Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what limits his Department plans to set on effluent released into waste water from commercial food waste extraction and drying systems.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Trade effluent discharges to the public sewerage network are the responsibility of the discharging party to agree consent to discharge with the local sewerage undertaker. Under s.118 of the Water Industry Act 1991, the occupier of any trade premises in the area of a sewerage undertaker may discharge any trade effluent proceeding from those premises into the undertaker’s public sewers if they do so with the undertaker’s consent. Under s.121 of the Act, the sewerage undertaker may place conditions on the consent to discharge
Disposal of food waste to landfill or into the sewer system (even if pre-treated) should only be carried out as a last resort in accordance with the food and drink waste hierarchy. Any additional food waste that is not disposed of on-site must be collected separately for recycling as per the Simpler Recycling requirements.
Defra has commissioned research into the various technologies that treat and discharge food waste to sewer to better understand their respective environmental impacts.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 10 February 2025 to Question 29014 on Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Written Questions, when he plans to respond to Question 24518 on Farming Recovery Fund, tabled on 16 January 2025 by the hon. Member for North Shropshire.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Question 24518 was answered on 4 March 2025.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 the Farming Recovery Fund, if he will publish (a) the number of individual payments made by and (b) total costs of those payment to each local authority area for each year since the fund was established.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Farming Recovery Fund payments are made directly to farmers. The Farming Recovery Fund is activated by the Government of the day and has been activated in 2015, 2019, 2020 and again in 2024 depending on the scale and impacts of the flooding, these are detailed below:
- In 2015 when Storm Desmond produced 341mm of rainfall at Honister Pass in Cumbria in 24 hours.
- In 2019/2020, a flash flood in North Yorkshire affecting a single parish and the collapse of a flood embankment in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, and widescale flooding across central and eastern England.
- In 2024 an expanded fund following Storms Babet, Henk and the exceptional wet weather during the six-month period October 2023 to March 2024
Each iteration of the Farming Recovery Fund is different depending on when, where and what the weather conditions were which caused the flooding. Farmers were able to apply for these funds the details of which are set out below.
Region | FRF 2015 | FRF 2019 | FRF 2020 | |||
Number | Amount | Number | Amount | Number | Amount | |
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire | 1 | £9,120.00 |
|
|
|
|
Cheshire |
|
|
|
| 1 | £3,948.94 |
Cumbria | 530 | £4,647,445.22 |
|
|
|
|
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire |
|
| 18 | £78,834.38 | 4 | £28,006.84 |
East Anglia | 1 | £1,530.00 |
|
|
|
|
East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire | 8 | £34,027.49 | 2 | £5,515.78 | 1 | £1,361.30 |
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area | 1 | £2,924.20 | 1 | £21,387.50 | 35 | £241,976.01 |
Greater Manchester | 7 | £33,124.52 |
|
|
|
|
Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire |
|
| 6 | £52,665.32 | 70 | £362,580.74 |
Inner London - West | 1 | £3,603.00 |
|
| 1 | £1,730.00 |
Lancashire | 129 | £978,167.39 |
|
|
|
|
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire |
|
| 1 | £5,829.50 |
|
|
Lincolnshire | 1 | £19,846.00 | 30 | £165,887.13 |
|
|
North Yorkshire | 212 | £1,507,147.20 | 36 | £266,871.18 |
|
|
Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear | 60 | £425,640.21 |
|
|
|
|
Shropshire and Staffordshire | 1 | £20,000.00 |
|
| 29 | £120,655.82 |
South Yorkshire | 1 | £514.90 | 12 | £39,280.42 |
|
|
Tees Valley and Durham | 15 | £106,270.76 |
|
|
|
|
West Yorkshire | 27 | £181,071.49 |
|
|
|
|
Total payments to English registered businesses | 995 | £7,970,432.38 | 106 | £636,271.21 | 141 | £760,259.65 |
Paid for land in England but business registered in other UK country | 4 | £31,867.98 |
|
| 3 | £7,368.36 |
Grand total | 999 | £8,002,300.36 | 106 | £636,271.21 | 144 | £767,628.01 |
We will publish data for the 2024 Farming Recovery Fund once payments have been finalised. The 2024 Farming Recovery Fund has paid around 12,700 farming businesses £57.5 million, to date.
Recovery payments were always intended as an exceptional intervention. Defra is working with the Flood Resilience Taskforce to develop a longer-term solution to the impacts of our changing climate on the agricultural sector. We are also investing in environmental land management schemes which include actions to improve flood resilience and water management on farms.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how the level of funding for the Rural England Prosperity Fund was decided for 2025-26.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department announced on 4th March that it would be providing an additional £33 million for the Rural England Prosperity Fund in financial year 2025-26. This announcement continues funding beyond the lifetime of the original scheme providing new money for new projects in rural areas.
The Autumn Statement on 30 October confirmed Defra’s budgets for 2024-25 and 2025-26. Funding allocations for individual programmes have been determined through the departments business planning exercise. Future funding decisions remain subject to the government spending review.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the reduction of the Rural England Prosperity Fund in the 2025-26 financial year on rural areas.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department announced on 4th March that it would be providing an additional £33 million for the Rural England Prosperity Fund in financial year 2025-26. This announcement continues funding beyond the lifetime of the original scheme providing new money for new projects in rural areas.
The Autumn Statement on 30 October confirmed Defra’s budgets for 2024-25 and 2025-26. Funding allocations for individual programmes have been determined through the departments business planning exercise. Future funding decisions remain subject to the government spending review.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 readiness of businesses in the hospitality industry for the implementation of the mandatory separation of food waste from recycling from 31 March 2025.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are working closely with industry partners such as UK Hospitality, the Hospitality Sector Council, and Food and Drink Federation to raise awareness of the requirements and understand the sector’s readiness, which has included hosting a sector specific webinar with the hospitality sector. Our understanding of readiness of the sector is also informed by ongoing discussions with the waste collection industry.
Furthermore, we are actively responding to queries and publishing guidance in partnership with WRAP to further support the sector’s readiness.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 potential merits of using grass pasture for carbon storage.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is informed by work in its advisory bodies on this topic.
Natural England produced an assessment of carbon storage by different habitats in 2021 and found that old species-rich grasslands with minimal inputs can store significant amounts of carbon. There are many factors that influence the amount of carbon storage including historical management, grassland types, soil types and climate. In view of ongoing uncertainties, Defra is funding ongoing research on carbon in grasslands within the Nature Returns programme (https://www.kew.org/science/nature-returns).
The role of grazing and fertiliser inputs also needs to be taken into account in assessing the value of pasture as carbon stores. The most recent report of the Climate Change Committee (The Seventh Carbon Budget Advice for the UK Government, 2025) addressed this. It reports that ‘nearly two-thirds (63%) of agricultural emissions (and all agricultural methane emissions) in 2022 were directly emitted from livestock, with 49% from the digestive process (enteric fermentation) of cattle and sheep and 14% from the management of livestock waste and manure. Agricultural soils, mainly from the application of organic and chemical fertiliser onto grassland and cropland, accounted for a further 24%’.
References & Reports
Natural England (2021) Carbon Storage and Sequestration by Habitat 2021 (NERR094)
https://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/5419124441481216
Climate Change Committee (2025). The Seventh Carbon Budget. Advice for the UK Government
https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/The-Seventh-Carbon-Budget.pdf
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support community farms.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We welcome community farms in England as they give local communities a chance to get involved in the countryside. Community farms, like any other farm, may be eligible for a variety of grants.
Depending on the setup of the community farm, projects may be eligible for the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive. Our ELM schemes provide fairer support to smaller farms, and farmers and land managers can choose the scheme or schemes that work best for their business.
To work out what’s available, you can visit the ‘funding for farmers, growers and land managers’ landing page on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to Question 24518 on Farming Recovery Fund, tabled on 16 January 2025 by the hon. Member for North Shropshire.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A response to Question 24518 is being prepared and will be provided as soon as possible. I apologise for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers affected by flooding who have not received payments under the Farming Recovery Fund.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government inherited flood assets in their worst condition on record following years of underinvestment by the previous Government – only 92% of the Environment Agency’s 38,000 high consequence assets are currently at required condition.
To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion over 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences. The government also announced an additional £50 million of investment into internal drainage boards, as part of the one-off £75 million Internal Drainage Board (IDB) Fund, supporting farmers and rural communities from the impacts of flooding, and £60 million in payments to farmers through the Farming Recovery Fund, impacted by unprecedented extreme wet weather last winter (October 2023 to March 2024).
The new Flood Resilience Taskforce provides oversight of national and local flood resilience and preparedness ahead of and after the winter flood season.
Additionally, Defra’s farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8 billion for environmental land management schemes. This funding will deliver improvements to cover a range of objectives including support to improve resilience to flooding.