Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to paragraph 3.82 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October, how much of the flood resilience funding will be spent in Gosport constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is investing £2.4 billion over this year and next year to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. The list of projects to receive Government funding will be consented over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 9 October 2024 to question 6040 on Flood Control: Alverstoke, what discussions he has had with the Environment Agency on Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management catch up funding.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra Ministers regularly meet with the Environment Agency’s leadership team to discuss delivery of departmental priorities, including the floods investment programme. We have inherited a programme which is behind schedule due to the impacts of inflation, the covid pandemic, and skills and labour shortages. We will therefore be reviewing the programme to ensure flood risk management is fit for the challenges we face now and in the future. Decisions on future spending will be made at the Spending Review later this month.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 10 September 2024 to Question 5225 on Domestic Waste: Waste Disposal, whether Ministers have completed the review of final policy positions relating to Simpler Recycling.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The review is still under way however the Department is aware of the urgent need for certainty for stakeholders, and we hope to provide further clarity as soon as possible.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to implement regulations through powers introduced in the Environment Act 2021 to require producers to take responsibility for the waste that arises from their products.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, which reform the UKs producer responsibility system for packaging, are due to be brought before parliament in autumn this year, with the aim of these regulations coming into force by 1 January 2025.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether officials in his Department have had discussions with Council leaders on the potential merits of allowing local decision makers greater control over the design of local household waste recycling centre services.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No, officials have not had any such discussions. The Environmental Protection Act requires that waste disposal authorities provide places for residents to dispose of household waste. Householders must be allowed to deposit waste deemed to be ‘household waste’ for free. This encourages responsible waste disposal and recycling. Local authorities may otherwise determine how best to deliver a service that meets the needs of their residents.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Alverstoke Coastal Defence Scheme will receive Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management catch up funding.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency has worked with Gosport Borough Council to agree a business case for the Alverstoke Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management scheme. This scheme aims to better protect 99 residential and 9 commercial properties from flooding. The project has received £1 million of Government funding to date with a further £0.2 million yet to be allocated. However, due to inflation in the construction industry and other factors, costs have risen. Currently, the project has a funding gap of £3.6 million.
The Environment Agency are working with the Government to reduce partnership funding gaps on schemes that have been impacted by rising costs.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to announce a further tranche of flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) funding.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the Department’s five core priorities.
After 14 years of Conservative failure, flood defences have been left in critical condition leaving over 80,000 homes at risk of flooding.
To respond to these challenges, the new Labour Government has established a Flood Resilience Taskforce to turbocharge the delivery of flood defences, drainage systems, and natural flood management schemes.
We will be reviewing the programme with a view to ensuring flood risk management is fit for the challenges we face now and in the future. Decisions on future spending will be made at the Spending Review later this month.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 ensure free movement of cultivated plant biodiversity.
Answered by Mark Spencer
UK plant health controls take a risk-based approach informed by the evidence and balance ensuring robust biosecurity with the facilitation of trade. The threat from plant pests and diseases is significant and growing due to globalisation and climate change.
High plant health and biosecurity standards keep harmful pests and diseases, like Xylella fastidiosa, out of the UK, benefiting both the horticultural trade and the environment in the long term. The UK has some of the highest plant health and biosecurity standards in the world, and we have been clear we will not compromise on these standards. They are integral to supporting and protecting the horticultural industry as well as sustaining our food supply and natural environment.
The UK Plant Health Risk Group is continuously reviewing risks to plant biosecurity and identifying actions needed to mitigate the most significant threats. These include keeping our regulatory regime up to date, carrying out focused surveillance and inspections, contingency planning, research, and awareness raising, as well as identifying areas where intervention would not be helpful or justified.
Further, the UK is a member of both:
The EU has granted equivalence to the UK for agricultural seed (excluding production of vegetable seed), fruit and vegetable propagating material, and FRM, ensuring these commodities may be marketed in the EU.
The UK Plant Health Information Portal has published Defra guidance to importers and exporters of plant material to support trade facilitation.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to consult on the ending of farrowing crates for pigs in context of the EU Commission's announcement of intention to propose legislation in that area.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government is committed to exploring the phasing out of farrowing crates, supporting the industry to do so in a way which underpins UK food production and does not have unintended animal welfare or business impacts.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
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 it his policy to ban bottom trawling and the use of other bottom towed fishing gear in all offshore marine protected areas on a whole-site basis, rather than on a feature-based approach.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Each Marine Protected Area (MPA) protects specific features, whether that is a particular species or a variety of different habitats. We have recently consulted on five candidate Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). HPMAs would have the highest level of protection in English waters and would take a whole-site approach.
98 MPAs in English inshore waters already have byelaws in place to protect sensitive features from damaging fishing activities and the first four offshore byelaws have now been established. A Call for Evidence on byelaws in 13 more MPAs has recently closed. Byelaws are developed using an evidence-led process to determine what measures are required to protect sites. Site by site assessments are carried out to tailor management measures and to avoid unnecessary restrictions on fishing. Only fishing activities which could damage the protected features of an MPA require management, such as trawling on the seabed. We aim to have protection in place for all our offshore MPAs by 2024.