Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential for using Grade 5 agricultural land for carbon capture.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Agriculture remains the largest land use in the UK, with an estimated 77% of the total area of the UK used for agricultural purposes, and therefore has substantial potential to contribute to the UK’s tree planting goals, by converting marginal or unproductive land into new woodland without taking good agricultural land out of use.
In the Government Food Strategy we committed to publish a Land Use Framework for England in 2023, which will help to inform how we manage trade-offs and tensions on the land. The Framework will support the delivery of resilient, multifunctional landscapes, which will be dependent on the local context and needs.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many acres of agricultural land which were previously being farmed were set aside for rewilding in (1) 2018, (2) 2019, (3) 2020, (4) 2021, and (5) 2022.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government does not instruct farmers to ‘set aside’ land for rewilding. We are phasing out subsidies so that we can invest the money in policies that work for farm businesses, food production and the environment. We are co-designing our reforms with farmers and, as we said in the Agricultural Transition Plan, the intention of our environmental land management schemes is to be flexible and to provide more choice and control to farmers.
The government is supporting a number of initiatives to create wilder landscapes across England, as part of a broader approach to nature recovery. However, rewilding is not appropriate in all situations, and we must balance priorities including food production.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of acres of Grade 4 agricultural land that could be used for planting trees; and what consideration they have given to providing incentives to owners to use such land for that purpose.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Forestry is a devolved matter and so unless otherwise stated this answer relates to England only. Our analysis has shown there are over three million hectares of low-risk land available for woodland creation. This analysis has identified areas of low sensitivity for woodland creation – areas which have few or no known constraints for new woodlands, excluding protected landscapes and priority habitats, amongst other sensitivities. This analysis includes grade 4 agricultural land but does not separate it from other sensitivities as woodland creation needs to be considered in its context. We are providing new and innovative incentives like the England Woodland Creation Offer to help land managers make woodlands part of their business where this is appropriate.
Agriculture remains the largest land use in the UK, with an estimated 77% of the total area of the UK used for agricultural purposes, and therefore has substantial potential to contribute to the UK’s tree planting goals, by converting marginal or unproductive land into new woodland without taking good agricultural land out of use.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many passengers on the Dartmoor Line used the re-opened Exeter to Okehampton railway in each month for the past year.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Below is a table that shows how many passengers on the Dartmoor Line used the re-opened Exeter to Okehampton railway in each rail period from April 2022 onwards.
Rail Period (four weekly) | Okehampton journeys |
2301 – starts 1 April 2022 | 10,406 |
2302 – starts 1 May 2022 | 12,090 |
2303 – starts 29 May 2022 | 18,441 |
2304 – starts 26 June 2022 | 18,305 |
2305 – starts 24 July 2022 | 18,068 |
2306 – starts 21 August 2022 | 23,519 |
2307 – starts 18 September 2022 | 18,772 |
2308 – starts 16 October 2022 | 22,411 |
2309 – starts 13 November 2022 | 24,952 |
2310 – starts 11 December 2022 | 12,757 |
2311 – starts 8 January 2023 | 21,418 |
2312 – starts 5 February 2023 | 25,548 |
2313 – starts 5 March 2023 | 22,867 |
2022/2023 total | 249,554 |
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans under the ‘Restoring your Railway’ initiative to open other railway stations on the Dartmoor Line in addition to the second station planned in Okehampton Parkway.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
West Devon District Council was awarded up to £13.455m Levelling Up Funding in January this year to develop the West Devon Transport Hub, including Okehampton Parkway station. There are no plans to open any other stations on the Dartmoor Line.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to re-opening the railway line from Exeter to Holsworthy and Bude.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The proposed project was assessed as part of the Restoring Your Railway programme after a bid was made under the third round of the programme’s Ideas Fund. The assessment concluded that the project was not appropriate for funding through the Restoring Your Railway programme. Feedback was provided to the sponsoring MPs and promoter in October 2021.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the differences in environmental and animal welfare standards in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and the impact of these differences on British farmers, given the UK–Australia and UK–New Zealand free trade agreements.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has been clear that any access to UK markets agreed through trade agreements will be fair and reciprocal, taking into account sectoral sensitivities and differences in food production standards. For example, within the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement we secured the exclusion of pork, chicken and eggs from tariff liberalisation reflecting the importance of animal welfare to the UK and the level of trade between Australia and the UK on these products.
In both our negotiations with Australia and with New Zealand, we carefully considered the potential impacts on British farmers and secured a range of different measures to protect them. These measures include tariff rate quotas for several sensitive agricultural products, product specific safeguards and a general bilateral safeguard mechanism providing a temporary safety net for all products.
The Government has published full impact assessments for the UK-Australia and UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement’s, which include impacts on the agricultural sector.
We remain committed to upholding the UK’s high environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards through trade. The independent Trade & Agriculture Commission concluded that our agreements with Australia and New Zealand do not undermine the UK’s robust domestic protections. Neither agreement creates any new permissions or authorisations for imports from Australia or New Zealand. All products imported into the UK will, as they do now, have to comply with our import requirements.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage dairy farmers to undertake a Greenhouse Gas Protocol audit.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In the Net Zero Growth Plan, we have committed to developing a harmonised approach to measuring carbon on farms and will set out how we will support farmers to undertake carbon audits by 2024.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total amount of exports from the horticultural sector in (1) 2018, (2) 2019, (3) 2020, (4) 2021, and (5) 2022.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Volume of Trade: UNITS= Thousand Tonnes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| CALENDAR YEAR | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Provision |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
VEGETABLES: |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Home Production Marketed (HPM) | 2,468 | 2,524 | 2,599 | 2,548 | 2,434 |
|
| Imports | 2,268 | 2,356 | 2,213 | 1,978 | 2,043 |
|
| Exports | 145 | 143 | 108 | 69 | 96 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Total Supply: | 4,590.7 | 4,736.6 | 4,703.8 | 4,457.2 | 4,380.4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| HPM as % of Total Supply | 53.8 | 53.3 | 55.3 | 57.2 | 55.6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FRUIT: |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Home Production Marketed (HPM) | 731 | 688 | 657 | 577 | 646 |
|
| Imports | 3661 | 3657 | 3564 | 3327 | 3277 |
|
| Exports | 156 | 162 | 178 | 37 | 38 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Total Supply: | 4,235.2 | 4,183.7 | 4,043.4 | 3,867.2 | 3,885.3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| HPM as % of Total Supply | 17.3 | 16.4 | 16.2 | 14.9 | 16.6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Value of Trade: UNITS = £ Million
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| CALENDAR YEAR | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Provisional |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| TOTAL VEGETABLES: |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Veg Imports | 2,467.8 | 2,576.2 | 2,552.3 | 2,370.0 | 2,736.3 |
|
|
| Veg Exports | 129.7 | 129.3 | 112.1 | 72.9 | 85.5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| TOTAL FRUIT: |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Fruit Imports | 3,786.3 | 3,899.8 | 3,949.6 | 3,733.0 | 3,902.1 |
|
|
| Fruit Exports | 156.2 | 156.3 | 185.4 | 62.6 | 64.1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| GRAND TOTALS: |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Imports | 6,254.1 | 6,475.9 | 6,501.9 | 6,103.0 | 6,638.5 |
|
|
| Exports | 286 | 286 | 297 | 135 | 150 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
* Trade figures relate to fresh produce where distinguishable. |
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Value of Ornamental Horticulture Exports: UNITS £ Million
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2002 |
52.7 | 54 | 57.8 | 60.3 | 56.6 |
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the 500,000 properties currently unable to access a broadband service running at a minimum of 10Mbps via a fixed line will be able to access broadband.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has set out its plan to deliver Project Gigabit, our £5 billion mission to deliver fast, reliable broadband across the UK, and we are making good progress. Our target is for 85% of UK premises to have access to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and over 99% by 2030. This will include some premises currently unable to access more than 10Mbps.
More than £1 billion of public subsidy has been made available to broadband suppliers to extend their gigabit-capable networks to rural and hard to reach parts of the country. To date, we have awarded six contracts in locations from Cornwall to Cumbria, and we have launched a further 15 procurements, which combined will deliver fast, reliable broadband to up to 748,000 premises that would have otherwise missed out.
Furthermore, while approximately 500,000 premises do not currently have access to a decent broadband connection of 10mbps download and 1mbps upload, of these approximately 420,000 have access to a Fixed Wireless Access connection offering at least this level of connectivity. A further 15,000 of the remaining 80,000 premises are due to receive an upgrade within the next 12 months from a government funded rollout.
For the remaining 65,000 premises, the broadband Universal Service Obligation, which came into effect on 20 March 2020, provides consumers with a right to request a decent broadband service, where they cannot access a service of at least 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload via either a fixed line or fixed wireless access connection. As of September 2022, BT has built USO connections to over 5,900 premises, with more than 2,000 further builds in progress.
For the small number of premises that will not receive a gigabit-capable connection and are considered Very Hard to Reach, the government is assessing alternative ways to improve their broadband connection and help address the challenges that these areas face in their broadband connectivity.
In December 2022 we announced the first four locations in our Alpha Trial programme to test the technical capability of, and user response to, new low-latency Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites in some of the hardest to reach locations in the UK and we are working to finalise further locations soon.