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1023199

	registered interest
	date	11/12/2018
	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 Supply
	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 his Department has taken to improve water management in areas affected by (a) water shortages and (b) drought.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	201093
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/12/2018 answer text <p>The Environment Agency (EA) continues to support flexible abstraction for agriculture to support winter reservoir storage, irrigation and crop lifting. 60% of the 150 applications have been agreed this year. The EA continue to work with the National Farmers’ Union to help farmers prepare for 2019 through developing advice and running local drop-in surgeries to help farmers review their abstraction licensing needs.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Water companies are following their drought plans. The EA continues to work closely with them to ensure they are taking actions in a timely manner. Such actions include awareness campaigns for their customers to use water wisely, reduce leakage, make changes to their network operations and seek additional water through applying for drought permits. Two companies (United Utilities and Yorkshire Water) have applied for drought permits since July.</p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 17/12/2018 11:00:42 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

1023200

	registered interest
	date	11/12/2018
	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 Supply
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans to introduce financial incentives to encourage on-farm reservoirs to tackle water shortages in affected areas.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	201094
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/12/2018 answer text <p>The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) Countryside Productivity Scheme offered grants towards the costs of constructing on-farm reservoirs. This scheme was open for applications between July 2017 and June 2018.</p><p> </p><p>The Agriculture Bill sets out the foundations for our future farming policy. The Bill includes powers to give financial assistance for a number of purposes. These purposes include managing the land or water in a way that protects or improves the environment, and improving the productivity of an agricultural, horticultural or forestry activity.</p><p> </p><p>We will continue to work closely with farmers, land managers, and other stakeholders as we develop our proposals for future schemes.</p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 17/12/2018 09:34:02 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

1023202

	registered interest
	date	11/12/2018
	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 Supply
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans to increase investment in (a) the UK’s medium-term weather and (b) real-time water availability forecasting capability for farming to support drought planning.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	201106
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/12/2018 answer text <p>BEIS is the lead department on matters regarding weather and the Met Office.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Met Office weather predictions feed into the UK Hydrological Outlook which describes likely river flows and groundwater levels over the coming season and is used to support flood and drought risk assessments and adaptation planning. The Met Office also supports the National Drought Group, of which the National Farmers Union (NFU) is a partner, by providing briefing on the latest seasonal outlook.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Environment Agency (EA) is developing a digital water resources licensing service. A pilot to make river information available in near real time was successfully undertaken this year in priority catchments. Current plans are to implement this across the country ahead of summer 2019 to enable more abstractors to manage their water abstraction during periods of prolonged dry weather. This is an enhancement to current support to abstractors, for example provision of advice and daily river flow data by phone or email.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 17/12/2018 17:52:57 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

760960

	registered interest
	date	14/09/2017
	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 Charges
	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 measures he has put in place to deal with trends in the level of personal debts to water companies after the introduction of universal credit; and what plans he has to introduce a mandatory social tariff to help customers who cannot afford their water bills.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	105260
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/10/2017 answer text <p>Water companies have in place a number of measures to support those customers who are in debt or may be struggling to pay their water bill. The support offered can vary but includes short term concessions such as payment holidays or crisis breaks, debt write-off schemes, charitable trust grants and social tariffs.</p><p> </p><p>All water companies have put in place social tariffs that provide a discounted bill to qualifying customers. This follows guidance issued by the Government in 2012 that encourages water companies to develop social tariff schemes in consultation with their customers. The Government believes that companies are best placed to develop social tariffs to reflect local needs and views.</p><p> </p><p>WaterSure is a national mandated tariff that all water companies have to provide to qualifying customers. The aim is to support metered customers on a low income who have unavoidably high water use either for health reasons or because they have 3 or more children.</p><p> </p><p>Most recently, the Government has introduced data sharing provisions under the Digital Economy Act that will enable water companies to better identify those customers who may need help paying their water bill.</p><p> </p><p>The Consumer Council for Water offers support and advice to all customers of water companies. This includes advice about organisations and charities who may be able to offer them a grant to help them out of debt.</p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 13/10/2017 11:39:33 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

1109348

	registered interest
	date	03/04/2019
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will review the water abstraction plan.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	240474
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/04/2019 answer text <p>The Government will review its abstraction plan in 2021. A report to Parliament on the progress on abstraction since 2014, will be published later this year.</p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 08/04/2019 12:59:05 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

810118

	registered interest
	date	20/12/2017
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to give the Environment Agency additional resources to carry out the inspection of water abstraction licences as a result of the Government's announcement of changes to the licensing system of 27 November 2017.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	120584
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/01/2018 answer text <p>The Environment Agency will use income from abstraction licensing charges to resource this work.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 08/01/2018 18:32:44 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

820723

	registered interest
	date	11/01/2018
	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	Waste: Exports
	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 (a) amount and (b) proportion of municipal waste collected as recyclable waste is exported.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	122141
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/01/2018 answer text <p>Data on exports of waste materials generally is published by HMRC and is available at the following link <a href="https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Pages/Home.aspx" target="_blank">https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Pages/Home.aspx</a></p><p> </p><p>In 2015 the UK exported 14 million tonnes of scrap materials (recyclable materials left over from product manufacturing and consumption, which had a monetary value including textiles, rubber, plastic, paper, copper, aluminium, nickel, lead, zinc, tin and ferrous metals (Digest of waste and Resources Statistics 2017 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/607416/Digest_of_Waste_and_Resource_Statistics__2017_rev.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/607416/Digest_of_Waste_and_Resource_Statistics__2017_rev.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p>Data is not held in the specific format requested.</p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 19/01/2018 16:27:29 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

1016280

	registered interest
	date	28/11/2018
	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	Waste: Crime
	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 enforcement undertakings for waste crime the Environment Agency has undertaken in each of the last three years; how many resulted in successful prosecution; and what fines were imposed in each case if the sums were greater than £10,000.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	196686
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/12/2018 answer text <p>Enforcement Undertakings (EUs) are a civil sanction and constitute a voluntary offer made by offenders, containing actions to address the cause and effect of their offending. Where an EU is accepted it becomes a legally binding agreement. The Environment Agency is increasingly using EUs for suitable cases to restore or enhance the environment, improve practices of the offending business and ensure future compliance with environmental requirements.</p><p> </p><p>Over the past 3 calendar years for waste-related offences the Environment Agency has accepted:</p><p> </p><ul><li><p>2016 30 EUs accepted, contributing £858,195.69 towards environmental projects;</p></li><li><p>2017 32 EUs accepted, contributing £1,027,423.53 towards environmental projects; and</p></li><li><p>2018 (to date) 27 EUs accepted, contributing £597,022.43 to environmental projects.</p></li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p>EUs are one type of enforcement measure the Environment Agency considers and it will only do so for cases where prosecution is not appropriate using its published Enforcement and Sanctions Policy to guide its approach. However prosecutions will still be taken, particularly in the most serious cases.</p><p> </p><p>The Environment Agency have undertaken the following waste prosecutions in the last 3 years:</p><p> </p><ul><li><p>2016 152 waste prosecutions, of which 129 were successful</p></li><li><p>2017 129 waste prosecutions, of which 115 were successful</p></li><li><p>2018 (to date) 79 waste prosecutions, of which 73 were successful</p></li></ul><p> </p><p>I attach details of each case for each time period where the fines imposed exceeded £10,000.</p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 03/12/2018 14:59:10 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey attachment 1 file name Copy of Waste Prosecutions - Fines over 10k - 2016-2018 (to mid Nov).xls title Details of fines over £10,000
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

788424

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2017
	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	Waste Management
	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 discussions he has had with the Local Government Association and individual local authorities on their progress on waste minimisation.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	112673
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2017 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">Surveys for black grouse are generally carried out at country level, but vary in frequency and sampling methods. It is therefore not possible to provide estimates at the UK level for the last five years.</del></p><p> </p><p><del class="ministerial">The last comprehensive survey of the black grouse population was undertaken in 2005, which estimated there were approximately 5100 breeding pairs in Great Britain.</del></p><p> </p><p><del class="ministerial">In 2016 a formal estimate of the black grouse population in Great Britain was produced by several UK conservation bodies drawing on the data produced by country level surveys and using the International Union for Conservation of Nature methodology. The 2016 population of black grouse was estimated to be 5775 males (or breeding pairs).</del></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">I and Defra officials regularly meet with representatives of the Local Government Association and individual local authorities to discuss issues relating to household waste management. These discussions encompass actions taken across the entire waste hierarchy, including waste minimisation.</ins></p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 17/11/2017 16:40:29 question first ministerially corrected 20/11/2017 15:04:00 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey previous answer version 23193 answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew

805168

	registered interest
	date	12/12/2017
	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	Waste Management
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the study, From Waste to Resource Productivity.
	tabling member constituency	Stroud
	tabling member printed	Dr David Drew
	uin	118840
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2017 answer text <p>The Government Office for Science published the report “From Waste to Resource Productivity” authored by the former Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Mark Walport, and co-authored by Professor Ian Boyd, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 14 December 2017. It can be accessed online on GOV.UK.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 19/12/2017 17:23:20 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	252 label Biography information for Dr David Drew