Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether mandatory testing of seized illegal meat imports includes testing for infectious agents such as foot-and-mouth disease, African swine fever, and antimicrobial resistance genes.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not test seized illegal meat imports for infectious agents. Border Force and local authorities seize illegal meat imports, which must be safely disposed of in accordance with animal by-products rules.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will have discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on adding chalk streams to the list of irreplaceable habitats in the National Planning Policy Framework.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Chalk streams are a large source of national pride. As one of Britain’s most nature-rich habitats, they support some of our rarest wildlife.
During the passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill last year, the Government committed to consulting on National Planning Policy Framework to give explicit recognition to chalk streams in the new suite of planning policies for decision making and seek to ensure that chalk streams are explicitly recognised as features of high environmental value. Also, Local Nature Recovery Strategies statutory guidance will be amended to encourage chalk streams to feature prominently.
The Government has has also set out clearer expectations for development proposals to assess and mitigate adverse impacts to water quality on these sensitive waterbodies.
The consultation on changes to the NPPF is available here: National Planning Policy Framework: proposed reforms and other changes to the planning system - GOV.UK and will remain open for responses until 10th March 2026.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if the Government will accept the recommendations from the Farming Profitability Review in full.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has worked with Baroness Minette Batters on a Farming Profitability Review to help farm businesses grow and contribute to the economy. The department is grateful for her hard work to finalise this review and Defra is carefully looking at the 57 recommendations. The Farming Profitability Review (FPR) will be published in December, ahead of Christmas.
This review will feed into Defra’s wider work on the Farming Roadmap and the Land Use Framework, both due next year. Together, these will set out the Government’s long-term vision for agriculture and provide farmers with the certainty they need to plan for the future.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the Government plans to publish its response to the Farming Profitability Review.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has worked with Baroness Minette Batters on a Farming Profitability Review to help farm businesses grow and contribute to the economy. The department is grateful for her hard work to finalise this review and Defra is carefully looking at the 57 recommendations. The Farming Profitability Review (FPR) will be published in December, ahead of Christmas.
This review will feed into Defra’s wider work on the Farming Roadmap and the Land Use Framework, both due next year. Together, these will set out the Government’s long-term vision for agriculture and provide farmers with the certainty they need to plan for the future.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will commit to publishing Minette Batters’ farming profitability review in full.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has worked with Baroness Minette Batters on a Farming Profitability Review to help farm businesses grow and contribute to the economy. The department is grateful for her hard work to finalise this review and Defra is carefully looking at the 57 recommendations. The Farming Profitability Review (FPR) will be published in December, ahead of Christmas.
This review will feed into Defra’s wider work on the Farming Roadmap and the Land Use Framework, both due next year. Together, these will set out the Government’s long-term vision for agriculture and provide farmers with the certainty they need to plan for the future.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
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 23 October 2025 to Question 80723 on Stray Dogs, with which stakeholders her Department has met.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department regularly meets key stakeholders to discuss issues affecting animal welfare. This includes the Canine and Feline Sector Group, a coalition of organisations from the animal welfare, veterinary, and pet industry sectors which includes the RSPCA and Dogs Trust.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the (a) potential implications for her policies of trends in the number of and (b) effectiveness of the response from local authorities in tackling stray dogs.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government regularly meets with stakeholders to understand the issues and trends affecting the sector. This includes the impact of the rising cost of living on pet owners and welfare organisations, as well as issues local authorities may face in meeting their obligations related to stray dogs under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
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 the press notice entitled More lost pets to return home as microchipping system reformed, published on 29 March 2024, what progress her Department has made on introducing a central portal to search pet microchip records.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department is working closely with the Association of Microchip Database Operators to explore the development of an industry-led solution that would make it easier for authorised users to access information contained on the databases digitally.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
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 help ensure the effective prosecution of people who commit environmental crimes.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) is the main regulator responsible for the enforcement of environmental law and the prosecution of environmental crime in England. Other regulators responsible for environmental compliance and prosecution in England include local authorities, Natural England and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Natural Resources Wales is the responsible authority for Wales and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency in Scotland.
Supported by Defra the EA must follow the requirements of the Regulators’ Code and prosecutes in accordance with its published Enforcement and Sanctions Policy. Prosecutions are directed towards the activities that cause the greatest risk of serious environmental damage, where the risks are least well-controlled, the regulatory framework is undermined and where deliberate or organised crime is suspected. The EA delivers the equivalent constitutional check with prosecutions that the CPS provides to the police. The EA reviews whether evidence is adequate and whether a prosecution is in the public interest in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
Natural England (NE) has enforcement powers and views enforcement as an essential tool to ensure that the natural environment is protected. A key element of NE’s wider regulatory role involves helping people to comply with laws that protect wildlife and the natural environment, but where laws are broken and impacts on wildlife or the natural environment have occurred, or are likely to occur, NE will take enforcement action to ensure that the environment is protected, and environmental harm is restored. Where enforcement action is taken, NE will apply established principles of good regulation to ensure fairness and transparency for those we regulate.
NE has access to a range of enforcement sanctions available to secure the right level of environmental protection. Where an offence has resulted in significant harm NE’s enforcement response will be robust, aiming to correct and deter further non-compliance. NE aims to apply the polluter pays principle in all cases to ensure that the public purse does not bear the burden of enforcement and clean-up costs. In appropriate cases, NE works collaboratively with other regulators to ensure appropriate enforcement goals are met.
The conservation of wildlife is an area in which the police play an investigative and enforcement role and where the CPS are called upon to prosecute in accordance with the provisions of the Code for Crown Prosecutors. The CPS sits on a number of working groups to tackle wildlife crime including the National Wildlife Crime Unit’s (NWCU) UK Tasking and Coordinating Group (UKTCG) and the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW UK). In some cases, the Director of Public Prosecutions may be able to take over a prosecution brought by another organisation.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessments his Department has made of the (a) functionality and (b) operational effectiveness of the Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Defra continues to monitor and review the impact of the Border Target Operating Model. We are working closely with industry, trade partners and enforcement agencies to minimise disruption and costs to trade, while continuing to protect our biosecurity.
The effectiveness of the import controls was demonstrated throughout September and October 2024 by the interception at Sevington of consignments of plants infested with Pochazia Shantungensis, a fruit tree pest native to China but now present in mainland Europe. The consignments were destroyed, preventing the potential for a damaging outbreak for UK fruit growers.
In January 2025, following a confirmed case of Foort and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Germany, Defra has issued instructions to officials at Border Control Posts, ensuring all impacted commodities are selected for checks at the border. Such measures prevent significant economic losses due to production losses in the affected animals such as reduced milk yields as well as loss of access to foreign markets for animals, meat and milk for affected countries.