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 introduce new recycling rate targets under new extended producer responsibility rules.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Annual packaging waste recycling targets will be introduced under the new Ex-tended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations up until 2030. This is confirmed in the government response to the consultation on EPR, which can be found here Packaging and packaging waste: introducing Extended Producer Responsibility - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
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 she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of introducing new anaerobic digestion plants to create energy from food waste.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Act will require all local authorities in England to arrange for the collection of food waste for recycling. Our preference is for food waste to be separately collected for treatment by anaerobic digestion as this presents the best environmental outcome for the treatment of unavoidable food waste.
In 2021 the Department for Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy launched the Green Gas Support Scheme (GGSS) to support the construction of new anaerobic digestion plants that inject biomethane to the gas grid. Developers must ensure that at least 50% of all biomethane by energy content is produced using waste or residue feedstocks. This will ensure that energy is reclaimed from food waste collected under Defra’s Recycling Consistency reforms.
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 an assessment of the potential merits of allocating funds for research on the relationship between air and water pollution.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra continue to keep our research needs under review to ensure a robust, evidence-based approach to policy. At present Defra has not made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating funds for further research on the relationship between air and water pollution.
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 conducted any research into (a) air pollution, (b) water pollution and (c) potential relationships between different types of pollution in West Yorkshire in the past five years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra assesses the relationship between air and water pollution pathways across a range of policy areas. For example, the impact assessment for the proposed Environment Act targets on water quality took into account possible air quality benefits and the newly launched slurry infrastructure grant schemes considered the impact on both water and air quality in the targeting of the scheme. Moreover, Defra has supported projects that improve the evidence base on these pollution pathways. This includes Defra funding for the Uplands Water Monitoring network which delivers a long-term data set on water quality and biodiversity in upland water bodies threatened by air pollution, climate change and land use, and the development of and updates to the Farmscoper tool which has the ability to look at impacts on both water and air quality as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
We annually publish emissions data for all key air pollutants on a 1km grid square for all the UK in our National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI). We also assess the concentrations of air pollutants across the whole UK and publish this information in our Air Pollution in the UK report (https://naei.beis.gov.uk/https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/annualreport/viewonline?year=2021_issue_1#report_pdf).
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 consider the potential merits of establishing a commission on (a) air pollution, (b) water pollution and (c) potential relationships between different types of pollution.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra takes an evidence-led approach to policy development, and engages with the academic community on an ongoing basis. This includes Defra’s Air Quality Expert Group and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Defra does not consider that a commission on air and water pollution is necessary at this time.
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 conducted any research into the relationship between air and water pollution in the last 12 months.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra assesses the relationship between air and water pollution pathways across a range of policy areas. For example, the impact assessment for the proposed Environment Act targets on water quality took into account possible air quality benefits and the newly launched slurry infrastructure grant schemes considered the impact on both water and air quality in the targeting of the scheme. Moreover, Defra has supported projects that improve the evidence base on these pollution pathways. This includes Defra funding for the Uplands Water Monitoring network which delivers a long-term data set on water quality and biodiversity in upland water bodies threatened by air pollution, climate change and land use, and the development of and updates to the Farmscoper tool which has the ability to look at impacts on both water and air quality as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
We annually publish emissions data for all key air pollutants on a 1km grid square for all the UK in our National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI). We also assess the concentrations of air pollutants across the whole UK and publish this information in our Air Pollution in the UK report (https://naei.beis.gov.uk/https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/annualreport/viewonline?year=2021_issue_1#report_pdf).
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 she is taking steps to work with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) local authorities to (i) reduce and (ii) remove charges for food waste services.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Food waste collections policy is determined by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 places a duty on waste collection authorities to arrange for the collection of household waste in their areas. There is currently no requirement for waste collection authorities to separately collect food waste. In accordance with section 45(3) of the Environmental Protection Act, waste collection authorities should not charge for the collection of household waste, unless it is allowed in regulations. Whereas waste collection authorities can charge to collect garden waste under the Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2012, they cannot charge to collect food waste. Where local authorities co-collect food and garden waste, they should be making sure that they are only charging to collect the garden waste. Local Authorities are independent bodies and are accountable to their electorate rather than to Ministers or government departments. Constituents should contact the Local Government Ombudsman if they believe their local authority is in breach of their statutory duties. We have recently taken steps to strengthen these powers. Measures introduced by the Environment Act 2021 will require all waste collection authorities in England to collect food waste separately at least weekly for free.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 1 June 2022 to Question 6702 on Poultry: Factory Farming, whether she has made a recent assessment of the implications for her policies of levels of antimicrobial resistance in (a) cattle and (b) poultry in UK farms.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our annual UK report on Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance, Sales and Surveillance (UK-VARSS 2021) was published on 8th November 2022, and presents the findings of our monitoring programmes on veterinary antibiotic sales, usage and resistance.
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 she has had recent discussions with Yorkshire Water on the potential impact of raw sewage pollution on fishing stocks off the Yorkshire coast.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
HM Government has been repeatedly clear to water companies, including Yorkshire Water, that the levels of sewage pollution at present are completely unacceptable and they must take significant and urgent action to tackle them.
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 she has had meetings with the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the last twelve months, Defra Ministers have had regular meetings with the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) to discuss a wide variety of issues.