Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1699982

registered interest
date	12/04/2024
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	Electronic Cigarettes: Environment Protection
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 impact on the environment of non-compliant vapes.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	20950
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>As confirmed by the Government response to the consultation on Creating a Smokefree Generation and Tackling Youth Vaping consultation, Defra is leading on implementing a ban on disposable or single-use vapes due to the environmental harm caused by these devices. On 11 March draft regulations were published along with an impact assessment, which set out the main environmental concerns. Single-use vapes are an inefficient use of finite raw materials, they are inherently difficult to recycle and are often discarded incorrectly. When littered they pose a risk to soil, water and biodiversity and are a fire risk when thrown into residual waste. A report published by Defra earlier this year provides a broader assessment of the environmental impacts of single-use vapes and can be found online here: <a href="https://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/ProjectDetails?ProjectId=21447" target="_blank">Analysis of the market for vapes: exploring the environmental impacts of single-use vapes - EV0157 (defra.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Defra has not made any environmental assessment of current non-compliant vapes.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Robbie Moore question first answered 23/04/2024 10:50:21 answering member 4861 label Biography information for Robbie Moore
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

1699986

registered interest
date	12/04/2024
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	Nature Conservation: Investment
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 estimate he has made of the level of private investment in (a) terrestrial and (b) marine nature recovery in the last year for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Bristol East
tabling member printed	Kerry McCarthy
uin	20930
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/04/2024 answer text <p>As set out in Mobilising Green Investment: 2023 Green Finance Strategy, we are committed to monitoring progress against our target to raise £1bn in private finance into nature’s recovery in England every year by 2030.</p><p> </p><p>The government has not produced an official annual estimate of private finance into nature’s recovery, as no reliable measures are yet in place. My department is developing a methodology for tracking this private finance. We will publish our first annual estimate, using this methodology, once data is available.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 18/04/2024 14:34:09 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	1491 label Biography information for Kerry McCarthy

1699987

registered interest
date	12/04/2024
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	Nature Conservation: 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, with reference to the target set in the Autumn Statement 2021 for private finance to support nature’s recovery, what proportion of the £1 billion relates to the marine environment.
tabling member constituency	Bristol East
tabling member printed	Kerry McCarthy
uin	20931
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/04/2024 answer text <p>The Government is committed to mobilising private finance into nature’s recovery in England against our target, both on land and at sea.</p><p> </p><p>We have not set specific targets for the terrestrial and marine environment respectively.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 18/04/2024 14:31:09 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	1491 label Biography information for Kerry McCarthy

1699277

registered interest
date	27/03/2024
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	Rights of Way: Scotland
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the merits of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and the viability of introducing similar provisions for England.
tabling member printed	Lord Browne of Ladyton
uin	HL3660
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/04/2024 answer text <p>With regard to access to the countryside, England has a comprehensive network of public rights of way and the public has the ‘right to roam’ over many areas of wild, open countryside. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 currently provides the public with a right of access to areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, registered common land and coastal margin in England. There are no plans to change this.</p><p> </p><p>The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is committed to ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space. As part of this we are completing work on the 2,700 mile King Charles III England Coast Path, and delivering the £16m Access for All programme across our protected landscapes, national trails, forests and the wider countryside to make access to green and blue spaces more inclusive.</p> answering member printed Lord Benyon question first answered 10/04/2024 11:07:11 answering member 1547 label Biography information for Lord Benyon
tabling member	620 label Biography information for Lord Browne of Ladyton

1699286

registered interest
date	27/03/2024
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	Rights of Way: Islands
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government why Natural England has not used its power to apply to the Secretary of State for creation orders to be made to create rights of way to inaccessible islands of public access land, under section 58 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
tabling member printed	Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
uin	HL3682
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/04/2024 answer text <p>By default, the power to create new public rights of way to reach open access land sits with local highway and access authorities, for use in any particular case where they consider there is a need for such a way and that making an order is expedient. The local authority is normally best placed to make these judgements in the light of all the local circumstances on the ground. We are aware though that the original mapping exercise under the 2000 Act focused on capturing areas as open country or registered common land, rather than on whether there was any legal way for members of the public to reach mapped areas in order to enjoy open-air recreation on them. We also recognised in a previous answer on 17 January that not all downland was mapped satisfactorily under the original exercise, and it appears that inaccessible ‘islands’ occur especially on that land type at present. Natural England will consider both issues when reviewing the open access maps. We have committed to ensuring that these are reviewed by the statutory deadline of 1 January 2031.</p> answering member printed Lord Benyon question first answered 08/04/2024 15:10:42 answering member 1547 label Biography information for Lord Benyon
tabling member	4297 label Biography information for Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

1699317

registered interest
date	27/03/2024
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	Fertilisers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the regulation, or other oversight, of the sale of plant biostimulants, including consideration of their efficacy, safety and ecological impacts.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL3653
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/04/2024 answer text <p>The existing UK regulatory regime for the manufacture and placing of fertilisers on the market in the UK is fragmented and in need of modernisation. There are currently no specific requirements for plant biostimulants in domestic fertilisers legislation. However, Defra intends to improve on this by consolidating and streamlining the statute book and putting in place a conformity assessment framework for fertilisers. The framework will smooth the route to market for new and innovative products which are less polluting to the environment or are less resource intensive in their creation.</p><p>To support reform of fertilisers legislation Defra has funded a review of the evidence for the safe and effective use of plant biostimulants and a review of methods for evaluating methods for verifying the efficacy of plant biostimulants.</p><p>The potential impact of a chemical on plant health, including soil microbiomes is already considered, as appropriate, as part of HSE’s robust risk assessment process for pesticides and for biocides. In our regulatory programmes we do not assess the impacts of chemicals specifically on human and animal microbiomes and are not currently considering the introduction of such measures.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 12/04/2024 10:10:43 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1699318

registered interest
date	27/03/2024
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	Chemicals: Regulation
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for incorporating into pharmaceutical, pesticide and other chemical regulation consideration of impacts on human, animal, plant and soil microbiomes.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL3654
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/04/2024 answer text <p>The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) operates a robust programme of regulating and monitoring medicines to ensure patients have access to safe and effective medicines. While the microbiome is still an evolving field, the MHRA is working to further our understanding on the impact of pharmaceuticals on the microbiome. Experts in MHRA are leading on international efforts to improve understanding of this area, for example through the development of World Health Organisation reference reagents for the microbiome.</p><p> </p><p>The potential impact of a chemical on plant health, including soil microbiomes is already considered, as appropriate, as part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)’s robust risk assessment process for pesticides and for biocides.</p><p> </p><p>The legislation around veterinary medicines makes it clear that when considering the authorisation of antimicrobial substances for use in animals, there should be consideration of the impacts on the human, target animal, and environmental microbiomes, including plants and soils.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 09/04/2024 11:12:25 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1698877

registered interest
date	26/03/2024
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	Climate Change: Investment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2024 to Question 19037 on Climate Change: Investment, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing an additional £3 billion per year for nature restoration for adaptation as set out in the report by the Climate Change Committee entitled Investment for a well-adapted UK, published on 1 February 2023; and how much funding his Department plans to provide for nature restoration and adaptation in each of the next ten years.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	20587
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/04/2024 answer text <p>Through the Environment Act 2021, the Government committed to the legally binding target of creating or restoring more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside of protected site by 2042. Taking actions for nature, including protecting our land and species, is also a core part of our third National Adaptation Programme.</p><p> </p><p>This Government is not currently planning to make an additional assessment around providing £3bn per year on nature restoration for adaptation and cannot commit to funding beyond the life of this parliament, but regularly reviews budgets as part of business planning and spending review decisions.</p><p> </p><p>Defra has guaranteed an average £2.4bn annual budget for the farming sector for the life of this Parliament. This includes paying farmers to restore valuable habitats such as lowland peat and to engage in sustainable agroforestry and wetland management, which will support adaptation to climate change. A range of bespoke funding also exists to support nature restoration. Our recently awarded Species Survival Fund is supporting 20 projects with £25m for habitat creation and restoration, while Natural England has launched 12 Nature Recovery Projects spanning over 300,000 hectares since 2022, with 13 more to come by 2025.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 18/04/2024 14:40:00 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1698927

registered interest
date	26/03/2024
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	Incinerators: Wisbech
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 discussions he has had with the Environment Agency on MVV Environment's proposals for an energy from waste plant in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	20642
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/04/2024 answer text <p>In my capacity as the Member of Parliament for North East Cambridgeshire, I met with former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my Rt. Hon friend, Thérèse Coffey, Defra officials and an Environment Agency official on 19 July 2023 to discuss the proposal for a waste incineration facility in North East Cambridgeshire.</p> answering member constituency North East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Steve Barclay question first answered 17/04/2024 17:18:13 answering member 4095 label Biography information for Steve Barclay
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1698928

registered interest
date	26/03/2024
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	Incinerators: Wisbech
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 publish all correspondence he has exchanged with the Environment Agency relating to MVV Environment's proposals for an energy from waste plant to be built in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	20643
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/04/2024 answer text <p>In my capacity as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, I have had no correspondence with the Environment Agency relating to MVV Environment's proposals for an energy from waste plant to be built in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.</p> answering member constituency North East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Steve Barclay question first answered 17/04/2024 17:17:10 answering member 4095 label Biography information for Steve Barclay
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed