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, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of Not for EU labelling requirements in the dairy sector on levels of (a) food and (b) packaging waste.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A public consultation on not for EU labelling requirements was held earlier this year. The evidence is now being analysed and we expect to publish a response in due course. Excessive wastage of food or packaging were not raised as a significant concern in these responses or in any wider industry forums.
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 his Department is taking to provide financial assistance to farmers in debt.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The recent ‘Balance Sheet Analysis’ publication highlights that average liquidity in the sector has been consistently improving over the latest five years of data and reached a ten-year high in the latest year of data (2022/23). This suggests that levels of debt in the farming sector are lower than average.
We support farmers in a range of ways to ensure they have profitable and sustainable businesses. This includes free business advice as well as access to a wide range of Government funding to improve business resilience, productivity and environmental performance.
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 his Department is taking to ensure that financing is available to farmers who wish to invest in sustainable energy projects.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Farming Investment Fund has supported renewable energy projects through its grants for rooftop solar. In our recent Improving Farm Productivity grant, farmers and horticultural businesses in England were able to apply for capital grants towards solar equipment to increase energy resilience and the take-up of renewable energy generation on their farms. Grants of between £15,000 and £100,000 were available at an intervention rate of 25%. This scheme has now closed for new applications. We will continue to consider how to support farmers to invest in renewable energy projects in the future.
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 many additional projects the Environment Agency has completed in response to flooding in the last two years.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are in the fourth year of the current 6-year £5.6 billion Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) investment programme. This investment programme will better protect hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses from flooding and coastal erosion.
At the end of March 2024, approximately £2.3 billion of this funding has been invested with over 88,000 properties better protected from flooding and coastal erosion. This was delivered through 300 completed projects.
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 Table 1.2 of his Department's national statistics entitled Farm business income in England 2023/24 forecast, updated on 14 March 2024, whether his Department plans to provide financial support to dairy farmers in the context that their average farm business income in real terms is forecast to decrease by the greatest percentage among all farm types from financial year 2022-23 to financial year 2023-24.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient and dynamic dairy sector which operates in an open market where the value of dairy commodities, including farmgate milk price, is established by those in the supply chain. The average Farm Business Income is at a 20-year high in 2022/23 following a previous 20-year high in 2021/22. The forecast decrease for 2023/24 would bring average Farm Business Income for dairy farm businesses back closer to historic trends. Through a range of government schemes, there is support for investment in dairy businesses through the Sustainable Farming Incentive, the animal health and welfare pathway and various productivity and innovation grants.
We have also recently introduced new legislation, The Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024, which creates new rules for dairy contracts covering issues such as pricing provisions, unilateral changes to contracts and notice periods. Ensuring fairer contracts will provide greater certainty for farmers and help the dairy industry thrive into the future.
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 impact of ineligibility for the frequently flooded fund on communities which are frequently flooded.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In July 2022, the Government announced the creation of new ring-fenced £100 million Frequently Flooded Allowance (FFA) as part of the Government’s record £5.2 billion investment programme into flood and coastal erosion schemes.
In April 2023, the Government announced the first 53 communities in England to benefit from the FFA. These communities have been allocated a total of £48 million, better protecting more than 2,300 households and businesses across the country.
The allowance is designed to ensure funding is appropriately targeted, benefitting communities where 10 or more properties have flooded twice or more in the last 10 years. These communities are often smaller and can face barriers to access funding due to the relative complexity and cost of building flood defences.
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 impact of lower potato production on food security.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are very aware of the recent turbulence in the potato market caused by recent wet weather. We are closely monitoring the market situation and continue to engage with the potato growing, manufacturing and processing sectors to supplement Government data with real-time intelligence.
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, with a high degree of food security built on strong domestic production and supply from diverse sources. While the weather has created a challenging growing and harvesting environment for potato crops this season, we are not anticipating any significant impacts to domestic supply.
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 a recent assessment of prices paid to potato growers by (a) supermarkets and (b) manufacturers of processed potato foods.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are very aware of the recent turbulence in the potato market caused by a combination of factors including the weather and increase in input costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We are closely monitoring the market situation.
On 14th December we published a new review into fairness in the fresh produce supply chain. This will explore the relationships between horticulture producers, including those who grow potatoes, and the companies they do business with. The consultation closes in February, and we will analyse the responses then publish a formal response providing a summary of the findings and setting out next steps.
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 her Department has made of the impact of the replacement of the basic farm payment with Environmental Land Management schemes on pre-existing nature restoration schemes.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Farming in England is now going through the biggest change in a generation. We are phasing out subsidies so that we can invest the money in policies that work for farm businesses, food production and the environment. We are improving our farming schemes to make them more effective, fair, flexible, accessible and workable for farmers.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive focuses on supporting farmers to undertake activities to grow food whilst improving the environment and animal health and welfare. The Landscape Recovery scheme allows landowners and managers to take a more large-scale, long-term approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land. Alongside these new schemes, we have expanded and enhanced the existing Countryside Stewardship scheme. This has been simplified and improved this year to include wildlife, upland wood pasture, and lowland peat offers, more efficient administration and fairer controls. Around 30% of English farmers are already in the Countryside Stewardship or its predecessor scheme, Environmental Stewardship, covering 34% of agricultural land. We have 32,000 live Countryside Stewardship agreements: a 94% increase from January 2020.
We intend to continue to improve Countryside Stewardship by making it easier to apply; by expanding and refining the scope of the scheme; by improving access for tenant farmers; by increasing access to Higher Tier agreements; and by targeting our funding towards actions in places where they can have the biggest impacts, in ways that are joined up across larger areas, and are designed to deliver outstanding results.
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 she has made of the potential impact of changes in the level of grant funding on the future of Shropshire’s canal network.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s specific grant funding for the Canal and River Trust is primarily to support the maintenance and safe operation of the waterways network infrastructure. Ministers do not have a role in operational matters such as restoration projects or maintenance, including allocation of funding for individual waterways. Restoration projects do receive funding from various sources. For example, the Montgomery Canal restoration project received £16 million in October 2021 from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund, through a successful Powys County Council bid.