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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action the Marine Management Organisation has taken against fishing vessels operating out of Mevagissey illegally using nets to target sea bass and exceeding their annual bycatch allowance.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
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 wild badgers need to be vaccinated to achieve the same efficacy in reducing bovine tuberculosis as culling badgers; and what assessment they have made of the feasibility of this.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what enforcement actions, including fines and prosecutions, the Marine Management Organisation has undertaken over the past year to protect bluefin tuna from illegal fishing; and what assessment have they made of the extent to which these enforcement actions are sufficient to comply with the UK's obligations under the rules of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to negotiate an increased share of quota for UK-landed blue fin tuna in the ongoing negotiations with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Roborough (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for the Environment Agency to play a role in the planning system in order for improvements in slurry and dirty water handling infrastructure to be approved and implemented.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.