Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to introduce an extended producer responsibility scheme for the textile sector.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has asked his department to convene a taskforce of experts from across Government, industry, academia and relevant non-governmental organisations. The Taskforce will help to develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England and a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions that the Government will make on a sector-by-sector basis. The Taskforce will consider the evidence for action right across the economy, and as such the Taskforce will evaluate what interventions may need to be made in the textiles sector as it helps to develop the Circular Economy Strategy.
In the meantime, we continue to fund action in this area through the Textiles 2030 voluntary initiative which supports businesses and organisations within the fashion and textiles industry to transition to more sustainable and circular practices.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
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 her Department’s consultation on Consistency in household and business recycling in England, for what reason her Department has not yet published (a) the results of and (b) her Department’s response to the consultation entitled Consistency in household and business recycling in England; and when she expects to do so.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
We received 896 responses to this consultation. Due to the large scope of the consultation, we wanted to carefully analyse the responses before making key policy decisions. Given the scale of change that will be required by this package of reforms we must ensure we take the time to get them right so they will be as effective as possible in achieving our objectives. We will be publishing our response to the consultation shortly which will confirm implementation dates and materials in scope for consistent collection, as well as our consultation on statutory guidance.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her proposed reform of waste collection practices will include a requirement that local authorities provide a free garden waste collection service.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
We consulted on a range of options for dealing with garden waste in our 2021 recycling consistency consultation – including free collections, a maximum reasonable charge and methods to increase home composting rates.
We have considered the fairness of each option alongside its environmental benefit. We will confirm the policy decision on garden waste collections in our Government response to this consultation which will be published shortly.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to fully fund any additional costs incurred by local authorities arising from her proposed reforms to waste collection.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Any new financial burdens introduced through new statutory duties on local authorities will be assessed and the net additional cost covered by the Government in line with the latest New Burdens Guidance. In exceptional circumstances, Ministers at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities might decide to waive the funding requirement.
We are working to assess net additional costs to local authorities.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
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 group local authorities for funding purposes as part of her reforms to the collection of waste; and whether local authorities will be able to challenge how they have been grouped.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In line with the New Burdens Guidance the Government will consult with local authorities or their representative bodies to decide on the approach to allocating funding.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
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 make an assessment of the potential implications for her proposed reforms to waste collection services of the ability of local authorities to purchase (a) new vehicles, (b) containers and (c) other necessary equipment.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
To support the implementation of waste reforms, we will continue to make assessments of the ability of local authorities to purchase vehicles, containers and other equipment needed and support them in their local delivery.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to provide guidance to all local authorities on minimum service standards following her proposed reforms to waste collection services.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
When we publish the Government response to the 2021 consultation on Consistency in Household and Business Recycling in England, we will launch a consultation on statutory guidance to support implementation.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to provide additional funding to the London Borough of Bromley as compensation for the potential loss of income from the sale of recyclates arising from her proposed reforms to waste collection services.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Any new financial burdens introduced through new statutory duties on local authorities will be assessed and the net additional cost covered by the Government, unless exceptionally Ministers at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities agree to waive the funding requirement.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has with Cabinet colleagues to expedite the roll-out of better broadband to rural communities.
Answered by Mark Spencer
This Government is already doing a great deal to roll out better broadband in rural areas. Through Project Gigabit, we are spending £5 billion so people in hard-to-reach areas can get ultra-reliable gigabit broadband speeds. We signed our first contract on schedule and have over £690 million of contracts covering rural areas out for tender right now.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will provide a list of (a) professional staff networks and (b) social clubs operating within his Department; and if he will provide the (i) budgets and (ii) FTE staff time allocated to each group within each of the last three years.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
We have the following professional staff networks and social clubs operating within the Department:
Budgets are not officially allocated at such low levels. Each year we allocate £20,000 to the EDI Networks, which is distributed according to need. We are unable to provide details of these allocations.
Due to ad hoc membership, we are unable to provide details of the number of staff time allocated to each network.