Sustainable Farming Incentive
Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Baroness Boycott(2 weeks, 2 days ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The noble Baroness makes a really good point about the increasing intensification of farming, and that is something we do not want to see. Our focus has to be on high-quality sustainable food that we can buy locally, and on farmers being able to support the country. We said in our manifesto,
“food security is national security”
and that is very true. It is incumbent on us as the Government to look at how we deliver on that promise.
Baroness Boycott (CB)
My Lords, what seems to get missed in this is how little money every farmer in Britain makes out of food. In some instances, especially in dairy, they are making as little as a penny out of what we spend. Are the Government in their food strategy going to ask the supermarkets to be completely transparent about the amount of profits that they make and the supply chains that they operate? Will they ask them to start to implement much more local sourcing and a different kind of supply chain so that farmers, whom we are asking so much of, actually get paid for growing food for us?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
Fairness within the agricultural supply chain has to be a key priority for the Government, because we know that farmers have suffered under different pricing regimes, if you like, for many years. If we do not get it right, we will not be able to get the food security that we want as well, because if farmers are going to produce the food that we are asking them to produce, they have to know that they will be paid fairly for that food.
We are going to use powers in the Agriculture Act 2020 to introduce “fair dealing” regulations that will apply to businesses when purchasing agricultural products from farmers. There have also been new rules for the pig sector introduced to Parliament which ensure that contracts clearly set out expectations and that changes can be made only if agreed by all parties. This continues on from the work that the previous Government were doing, and I am sure that noble Lords opposite will be very supportive of it. Following on from that work on pigs, we are committed to bringing in regulations for eggs and fresh produce sectors, as previously proposed by the Government. If we need to intervene with other sectors, then we certainly need to look at that and see what needs to be done. As I said right at the beginning, we do recognise that this has been an issue for farmers, but we also need to look at how best we can support farmers to create that secure food sector that we so badly need as a country.
High Seas Treaty
Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Baroness Boycott(3 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Baroness Boycott
To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to introduce further measures to protect 30 per cent of oceans by 2030, and to ratify the High Seas Treaty agreed by the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)
My Lords, the Government have created a network of marine protected areas covering 40% of English waters, including the first three highly protected marine areas, which were designated in 2023. They are now focusing their efforts on ensuring that these areas are effectively conserved and managed. We have limited the use of damaging fishing gear in 60% of English MPAs and are now considering the next steps to manage bottom trawling. Legislation to implement the biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction agreement, sometimes referred to as the high seas treaty, will be introduced as soon as the legislative timetable allows.
Beaver: Reintroduction in England
Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Baroness Boycott(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Boycott (CB)
My Lords, I completely support the Government’s view on beavers and what the noble Baroness said about them bringing other species, but I will put in a plea for another wild species, which is the hare. At the moment, you can hunt and shoot hares 24/7, all through the year. We need to introduce a time, when hares are pregnant and breeding, when they are off the cards for people to shoot. This is really important, as the population of this majestic animal is dwindling rapidly. People in China are betting on hare coursing in Norfolk and places such as that, and they put cameras on the dogs to watch them tear the hares apart. This is truly shocking. It is an amazing, wonderful, beautiful animal.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
Of course, hare coursing is not allowed in this country. I congratulate the previous Government on tightening up the rules around this, which was really important. The particular issue around the shooting of hares is that there is not a closed season, which there is for other species. This is an anomaly, and we should look at it very carefully.
Biodiversity Net Gain
Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Baroness Boycott(4 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
I can confirm that we are planning to consult very shortly on applying biodiversity net gain to nationally significant infrastructure projects—NSIPs—without any broad exceptions.
Baroness Boycott (CB)
My Lords, in all the planning applications in the biodiversity net gain provisions, are the Government paying attention to the importance of corridors that allow nature to travel between different building sites? Otherwise, it gets too isolated and dies off.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The noble Baroness is right—corridors for wildlife are incredibly important. Many developments have to give due regard to removing hedgerows, for example, in order that they do not stop routes for wildlife such as dormice. It is extremely important and, on all developments, Defra is working with MHCLG to ensure that the environment is taken into full consideration.
Baroness Boycott (CB)
My Lords, is the Minister going to ban bottom trawling in marine protected areas?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
We are looking at bottom trawling at a site-specific level because there are different challenges in different areas. As I said, marine conservation is complex and has to take many things into account. There is quite a lot going on in this area and, if the noble Baroness wants to know the details, I am happy to send them to her or to meet to discuss this further.
Independent Water Commission
Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Baroness Boycott(5 months ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
As the noble Baroness is aware, the commission will not do anything that will impact on PR24—the price review that is due to report at the end of this year. I point out that this price review is £88 billion, as Ofwat has proposed. That is the largest investment that we have ever seen going into infrastructure. The Government were very keen that we had a really good infrastructure deal for PR24 so that we can start putting right some of the things that so badly need attention at this very early stage.
Baroness Boycott (CB)
My Lords, like everybody, I very much welcome this report. However, point 12 says that the Government are specifically ruling out looking at agriculture at the moment. Given that the public really worry about pollution and, particularly in the west of England, that so much pollution in our rivers and reservoirs comes from agriculture, when will the Government look at this? Will any further legislation come through separately from Defra to look at the waste that comes from chicken farms that affects the River Wye?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The situation in the River Wye is the most dreadful example of what can happen when you get too much run-off from agriculture. We are looking at what needs to be done around the River Wye in particular, but we are looking more broadly at how we manage pollution from agriculture. I met my colleague Daniel Zeichner, the Minister for Farming, only earlier today, and we discuss these issues on a regular basis. Although agriculture is in scope only where it interacts with water regulation, that does not mean that we are not serious about tackling the problem. It is a huge part of this; I think that over 40% of pollution in our rivers comes from agriculture. It is very much high on the Government’s agenda.
Waste: Incineration
Debate between Baroness Hayman of Ullock and Baroness Boycott(5 months, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
I do not consider the Government to be taking a leisurely approach on this aspect. What is really important is that we look at how we decarbonise our energy from waste facilities going forward. We have consulted on expanding the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to waste incineration and energy from waste, and we are taking on board the responses to that and will bring forward detailed final policy in due course. We plan to include energy from waste under decarbonisation readiness requirements.
Baroness Boycott (CB)
Currently, we are incinerating over a million tonnes of food waste a year, as well as 64,000 tonnes of potentially edible food that gets sent to anaerobic digesters; the latter in particular is a clear violation of the WRAP food hierarchy. What will the Government do to re-energise the WRAP campaign around food waste, which, for a while, seemed to work really well but now is very much on the back burner, and food waste is going up. As a redistribution charity, we could really do with that food.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
The noble Baroness makes a very good point around food waste: it is a real challenge. I know from talking to my counterparts in the department that, as part of our review of how we manage waste going forward, looking at food waste is critical, because there are so many different complex aspects to it, such as what is included, what is not included, and how we work with supermarkets and with local government. She is absolutely right to raise that issue and I will be discussing it further with my department.