proposals in her Department's consultation entitled Transitional support mechanism for large-scale biomass electricity generators, published on 18 January 2024, of the recommendation on page 142 of the report by the Climate Change Committee entitled Biomass in a low-carbon economy, published on 15 November 2018.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	15723
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/03/2024 answer text <p>The Government is consulting on a possible transitional support mechanism to support the transition of large-scale biomass generators to power BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage). The Government values Power BECCS as a vehicle for delivering significant volumes of CO2 removals to support our Carbon Budgets and Net Zero targets. We will continue to consider relevant recommendations from the CCC and other parties when determining next steps; no decision has been taken at this stage.</p> answering member constituency West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine answering member printed Andrew Bowie question first answered 04/03/2024 07:32:49 answering member 4601 label Biography information for Andrew Bowie
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake