Oral Answers to Questions

Callum Anderson Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mary Creagh]

I was pleased to meet the hon. Gentleman and my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns) to talk about the activities at these waste sites. Unpicking the work happening there is a long and complex legal process involving multi-agency and cross-agency working. We now have a properly funded waste crime enforcement unit. The funding for that unit was a mere £10 million in 2023-24, but it has had an extra £5 million this year to take it up to £15 million, and then we are doubling it to £30 million. That is the way we take these people down.

[Callum Anderson (Buckingham and Bletchley) (Lab)]

T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Reynolds)]

Since our last oral questions, we have recently published England’s first long-term farming road map, as I mentioned earlier, and we have opened the first application window for our reformed sustainable farming incentive. I visited the Groundswell agricultural festival to see regenerative farming in action, and I will be at the Great Yorkshire show next week.

Our water delivery taskforce has recently unlocked the infrastructure needed to support nearly 20,000 new homes in East Anglia, and we are taking action to ensure that products on British supermarket shelves such as coffee and cocoa are not linked to illegal deforestation overseas. Like the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry East (Mary Creagh), I spoke at London Climate Action Week about our bold action to restore nature, and I welcomed the UN Secretary-General to Kew Gardens. Yesterday I announced the biggest ever investment in species recovery.

Finally, we are a nation of animal lovers, as you know very well, Mr Speaker. I have today published the Government’s plans to reform the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 in order to deliver better outcomes for this great profession—the Act has not been updated since 1966—and our much-loved pets.

[Callum Anderson]

Farmers in north Buckinghamshire have raised queries with me regarding the transition from environmental land management agreements that expired this year to the funding available through the much-welcomed sustainable farming incentive 2026. Will the Secretary of State set out how the Government are supporting farmers through the transition, so that there are no unintended funding gaps for those who want to deliver positive environmental outcomes?

[Emma Reynolds]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue. We have worked in close partnership with farmers and stakeholders to shape the new SFI. I can reassure my hon. Friend, and Members across the House, that those farmers who have soon-to-expire ELM revenue agreements will be able to apply in the second window of SFI later this year, in September.