Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Baroness Parminter, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
Baroness Parminter has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Baroness Parminter has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The Minister for the Cabinet Office has already agreed with the Commissioner for Public Appointments that the appointment of the Chair of the Office for Environmental Protection is treated as a regulated public appointment and that it is a significant appointment. The appointment of the current Chair was treated in this way.
The Government continues to evaluate the use of environmental labelling, with a view to stimulating demand for better quality items and services. This includes exploring the evidence base for environmental labelling within food production and disposal. Further, the Government has committed to introduce mandatory water-efficiency labelling to encourage consumers to buy products which avoid water wastage and reduce energy demand for heating the water. The Government is also exploring the use of labels that inform consumers of the durability, repairability and recyclability of products.
The Government is considering adding the Office for Environmental Protection as a Prescribed Person for whistleblowing disclosures and work is underway to confirm that it satisfies the relevant criteria.
Athlete welfare is vitally important to all sports, and my department works closely with UK Sport to strengthen policy in this area wherever possible. UK Sport is committed to ensuring that athlete welfare is at the heart of all Olympic and Paralympic sports and the national governing bodies (NGBs) they fund. UK Sport has a dedicated integrity unit and conducts an annual Culture Health Check survey that monitors athlete welfare and enables any issues to be picked up and addressed.
In terms of providing care and support to individuals with an eating disorder, UK Sport works in partnership with the English Institute of Sport (EIS). In 2018 the EIS and UK Sport announced a Mental Health Strategy for the high performance system aimed at ensuring that all people within it have the best opportunity to have positive mental health, and high quality care when required. The Mental Health Referral Programme (MHRP) provides specialist primary and secondary care services to elite athletes who are struggling with a wide range of mental health issues including depression, stress, anxiety, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders and addictions.
Defra’s consultation on food and catering policy sought views on a number of proposals to update the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services. This included ways of meeting the Government’s manifesto commitment encouraging the public sector to procure British food to support the environment, animal welfare and our farmers. We will publish the consultation findings, alongside updated standards and guidance later this year. Whilst it is too soon to pre-empt any specific findings at this stage, the final policy will be compliant with the Government’s domestic and international obligations, including under the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Government Procurement.
The consultation on public sector food and catering policy attracted a wide range of responses, and we are considering the impact of this feedback on our initial proposals. We will publish the consultation findings, alongside updated standards and guidance later this year, to showcase sustainable, high welfare, quality produce consumed in the public sector.
Disposable vapes are considered to be electrical products and fall within scope of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations. Businesses placing more than 5 tonnes of disposable vapes onto the UK market have a financial obligation to fund the collection and recycling of waste disposable vapes. The regulations also set minimum recycling targets for waste electrical equipment. We will shortly be consulting on reviewing these regulations with a view to introducing measures aimed at driving up levels of collections of waste electricals, including vapes, to ensure more of these products are properly recycled.
The reforms explored in the Nature Recovery Green Paper have fed into the government’s Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), our delivery plan for protecting nature. A summary of responses to the Green Paper will be published separately.
Any substantive changes to the legislative framework governing protected site designations, which includes both European sites and SSSIs, would require legislation and therefore follow normal parliamentary process and scrutiny.
Defra is in the process of confirming the full list of retained EU law (REUL) held by the Department. Until this work is complete, it is not possible to provide precise figures on Defra’s REUL. Defra will continue to publish new REUL to the public dashboard which will be regularly updated.
HM Government is committed to protecting 30% of land and sea in the UK by 2030 (30by30). We consulted on our approach to 30by30 in the Nature Recovery Green Paper earlier this year and are now working at pace to develop the assessment criteria, in line with international standards, that will inform what land will count towards 30by30.
We expect land recognised as Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs), meeting our assessment criteria, to play a part in achieving this ambitious commitment. For OECMs to count, we know that they need to be effectively managed and deliver positive outcomes for biodiversity. We continue to explore next steps for identification and classification of OECMs in England.
Defra engages with business, civil society and land management partners on an ongoing basis, both on individual policies and on the development of the Environmental Improvement Plan as a whole. This engagement will continue over the coming months.
Parliamentary scrutiny of the draft Policy Statement concluded in June. Consideration of the feedback received from Parliament is still ongoing.
JNCC’s seventh Quinquennial Review report provides the Secretary of State with independent scientific advice on proposed changes to Schedules 5 and 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act. We are required to publish recommendations and advice received from JNCC, before both Houses of Parliament under Section 24(3) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act. We will consider the recommendations carefully and the Government’s response before aiming to publish JNCC’s advice later this year.
The Government has committed to funding all new burdens on local authorities arising from the Environment Act, including those due to the biodiversity duty on public authorities, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs).
The intention of the strengthened duty, though, is not to oblige public authorities to incur additional costs, but for them to consider seriously how they can improve biodiversity through the exercise of their functions. We anticipate that the principal way in which local authorities discharge their biodiversity duty will be through the actions taken to deliver mandatory BNG or LNRSs. We also expect that, in considering any additional action they can take above and beyond BNG and LNRSs, local authorities can consider ways to benefit biodiversity in a cost-neutral manner and work with other sectors; we will provide guidance to help with this.
Defra recently announced £4 million to help Local Planning Authorities, and other local authorities with planning oversight, to prepare for BNG which will become mandatory in November 2023. The funding will help Local Planning Authorities expand ecologist resource and upskill ecologist teams.
Local Nature Recovery Strategies are a new, England-wide system of spatial strategies that will 1) identify areas of existing importance for nature, including in urban areas, and 2) establish priorities and map proposals for specific actions to drive nature's recovery and provide wider environmental benefits.
The coronavirus pandemic has underlined the important benefits to public health and wellbeing from access to nature and green spaces. The Government expects that public authorities will wish to use the process of creating their Local Nature Recovery Strategy to also identify opportunities to increase access to nature whilst supporting its recovery.
The Government has committed to funding all new burdens on Local Authorities arising from the Environment Act. This includes those relating to the preparation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs). We have considered Wildlife and Countryside Link’s estimates, alongside the feedback from the 5 LNRS pilots that finished in May 2021.
Following the spending review settlement, Defra is working through spending plans for the next three years, including by working closely with local Government organisations to determine the level of additional capacity required to implement the Act effectively.
Defra will share further details of the resources that will be made available for implementing Local Nature Recovery Strategies in the coming months.
In pursuit of high ambition outcomes for CBD COP15, Defra engages with a range of UK stakeholders including representatives from academia, the private sector, NGOs, and other interested parties, to gain valuable input from a wide range of sources.
As part of this engagement, a business advisory group has met several times to consider the draft global biodiversity framework, its implementation across the private sector, and the role of business in mainstreaming biodiversity.
Representatives of the business advisory group are:
The interim and long-term targets due to be set under the Environment Act will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Long-term targets will be set in statutory instruments subject to the affirmative procedure and our first suite of targets will be brought forward by 31 October 2022. Both Houses of Parliament will have the opportunity to scrutinise, debate and vote on the details and ambition of these targets.
We will be carrying out a public consultation on proposed long-term targets in early 2022. We will write to the chairs of the appropriate Select Committees in both Houses to update them before this launches.
Interim targets for the first suite of long-term targets will be included in the updated Environmental Improvement Plan, which be laid before both Houses of Parliament for scrutiny in early 2023.
The interim and long-term targets due to be set under the Environment Act will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Long-term targets will be set in statutory instruments subject to the affirmative procedure and our first suite of targets will be brought forward by 31 October 2022. Both Houses of Parliament will have the opportunity to scrutinise, debate and vote on the details and ambition of these targets.
We will be carrying out a public consultation on proposed long-term targets in early 2022. We will write to the chairs of the appropriate Select Committees in both Houses to update them before this launches.
Interim targets for the first suite of long-term targets will be included in the updated Environmental Improvement Plan, which be laid before both Houses of Parliament for scrutiny in early 2023.
The England Trees Action Plan (ETAP) sets out our long-term ambition to increase woodland creation and management in England. As part of this, we want to support a thriving nursery sector, and are working with them to upskill and expand our domestic workforce and monitor labour requirements.
Planting, establishing and managing trees in rural and urban settings requires skills, technical knowledge, and people to put those into practice. The ETAP includes support for higher technical and professional education routes into the forestry sector, improved links with allied sectors such as arboriculture, agriculture and horticulture, and the creation of a new Forestry Skills Action Plan for England that will raise the profile of forestry careers amongst school leavers and career changers.
The ETAP also committed to funding to support UK public and private sector nurseries and seed suppliers to enhance quantity, quality, diversity and biosecurity of domestic tree production through means including capital grants and support to augment investment and stimulate innovation.
We will publish the response to the consultation on the Environmental principles draft policy statement later in the year. We received 216 responses to the consultation and have been considering them carefully over the summer and alongside the passage of the Environment Bill.
This information is not available. Quantifying adaptation plans in UK cities to respond to climate change impacts is a complicated and time-consuming process, and information can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Government recognises that some innovative new packaging types, like biodegradables plastics, could help reduce the environmental impact of plastic, when used in niche applications and if disposed of in the right way. However, the Government is concerned that, in the absence of robust standards, claims about the biodegradability of plastic-based products cannot be verified.
The Government published a call for evidence in July 2019 to help consider the development of standards or certification criteria for bio-based, biodegradable and compostable plastics, as well as to better understand their effects on the environment and our current waste system. The Government response was published on the 8th April which can be found on gov.uk.
Following consideration of the submissions we received the Government is minded to introduce a ban on oxo-degradable plastics, subject to further evidence and a public consultation.
The Prime Minister and many Cabinet members are entitled to protection; this service is provided by the Metropolitan Police. One member has their own arrangement for transport with a private hire company. The Department for Transport does not hold information on the cars they are provided with.
The Government Car Service (GCS) provides a Departmental Pool Car service to Departments as a shared resource. The remaining members that attend Cabinet will have access to cars provided by GCS including battery electric and petrol electric hybrid models.
In 2021, the UK delayed the implementation of the UK MRV (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Emissions) regime, to allow time to establish a new UK digital system for reporting maritime CO2 emissions data. Since January 2022, ship operators have been required to collect and verify their emissions data, to be reported once the new system is operational.
The UK is committed to building consensus to ensure international shipping keeps pace with the Paris goal of 1.5°C degrees and is championing a 2050 target of zero emissions.
While we cannot provide specific comment on success criteria during ongoing negotiations, the UK is working to ensure the Marine Environment Protection Committee agrees a strengthened revision of the 2018 IMO greenhouse gas reduction strategy this July.
The following table shows the information requested on specialised inpatient beds for eating disorder patients:
| England | North of England | Midlands and East of England | London | South of England |
Children and young people | 238 | 27 | 125 | 50 | 36 |
Adults | 400 | 129 | 97 | 99 | 75 |
Total | 638 | 156 | 222 | 149 | 111 |
Source: NHS England
Notes:
No specific assessment has been made. However, in 2019 the public call for evidence to inform the development of the autism strategy sought views on autistic people’s access to post-diagnosis support as an element of a stepped care system. This found that 34% of autistic respondents and 46% of carer respondents said they did not receive support after diagnosis.
In 2021/22, we provided £31 million to improve community services for autistic people and people with a learning disability services. This included £7 million to test and implement timely, quality autism diagnosis and post-diagnosis pathways. Additionally, we are investing £69 million in 2022/2023 to prevent avoidable admissions and improve community support for autistic people and people with a learning disability.
No formal assessment has been made. However, we are carefully considering the report’s recommendations.
Further details about the measures on weight management announced in Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives will be available later in the year.
Diagnosing and treating eating disorders is an important area of medical practice. It is included within the curriculum for training all doctors, including for general practitioners, where most eating disorders initially present and in more depth within training for psychiatry, particularly child and adolescent psychiatrists.
The following table provides data on the number of inpatient beds for eating disorders for adults and for children and young people.
| Total bed base | Adult eating disorder beds | Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services eating disorder beds1 |
England | 648 (national total) | 400 | 248 |
North of England (North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humber) | 157 | 129 | 28 |
Midlands and East of England | 203 | 97 | 106 |
London | 162 | 99 | 63 |
South of England (including Wessex) | 126 | 75 | 51 |
Source: NHS England
Note:
1Some children and young people with eating disorders are treated in general child and adolescent mental health services.
The UK defence estate includes 171 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) covering 81,266 hectares (ha). SSSIs are designated and assessed differently between all four countries.
Country | Number of SSSIs | Total Hectares (ha) covered |
England | 129 | 68,500 |
Wales | 18 | 4,766 |
Scotland | 22 | 6,911 |
Northern Ireland | 2 | 1,089 |
In England 34,366 ha is deemed by Natural England to be in Favourable condition.
In Wales, 3,632 ha is deemed by Natural Resources Wales to be in Appropriate Conservation Management.
Scotland includes 22 SSSIs covering 6,911 ha. This includes 148 separate SSSI features. 121 are deemed by NatureScot to be in Favourable condition and six are in Unfavourable recovering condition.
Northern Ireland includes two Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) covering 1089 ha. This includes 12 separate ASSI features,10 of which are deemed by Northern Ireland Environment Agency to be in a Favourable condition with two in an Unfavourable recovering condition.