Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing a single reporting mechanism for farmers and land managers to report fly-tipping incidents.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Local councils are responsible for investigating most fly-tipping incidents, including those on private land. The gov.uk site has a single page entitled ‘Report Flytipping or Illegal Waste Dumping’ which directs people either to the relevant local authority via postcode search or to Crimestoppers, depending on the scale of what is being reported.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they are bringing forward to co-ordinate joint working between police forces to tackle fly-tipping.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Local authorities are responsible for investigating most fly-tipping incidents. Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG), through which we work with a wide range of interested parties, including local authorities and the National Police Chiefs Council, to share good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping.  The NFTPG has developed various practical tools including a guide on how councils can set up and run effective local partnerships, such as with the police, to tackle fly-tipping. These are available at: https://nftpg.com/.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to (1) bring forward new technologies for nutrient recovery, and (2) improve cross-body coordination of the monitoring of nutrient recovery.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We will soon be publishing the Circular Economy Growth Plan, which has been developed in collaboration with our industry-led Circular Economy Taskforce, over 1,000 external stakeholders, and cross-government officials.

The Growth Plan will set out how we will stimulate the investment in green jobs and vital infrastructure and innovation needed to turn materials that would otherwise become waste into economically valuable resources for businesses across England to support growth in sectors including: agri-food; built environment; chemicals and plastics; electrical and electronic equipment; textiles; and transport.  We recognise the importance of nutrient recovery, including bringing forward relevant new technologies and ensuring effective cross-body coordination of the monitoring of nutrient recovery. As we develop the Growth Plan and continue our work, we will consider the evidence for action right across the economy and evaluate what interventions may be needed.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase public awareness of the household waste duty of care and the responsibility of households not to pass their waste to a third party.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group which aims to develop and disseminate various practical tools on tackling fly-tipping. These include a guide on how local authorities can raise awareness of the household waste duty of care, which can help to prevent householders from giving their waste to a fly-tipper. The guide provides suggested messaging, including the impact of fly-tipping locally.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of integrated strategies which connect mental health services and skills training to employment support for young people.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The integration of services for young people is a key Government priority. We continue to assess how best to strengthen links between employment support, skills provision and mental health services. That is why we have announced the expansion of Youth Hubs to every area of Great Britian.

Youth Hubs are community‑based spaces where DWP Work Coaches work alongside local partners, such as colleges, local authorities, employers, youth organisations, and mental health providers, to deliver joined‑up support for 16–24-year-olds in one location outside of the job centre. We have also announced that all Youth Hubs will operate to a national minimum service blueprint, which sets out the core offer every young person should be able to access. This includes employment and skills support, links to wider training, mental health and wellbeing provision, housing and homelessness support, and strong employer engagement. The blueprint ensures consistency while allowing flexibility to tailor services to local needs

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve water quality monitoring; and how many water quality monitoring stations are currently in place.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government’s new White Paper sets out once in a generation reforms that will transform the water system, including improvements to water quality monitoring. It sets out our commitment to ending ‘operator self-monitoring’ and to developing a new strengthened Open Monitoring approach for monitoring wastewater.

The Environment Agency (EA) currently undertakes water quality monitoring at 13,000 locations each year. Water quality monitoring is set to expand significantly by 2030 with the introduction of continuous water quality monitors at 25% of all applicable storm overflows and waste treatment works, and the installation of event duration monitors at 50% of all emergency overflows.

More broadly, the EA is actively exploring the potential for innovation, integration of data collected by other organisations and citizen scientists, and other opportunities to improve water quality monitoring. The EA is planning to integrate new data with its own monitoring to improve its understanding of water quality.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what was the percentage change in the number of sewage discharges from sewage overflow from 2024 to 2025.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Water companies are required to submit their storm overflow Event Duration Monitoring return data for 2025 at the end of February 2026.