Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
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 regulate water companies operating in protected landscapes to help prevent environmental harm.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government will continue to work with regulators to hold water companies to account on poor performance and drive improvements which benefit customers and the environment. The Water (Special Measures) Act delivers on our manifesto commitment to put water companies under special measures by strengthening regulation to clean up our waters.
Through water resource management plans and regional water resources plans we are addressing unsustainable abstraction and protecting the environment from climate change over the next 25 years and beyond. These plans include action to protect England’s precious and unique chalk stream habitats, reducing abstraction by nearly 3 billion litres a day by 2050.
Nutrient pollution from wastewater is one of the key pressures affecting our rivers, lakes, and seas. There is a legally binding target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce phosphorus loadings from treated wastewater by 80% by 2038 against a 2020 baseline. We will require water companies to upgrade 440 wastewater treatment works by 2030, to meet stricter phosphorus permit limits, reducing harmful nutrient pollution from treated wastewater. In Price Review 2024 final determinations, Ofwat has allowed £4.795bn of investment to improve water quality by reducing phosphorus pollution in England and Wales.
Furthermore, as part of the record £11bn of investment to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows in England and Wales during Price Review 2024, with 75% of such High Priority Sites needing to be improved by 2035 and the rest by 2045. By 2050, we expect no storm overflow spill to cause any adverse ecological harm and spill no more than 10 times per year.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of confirming NFU Sugar as the UK sugar beet growers’ representative in contract negotiations with British Sugar.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of sugar beet farmers and their vital contribution to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production.
We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. That includes seeing a price agreed for sugar beet that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market.
There is a well-established process in place to agree the sugar beet price; designed to be independent between both parties. The NFU has a statutory mandate, under Article 125 of Regulation EU 1308/2013 (Retained EU Law on the common organisation of agricultural markets) to represent the interests of growers in all commercial dealings with the processor. An Inter Professional Agreement is agreed each year between both parties and sets out the process for negotiating and agreeing price, terms and conditions for the upcoming crop year, as well as any dispute resolution process.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
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 sole processor negotiates with the growers’ collective representative in the sugar beet sector.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of sugar beet farmers and their vital contribution to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production.
We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. That includes seeing a price agreed for sugar beet that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market.
There is a well-established process in place to agree the sugar beet price; designed to be independent between both parties. The NFU has a statutory mandate, under Article 125 of Regulation EU 1308/2013 (Retained EU Law on the common organisation of agricultural markets) to represent the interests of growers in all commercial dealings with the processor. An Inter Professional Agreement is agreed each year between both parties and sets out the process for negotiating and agreeing price, terms and conditions for the upcoming crop year, as well as any dispute resolution process.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
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 ensure British Sugar agrees the (a) price and (b) terms of future sugar beet contracts with NFU Sugar.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of sugar beet farmers and their vital contribution to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production.
We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. That includes seeing a price agreed for sugar beet that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market.
There is a well-established process in place to agree the sugar beet price; designed to be independent between both parties. The NFU has a statutory mandate, under Article 125 of Regulation EU 1308/2013 (Retained EU Law on the common organisation of agricultural markets) to represent the interests of growers in all commercial dealings with the processor. An Inter Professional Agreement is agreed each year between both parties and sets out the process for negotiating and agreeing price, terms and conditions for the upcoming crop year, as well as any dispute resolution process.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many tonnes of (a) dangerous and (b) otherwise illegal meat have been intercepted by the Dover Port Health Authority in each of the last 10 financial years.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Please see the table below for total seizures of illegal meat year on year. The figures quoted are seizures from all ports who had returned seizure data to us from September 2022 onwards as part of Defra African Swine Fever programme. This does not reflect all illegal meat seizures.
We are unable to provide further levels of detail as we do not release details of the location of seizure; this information could risk undermining border security, by providing intelligence in our resource deployment and targeting
Total seizures for full year on year are as follows:
2022 (Sept-Dec) | 3745kg |
2023 | 44,482kg |
2024 | 92,270kg |
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
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 29 October 2024 to Question 10797 on Inland Border Facilities: Dover, what the operating status is of Bastion Point Border Control Point as of 22 January 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The site at Bastion Point is currently retained in a non-operational state. The Government will explore further options for the site in the future.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times the Timed Out Decision Contingency Feature has been used for medium-risk animal products in each month since February 2024.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Individual Local and Port Health Authorities will hold local data and will be able to identify when the Timed Out Decision Contingency Feature has been used.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of vehicles entering the Port of Dover being under no obligation to attend Sevington Border Control Point if asked to do so on biosecurity.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Consignments called in to Sevington Border Control Post (BCP) for an inspection will have completed the necessary customs declarations and pre-notifications. These goods will not be legally cleared for sale or use within the UK until they have checked and been cleared by the BCP. If the importer fails to attend, the Port Health staff will commence the necessary action.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many tonnes of (a) dangerous and (b) illegal meat were intercepted at the (i) Port of Dover, (ii) Port of Felixstowe, (iii) Port of Liverpool, (iv) Port of London, (v) Port of Grimsby and Immingham, (vi) Port of Southampton, (vii) Port of Tees and Hartlepool, (viii) Port of the Forth and (ix) Port of Belfast in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Please see the table below for total seizures of illegal meat, for full year on year. We are unable to provide further levels of detail as we do not release details of the location of seizure; this information could risk undermining border security, by providing intelligence in our resource deployment and targeting.
Total seizures for full year on year since 2022 are as follows:
2022 (Sept-Dec) | 3745kg |
2023 | 44,482kg |
2024 | 92,270kg |
2025* | 5,593kg |
*2025 runs from 3 to 10 January 2025
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many products of animal origin spot checks were undertaken at the (a) Port of Dover, (b) Port of Felixstowe, (c) Port of Liverpool, (d) Port of London, (e) Port of Grimsby and Immingham, (f) Port of Southampton, (g) Port of Tees and Hartlepool, (h) Port of the Forth and (i) Port of Belfast in each of the last five financial years.
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 inspections.