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 Sustainable Farming Incentive payments were made (a) within and (b) after four months.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Sustainable Farming Incentive has a rolling application window with the first payment normally issued four months after the start of the agreement and quarterly thereafter.
As of 21 November 26,329, payments have been made within fourth months and 371 not within four months.
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 20 November 2024 to Question 13929 on Water Abstraction: Licensing, what the regional breakdown of these water abstraction licences was in each of the last 10 financial years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The number of water abstraction licences (temporary, full and transfer) live for all or part of the financial year for each of the last ten financial years is shown in the tables below. This data is shown by former Environment Agency (EA) regions.
This had been done by former EA regions to ensure consistency and allow comparison, as the EA changed its area boundaries in 2016.
For the purposes of this analysis, the boundary of each former EA region is river catchment based.
Also, these figures are for the country of England only. Figures for the former ‘Wales’ and ‘Midlands’ EA regions only include water abstraction licences with abstraction points located in England.
Former EA Region | 2014/2015 | 2015/2016 | 2016/2017 | 2017/2018 | 2018/2019 |
Anglian | 4761 | 4717 | 4610 | 4488 | 4556 |
Wales | 450 | 447 | 434 | 408 | 413 |
Midlands | 3566 | 3506 | 3481 | 3386 | 3299 |
North East | 2184 | 2162 | 2140 | 2065 | 2033 |
North West | 1657 | 1675 | 1645 | 1615 | 1606 |
South West | 2225 | 2179 | 2165 | 2049 | 2023 |
Southern | 1702 | 1669 | 1642 | 1631 | 1567 |
Thames | 1689 | 1672 | 1648 | 1607 | 1603 |
Total | 18234 | 18027 | 17765 | 17249 | 17100 |
Former EA Region | 2019/2020 | 2020/2021 | 2021/2022 | 2022/2023 | 2023/2024 |
Anglian | 4466 | 4507 | 4580 | 4640 | 4656 |
Wales | 412 | 471 | 474 | 471 | 465 |
Midlands | 3277 | 3339 | 3320 | 3482 | 3447 |
North East | 2028 | 2115 | 2104 | 2152 | 2157 |
North West | 1576 | 1580 | 1600 | 1621 | 1609 |
South West | 2002 | 1999 | 2021 | 2055 | 2054 |
Southern | 1566 | 1551 | 1639 | 1687 | 1677 |
Thames | 1613 | 1622 | 1648 | 1706 | 1714 |
Total | 16940 | 17184 | 17386 | 17814 | 17779 |
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 Water Abstraction License applications were (a) made and (b) granted in each of the last 10 financial years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
a) Applications for new full licences, normal variations and substantial variations:
| 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | Total |
Total | 206 | 320 | 311 | 682 | 1260 | 425 | 483 | 243 | 265 | 219 | 4475 |
b) Of those applications, granted licences below:
| 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | Total |
Total | 64 | 254 | 280 | 288 | 406 | 553 | 495 | 556 | 318 | 146 | 3370 |
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 Water Abstraction Licenses were operational in each of the last 10 financial years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The table below shows the number of water abstraction licences (temporary, full and transfer) live for all or part of the financial year for each of the last ten financial years.
Financial year | No. of water abstraction licences |
1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015 | 18234 |
1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016 | 18027 |
1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 | 17765 |
1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 | 17249 |
1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 | 17100 |
1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020 | 16940 |
1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 | 17184 |
1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 | 17386 |
1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 | 17814 |
1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 | 17779 |
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 Water Abstraction Licenses were not renewed in each of the last 10 financial years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Financial Year | Number of water abstraction licences that were not renewed because no renewal application was received, the application was withdrawn or rejected as incomplete | Number of water abstraction licences that were not renewed because the application was refused |
2016-2017 | 145 | 0 |
2017-2018 | 191 | 7 |
2018-2019 | 47 | 1 |
2019-2020 | 39 | 0 |
2020-2021 | 40 | 0 |
2021-2022 | 71 | 1 |
2022-2023 | 43 | 0 |
2023-2024 | 102 | 2 |
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, (a) how many and (b) what value of water resource management grants were (i) granted and (ii) rejected by the Rural Payments Agency in each of the last 10 financial years.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The following table lists the answer:
Qty Rejected | Value Rejected | Qty Granted | Value Granted | |
2017/18 | 0 | £ - | 2 | £215,974.42 |
2018/19 | 11 | £1,708,260.72 | 121 | £8,912,028.96 |
2019/20 | 14 | £20,762.30 | 179 | £ 311,127.36 |
2020/21 | 5 | £5,374.00 | 201 | £ 203,902.00 |
2021/22 | 0 | £ - | 0 | £ - |
2022/23 | 103 | £3,287,841.96 | 381 | £2,698,059.35 |
2023/24 | 19 | £2,047,450.67 | 423 | £6,811,257.63 |
2024/25 | 7 | £393,871.55 | 329 | £1,673,697.22 |
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 with Cabinet colleagues to support the horticulture sector.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government appreciates and values the vital work of the horticulture industry and, as part of our mission-driven government, we are committed to working with colleagues across Whitehall to support the sector.
Underlining this commitment, the Seasonal Worker visa route has been confirmed for 2025, with a total of 43,000 Seasonal Worker visas available for horticulture next year. This is broadly the same allocation as the sectors received in 2023 and 2024, which comfortably met demand. This will help the sector secure the labour and skills needed to bring high quality British produce to market.
We are also continuing support for crop Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) investing in R&D for breeding to improve crop varieties supporting crop resilience and efficiency.
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 make an assessment of the potential impact of the Government's proposed planning reforms on food security.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government places great importance on our agricultural land and food production. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out how the best and most versatile agricultural land should be reflected in planning policies and decisions. The Framework is also clear that where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality.
Food security is national security, which is relevant to all five Government missions and central to our primary mission to grow the economy. Boosting Britain’s food security is one of the core priorities of this Government. We need a resilient and healthy food system that works with nature and supports British farmers. The only way to do this effectively is to listen to farmers and others with a stake in our food system, countryside and nature. We will consider relevant evidence and analysis, including that contained in Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy, as we develop our plans to support our farmers and food and drink businesses, boost food security, invest in rural communities, deliver growth, manage waste more effectively across the supply chain, improve resilience to climate change and tackle biodiversity loss.
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of exempting Controlled Environment Facilities from Biodiversity Net Gain requirements.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following consultation in 2022, exemptions to the biodiversity net gain requirement set out within the regulations are narrow and focussed. This keeps the policy ambitious, whilst being proportionate and deliverable for developers and local authorities.
My officials engage widely with stakeholders involved in delivering biodiversity net gain to increase our understanding of overall implementation. We will continue to engage with the horticulture sector and others, with evidence from industry to substantiate any suggested improvements to the requirement being crucial.
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 make an assessment of the impact of Biodiversity Net Gain regulations on Controlled Environment Agriculture.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following consultation in 2022, exemptions to the biodiversity net gain requirement set out within the regulations are narrow and focussed. This keeps the policy ambitious, whilst being proportionate and deliverable for developers and local authorities.
My officials engage widely with stakeholders involved in delivering biodiversity net gain to increase our understanding of overall implementation. We will continue to engage with the horticulture sector and others, with evidence from industry to substantiate any suggested improvements to the requirement being crucial.