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Written Question
Plastic Bags: Fees and Charges
Monday 26th February 2024

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much money has been raised (a) in total and (b) for (i) charitable and (ii) community causes by the charge for single-use carrier bags in each year since 21 May 2021.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Since the Government introduced the charge, it has generated over £190 million for good causes and the number of single-use plastic carrier bags used in the main supermarkets has fallen by more than 7 billion, a reduction of over 98%.

A full dataset of details for each retailer on the amount of gross proceeds, VAT, total costs and net proceeds can be found on gov.uk.


Defra publishes a summary of this data which includes the amounts of money given to good causes: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carrier-bag-charge-summary-of-data-in-england.

There is no requirement in the legislation which requires retailers to donate proceeds from the charge to good causes. Only large retailers are required to keep a record of and report on the uses to which these proceeds have been put.

With regards to the request to provide a detail of how much money has been raised (a) in total and (b) for (i) charitable and (ii) community causes by the charge each year since 21 May 2021, this level of breakdown is not something that Defra holds.


Written Question
Plastic Bags: Fees and Charges
Monday 26th February 2024

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which (a) charities and (b) community organisations have received funds from the charge for single-use carrier bags in each year since 21 May 2021.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Since the Government introduced the charge, it has generated over £190 million for good causes and the number of single-use plastic carrier bags used in the main supermarkets has fallen by more than 7 billion, a reduction of over 98%.

A full dataset of details for each retailer on the amount of gross proceeds, VAT, total costs and net proceeds can be found on gov.uk.


Defra publishes a summary of this data which includes the amounts of money given to good causes: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carrier-bag-charge-summary-of-data-in-england.

There is no requirement in the legislation which requires retailers to donate proceeds from the charge to good causes. Only large retailers are required to keep a record of and report on the uses to which these proceeds have been put.

With regards to the request to provide the detail of which (a) charities and (b) community organisations have received funds each year since 21 May 2021, this information is not something that Defra holds.


Written Question
Agriculture: Floods
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

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 his Department has provided to support farmers whose lands have been flooded in each of the last five years.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Farming Recovery Fund was activated in 2019 for farmers who suffered uninsurable damage to their land and were affected by exceptional flooding incidents as a result of significant rainfall. £1.4m was allocated towards reinstatement costs. £519,000 of this was claimed in 2020, £884,200 in 2021, and £750 in 2022. The fund was also announced on Saturday 6th January 2024 following Storm Henk, as part of the wider Flood Recovery Framework, but there is no claims data to report yet.


Written Question
Recreation Spaces: West Yorkshire
Thursday 18th May 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

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 protect access to (a) green spaces and (b) Greenways in (i) Huddersfield constituency and (ii) West Yorkshire.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. We committed in our Environmental Improvement Plan to work across government to help ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space.

The Government is delivering a number of policies to protect access to green spaces including in urban areas. Examples of these include:

  • Delivering the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund to improve green space in more than 100 disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the UK.
  • The launch of the Green Infrastructure Framework: Principles and Standards for England in January 2023 which shows what good green infrastructure looks like and will help local authorities, developers and communities to improve provision in their area
  • Local Nature Recovery Strategies will identify locations where action for nature recovery would be particularly beneficial, encouraging the creation of more green spaces, including in urban areas
  • Implementing a number of rights of way reforms which will streamline the process for adding new or lost footpaths to the rights of way network.

Local highway authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of existing public rights of way and are required to keep a Rights of Way Improvement Plan to plan improvements to the rights of way network in their area. This must include an assessment of the local rights of way including the condition of the network.

In the West Yorkshire area specifically, as part of its work to deliver England’s Nature Recovery Network, Natural England is working with a range of partners in the iconic upland, rural and urban landscapes in West Yorkshire to create a shared vision for nature recovery that will underline the cultural and environmental links between the industrial heartland of West Yorkshire and the moors that help to define them.

In the South Pennine Moors Natural England is working with public and private finance, stakeholders and landowners with the aim of creating more habitat mosaics and dynamic sites, helping to build resilience for species that are likely to be impacted by climate change and improve natural flood management, ensuring that environmental and economic sustainability go hand in hand.

Utilising Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Net Gain opportunities, Natural England is also aiming to build in green corridors and steppingstones leading into Bradford. Local communities are being engaged in the project, providing opportunities to connect the people of Bradford and West Yorkshire with their surrounding wild places, and encouraging greater sustainable access.


Written Question
Agriculture Act 2020
Monday 15th May 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

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 including public access to the countryside in the definition public good in the Agriculture Act 2020.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The public goods supported by the Agriculture Act 2020 are listed under Section 1 of the Act. Section 1 allows financial assistance to be given for or in connection with any one or more of a range of purposes, including supporting public access to and enjoyment of the countryside, farmland or woodland and better understanding of the environment. We have confirmed in a recent publication that we will continue to pay for access to the countryside.


Written Question
Animal Welfare
Monday 15th May 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the RSPCA on preventing the practice of ear cropping.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is an offence in England and Wales to carry out a non-exempted mutilation (e.g., where it is not carried out for medical purposes) including the cropping of a dog's ears. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has not met with representatives of the RSPCA to discuss the cropping of dogs’ ears


Written Question
Lighting: Pollution
Thursday 20th April 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made on the impact of light pollution on the environment in areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and surrounding areas.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

Our National Parks (NP) and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) have some of the best dark skies across Great Britain and attained some of the earliest dark sky designations in Europe. 53% of our darkest skies are in NPs and AONBs, demonstrating the vital role these places play, and seven of our NPs and AONBs have been internationally recognised for their dark skies and are managed in ways that conserve dark skies for the benefit of people and wildlife.

Defra has worked with other government departments to ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework is clear that policies and decisions should limit the impact of light pollution on local amenities, dark landscapes and nature conservation. We continue to work with partners including leading scientists to review the latest studies and ensure we continue to address key threats to biodiversity.


Written Question
Water Supply: Drug Resistance
Thursday 20th April 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

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 has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of water sanitation on antibiotic resistance.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency (EA) have been working with the water industry to research the occurrence and transport of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics through wastewater treatment works as part of the industry funded Chemical Investigations Programme. The results were recently published by UK Water Industry Research (The National Chemical Investigations Programme 2020-2022 Volume 1 - Investigations into changes to Antimicrobial Resistance through wastewater and sludge treatment processes (ukwir.org)) and next steps are being considered.


Written Question
Food Supply
Monday 20th March 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the (a) affordability and (b) availability of food in the UK; and what assessment she has made of trends in the level of those matters compared to prior to the covid-19 pandemic.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The December 2021 UK Food Security Report examined past, current, and predicted trends relevant to food security, with chapters on UK Food Supply and Food Security at Household Level. This report serves as an evidence base for future policy work, and the Government is committing to producing such an assessment at least once every three years.

We know that rising food prices are a big contributor to the high levels of inflation that people are currently experiencing. However, we have seen a slight fall in the official food price inflation figures for January and we will watch to see if this is the start of a sustained fall in food price inflation.

Given the impact of high food prices, tackling inflation is this government’s number one priority, with a plan to more than halve inflation this year, and we’re monitoring all key agricultural commodities so that we can work with the food industry to address the challenges they face.

Low-income households are the most affected by high food and energy prices. This is why we have provided a package of support to help people with the rising cost of food. This includes £37 billion the government has committed to support households with the cost of living. £1 billion of this has gone towards help with the cost of household essentials.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

Defra has well established ways of working with the industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains. We speak regularly with food industry figures, who remain confident in the food supply chain.

We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments.


Written Question
Food Supply
Thursday 16th March 2023

Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)

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 takes to routinely monitor the range of food products available to consumers.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

Defra has well established ways of working with the industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains. We speak regularly with food industry figures, who remain confident in the food supply chain.

We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. Defra has requested weekly data from supermarkets on supplies of the foods to ensure we have the latest available data. Defra’s view is that the most effective response to food supply disruption is industry-led, with appropriate support and enablement from HM Government.

Recognising the importance of food security, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK Food Security Report was published in December 2021. This report will serve as an evidence base for future policy work.

In recent weeks some supermarkets applied item limits to a small number of fruit and vegetables due to poor weather affecting the harvest in Spain and North Africa, where a high proportion of produce consumed in UK at this time of year is grown.

Defra is closely monitoring markets and supply chains to explore the factors that have contributed to ongoing supply chain pressures and is considering how government and industry can work together to mitigate them, in the short and longer term.

Defra has requested weekly data from supermarkets on supplies of the foods affected to ensure we have the latest available data.

Supermarkets are confident that supply will be back to normal by the end of this month.