Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
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 Chapter 6 of his Department’s publication entitled Defra’s annual report and accounts for 2022 to 2023, published on 26 October 2023, which local authority received the excess rock armour.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The rock armour was transferred to Brighton and Hove City Council for the Brighton Marina to River Adur Coastal Protection Scheme.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the level of illegal waste disposal in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London in the last 12 months.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the last 12 months the Environment Agency (EA) has received six reports of illegal waste disposal in the London Borough of Enfield. There were three reports of small-scale burning which were all referred to the council, and where two addresses were identified as carrying out burning, letters were sent. There was one small-scale fly tipping incident in the N9 area which was also referred to Enfield Council due to the impact on the highways, and two major fly tipping incidents in the N11 and N18 areas. The EA currently has no outstanding investigations in the illegal disposal of waste in the Enfield area.
The EA continues to work closely with internal and external stakeholders across London and the Southeast to initiate partnership solutions to the multi-faceted issues we deal with, often involving significant investigations of various strands to not only disrupt criminal activity but to hold to account those responsible.
In addition, local authorities are required to report fly-tipping incidents and enforcement actions to Defra, which we publish annually here.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has taken to help tackle waste crime in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to tackling waste crime, which is a blight on our local communities and the environment and damages legitimate businesses. We have strengthened regulators' powers, are tightening the law and have increased the Environment Agency's budget by £10 million per year to make it harder for rogue operators to find work in the sector and easier for regulators to take action against criminals. The Prime Minister’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan set out how we will support councils across the country to take tougher action against those who fly-tip such as by raising the upper limit on fixed penalty notices to £1,000, which we did earlier this year. As part of the plan, we have also published league tables showing which councils are issuing the most and least fixed penalties in relation to fly-tipping.
The Environment Agency continues to work in partnership with the local authority in tackling waste crime, including investigating two large fly-tips in North Enfield.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many sewage releases there have been in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London in (i) 2023 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Event Duration Monitoring (EDM) provides information on when and for how long sewage discharges have occurred. All EDM data is published online (opens in a new tab) annually since 2020. The 2022 data was published in March 2023 (opens in a new tab). The full EDM data set for 2023 will be published by the Environment Agency in March 2024.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure the preservation of green spaces within (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. We committed in our Environmental Improvement Plan to work across government to help ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space.
The Government is delivering a number of policies to protect access to green spaces including in urban areas. Examples of these include:
In Enfield, Natural England is working with the Council in developing its local plan to create high quality places that tackle climate change, the nature emergency, inequalities, and promote health and well-being. This will also help Enfield to embed Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Standards into the plan and supporting documents.
In addition Enfield has been awarded £500,000 from the Landscape Recovery Scheme to support schemes to restore nature, reduce flood risks and boost biodiversity include creating hundreds of hectares of woodlands and grassland, wetlands and restore rivers and expanding the Enfield Chase Restoration Project. Natural England are also working with the London Borough of Enfield on a new Countryside Stewardship scheme.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs were seized by the police by breed in each year since 2013.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The police are not required to report this to us, and we do not hold this data. Any information on the seizure of dogs will be held by individual local authorities and police forces.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
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 been made of the impact of deep-sea mining on the UN Convention on Biological Diversity target to protect 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The UK is a global leader in protecting the ocean and our marine life and works with stakeholders in the UK and partners overseas to help achieve these aims. The Blue Belt Programme continues to support the British Overseas Territories to enhance marine protection and sustainable management. We also continue to help developing countries around the world to protect their marine environments to the benefit of people and livelihoods through our £500 million Blue Planet Fund. And as Ocean co-chair of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People and chair of the Global Ocean Alliance, a group of 75 countries, the UK is committed to the target to conserve and manage at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030, a target agreed under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
As a part of our support for strong multilateral action on the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean and effective ocean governance across international forums, we will continue to push for the highest possible environmental standards in regulations developed at the International Seabed Authority, the international organisation through which States Parties organise and control deep-sea mining activities. This includes the need for Regional Environmental Management Plans to be in place before any future exploitation takes place.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department has spent on reducing air pollution in (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) the London Borough of Enfield in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Mayor of London is responsible for air quality in the capital and has devolved powers under the Environment Act 1995 allowing him to require London boroughs to take action to address local air pollution. The provision of funding to tackle air pollution is also devolved to the Mayor of London.
Additionally, Defra’s annual Air Quality Grant is open to all English councils. Under the grant, councils can submit bids for projects to help them develop and implement locally targeted air quality measures. In 2023, London Borough of Enfield Council, which includes the Enfield North Constituency, received £223,500 to fund a project reducing pollution outside schools.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has she has taken to tackle waste-related crime in (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) London.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to tackling waste crime, which is a blight on our local communities and the environment and damages legitimate businesses. We have strengthened regulators' powers, are tightening the law and have increased the Environment Agency's budget by £10 million per year to make it harder for rogue operators to find work in the sector and easier for regulators to take action against criminals. We are also providing grants to councils across the country to help them purchase equipment to tackle fly-tipping. Recipients include London Borough of Newham Council and London Borough of Waltham Forest Council.
The Environment Agency is aware of recent suspected large scale illegal deposits of waste in the Enfield area. Those suspected of being involved are subject to Operation Angola and an investigation into this group is ongoing. The Environment Agency also has ongoing investigations into large scale organised illegal depositing of waste and are progressing several major cases one of which is going through the court system at this time. All reports of waste related crime are recorded on the Environment Agency National Incident Recording System and investigated in order of seriousness.
In the South London area (that also includes Kent), Environment Agency investigations to date have resulted in 20 successful prosecutions. Active on-going investigations are targeting priority offenders linked to large scale illegal disposal of waste with a current focus in Kingston, Croydon and Sutton. These investigations are being undertaken with partner organisations such as the police and local authorities.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
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 protect access to (a) green spaces and (b) Greenways in (i) Enfield North constituency and (ii) London.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is working to ensure this is safe and appropriate. We committed in our Environmental Improvement Plan to work across government to help ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space.
The Government is delivering a number of policies to protect access to green spaces including in urban areas. Examples of these include:
Local highway authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of existing public rights of way and are required to keep a Rights of Way Improvement Plan (ROWIP) to plan improvements to the rights of way network in their area. This must include an assessment of the local rights of way including the condition of the network.
In Enfield, Natural England is working with the Council in developing its local plan to create high quality places that tackle climate change, the nature emergency, inequalities, and promote health and well-being. This will also help Enfield to embed Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Standards into the plan and supporting documents.
In addition Enfield has been awarded £500,000 from the Landscape Recovery Scheme to support schemes to restore nature, reduce flood risks and boost biodiversity include creating hundreds of hectares of woodlands and grassland, wetlands and restore rivers and expanding the Enfield Chase Restoration Project.