Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a legally binding target which would match or exceed the Climate Change Committee’s recommendation to increase hedgerow coverage by 40 per cent by 2050, with interim targets of 20 per cent by 2035.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Hedgerows are one of the most important ecological building blocks in our farmed landscape. They maintain the distinctive character of our countryside, providing crucial habitats and food for wildlife. Our future farming schemes will incentivise the planting and sustainable management of hedgerows across England.
We are required by the Environment Act 2021 to set at least one long term biodiversity target, in addition to our target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. This target, and others set under the Act, will help target the causes of decline and drive actions to deliver nature recovery. We will shortly be carrying out a public consultation on proposed targets, including for biodiversity.
We will also be setting out our pathways to meet these targets in the Environmental Improvement Plan due in 2023. In order to meet our species abundance target we will need to create more, better joined up habitats, which will include hedgerows.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much of Countryside Stewardship funding will be allocated towards planting new hedgerows; and what assessment he has made of the contribution that will make to increasing hedgerows to meet the Climate Change Committee’s target of 40 per cent increase in hedgerows by 2050, with an interim target of 20 per cent by 2035.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme provides important funding for the planting and maintenance of hedgerows. In 2021, 3870 agreements included hedge-planting, creating over 2,700km of new hedgerows. In 2021, there were also over 9,000 CS agreements with the management of hedgerows option, covering over 46,000 km of hedgerows. The new round of CS opened for applications on 8 February.
The rollout of standards in the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme (SFI), and other environmental land management schemes, will support the delivery of our environmental and climate goals, and the delivery of our 2030 species abundance target. The hedgerow standard, part of the new SFI scheme, will continue to recognise and fund the management of hedgerows. We will pay farmers to plant more hedgerows, leave them uncut or raise the cutting height.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
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 provide information his Department on the 2020 bias adjustment factor for the Dunstable air quality management area to enable Central Bedfordshire Council to produce the 2020 air quality figures for that area.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In January, Defra invited local authorities to complete a short survey on the impact of Covid-19 on their local air quality management (LAQM) activities to inform the publication of supplementary Covid-19 guidance on LAQM duties for English local authorities for the upcoming reporting year.
The response from local authorities indicated that on the whole, submissions of local bias studies into the national survey were unaffected. This informed the decision to continue the release of the national bias adjustment factors within the usual cycle. As a result, the first round of National Diffusion Tube Bias Adjustment Factors for 2020 diffusion tube monitoring data were released in April 2021 and local authorities were notified. The national bias adjustment factors are available at https://laqm.defra.gov.uk/bias-adjustment-factors/national-bias.html.
Central Bedfordshire Council should therefore have the bias adjustment information they require in order to process 2020 air quality data for the Dunstable air quality management area. Should the council require further advice they should contact the LAQM Helpdesk.
Defra provides technical support to local authorities via a dedicated LAQM Helpdesk (phone, email and webpage) to support local authorities in their monitoring and modelling efforts to ensure a consistent approach.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the Air Quality Expert Group review of air pollution during the covid-19 lockdown period.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Air Quality Expert Group Report entitled "Estimation of changes in air pollution emissions, concentrations and exposure during the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK" was published on 1 July and is available on Defra’s UK-Air website: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/reports.php?report_id=1005.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the Government's analysis of the action required to bring UK air pollution within the limits specified by the World Health Organisation.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Government is in the process of preparing a report examining what action would be needed to bring concentrations of PM2.5 below the World Health Organization’s 10 μg/m3 annual mean guideline level across England. We plan to publish the report early this year.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Edinburgh West on 14 February 2019 to PQ 219552 for further details.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department operates a ban the box employment policy in respect of ex-offender job applicants with unspent convictions; and how many employees of her Department have unspent convictions.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra is committed to offering job applicants who are ex-offenders equal and fair opportunities. This commitment is supported through membership and operation of the Business in the Community ‘Ban the Box’ scheme. Following the principles in this scheme, appropriate pre-appointment checks, including a basic criminal record check, are not made until later in the recruitment process.
However, Defra does not retain details centrally that would allow us to identify employees with unspent convictions so the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason local authorities have no direct responsibility to control PM2.5 concentrations; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Local authorities do have a role to play in tackling fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and this was introduced through statutory guidance published last April. It requires local authorities to work towards reducing emissions and concentrations of PM2.5 in their local area alongside measures to tackle other pollutants.
Local authorities do have powers available to them to help tackle key sources of PM such as those to establish Smoke Control Areas and on transport.
The Public Health Outcomes Framework also includes an indicator based on PM2.5 impacts on mortality. This was introduced to support local authority public health professionals and air quality managers to appraise PM2.5 levels in their area.