Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria were used to determine which of the regions that were in receipt of the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund will not receive future funding.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following the decision to reduce UK ODA to fund an increase in defence spending and Defra receiving a reduced ODA budget in SR25 the criteria used to determine which Biodiverse Landscapes Fund regions would not receive future funding primarily focused on project performance and delivery.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to encourage prospective applicants to apply for funding in round 32 of the Darwin Initiative when it launches.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In late 2025, Defra informed prospective applicants – through the Darwin’s Initiative’s mailing lists, website and social media channels – that it expects to launch Round 32 of the Darwin Initiative in May 2026. Defra is now finalising the details for this round. When the call for applications opens, Defra will promote it across all of the Darwin Initiative’s communications channels; encourage UK Embassies and High Commissions in eligible countries to promote the opportunity to their in‑country networks; and run a webinar for prospective applicants.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to report to Parliament annually about species reintroduction projects underway in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
There are no plans to report to Parliament annually about species reintroductions projects underway in the UK. In the Environmental Improvement Plan, Defra has committed to provide opportunities for conservation translocations and reintroductions of native species where benefits to the environment and people are clear.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential to reintroduce previously native animals to the UK.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the Environmental Improvement Plan [see attached], Defra committed to support conservation translocations and reintroductions of native species where benefits to the environment and people are clear. This broad policy work can include extensive work, such as by Defra and Natural England on beaver reintroductions to shape the framework for wild releases. However, most projects are delivered by external organisations and landowners, including in collaboration with our arms-length bodies.
To support best practice, Defra has published the Code for Reintroductions and other Conservation Translocations in England [see attached]. The Code sets clear expectations for projects, including demonstrating a conservation need, assessing feasibility and risks, securing permissions and meeting legal requirements, and ensuring appropriate release, monitoring and advice from Natural England where needed.
Defra continues to support the England Species Reintroduction Taskforce in their provision of evidence-led advice and guidance on existing and potential species conservation translocations in England. Current projects include clarifying the contribution of conservation translocations to species recovery targets and developing a framework to inform decisions on conservation reintroductions.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to continue the Blue Planet Fund initiative beyond March 2026 at the current level of financial provision.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is taking action to strengthen resilience to environmental risks at home and overseas, investing in ocean protection and supporting the transition to more sustainable food and livelihoods globally. Defra has an official development assistance (ODA) allocation of £115 million per year until 2028‑29. Defra will use a significant portion of this to continue to support a marine portfolio which protects coastal and ocean habitats and reduces poverty in coastal communities. The Blue Planet Fund will continue to work alongside coastal communities to sustainably manage their ocean resources, drive action on plastic pollution, and pilot innovative approaches to mobilise more finance for the ocean. For example, in January 2026, we committed £14 million to eight projects in our OCEAN grant scheme to support locally led solutions to protect the ocean and communities most affected by declining ocean health.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce secondary legislation under Schedule 17 of the Environment Act 2021 to implement due diligence requirements to address illegal deforestation in UK supply chains.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We recognise the urgency of taking action to ensure that UK consumption of forest risk commodities is not driving deforestation. We will set out our approach to addressing deforestation in the UK’s supply chains in due course.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to introduce secondary legislation under Schedule 17 to the Environment Act 2021; and what plans they have to review the regulations once implemented.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Act includes provisions to make it illegal for larger businesses operating in the UK to use key commodities that have been grown on land that is illegally occupied or used, but the required secondary legislation to operationalise the scheme was not introduced in the last Parliament. The new Government will set out its approach to addressing the use of forest risk commodities in due course.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with their counterparts in the EU regarding the introduction of legislation to ban (1) fur farming, and (2) fur sales.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
No recent discussions have been held with EU member states regarding the introduction of legislation to ban fur farming or fur sales.
We are continuing to build our evidence base on the fur sector, which will be used to inform any future action on the fur trade. This includes commissioning the Animal Welfare Committee to explore current responsible sourcing practices in the fur industry.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the volume of consumer electronics that end up in landfill.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Government has not made an estimate of the volume of consumer electronics that end up in landfill. The 2013 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations seek to reduce the amount of WEEE going to landfill by encouraging its separate collection and subsequent treatment, reuse, recovery, recycling and environmentally sound disposal.
Reports on the amount of WEEE (both household and non-household) collected in the UK under the WEEE Regulations is published by the Environment Agency here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/waste-electrical-and-electronic-equipment-weee-in-the-uk.
Last year, producers financed the collection of 493,323 tonnes of household WEEE.
Additionally, based on a study carried out by the Waste and Resources Action Programme, we estimate that between 250k and 273k tonnes of large domestic appliances (cookers, washing machines etc.) are collected with scrap metal and recycled outside the WEEE system every year.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department issues on the processing of consumer electronics in landfill after metals have been harvested from them.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Defra has not issued any guidance on the processing of consumer electronics in landfill or removal from landfill sites after metals have been harvested from them.
The 2013 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations seek to reduce the amount of WEEE going to landfill by encouraging its separate collection and subsequent treatment, re-use, recovery, recycling and environmentally sound disposal.
Defra has issued statutory guidance on the best available collection, treatment, recovery and recycling techniques (BATRRT) for WEEE at approved authorised treatment facilities. The BATRRT guidance sets out the minimum requirements which treatment facilities must comply with.
The guidance can be found here: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130403043343/http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/producer/electrical/documents/weee-batrrt-guidance.pdf.