Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Environment Agency's budget for flood prevention and mitigation was in Leicestershire in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has spent the following in Leicestershire on flood prevention and mitigation:
Additionally, in 23/24 the EA were allocated £2.9 million revenue funding for flood prevention and mitigation in Leicestershire. This is for the EAs work on asset maintenance and repairs, and in-river maintenance such as vegetation clearance and de-silting.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what additional (a) funding and (b) support his Department has provided to (i) communities and (ii) local authorities in Leicestershire to help tackle the impact of recent flooding.
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 Secretary of State’s five core priorities.
To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, the Government will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences.
In addition, the Government’s new Floods Resilience Taskforce sets out a new approach to preparing for flooding by working cross-government and with external stakeholders. It plans to meet again in January 2025 and will discuss the recent flooding.
During the flooding incident, the Environment Agency (EA) has informed the public about flood risk; operated flood risk assets to prevent or reduce the severity of flooding; supported authorities to pump flood water away from properties and infrastructure; and worked with partners to coordinate the emergency response.
Going forward, the EA will contribute to the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Recovery Cell; continue to deploy officers to affected communities to assess the impacts of flooding to properties and businesses; and continue to work with others to identify further opportunities to reduce flood risk in Leicestershire and support the resilience of communities to flooding.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of trends in the number of developments on flood risks in Leicestershire.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has committed to ensure we are building more high-quality, well-designed and sustainable homes, and creating places that increase climate resilience and promote nature recovery. Flood risk is an important consideration in the planning system.
The Environment Agency (EA) is a statutory consultee in the planning process on flood risk matters, in particular flooding from rivers.
On a strategic level, the EA actively engages with Local Planning Authorities’ (LPAs) Local Plan making process to ensure that new developments will be in line with the National Planning Policy Framework’s requirements on flood risk.
The EA ensures the LPA has the most up-to-date flooding information and data to make informed decisions regarding which locations they choose for significantly sized new development, using the principle that those areas at least risk of flooding should be chosen first.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the (a) economic impact of the bluetongue restrictions on affected farmers and (b) animal health impact of the bluetongue restriction.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Government recognises that keepers and businesses can be affected not only by the impacts of bluetongue disease on animals, but also by disease control measures. That is why Defra seeks to minimise these burdens as far as practically possible, easing them where safe to do so using exemptions under licenses, whilst maintaining the integrity and efficacy of measures intended to mitigate the risk of disease spread.
The restricted zone currently in force has contained and slowed the spread of disease and prevented disease circulation in the areas of the country with the highest cattle and sheep density. Defra are aware of the significant challenges that affected farmers and businesses have faced, and we continue to work closely with industry representatives. Restrictions remain under continuous review, including their likely economic impact, and any decisions are based on the latest scientific evidence and veterinary advice.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on the implementation of the Central Equine Database.
Answered by George Eustice
The Central Equine Database has been successfully tested with users. We will be piloting the database with Passport Issuing Organisations in March and expect it to be fully operational by summer 2017.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the tree-planting rates have been in England in each year since 2006.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Forestry Commission collect and publish National Statistics for England on the area, in hectares, of new woodland planting. It also estimates the number of trees planted, based on the average number of trees planted per hectare in the grant supported planting. In 2015-16 this average was 1,566 trees per hectare.
Table 1 below provides annual planting area published by the Forestry Commission since 2006 and its estimate of the number of trees planted.
In 2015-16 the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) supported 546 hectares of planting and it is estimated that 165 hectares of woodland was created, without RDPE support, bringing the total created during 2015-16 to 711 hectares.
In the period April 2016 to June 2016, a further 422 hectares of woodland was recorded as being planted with RDPE support.
The RDPE figures reflect the slow initial take up of Countryside Stewardship support for woodland planting. Planting is recorded at the time the grant is paid, which means that some planting will have taken place in the previous financial year to that in which it is recorded. Approximately 1,292,000 trees were planted in England with RDPE support since April 2015.
Table 1: New planting of woodland in England since 2005-06
Financial Year to 31st March | a) New planting by land area | b) Estimated number of trees |
| Thousand hectares | Million trees |
2005-06 | 3.7 | 4.1 |
2006-07 | 3.2 | 3.5 |
2007-08 | 2.6 | 2.9 |
2008-09 | 2.5 | 2.8 |
2009-10 | 2.3 | 2.5 |
2010-11 | 2.5 | 2.8 |
2011-12 | 2.7 | 3.0 |
2012-13 | 2.6 | 2.9 |
2013-14 | 3.3 | 3.6 |
2014-15 | 2.4 | 2.6 |
2015-16 | 0.7 | 0.8 |
Source: Forestry Statistics 2016 (Forestry Commission)
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure the sustainability of the sea-bass population.
Answered by George Eustice
Bass continue to be a priority for the UK Government as we prepare for negotiations at EU level in December to agree further measures that will apply in 2017. Our approach will include consideration of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea scientific advice on bass for 2017 and will clearly recognise the continuing need to maintain strong action to help this stock recover.
The European Commission’s proposals, expected shortly, will help to inform our negotiating position. This will take into account the current and long term interests of the recreational and commercial fishing sectors in this important fish stock. We will be working with stakeholders, other Member States, and the European Commission in the coming weeks to inform the UK position.
At the domestic scale our review of bass measures is focusing principally on bass nursery areas. Where it is identified that action is required, this work will be further developed and, where national legislation may be required, will follow the usual legislative process. We will seek the views of key stakeholders on the way forward. Any proposed national legislation will be subject to public consultation involving stakeholders, other Government Departments and interested parties.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the likely rate of tree-planting in England in (a) 2016 and (b) 2017.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Forestry Commission has reported, as an Official Statistic, that 522 hectares of woodland, equivalent to 798,000 trees, was planted through Government-funded incentives to the end of June 2016. All agreements for schemes with planting planned for 2017 are currently being processed and have yet to be signed, meaning that no forecast of tree numbers can yet be provided. However, the Forestry Commission estimates that the likely rate of new woodland planting will increase in the remainder of 2016 and 2017.