Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 reduce the use of snares and prevent unnecessary suffering to wildlife in West Dorset.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy sets out its clear ambition for all animals to experience good welfare and not be subjected to suffering. The strategy reiterates the manifesto commitment to end the use of snare traps in England, and the Government will do this as swiftly as possible.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to strengthen regulations governing the use of snares in England.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy sets out its clear ambition for all animals to experience good welfare and not be subjected to suffering. The strategy reiterates the manifesto commitment to end the use of snare traps in England, and the Government will do this as swiftly as possible.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 potential impact of current timescales in confirming bluetongue cases on farmers in West Dorset.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 11 September 2026, private vets in England can diagnose cases of bluetongue based on clinical signs, with cases then formally confirmed by APHA. This is supported by a new online reporting system, which reduces the time taken to both notify and confirm cases. It also frees up laboratory capacity for movement testing and surveillance. Defra continues to work with industry representatives to consider further measures to support farmers.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 reduce delays in confirming cases of bluetongue disease in the South West.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since 11 September 2026, private vets in England can diagnose cases of bluetongue based on clinical signs, with cases then formally confirmed by APHA. This is supported by a new online reporting system, which reduces the time taken to both notify and confirm cases. It also frees up laboratory capacity for movement testing and surveillance. Defra continues to work with industry representatives to consider further measures to support farmers.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of fires caused by disposable barbecues in Dorset in each of the last five years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Information on fires caused by barbecues is published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (table FIRE0602) and can be filtered by Fire and Rescue Authority area, including Dorset. Data on fires specifically caused by disposable barbecues is not included, but data collection is being improved through the Fire and Rescue Data Platform.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential risk of wildfires in West Dorset during the summer of 2026.
Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Fire and Rescue Authorities are responsible for assessing and planning for wildfire risk locally through their Community Risk Management Plans and work with other responders to ensure appropriate preparedness.
However, to strengthen resilience more broadly, MHCLG and Defra have established joint governance arrangements with partners across government and the resilience sector to drive coordinated action on prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. This work is helping to inform the development of a cross-government Wildfire Action Plan to improve resilience over the short, medium and long term.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 adequacy of the budget for Environmental Land Management schemes in the 2026–27 financial year.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This year's budget for Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes is £1.9 billion. This has increased by more than fourfold since 2020, when we spent £433 million. This is rising further still, and by 2028/29, we plan to spend £2 billion on ELM schemes, making a total of £2.7 billion of investment into farming and nature.
We have also recently published our Annual Report for 2025/26, which sets out that we spent £1.8bn on ELM schemes which includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive, CS Higher Tier and ELM Capital.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 potential impact of changes to farm support payments on farm businesses in West Dorset constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Supporting British farmers and boosting the nation’s food security are key priorities for the government. As set out in the Farming Roadmap, food security and restoring nature are not competing aims. They are, over the long term, inseparable. The most resilient farms are profitable precisely because they work with the environment, which is why Government is backing a shift towards lower input, more sustainable farming systems.
There are now 4,165 live SFI agreements and 658 live CS agreements within the West Dorset constituency. This uptake by farm businesses and land managers in the constituency is supporting them to build nature‑friendly farming systems that can sustain or enhance production while strengthening resilience and reducing input dependency.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 potential impact of changes to farm support schemes on participation in Countryside Stewardship agreements.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government's environmental land management schemes have been developed to support delivery of the ambitious goals set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan, with farmers and land managers playing a critical role in achieving these outcomes.
To support the continued delivery of Environmental Land Management agreements, including Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier, Defra has introduced temporary adjustments that provide additional flexibility to support the delivery of CSHT. Agreement holders using these temporary measures must continue to meet all other scheme and legal requirements and return to the original requirements once conditions allow.
We do not expect recent changes to farm support schemes to reduce participation in Countryside Stewardship agreements.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of the agriculture budget is being paid directly to farmers in the 2026–27 financial year.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. On 16 June 2025, following the 2025 Spending Review, Defra set out indicative funding figures (https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/16/spending-review-2025-a-commitment-to-farming/ ) for the 2026-27 to 2028-29 financial years, including plans to increase the amount of money paid to farmers under Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes from £800m in 2023/24 towards £2bn by 2028/29.
We have also recently published our Annual Report for 2025/26, which sets out that we spent £1.8bn on ELM schemes. This includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive, CS Higher Tier and ELM Capital.