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1310508

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Fishing Vessels
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 fishing enforcement vessels are staffed and recorded in UK waters.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	184448
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2021 answer text <p>Fisheries control and enforcement is a devolved matter. Defra, the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive continue to work together to share information and ensure a coordinated approach to monitoring, compliance and enforcement across UK waters.</p><p> </p><p>In England, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) regularly reviews levels of enforcement capacity and the best options for delivering this based on its assessment of risk and available intelligence. At present, the MMO staffs two commercial enforcement vessels, along with additional fisheries enforcement provision by the Royal Navy. There is an established commercial framework in place, through which the MMO can procure additional surveillance assets at short notice if required.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 28/04/2021 13:34:12 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1310558

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Marine Environment: Finance
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 the Government will sign up to the UN Environment Programme's Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles.
tabling member constituency	Bristol East
tabling member printed	Kerry McCarthy
uin	184377
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/04/2021 answer text <p>The Government recognises the serious and increasing threats currently facing the ocean, and the disproportionate impact this has on the world’s poorest. That is why our manifesto committed to a £500 million Blue Planet Fund to help eligible countries reduce poverty and sustainably manage the ocean.</p><p>Beyond public investment, the Government recognises the importance of mobilising private finance to help tackle this issue. Though we have no immediate plans to sign up, we welcome the UN Environment Programme’s work to progress this agenda, including through the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 27/04/2021 15:03:39 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	1491 label Biography information for Kerry McCarthy

1310576

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Meat: Consumption
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 he has made of the potential merits of considering the production and consumption of cellular meat as part of the National Food Strategy.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	184426
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2021 answer text <p>In 2019, the Government asked Henry Dimbleby to carry out an independent review of the food system. Part one of that review was published in July 2020 and contained recommendations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic with chapters on trade, health and food insecurity. Part Two of the report will be published in Summer 2021 and will include a root and branch examination of the food system. The findings of the review will inform the Government’s food strategy, to be set out in a Food Strategy White Paper due to be published in the 6 months following the final report.</p><p> </p><p>The Food Strategy White Paper will support the development of a food system that is sustainable, resilient and supports people to live healthy lives. We recognise the importance of innovative approaches and novel technologies in this pursuit, and already have a base for the Food Strategy to build upon through the 2013 Agri-Tech Strategy and Defra’s Agricultural Transition Plan which was published on Monday 30th November 2020.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 28/04/2021 13:27:47 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1310578

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Gardens: Community Development
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 expand community garden kitchens in urban areas to increase food sustainability.
tabling member constituency	The Wrekin
tabling member printed	Mark Pritchard
uin	184400
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2021 answer text <p>Defra has committed in the 25 Year Environment Plan to introduce stronger new standards for green infrastructure and to support local authorities to assess local provision against these new standards. This includes greenspace such as community gardens. The Framework of Green Infrastructure Standards will help all local authorities, developers and communities to improve provision in their area.</p><p> </p><p>Later this year, the Government will produce a Food Strategy White Paper. This will support the development of a food system that is sustainable, resilient and affordable, and provide a response to Henry Dimbleby’s independent review of the food system, which is due to be published this summer.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 28/04/2021 15:23:12 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	1576 label Biography information for Mark Pritchard

1310607

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Rivers: Sewage
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 water companies on the discharging of raw sewage into English rivers.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Zarah Sultana
uin	184560
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/04/2021 answer text <p>Tackling the harm caused by sewer overflows is a top priority for this department.</p><p> </p><p>To achieve this, the new Storm Overflows Taskforce - bringing together Government, the water industry, regulators and environmental NGOs - has agreed to set a long-term goal to eliminate harm from storm overflows. The Taskforce is meeting regularly and working on plans to start making progress towards that goal, and they have commissioned research to gather evidence on the costs, benefits and feasibility of different options.</p><p> </p><p>We are also introducing new duties that will require the Government to publish a plan by September 2022 to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows and to report progress to Parliament on implementing that plan. We are also introducing duties requiring water companies and the Environment Agency to publish data on storm overflow operations on an annual basis. These legally binding obligations on water companies and Government will reduce pollution in rivers, protecting wildlife and public health.</p><p> </p><p>The Environment Secretary and the Environment Agency Chair have met with underperforming water companies to discuss how Government and industry can work together to drive better environmental performance. The Environment Secretary has set out clear expectations for water companies to improve their environmental performance in the future. I have also met water company CEOs and made clear that the volume of sewage discharged into rivers and other waterways in extreme weather must be reduced.</p><p> </p><p>Water companies are committed in the five-year business planning period (2020-25) to a significant programme of improvements to the monitoring and management of storm overflows at a cost of around £1.1 billion. This investment includes undertaking 800 investigations and 798 improvement schemes to provide environmental improvements by reducing spills from frequently spilling overflows.</p><p> </p><p>With regards to penalties and enforcement, the Environment Agency currently regulates water companies in their operation of storm overflows to ensure they only discharge under strict permitted conditions. Where discharges occur outside of these conditions, the Environment Agency investigates and takes appropriate action, which includes enforcement action if necessary.</p><p> </p><p>Environment Agency action has resulted in 48 prosecutions against water companies in the last six years, securing fines of £35 million. £10.4 million has also been donated to environmental and wildlife trusts organisations in the same period through enforcement undertakings, a voluntary agreement which will include a donation to environmental charities to restore any harm done. The Environment Agency will continue to take enforcement action against water companies which fail to uphold the law or cause serious environmental harm.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 26/04/2021 13:44:19 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4786 label Biography information for Zarah Sultana

1310610

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Incinerators
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 announce a moratorium on the incineration of waste to help meet the Government’s climate objectives.
tabling member constituency	East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow
tabling member printed	Dr Lisa Cameron
uin	184484
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2021 answer text <p>Waste is a devolved area of policy.</p><p> </p><p>There are no plans to announce a moratorium on the incineration of waste in England.</p><p> </p><p>Through the Resources and Waste Strategy we committed to monitoring residual waste treatment capacity. The Government intends to revisit waste projections to help understand future residual waste infrastructure capacity needs, taking account of waste prevention measures, our high recycling ambitions and municipal waste landfill reduction goals. This capacity analysis will also help us to further develop our preferred options for residual waste treatment as we move towards a circular economy and focus on delivering our net zero ambitions.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 28/04/2021 13:50:11 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4412 label Biography information for Dr Lisa Cameron

1310611

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Incinerators
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 the Government’s policy is on waste incineration.
tabling member constituency	East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow
tabling member printed	Dr Lisa Cameron
uin	184485
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2021 answer text <p>Waste is a devolved area of policy.</p><p> </p><p>Government’s ambition for the future of waste management in England, as set out in the Resources and Waste Strategy, is to ensure that we preserve material resources through a reduction in the generation of waste and by moving towards a circular economy. We also want to manage any residual waste in a way that maximises its value as a resource whilst minimising environmental impacts.</p><p> </p><p>Our view is that waste incineration with energy recovery should not compete with greater waste prevention, re-use or recycling, however, it does play and should continue to play an important role in diverting waste from landfill and is generally the best management option for most residual waste.</p><p> </p><p>The Resources and Waste Strategy also set out an ambition to increase the efficiency of energy from waste (EfW) plants, by encouraging use of the heat the plants produce and working with industry to increase the number of EfW plants that are formally recognised as achieving recovery status.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 28/04/2021 13:53:14 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4412 label Biography information for Dr Lisa Cameron

1310619

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Eggs: Sales
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 plans to ban the sale of eggs produced from caged hens.
tabling member constituency	East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow
tabling member printed	Dr Lisa Cameron
uin	184493
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2021 answer text <p>The Government is examining the future use of cages for all laying hens and I welcome the commitment from our major retailers, with positive support from our egg producers, to stop retailing eggs from enriched colony cage production systems by 2025. I am pleased to state that the UK already has a much larger free-range sector by far than any EU country, with over 50% of our hens kept in free range systems.</p><p> </p><p>The UK is rightly proud of the high animal welfare standards we expect of our farmers. In examining the future use of cages, we will consider the most appropriate tools available to ensure our animal welfare objectives are achieved.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 28/04/2021 13:32:37 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	4412 label Biography information for Dr Lisa Cameron

1310632

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Hill Farming
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 assessment his Department has made of the effect of the Agricultural Transition Plan 2021 to 2024 on (a) uplands and (b) hill farming businesses.
tabling member constituency	Westmorland and Lonsdale
tabling member printed	Tim Farron
uin	184405
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2021 answer text <p>I recognise that the uplands and hill farming businesses face specific issues and challenges. That is why we have designed policies to allow for a managed adjustment, a seven-year transition, that will give farmers and land managers, including in upland areas time to adapt to the changes.</p><p> </p><p>We published two assessments, one in 2018 and again in 2019, and we are planning to publish further analysis by autumn this year. This will analyse farm incomes and how these will change between now and 2027.</p><p> </p><p>Our latest preliminary findings are consistent with previous analysis that is publicly available, and we find that uplands farmers are reliant on Direct Payments, to the extent that their Direct Payments make up essentially all of their annual profit or farm business income.</p><p> </p><p>The analysis also shows that there are opportunities for upland farmers. For instance, uplands farmers currently receive a relatively high proportion of their income through environmental land management environment payments. They are therefore well placed to benefit as more public money is provided through such schemes. In designing these schemes, we know that the payment rates need to be attractive to achieve the levels of uptake and environmental outcomes we need to see as well as set at a fair rate.</p><p> </p><p>There is significant potential for upland farmers to reduce costs and improve businesses practices and we are providing grants and targeted resilience support to facilitate that, as well as investing in longer term measures such as research and development. We also anticipate rent adjustments which could benefit upland tenant farmers.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 28/04/2021 13:30:40 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	1591 label Biography information for Tim Farron

1310648

registered interest
date	20/04/2021
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	Neonicotinoids
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason an emergency authorisation for the use of neonicotinoids on sugar beet was approved when the Health and Safety Executive recommended in their advice to the Government that that request for use be refused.
tabling member constituency	Cambridge
tabling member printed	Daniel Zeichner
uin	184478
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/04/2021 answer text <p>The Government is committed to the neonicotinoid restrictions put in place in 2018 and to the sustainable use of pesticides. Specific requirements for granting an emergency authorisation are laid out in pesticide regulations. In assessing whether the requirements are met, the decision maker considers the benefit of granting an emergency authorisation against an assessment of the potential harm from the proposed use of the product, taking into account the proposed conditions. This specific exemption refers to a non-flowering plant, grown in the East of England only, and we took advice on this from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Expert Committee on Pesticides and our own Chief Scientific Adviser.</p><p>The HSE advised that many aspects of the environmental risk assessment met the requirements for standard authorisation. The Government concluded that the remaining risks identified could be mitigated to an acceptably low level and that, with the strict conditions of use in place, these were outweighed by the substantial benefits to crop production from the use of Cruiser SB if 2021 were to be a year of high pest pressure. One of the conditions attached was to ensure that the product would only be used if the pest pressure was predicted to pass a certain threshold. Ultimately, this threshold for usage was not met and so the neonicotinoid was not used on sugar beet crops.</p><p>The reasons for the decision to issue this emergency authorisation for the product Cruiser SB were set out more fully in the <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fpublications%2Fneonicotinoid-product-as-seed-treatment-for-sugar-beet-emergency-authorisation-application%2Fstatement-on-the-decision-to-issue-with-strict-conditions-emergency-authorisation-to-use-a-product-containing-a-neonicotinoid-to-treat-sugar-beet&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cemma.pryor%40defra.gov.uk%7C8d4819b0c588470e29de08d90650c6a5%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C1%7C0%7C637547766262669364%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=EJ6TrihcPebj8mU0C1UCWujqDdBzeJLbYea6KSeEnts%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">Statement on the decision to issue - with strict conditions - emergency authorisation to use a product containing a neonicotinoid to treat sugar beet seed in 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 26/04/2021 15:32:59 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	4382 label Biography information for Daniel Zeichner