Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
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 (a) protect and (b) maintain water supply infrastructure from hostile actors.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is the Lead Government Department (LGD) in England with responsibility for the Water Sector, including as a Critical National Infrastructure sector. The equivalent bodies in the Devolved Governments are responsible for water, including Critical National Infrastructure in their respective nations.
Defra’s work to deter, detect and counter threats from hostile actors includes developing, maintaining and implementing legislation, including the Security and Emergency Measures Direction (SEMD) 2022 and the Network Information Systems (NIS) regulations (2018) (UK). The SEMD sets out legal responsibilities for the Water Sector in England on matters such as security and emergency planning.
Defra also works with other government departments and water companies to understand risks from hostile actors and develop mitigations. Water companies are Category Two Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and as such have legal duties to assess, plan and advise on risks. They work with partner organisations through Local Resilience Forums to prepare, respond and recover from emergencies.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans are in place to ensure the continuity of food supply chains in the event of a natural disaster or armed conflict.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra assesses the potential impacts of natural disasters and conflicts along with other risks to the food supply chain, as outlined in the National Risk Register (NRR). Defra works with Cabinet Office, as leads for the NRR, and the wider resilience and Critical National Infrastructure community across the Government to ensure impacts to food supply are considered in risk assessments and contingency planning.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what diplomatic steps his Department is taking to secure an (a) ambitious and (b) legally binding target to cut plastic production at the UN Global Plastics Treaty.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As a member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution and a signatory to the Bridge to Busan Declaration, the UK is pushing for an ambitious treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastics, including reducing production and consumption of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels. The UK has played an active role in negotiations including at high-level Ministerial consultations on this matter during the UN General Assembly in New York.