Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential cost to the public purse of recycling disposable vapes.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has recently commissioned some research to better understand the market for and environmental impacts of disposable vapes and associated cost impacts. That research will be published in due course. Currently there is no cost to the public purse for recycling disposable vapes that are deposited at household waste recycling centres (HWRCs). The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations require producers of electrical and electronic equipment (including vapes) to finance the collection and proper treatment of those products when they become waste at HWRCs.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the Environment Agency to carry out an assessment of the potential impact on food production whenever there are changes to abstraction licences in the (a) agriculture and (b) horticulture sector.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency already has a duty to consider the costs and benefits of its actions. The Environment Agency applies this duty in abstraction licence and regulatory decisions. There is recognition of the impact a change in abstraction licence conditions can have on the agriculture and horticulture sectors. Where restrictions and licence changes are absolutely necessary the Environment Agency looks to work directly with licence holders to implement changes on a voluntary basis first. When managing droughts, the Environment Agency also looks to introduce partial restrictions (e.g. abstraction every other day, or night time only) and then total bans on water abstraction as a last resort. During the drought of 2022, the Environment Agency avoided the need for total irrigation bans by using this approach. However, the cost-benefit duty does not override the need for the Environment Agency to undertake its wider duties and functions to meet statutory environmental objectives.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will consider the potential merits of publishing an annual assessment of the potential impact of free trade agreements on domestic food production and consumption.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) publishes Impact Assessments of the UK's Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and these contain the official assessment of the potential impacts on the agri-food sector. DBT has also committed to monitor the implementation and conduct a comprehensive evaluation for the agreements as set out in the FTA impact assessments. Defra will also be supporting DBT in monitoring the impacts of new FTAs as these come into force over time.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a compensation scheme for farming businesses adversely impacted by species reintroductions.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
As we look to deliver on our statutory environmental targets, including to halt the decline of species abundance by 2030, we are expanding our environmental land management schemes to incentivise farmers and land managers to provide environmental goods and services alongside food production. Paying for actions that make space for nature and encouraging the restoration of habitat will help to deliver environmental benefits as well as improve the interaction between species that may have been reintroduced and farming operations.
Where the release of a species may impact on local land managers and businesses, a licence application would need to outline how these impacts would be mitigated as well as demonstrate sufficient funding to do so.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if the Government will (a) make impact assessments on all species reintroduction proposals in England mandatory and (b) require those impact assessments to assess the potential effects of those proposals on (i) agriculture and (ii) food production.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
An application for a licence to release a species must follow best practice guidance in our published Code for Reintroductions, and should outline the benefits and impacts that the proposal will have on the local environment, and socio-economic interests such as agriculture. We would expect an applicant to demonstrate that they have undertaken sufficient engagement with local stakeholders to understand and manage these impacts. Most reintroductions are of plant and invertebrate species like the lady’s slipper orchid and large blue butterfly, and often bring only benefits for the environment.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of rewilding agricultural production on food security.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Wilding or rewilding is the restoration of ecosystems to the point where they are more regulated by natural processes.
The Government is supporting a number of initiatives to create wilder landscapes across England, as part of a broader approach to nature recovery. However, rewilding is not appropriate in all situations, and we must balance priorities including food production.
We continue to assess how land use change, including the restoration of natural processes, can contribute to net-zero, food security and supporting the farming sector.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to involve multi-sector stakeholders in catchment-based water systems planning.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra recently published its landmark Plan for Water, to deliver a safe, reliable, resilient supply of clean and plentiful water – for our homes, businesses, leisure and for the wildlife that relies on it. The Plan for Water is built around an integrated, catchment approach to managing the water system. In the Plan for Water, we committed to delivering catchment plans backed up with new funding to improve all water bodies in England. Defra is currently engaging with multi-sector stakeholders such as the Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) to develop options and generate ideas on how catchment plans will work in best practice.
CaBA is a community-led approach that engages people and groups from across communities at a local level to help improve water environments (more information can be found here: Catchment Partnership Pages | Catchment Data Explorer). CaBA’s catchment partnerships include involvement from public, private and civil-society sector organisations, playing a key role in the development of local catchment community aspirations. They drive greater awareness of water environment issues and catchment-based solutions, empowering communities to engage. Results show that catchment-level interventions are effective in realising multiple benefits.
The Environment Agency is refreshing its National Framework for Water Resources and is aiming to set out how improvements can be made to collaborative multi-sector planning on a regional scale and how these plans can more effectively link to local and catchment based initiatives.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the Slurry Infrastructure Grant offer beyond three rounds of funding.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As we set out in the Agricultural Transition Plan, we are planning to run two further rounds of the Slurry Infrastructure grant in autumn 2023 and 2024. We will fund as many farms as we can to go beyond minimum legal obligations, but will not be able to fund everyone. We will continue to work with the industry to prioritise funding fairly while maximising environmental outcomes.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) reform public procurement supply chains and (b) introduce dynamic procurement systems.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We consulted last summer on options to update our public sector food procurement standards. This included seeking views on ensuring that a diverse range of suppliers, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), are better able to access the public sector. The Government response is due later this year. Meanwhile, we continue to work with the Crown Commercial Service, who are developing a new commercial agreement which will enable public sector buyers to access SME food suppliers through an easy-to-use online portal. More broadly, Defra is working closely with the Cabinet Office to prepare for implementation of the wider procurement reform measures in the Procurement Bill currently being debated in Parliament.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the proportion of British food in public procurement contracts on (a) society, (b) the economy and (c) the environment.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK produces world leading quality food and drink, demonstrating excellence in animal welfare and sustainable production standards. Defra’s consultation on food and catering policy sought views on a number of proposals to update the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services. This included ways of meeting the Government’s manifesto commitment encouraging the public sector to procure British food to support the environment, animal welfare and our farmers. In updating the standards, we must ensure we meet our domestic and international legal obligations, in particular under the WTO Government Procurement Agreement. We will publish the consultation findings, alongside updated standards and guidance later this year.