Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2024 to Question 8811 on Land Drainage, what his expected timetable is for implementing Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010; and what (a) correspondence and (b) discussions he has had with local authorities on preparing for the implementation.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains firmly committed to delivering standardised sustainable drainage systems in new developments as stated in our Plan for Water (April 2023). A consultation will take place shortly and final implementation decisions will be made on scope, threshold and process.
Defra officials engage with local authority representatives on this issue on a regular basis. We would expect discussions to intensify during and following the upcoming public consultation.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his expected timetable is for publishing his Department's roadmap on household water efficiency.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We published our ‘Roadmap on water efficiency in new developments and retrofits’ in the Environmental Improvement Plan in 2023. This sets out 10 actions to achieve our statutory target to reduce water demand by 20% by 2038. Within this we committed to implementing a Mandatory Water Efficiency label by 2025, to enable consumers to identify water efficient products. In October 2023, the Government publicly committed to a spring consultation to fulfil the roadmap action to Review the Building Regulations 2010, and the water efficiency, water recycling and drainage standards (regulation 36 and Part G2, H1, H2, H3 of Schedule 1), considering industry competence and skills.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with water companies to help tackle leaks.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Reducing losses through leakage is an important part of maintaining secure supplies of water for customers now and in the future. Government is committed to reducing leakage and has set a statutory water demand target to reduce water demand per person by 20% by 2038. This includes reducing leakage by 37% by 2038, on a trajectory to a 50% reduction in leakage by 2050. Ofwat set out a £51 billion five-year investment package in the Price Review 2019, including requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% between 2020-2025. Ofwat will hold water companies to account for delivering leakage reduction targets, with financial penalties if they fail to meet them.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of clean air zones on levels of air pollution.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The latest air quality data was published in September 2023 as part of the 2022 National Compliance assessment, and is publicly available on the DEFRA UK Air website at the following link: Air Pollution in the UK report - Defra, UK. The 2022 Evaluation of Local NO2 Plans, published in February 2024, provides information regarding the impacts of clean air zones, and is publicly available on the DEFRA website at the following link: Evaluation of Local NO2 Plans - AQ0851 (defra.gov.uk)
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who is responsible for defining the content of storm overflow discharges.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Storm overflows are permitted by the Environment Agency (EA) following our published guidance. Discharges from storm overflows as are referred to as “storm sewage”, which in most part is the combination of “foul sewage” (domestic and trade wastewater) and “rainfall runoff”.
Under the Environment Act 2021, sewerage undertakers will be required to monitor sewerage assets and the impact they have on the local environment. In April 2023, we consulted on Continuous Water Quality Monitoring and Event Duration Monitoring. Our consultation response published in September 2023 detailed our plans for a new water quality monitoring programme, which will place a duty on water companies to publish near real time information on the impact of sewage discharges.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to take steps to test storm overflow water to ensure that it is accurately defined.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Storm overflows are permitted by the Environment Agency (EA) following our published guidance. Discharges from storm overflows as are referred to as “storm sewage”, which in most part is the combination of “foul sewage” (domestic and trade wastewater) and “rainfall runoff”.
Under the Environment Act 2021, sewerage undertakers will be required to monitor sewerage assets and the impact they have on the local environment. In April 2023, we consulted on Continuous Water Quality Monitoring and Event Duration Monitoring. Our consultation response published in September 2023 detailed our plans for a new water quality monitoring programme, which will place a duty on water companies to publish near real time information on the impact of sewage discharges.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason a storm overflow that is at least 95% rainwater is defined as raw sewage.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Storm overflows are permitted by the Environment Agency (EA) following our published guidance. Discharges from storm overflows as are referred to as “storm sewage”, which in most part is the combination of “foul sewage” (domestic and trade wastewater) and “rainfall runoff”.
Under the Environment Act 2021, sewerage undertakers will be required to monitor sewerage assets and the impact they have on the local environment. In April 2023, we consulted on Continuous Water Quality Monitoring and Event Duration Monitoring. Our consultation response published in September 2023 detailed our plans for a new water quality monitoring programme, which will place a duty on water companies to publish near real time information on the impact of sewage discharges.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the eligibility criteria for the Property Flood Resilience repair grant scheme changed from 25 affected properties to 50; and whether his Department made an assessment of the potential impact of changing the eligibility criteria on the number of properties that would no longer be eligible before making the change.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The activation of the schemes in 2019 and 2020 was based on a qualifying criteria of 25 homes per local authority (including District level).
Feedback from local authorities following those schemes suggested that some reported that they missed out on financial support under the 2019/20 activations of the FRF because they did not meet the 25 flooded homes threshold, but they would have qualified if all flooded properties (both domestic and commercial) were considered eligible, which disadvantage small rural district authorities due to property density in those areas.
As a result, the FRF was revised in 2021 and published on 28 October, recognising these issues. Eligibility was to be based on flooded properties, both domestic and commercial, across LLFA geographies.
The 50 flooded property threshold at LLFA area was introduced as part of the FRF and PFR Grant activation in respect of Storm Babet in October 2023, and has resulted in properties in many districts that would have been excluded under the previous threshold being able to participate.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the impact of maintaining the maximum flood resilience repair grant at £5000 on (a) levels of take up and (b) the type of property covered.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
When activated, the Defra PFR Repair Grant Scheme provides for up to £5000 as a contribution towards making a property more flood resilient. It is intended as a one-off payment to assist households and business to put place in measures that will provide greater resilience to future floods. It is not intended as compensation for flooding. Property owners can choose to add to the available grant to implement further PFR measures in their property.
There is a reasonable expectation that property owners will take steps, including having suitable insurance, which may now include an additional up to £10,000 for resilient repairs under the Build Back Better scheme.
The level of grant is kept under review and for the recent activations of the scheme we have increased the amount that can be claimed as part of the £5,000 grant to enable PFR surveys to be undertaken.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it remains his policy to increase Defra host funding for catchment partnerships.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Last year we announced in the Plan for Water to increase funding for catchment groups, to deliver tailored long-term catchment action plans to improve all water bodies in England. This remains the government’s policy.
The around 100 Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) Partnerships across England are critical partners in delivering many of the Government’s goals in the Environment Improvement Plan, including clean and plentiful water. At present the government annually provides approximately £1.7m funding to Catchment Partnerships as well as the CaBa National Support Group to deliver water outcomes on the ground. We also provide additional funding to Catchment Partnerships through the Water Environment Improvement Fund to deliver projects on the ground.
Additionally, earlier this month Defra launched the Water Restoration Fund, to which eligible Catchment Partnerships may apply for funding for projects to restore and enhance the water environment, using environmental fines and penalties collected from water and sewerage companies.