Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to protect domestic agriculture from climate‑related risks including flooding, heat stress and soil degradation.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is targeting public money where it delivers most value, supporting farmers and land managers to help restore nature and boost farm productivity, which in turn protects food security and builds resilience to climate change.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for 2026 will be more focussed, more transparent and fairer, so as many farmers as possible can benefit from agreements.
Defra’s Capital Grants offer, opening later this year, will offer funding for a wide range of items, including natural flood management measures.
Landscape Recovery projects awarded development funding in rounds one and two continue to progress towards the delivery phase. Three projects are now in their implementation phase. This includes Evenlode Project, which will allow the river to reconnect with its floodplain, reducing flooding and improving habitats for wildlife.
Defra has increased the Internal Drainage Board (IDB) Fund to £91m, benefitting over 400,000 hectares of farmland and over 200,000 properties.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the UK’s overall level of food self‑sufficiency, and what steps are being taken to increase domestic production of key staples.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
UK self-sufficiency has remained broadly stable for several decades. In 2024, the UK was 65% self-sufficient for all food; 77% for food that can be produced here. In most scenarios, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes ensures a supply of food is maintained and can withstand disruptive events. The picture is nuanced, and moving to a higher level of self-sufficiency does not automatically make the UK more food secure.
In December 2025, the Secretary of State announced the Farming & Food Partnership Board in response to the independent Farming Profitability Review led by Baroness Minette Batters. The Board will bring together farming, food, retail, finance and Government to take a strategic farm‑to‑fork approach to improving farming profitability and strengthening UK food production. It will oversee sector plans aimed at boosting productivity, reducing costs and opening new markets in ways that support health and environmental goals.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what evaluation her Department has made of levels of reliance on climate‑vulnerable food imports and the risks posed by extreme weather events overseas.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient food system producing around 65% of all the food eaten in the country. Through international trade, the UK has access to food products that cannot be produced here, which supplements domestic production and ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather do not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Whilst the UK has a high degree of food self-sufficiency, the UK Food Security Report 2024 shows that food security cannot be taken for granted. Climate and geopolitical volatility have weakened aspects of food supply stability since 2021, although food availability or the quantity of food available to the UK has been maintained thanks to continued resilience in food production.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support controlled‑environment agriculture, regenerative farming and other sustainable methods.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has allocated a record £11.8bn to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. Defra is targeting public money where it delivers most value, supporting farmers and land managers to help restore nature and boost farm productivity. Support includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for 2026, which will be more focussed, more transparent and fairer, so that as many farmers as possible can benefit from agreements. It will open in two windows, the initial window from June 2026 being for small farms and farms without existing Environmental Land Management revenue agreements.
Defra will reopen the Capital Grants offer in July. This new round will make £225 million available to farmers to buy equipment or services that help them make farming and environmental improvements across England.
Defra has also announced £120 million will be available in farming grants for 2026 to boost productivity and innovation across the agricultural sector.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing food mile targets in food networks.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
An assessment of the potential merits of food mile targets has not been made. The Good Food Cycle highlighted the importance of strong and resilient local food systems.
It is important to note that ‘food miles’ alone are not a reliable measure of a product’s total environmental impact. For most foods, the production stage represents the largest share of emissions rather than transport.
Through the Food Data Transparency Partnership, the Government is working to improve the consistency, accuracy and accessibility of environmental impact data across the food sector. This includes the standardisation of scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions reporting, covering emissions generated across supply chains, including those associated with transport.
The Government is also working to strengthen local food systems and support integration of local business into supply chains, particularly for public procurement.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 to reduce emissions.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
This Government is committed to delivering net zero by 2050 and we will work in collaboration with farmers and others with a stake in our food system towards this.
The transition to more climate friendly practices will work hand in hand with food security and farm productivity. We will support farmers to adopt low carbon farming practices, increasing the carbon stored on their land while boosting profitability.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 merits of (a) classifying wildlife crimes as either-way offences with a maximum sentence of up to five years imprisonment, (b) giving wildlife crime notifiable status and (c) incorporating wildlife crime into the Policing Education Qualification Framework.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government takes crimes against wildlife seriously. In 2022 Defra more than doubled its funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) from a total of £495,000 over the three previous years to £1.2 million for the three-year period of 2022-25.
Significant sanctions are already available to judges to hand down to those convicted of wildlife crimes - up to an unlimited fine and/or a six-month custodial sentence. Furthermore, the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 realises the Government’s manifesto commitment to increase the sentences available to our courts for the most serious cases of animal cruelty – including acts against wildlife - by increasing the maximum penalty for this offence to five years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. Sentencing those convicted of wildlife crimes is, however, a matter for judges; these decisions are rightly taken independently of Government.
Defra has actively supported stakeholders in making representations to the Home Office regarding the issue of making wildlife crimes notifiable. However, regardless of notifiable status, when it comes to responding to the most prevalent wildlife crimes, Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.
Wildlife crime is not mandated as authorised professional practice and therefore is not a training requirement via the College of Policing. However, the NWCU (funded to a large degree by Defra) currently provides training to police officers across the UK. This training reflects the National Police Chiefs' Council wildlife crime strategy and provides comprehensive training in UK wildlife crime priorities and emerging trends. Since November 2022 the NWCU has trained 890 officers and is in the process of building a comprehensive digital training platform for wildlife crime which police officers and police staff will be able to access nationwide. Additionally, the NWCU provides a digital information hub for almost 1000 police staff, with up-to-date guidance on investigating wildlife crime.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 adequacy of the guidance entitled Designate a bathing water: guidance on how to apply, published on 3 July 2023.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The updated bathing water guidance for England, published in July 2023, makes applying for bathing water designation clearer and more streamlined for applicants.
The main changes to the designation guidance were:
Defra engages with a range of stakeholders on bathing waters and welcomes views on the application guidance.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many inland bathing water site applications were received in 2022; and how many and what proportion of those applications were accepted.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2022 Defra received 16 bathing water applications for inland sites. Three of these sites were designated as bathing waters: Rutland Water Whitwell Creek, Rutland Water Sykes Lane and an area of the River Deben Estuary at Waldringfield, Suffolk.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the impact on the environment of the (a) production and (b) sale of beef resulting from the Australia-UK free trade agreement.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Impact Assessment of the UK-Australia Free Trade Argument included an assessment of the potential environmental impact of the agreement. The Impact Assessment is available at gov.uk.
We continue to uphold our high environmental standards in our Free Trade Agreements and we are proud of the ambitious environment chapter agreed between the UK and Australia which affirms our shared commitment to the Paris Agreement and to strengthen cooperation on a range of environmental issues.