Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department what his Department's timetable is for its consultation into amending environmental permitting regulations to ensure that battery energy storage systems have appropriate mitigations in place against fire risk.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government agrees with the need to have robust measures in place to manage the risks associated with facilities that use large numbers of lithium-ion batteries.
Defra is considering further options, including environmental permitting, for managing the environmental and public health risks from fires at BESS sites.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
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 on the review to increase fairness in the fresh produce supply chain.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will deliver a resilient and healthy food system, with a new deal that ensures fairness in the supply chain across all sectors, including the fresh produce supply chain. Farmers should always receive a fair price for their products and the Government is committed to tackling contractual unfairness wherever it exists.
Defra will continue the work closely with stakeholders from the fresh produce sector on the best way to achieve this.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) non-UK EU and (b) other seasonal agricultural workers who have come to the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
Until 2016, Defra published data on the estimated number of seasonal agricultural workers in all UK countries in “Agriculture in the UK”, which is a Defra publication. Since 2016, data is published for England only, collected by the June Horticulture and Agriculture Survey. Data from the past 5 years is shown in the table below.
Defra does not collect data on the nationality of those workers.
Seasonal, casual & gang labour | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
UK numbers | 67 000 | 61 000 | 66 000 | 67 000 | N/A |
England-only numbers | 44 985 | 39 203 | 43 036 | 44 939 | 43 894 |
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what measures her Department has in place to support those of its staff who have mental health problems.
Answered by George Eustice
Mental wellbeing forms a key theme in Defra’s employee Wellbeing Framework. The framework provides a structure for the Department to actively promote staff wellbeing, with a particular focus on reducing the incidence of stress and mental ill-health, while increasing awareness and empowering individuals to raise issues at an early stage. Our proactive approach to supporting staff with mental ill-health includes: