Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department issues guidance on the management of large wild deer populations.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Native deer are an important part of our natural heritage and their activities can benefit some habitats. However, excessive foraging, bark stripping and trampling can have negative impacts on woodlands. Defra therefore provides a range of support for managing deer impacts.
The Forestry Commission and Natural England contribute to the production and updating of online guidance on all aspects of managing deer impacts. This is done in partnership with stakeholders, through the Deer Initiative Partnership. Guidance is available via its website.
Guidance is additionally available via a team of Deer Officers within the Forestry Commission, who also oversee applications for Countryside Stewardship grants to help with deer impacts management (including by lethal control), at all scales, from local to landscape scale.
Natural England publishes guidance on gov.uk on when to apply for a licence to kill or take deer in the close season or at night.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will publish the results of the consultation for the Environment Improvement Plan 2023 with specific reference to a national deer management strategy for England.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On the 30th July 2024, we announced a rapid review of the 2023 Environmental Improvement Plan which has now concluded. We published a statement of key findings from the rapid review on 30 January 2025. We will develop a new, statutory plan to protect and restore our natural environment with delivery information to help meet each of our ambitious Environment Act targets. This will be published later this year.
We are considering how to go further to reduce the impacts of deer on our woodlands and shall have an update in due course.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department issues to local authorities on the Aarhus Convention.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Aarhus Convention concerns access by the public to environmental information, to participation in environmental decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. Defra does not issue specific guidance to local authorities on the Convention.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to provide more data to horticulture businesses on (a) sanitary and phytosanitary border movements and (b) inspection rates generated from the Import of products, animals, food and feed system.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our checks are intelligence-led and based on biosecurity risk. To protect the integrity of this approach, we cannot share granular data on movements and inspections. Traders should continue to follow the published guidance which sets out Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) inspection rates.
Regarding communication with horticulture businesses, there is regular official level engagement with the Horticultural Trade Association (HTA) concerning the border and there has been throughout the development of the BTOM; including the recent November 21st roundtable on plants, cut flowers, and the border.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) protect the livestock sector from the confirmed outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Germany and (b) prevent the disease entering the UK.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is currently free from foot and mouth disease (FMD) and has a robust contingency plan in place to manage risk as set out in the Foot and Mouth Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain. Controls include strict prohibitions on the imports of animals and products of animal origin from countries in which FMD is present; a comprehensive veterinary surveillance system to detect new and emerging disease threats; and active follow up and veterinary investigation of any suspect reports of notifiable disease.
Following confirmation of FMD in Germany, Defra has taken rapid action to protect the UK. This includes, suspending the commercial import of susceptible animals from Germany and restricting personal imports of animal products from across the European Union. The need for further controls is being kept under review as further information on the situation in Germany becomes available.
FMD guidance is available on GOV.UK and livestock farmers are urged to be extra vigilant and report any suspect disease immediately.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve border infrastructure for importing (a) large plants and (b) trees.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra continues to work with port operators to ensure that there are effective import inspections of large plants and trees to maintain the UK’s high biosecurity standards, including ensuring equipment is available to handle goods. Defra has laid legislation which will implement an exemption to enable certain large commodities to be unloaded and inspected in outside areas at these facilities, subject to certain requirements. This will come into force on 30 January 2025.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been allocated to support areas at risk of flooding; and when he plans to announce these.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences.
The list of projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be agreed by the Environment Agency over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that the British Society of Plant Breeders correctly applies the small producer exemption from royalty fees applied to grain crops with diverse genetic makeup.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) is the representative body for the UK plant breeding industry. In the collection of royalty fees and farm saved seed payments, the BSPB are acting as independent agents of various breeders and are not contracted by Government to undertake this work. Therefore, any queries on the payment of royalty fees should be made to the BSPB.
The Plant Varieties Act 1997 provides an exemption from making farm saved seed payments if the farmer meets the definition of a small farmer as defined in the Act.
Regulation 3(2)(a) of The Plant Breeders’ Rights (Farm Saved Seed) (Specified Information) Regulations 1998 provides an obligation on a small farmer to inform the rights holder that they are exempt from farm saved seed payments. Therefore, a small farmer must inform the BSPB that they meet the exemption for it to be applied. The arrangements for small farmers are publicised through various sources including gov.uk and via the BSPB.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to introduce a national monitoring system to track agricultural land being developed for ground mounted solar.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
As the Prime Minister said at PMQs last week, we must protect our nation’s food security and therefore our most valuable agricultural land.
As per planning policy, local planning authorities should consider all the benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land, when making plans or taking decisions on new development proposals. Where significant development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, planning authorities should seek to use poorer quality land in preference to that of a higher quality. Planning Practice Guidance also sets out a preference for the use of lower quality agricultural land.
I agree that monitoring of the impacts of solar on agricultural land is important and am in discussions with my counterparts in DLUHC and DESNZ.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the new land use framework will be published.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
As stated in Government’s response to the House of Lords Land Use Committee’s report ‘Making the most out of England’s land’, we are currently preparing a Land Use Framework for England. We announced in the Food Strategy that we would publish the Framework in 2023.