Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to (a) limit vehicle emissions and (b) reduce the levels of toxic air-borne particulates near schools and nurseries.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government is fully committed to tackling air pollution. We have put in place a £3.5 billion plan to improve air quality and reduce harmful emissions, and have also published our new world leading Clean Air Strategy which the World Health Organization has praised as “an example for the rest of the world to follow”.
Local authorities have a duty to monitor and assess air quality and to take action to reduce pollution where these breach statutory limits. They already have discretionary powers to restrict car access to schools and enforce anti-idling laws in problem areas like outside schools.
Defra’s Air Quality Grant Programme provides funding to local authorities for projects in local communities to tackle air pollution and reduce emissions which may include local action targeting schools and nurseries. Defra has awarded over £60 million in funding since the air quality grant started in 1997.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 effect on levels of air pollution of road closures near schools.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Local authorities undertake local monitoring of air pollution.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of Sites of Special Scientific Interest have not had an assessment within the six-year monitoring cycle.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
As of 26 February 2019, 54% of the 4,122 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) had not had an assessment by Natural England within the past six years.
54.7% of SSSI land is in unfavourable recovering condition. The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan sets a new ambitious target to restore 75% of SSSIs by area to favourable condition by 2042, securing their wildlife value for the long term.
Available information is published online at: https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/
I have asked Natural England for an assessment of the greatest impacts on SSSI condition as part of the development of the Nature Strategy we are committed to in the 25 Year Environment Plan.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 of made of the proportion of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in unfavourable recovering conditions; and what targets his Department has set for the improvement of conditions of SSSIs.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
As of 26 February 2019, 54% of the 4,122 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) had not had an assessment by Natural England within the past six years.
54.7% of SSSI land is in unfavourable recovering condition. The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan sets a new ambitious target to restore 75% of SSSIs by area to favourable condition by 2042, securing their wildlife value for the long term.
Available information is published online at: https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/
I have asked Natural England for an assessment of the greatest impacts on SSSI condition as part of the development of the Nature Strategy we are committed to in the 25 Year Environment Plan.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what legislative proposals his Department plans to bring forward to address the decline in biodiversity.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
We are taking action through our widely welcomed Ivory Act to support the conservation of elephants. We will launch a call for evidence in the coming months on extending the ban on UK ivory sales to other ivory-bearing species.
Our forthcoming Environment Bill will include ambitious legislative measures to take direct action to restore and enhance nature. Subject to consultation, we will legislate on biodiversity net gain to ensure that new developments have a positive effect on the environment. We will also consider proposals for conservation covenants. In terms of trees, we will take action to stop illegal deforestation and deliver on our manifesto commitment to ensure councils consult if they are removing street trees. This will give the public a greater say in street tree management.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made in implementing the 25-Year Environment Plan.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The 25 Year Environment Plan sets out the Government’s aim to improve the environment within a generation.
Since the plan was published, the Government has taken decisive action to tackle some of the biggest environmental problems of our age, including:
We will report annually to Parliament on the 25 Year Environment Plan, ensuring we are transparent about our progress and achievements and that we can be held to account. The first annual report is due to be laid before Parliament this spring.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 7 February 2019 to Question 216362 on Biodiversity, how much funding his Department has allocated to each organisation in relation to reducing biodiversity loss in each year since 2014.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Department does not allocate funding specifically for reducing biodiversity loss. Funding is allocated to Defra non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and executive agencies in order to support their functions including biodiversity conservation. It is for those bodies to allocate resources to programmes aimed at tackling biodiversity loss.
Funding allocated to NDPBs and executive agencies is only a small proportion of the Government funding for biodiversity. For example, funding for agri-environment and forestry agreements, and for marine biodiversity also address biodiversity conservation.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 effect of the Woodland Carbon Guarantee Scheme on biodiversity loss; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the criteria of the scheme to include the enhancement of biodiversity.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Trees planted under the Woodland Carbon Guarantee will be required to meet high standards around sustainable forest management, resilience and biodiversity, in line with the UK Forestry Standard, in order to qualify for funding.
Defra and the Forestry Commission are working with the forestry sector and green finance experts to develop the details of the scheme.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has for the planting of trees and other natural carbon capturing plants.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have planted 15 million trees since 2010, and the Government is committed to planting 11 million trees in the countryside, and one million trees in our towns and cities, in this Parliament. We are confident that this commitment will be met with over three million trees planted in this Parliament to date. The Government has made major commitments to help meet these targets: in January last year, the Prime Minister announced £5.7 million to launch the new Northern Forest; and in the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced £50 million to support the planting of new woodlands through the Woodland Carbon Guarantee, together with £10 million to plant new trees in our towns and cities through the urban trees challenge fund.
In addition to tree planting, the UK Government’s Clean Growth Strategy set out plans for the restoration of peatland. Peatlands store huge quantities of carbon as plant matter is transformed into peat. In April 2018, £10 million of funding for peatland restoration was allocated to four large-scale peatland restoration projects in England. The Government will be publishing an England Peat Strategy later this year.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to slow biodiversity loss in the UK.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
In England we are investing in our protected sites, in the restoration and creation of wildlife-rich habitats and in species recovery.
At sea, we are expanding our protected areas. Twelve Special Protection Areas have been designated since 2017, with more under consideration. Last summer we consulted on an ambitious third tranche of 41 Marine Conservation Zones, to be designated later this year.
On land, around 94% of our protected sites, covering over 1 million hectares, are now in good condition or have management in place to restore their condition. We have established management to create approximately 130,000 hectares of additional wildlife-rich habitat since the publication of Biodiversity 2020 in 2011.
In the last two years we have announced new funding for peatland restoration and tree planting. In April 2018, £10 million of funding for peatland restoration was allocated to four large-scale peatland restoration projects in England. Additionally, in the 2018 Budget, the Chancellor announced £60 million for new woodland creation through the Woodland Carbon Guarantee and Urban Trees Challenge Fund.
Our agencies are working on a range of species recovery projects with landowning and conservation partners, for example on freshwater pearl mussel, short-haired bumblebee and stone curlew. We also protect a wide variety of our most threatened native species through the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulation 2017. These laws make it an offence to intentionally kill, injure or capture listed species, as well as damage or destroy breeding sites.
Our 25 Year Environment Plan steps up our ambition further, setting long-term goals for recovering nature and setting out over two hundred actions to enhance the environment.