Lord Roborough

Fishing quotas are determined within total allowable catch (TAC) management areas. These typically align with the distribution of the biological stock rather than the boundaries of exclusive economic zones.

Latest statistics can be found here MMO Sea Fisheries Statistics 2023.

Biosecurity can be deployed in multiple settings, it could be by Government vets in a field/lab setting, farm animal vets, or even an expectation for risk mitigation via biosecurity for all vets.

Defra appreciates the incredibly valuable work completed by veterinarians and recognise their essential role in achieving our ambitious goals of upholding high standards of animal welfare, supporting trade, and safeguarding public health and food security. The Government acknowledges the high demand for veterinary services and is working collaboratively across departments and with the profession to explore additional measures that will ensure sufficient staffing levels to support and sustain the sector effectively.

We remain committed to investing £5 billion of funding in the farming budget this year and next (£2.6 billion for 24/25 and the £2.4 billion for 25/26, as previously announced). We are on track to spend all the funding that is available.

The Government has launched a 12-week consultation on land use in England, the outcomes of which will inform the publication of the Land Use Framework this year. A timeline for publishing Land Use Framework will be set out in due course, after the consultation has closed and the feedback has been considered.

All recipients are due to receive less in delinked payments for 2025 versus 2024 as more money is moved to our other schemes for farmers and land managers.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship (CS) have been open for a number of years so that farmers can plan ahead and receive payments for improving our countryside and farming food sustainably. We will open up initial applications for CS Higher tier and a revised Environmental Land Management capital grants offer later in the summer.

We will release details of the new SFI scheme later in the year.

All recipients are due to receive less in delinked payments for 2025 versus 2024 as more money is moved to our other schemes for farmers and land managers.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship (CS) have been open for a number of years so that farmers can plan ahead and receive payments for improving our countryside and farming food sustainably. We will open up initial applications for CS Higher tier and a revised Environmental Land Management capital grants offer later in the Summer.

We will release details of the new SFI scheme later in the year.

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was established when the UK left the EU. For fisheries, this provides full reciprocal access to exclusive economic zones, and certain access to territorial waters. This reciprocal access has a five-and-a-half-year adjustment period until June 2026. After June 2026, EU access to UK waters (and vice versa) becomes a matter for annual negotiation under the TCA, as is typical between coastal States.

We know that the EU want a new multi-year access agreement. The UK are happy to listen to what the EU have to say but we will protect the interests of the UK fishing industry and continue to fulfil our commitments to protect the marine environment.

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was established when the UK left the EU. For fisheries, this provides full reciprocal access to exclusive economic zones, and certain access to territorial waters. This reciprocal access has a five-and-a-half-year adjustment period until June 2026. After June 2026, EU access to UK waters (and vice versa) becomes a matter for annual negotiation under the TCA, as is typical between coastal States.

We know that the EU want a new multi-year access agreement. The UK are happy to listen to what the EU have to say but we will protect the interests of the UK fishing industry and continue to fulfil our commitments to protect the marine environment.

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was established when the UK left the EU. For fisheries, this provides full reciprocal access to exclusive economic zones, and certain access to territorial waters. This reciprocal access has a five-and-a-half-year adjustment period until June 2026. After June 2026, EU access to UK waters (and vice versa) becomes a matter for annual negotiation under the TCA, as is typical between coastal States.

We know that the EU want a new multi-year access agreement. The UK are happy to listen to what the EU have to say but we will protect the interests of the UK fishing industry and continue to fulfil our commitments to protect the marine environment.

In 2023 58 claims for compensation for avian influenza were paid. To date, in 2024 7 claims for compensation have been paid.

There are no delays to payment for existing Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier customers. Since 1 December we have paid around 14,000 customers with both Mid-Tier and Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship agreements, the revenue payment total around £151 million.

More information about the timing and content of the new expanded Higher Tier scheme will be published later in December.

As of 1 October 2024, there are over 67,000 live agri-environment scheme agreements. This is the most popular accepted scheme agreements have been in history. The area under agri-environment schemes is a statistic that was not collected by the last Government. It is currently under development by Defra and is due for publication in the first half of 2025.

We recently announced that the farming budget will be £5 billion over the next two financial years, including the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8 billion for Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes to boost Britain’s food security and accelerate the transition to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector.

The Government will publish a consultation on land use this year to inform the publication of a Land Use Framework for England. The land use framework will support farmers and nature recovery, based on an evidence base and spatial analysis. We will set out our approach to parliamentary engagement in due course.

The Government will publish a consultation on land use this year to inform the publication of a Land Use Framework for England. The land use framework will support farmers and nature recovery, based on an evidence base and spatial analysis. We will set out our approach to parliamentary engagement in due course.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) undertakes detailed traceability checks on the new bluefin tuna commercial fishery. MMO checks each individual fish landed where resource allows. This includes checks on purchasers of bluefin tuna including physical premises checks. Landing inspections and routine presence in ports act as a further deterrent to illegal activity. The planning, implementation and management of this fishery is in accordance with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) undertakes regular intelligence led patrols across the South-West, including Mevagissey, to monitor bass fishing. From July to September, MMO undertook 174 fishing vessel inspections in Cornwall. Mevagissey sees weekly patrols at varying times of day to inspect fishing activity and inspections will cover authorisations to fish for bass and physical fishing gear on board. MMO also conducts inspections at sea and works alongside Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (CIFCA). In addition to physical inspections all data sources are validated and monitored including catch and landing records, annual bycatch allowances and uptake.

The MMO is aware of the concerns raised locally and will continue to work with the fishing industry and Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities to improve collaboration between regulators on targeted enforcement and improved communication and understanding of bass regulations, a commitment in the Bass Fisheries Management Plan published in December 2023.

The Department moved £105.3 million of CDEL budget from 2023-2024 to 2024-25 using HM Treasury’s Budget Exchange at Supplementary Estimates.

The Government will publish a consultation on land use to inform the publication of a Land Use Framework for England. The land use framework will support farmers and nature recovery, based on an evidence base and spatial analysis.

Research indicates that trapping methods used for badger vaccination result in the capture of approximately 50-70% of badgers in a given area, and this level of coverage is associated with significant disease control benefits in badger populations.

Unfortunately the past Government neglected to use its R&D budget to fully explore the problem so information on this subject, as well as badger resurgence rates is not as clear as it might be. The Labour Government has announced that they will use the R&D budget to ensure that decisions to best tackle bovine tuberculosis (TB) are informed by science.

While we are gathering a better understanding on the subject, badger vaccination is now underway in several large areas in England demonstrating that vaccination is feasible at a large scale in a range of situations.

Research from Ireland also suggests that badger vaccination is not inferior to badger culling as a means to control TB in cattle.

The Government has produced a regulatory impact assessment for the Water (Special Measures) Bill. The impact assessment is currently with the Regulatory Policy Committee for review ahead of publication.

Tackling water pollution, including from slurry, is a priority for this Government. The Environment Agency plays a vital role in supporting the planning system at a strategic and local level to deliver improvements for the environment and will continue to do so.

The UK continues to fully engage in the ongoing negotiations at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) on the allocation of bluefin tuna quota, with a view to securing a fairer share of the quota when the next ‘Total Allowable Catch’ is negotiated in 2025, to take effect in 2026.

The Government has produced a regulatory impact assessment for the Water (Special Measures) Bill. The impact assessment is currently with the Regulatory Policy Committee for review ahead of publication.

The Government has produced a regulatory impact assessment for the Water (Special Measures) Bill. The impact assessment is currently with the Regulatory Policy Committee for review ahead of publication.

The Government has produced a regulatory impact assessment for the Water (Special Measures) Bill. The impact assessment is currently with the Regulatory Policy Committee for review ahead of publication.

The UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) supports both coniferous and broadleaf woodlands. The latest update to the UKFS will come into force on 1 October 2024. All afforestation projects in England should conform to the UKFS requirements to ensure that the right trees are being planted in the right place and version five does not allow a single species to constitute more than 65% of a new forest. Primary and secondary forestry species, as defined by Forest Research, are eligible for funding through the England Woodland Creation Offer; in addition, emerging forestry species can constitute up to 15% of the trees planted although this element will be screened to ensure they are appropriate to the site and local wildlife, and their planting sites are recorded.

Protected Landscapes (both National Parks and National Landscapes) will be vital to our national targets, including net zero. We are exploring how the Government can empower them to deliver on their full potential - including in protecting nature’s carbon sinks, such as peatlands and woodlands. The Government welcomes the international leadership from the UK's National Park Authorities in joining the Race to Zero initiative, aiming to become net zero by 2040 and significant carbon sinks by 2050.

There is already a significant evidence base which underpins the use of badger vaccination as a tool for the control of bovine tuberculosis (TB). Trials on captive badgers, modelling studies and field studies on wild badgers all indicate that badger vaccination will significantly reduce the risk of infection and spread of disease within badger populations. Logically, as badgers cause a proportion of cattle breakdowns each year, and since badger vaccination has been proven to reduce the disease burden in the badger population, vaccination should result in a reduction in TB incidence in cattle where badgers are the source of infection. This has also been demonstrated by large scale field trials in Ireland which found that badger vaccination is not inferior to badger culling at controlling TB in cattle. Vaccination would also play a role in protecting healthy badgers, preventing the spread of TB from cattle to badgers.

On 30 August, the Government announced the start of work to refresh the Bovine TB strategy for England, to end the badger cull by the end of this parliament and drive down disease to save cattle and farmers’ livelihoods. This includes establishing a new Badger Vaccinator Field Force to increase badger vaccination delivery to drive down TB rates and protect badgers.

Wider deployment of badger vaccination will increase opportunities for further research on its effect in badgers and cattle, by creating the large and contiguous areas of vaccination needed to be able to detect an effect. Accordingly, as part of this recent announcement, the Government has committed to rapidly analyse the effect of badger vaccination on the incidence of TB in cattle, to encourage farmers to take part and provide greater confidence that doing so will have a positive effect on their cattle. This will build on the analytical work that is already underway in the Animal and Plant Health Agency using a “herd-level” analysis of historic badger vaccination data.

The UK Government has been actively assessing and adjusting the quota for landing eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT), reflecting the species' resurgence in UK waters. As an independent member of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), in 2023 the UK received a quota of 65 tonnes, which was an increase from previous years. This quota was divided to support both commercial and tag and release scientific fisheries, with 39 tonnes used for a small-scale trial commercial fishery.

In 2024, the UK quota is 66 tonnes. Sixteen tonnes are being used for recreational fishing and 39 tonnes for the continued trial commercial fishery. The remaining quota is being used for commercial bycatch and tagging programmes.

Decisions on how the quota is used have been made to ensure that BFT fisheries meet our international commitments, contribute to delivering Fisheries Act 2020 objectives, and reflect stakeholder interests including both the commercial and recreational sectors. In 2023, Defra commissioned an evaluation of UK BFT fisheries. The report has been published here: Impact Evaluation of Bluefin Tuna Quota Allocation - MF0740 (defra.gov.uk). Defra is continuing to evaluate the social, economic, and environmental impacts of UK BFT fisheries in 2024.

Any changes to the future UK BFT quota will depend on whether the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) established by ICCAT increases or decreases (the next TAC will be established in 2025 for the years 2026-2028) and on the outcomes of ongoing negotiations on quota shares at ICCAT.

The Government has not specifically assessed the impact of badger predation on the nests of UK Red List bird species. However, as opportunistic omnivores badgers have a varied diet and birds comprise only a small proportion of this and then mostly as carrion. While some predation does occur, there is no conclusive evidence that badgers have an impact on the conservation of ground-nesting birds such as lapwing and curlew.

The forthcoming land use framework for England will consider cross-governmental issues such as energy and food security and how we can expand nature-rich habitats such as wetlands, peat bogs and forests.

Spatial planning will play an important role in the delivery of the Government’s growth and clean energy missions, and the land use framework will work hand in hand with the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan. The Government will also explore the opportunities for spatial planning to support the delivery of other types of infrastructure.

We are exploring the inclusion of greenhouse gas removals in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), including the potential inclusion of high integrity woodland carbon, such as Woodland Carbon Units. A consultation was launched in May 2024 and a Government Response will be provided in 2025.

Subject to the outcome of the Spending Review, Defra intends to continue to partner with the British Standards Institution on the Nature Investment Standards Programme.

The Woodland Carbon Code is currently endorsed by ICROA, a leading industry accreditation programme for voluntary carbon market programmes. The Code is supported by a transparent carbon registry and a robust monitoring, reporting and verification system underpinned by third party validation and verification. The Woodland Carbon Code is preparing an application to be assessed for adherence to the Core Carbon Principles Assessment Framework of Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market and will submit as soon as it can.

The Peatland Code is currently in the process of applying to the Integrity Council on Voluntary Carbon Market's Core Carbon Principles. The Peatland Code also applied to ICROA in March this year. The Peatland Code is awaiting conditional endorsement once the first two verifications have been completed this winter. The Peatland Code (PC) validation and verification bodies (VVBs) are undergoing ISO accreditation under the PC by United Kingdom Accreditation Services (UKAS) which is one of the requirements for ICVCM and ICROA.