Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to invest in flood defences.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Flood defences are a priority for this Government. We are spending £2.3 billion on more than 1,500 schemes to improve defences through a six-year programme of work up to 2021. This is projected to reduce overall flood risk by 5%.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect footpaths and rights of way in England.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
Local highway authorities are responsible for protecting the rights of the public to use footpaths and other rights of way. They are also responsible for determining their own local spending priorities. However, we have recently completed the £2 million Paths for Communities Programme, creating 53.28 kilometres of new bridleway and 21.42 kilometres of new footpath – in total over 74 kilometres of new public rights of way.
We are also introducing a balanced package of rights of way reforms as part of the Deregulation Bill. Those reforms will significantly improve the processes for recording and altering the public rights of way network. The reforms make the procedures more streamlined and will help complete the definitive map and statement by the 2026 cut-off date, thereby protecting historical public rights of way from extinguishment.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress is being made on creating the coastal path in England.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
We are making good progress with coastal access. It has been implemented on four stretches of the coast in Cumbria, Dorset and Norfolk, and in Durham, Hartlepool and Sunderland. We have also announced that additional funding will be made available to complete the coastal path around England by 2020.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the marine aggregate industry.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
The UK Marine Policy Statement (MPS) is the framework for preparing Marine Plans and taking decisions affecting the marine environment. The MPS sets out the policy objectives for key activities taking place in the marine environment. This includes an assessment of marine aggregate resources, potential impacts from extraction activities and issues for consideration by decision-makers. Within English waters marine aggregate extraction activities are regulated by the Marine Management Organisation.
Government, regulators, The Crown Estate and the British Marine Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA) have collaborated on an extensive programme of research (over £25 million in ten years) into understanding and minimising the environmental impacts of aggregates dredging. Following the completion of that programme BMAPA and The Crown Estate recently commissioned and published Aggregate Dredging and the Marine Environment – an overview of recent research and current industry practice. The report is available on The Crown Estate website at www.thecrownestate.co.uk
The marine aggregate industry has and continues to engage constructively with Government and regulators in developing marine plans and licensing policy and Marine Conservation Zones.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how much sand and gravel is used each year to protect the United Kingdom coastline.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
The Environment Agency holds this information locally and it would be disproportionately costly to collate the records to answer this question accurately in the time allowed.