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.
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 help farmers insure against the risk of avian influenza outbreaks.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK poultry sector is highly resilient and adaptable and continues to supply healthy and affordable products in spite of the many challenges it has faced in recent years including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and avian influenza outbreaks.
Following difficult avian influenza seasons in 2021/22 and 2022/23, poultry and egg producers have made the department aware of the challenges that some have faced in both obtaining suitable insurance products and the increased cost of such insurance. Defra has been working with both producers and the insurance industry to seek market-based solutions to this situation.
In addition, the department continues to remind producers that they are responsible for the on-farm management of their flocks and should take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of an outbreak occurring. Having strong biosecurity measures in place, and maintaining them year-round, significantly reduces the risk of infection on site.
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 businesses impacted by outbreaks of avian influenza.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK poultry sector is highly resilient, adaptable and continues to supply healthy and affordable products in spite of the many challenges it has faced in recent years including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and Avian Influenza outbreaks.
In autumn 2024 Defra announced a package of measures to help farmers to deal with the impact of any future avian influenza outbreaks and to provide certainty and stability to farmers in the UK’s poultry and egg sectors. These included:
- The introduction of legislation to allow free-range eggs to continue to be labelled as such for the duration of mandatory housing measures, reducing costs on producers and enabling them to continue to trade fairly with imported eggs. This came into force on 23 January 2025.
- A consultation on introducing similar measures for the labelling of free-range poultry meat during mandatory housing measures. The consultation closed on 16 December 2024. Responses are currently being analysed and a summary of responses will be published in due course.
We continue to work closely with the poultry and egg sectors and to monitor these markets for any supply issues that may arise as a result of avian influenza outbreaks.
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 adequacy of compensation protocols for birds culled to control avian influenza.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Compensation paid for birds culled by HM Government for disease control purposes is designed to promote prompt reporting of suspicion of disease and is only payable for healthy birds as set out in the Animal Health Act 1981. There is no compensation available for sick birds or birds that have died. Compensation is not paid for consequential losses, including business interruption caused by control measures, nor for eggs or poultry meat.
In response to the unprecedented outbreaks of avian influenza in October 2022 Defra’s approach to compensation was updated to involve earlier assessment of the number of healthy birds and swifter calculation of compensation. This allows Defra to provide earlier certainty about entitlement to compensation; better reflects the impact of outbreaks on premises; and leads to swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures.
Defra’s approach to compensation was recently subject to a judicial review, and was found to be lawful on appeal. Compensation policy will continue to be kept under regular 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, pursuant to the Answer of 2 January 2025 to Question 20325 on Flood Control: Finance, when his Department plans to begin the consultation on a review of the formula that allocates flood defence funding.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will launch a consultation in the coming months which will include a review of the existing flood funding formula to ensure that the challenges facing businesses and rural and coastal communities are adequately taken into account when delivering flood protection.
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 ensure that all eligible communities receive funding under the Frequently Flooded Allowance.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Protecting all communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities. We will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences.
The list of projects to receive Government funding in 2025/26 will be agreed by the Environment Agency over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation.
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 payments have been made under the Frequently Flooded Allowance; and (a) where and (b) when each payment was made.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The list of projects to receive funding from the first round of the Frequently Flooded Allowance was announced under the previous Government in 2023 and can be found at Frequently Flooded Allowance: Funding for repeatedly flooded communities - GOV.UK. The Environment Agency is best placed to provide detailed information about each project.
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 20371 on Sewers: Private Sector, tabled on 16 December 2024.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A response to Question 20371 is being prepared and will be provided as soon as possible. I apologise for the delay in responding to the Honourable Member.