Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress has been made on negotiations regarding the pre-Brexit EU fishing quota in UK waters for UK fishing boats from 30 June 2026.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of pre-Brexit EU fishing quotas in UK waters they intend to recover for UK fishing boats from 30 June 2026.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to offer EU fishing fleets increased access to UK territorial waters.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier payments to farmers are being delayed from December 2024 to mid-2025; what is the reason for any delay; and what assessment they have made of the impact on farmers’ finances.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many avian influenza compensation scheme claims were paid in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024 to date.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2023 58 claims for compensation for avian influenza were paid. To date, in 2024 7 claims for compensation have been paid.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of agricultural land is currently covered by countryside and environmental schemes; and what is their target for that coverage.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they aim to ensure that the Land Use Framework merely informs decisions by land owners and does not set prescriptive requirements.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any underspend in the 2023–24 budget for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will be rolled forward to enhance future years’ budgets.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department moved £105.3 million of CDEL budget from 2023-2024 to 2024-25 using HM Treasury’s Budget Exchange at Supplementary Estimates.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to publish the forthcoming Land Use Framework before it is adopted; and whether they will place a copy in the Library of the House.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will allow parliamentary time for a debate on the forthcoming Land Use Framework before it is adopted.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.