Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help protect the South West Coast Path against storm damage.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The South West Coast Path (SWCP) is a 630 mile National Trail around the SW peninsula. As such it follows open and unprotected coast for much of its length, sections of which due to their geological make up are susceptible to coastal erosion. This has always been the case and will continue to be so.
Notwithstanding, Natural England, and Defra, have a statutory duty, emanating from the Marine & Coastal Access Act 2009, to establish a long-distance walking route, the King Charles III England Coast Path (KCIIIECP), around the entire English coast. In fulfilling this duty, the line of the SWCP has been largely adopted as ‘part of’ the KCIIIECP and a new legal provision for the path to ‘roll back’ in response to geomorphological events put in place. Going forward this will ensure that the basic right to walk along the coast is not lost in an often dynamic coastal environment.
Local authorities lead in planning for and managing coastal erosion. The Environment Agency (EA) has the strategic overview of the management of all sources of flooding and coastal change. To support those managing coastal erosion, in January 2025, the EA published new National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping data which provides the most up to date national picture of current and future coastal erosion risk for England.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking to steps to (a) amend processes for applying for biodiversity net gain exemptions and (b) require developers to provide objective evidence that an exemption applies before it can be claimed.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has announced its intention to introduce changes to biodiversity net gain (BNG), including a new area-based exemption set at 0.2 hectares. Full details will be set out in the consultation response to be published shortly.
BNG applies to planning permission in England granted under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 unless exempt, and local authorities should check applications to determine if the development should be subject to the biodiversity gain condition.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her department is taking to strengthen flood resiliency around major transport routes in the South West.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Delivering on the Plan for Change, this Government is investing at least £10.5 billion until 2036 to construct new flood schemes and repair existing defences, helping to avoid disruption to transport and other infrastructure damage, as well as continuing to protect communities from the devastating impacts of climate change.
As published in the Flood and coastal erosion risk management (Section 18) report – in 24/25 – Wessex, and Devon, Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly received a combined £173 million, better protecting 4,036 properties across these regions.
The final list of schemes to benefit in 2026/27 is due to be published on GOV.UK in March 2026.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure imported meat does not adversely impact disease prevention in farming and animal disease prevention zones.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Meat import controls include measures to prevent spread of animal disease such as veterinary health certification and border control post checks.
On farm biosecurity plays a key role in protecting farms from exotic diseases and can mitigate the risk of spread of such diseases in the event of an outbreak. Defra is working closely with the devolved governments, the livestock industry and veterinary bodies to improve the UK’s response and raise awareness of the risks of introduction of exotic disease.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 28 January 2025 to Question 26922 on Waste Disposal: Monitoring, what progress she has made on the introduction of the Digital Waste Tracking Service.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has made good progress on implementing Digital Waste Tracking.
As announced in July 2025 Defra is implementing digital waste tracking through a phased approach beginning with a service for permitted waste receiving site operators.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure land management schemes are designed to support hill and upland farming.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our Environmental Land Management schemes include a comprehensive offer to support the management of a wide range of different grassland and moorland types that exist in the English uplands. Defra works closely with farmers and industry stakeholders – for example, the Government set up an Uplands Task and Finish Group to identify solutions to issues that have been raised by upland farmers and environmental stakeholders.
Defra, in partnership with Dr Hilary Cottam OBE, have been working closely with upland communities across England over the last 12 months to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities in these landscapes. This insight is being shared across Defra and next steps worked up.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 potential merits of introducing legislation similar to that introduced in France to reduce commercial food waste.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No assessment has been made of the merits of introducing legislation similar to that introduced in France to reduce commercial food waste.
Defra recognises the environmental, economic and social benefits of preventing food waste and redistributing surplus. This Government has announced plans to publish a Circular Economy Strategy and is committed to transitioning to a circular economy – one that stimulates growth, reduces waste, and alleviates pressure on household bills. As this work is developed, we will consider the evidence for action and evaluate what interventions may be needed. This includes measures to prevent food waste and support surplus food redistribution.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 (a) support food redistribution and (b) reduce commercial food waste.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government recognises the environmental, economic and social benefits of preventing food waste and redistributing surplus. Defra's Food and Drink Waste Hierarchy outlines how all businesses should deal with food surplus and waste, preventing food surplus where possible and redistributing any surplus should it arise.
Defra funds the UK Food and Drink Pact, a voluntary agreement with industry to tackle food waste, managed by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Through the Pact, we support the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, which provides a toolkit to help businesses identify their surplus and waste and take steps to reduce it. This approach enables food businesses to reduce their food waste, and get more surplus to redistributors where it does arise. Defra also engages a working group of supply chain and redistribution sector organisations to develop best practice and overcome barriers to redistribution.
In addition, a £15 million farm surplus fund, is aiming to increase the capacity and capability of the redistribution sector to ensure more farm surplus food gets to those who need it most rather than going to waste. This shall see an extra 17,000 tonnes of food waste diverted to redistribution charities.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 regulate levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra continues to work closely with other Government departments, regulators and devolved administrations to assess PFAS levels, sources and risks to inform future policy and regulatory approaches. Action has already been taken to ban or restrict specific PFAS domestically and internationally. The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has provided PFAS guidance to water companies since 2007, with the latest update in August 2024 and a consolidated version in March 2025. Defra and the DWI are considering regulatory updates, including making this guidance statutory.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress his Department has made on developing a new Pet Passport scheme between the UK and the European Union.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
As announced at the UK-EU Leaders' Summit on 19 May 2025, the UK and EU have agreed to work towards a common Sanitary and Phytosanitary Area, which will mean taking pets on holiday into the EU will be easier and cheaper.
Instead of getting an animal health certificate each time you travel, you will be able to get a multiuse pet passport valid for travel to the EU.
The European Commission has published a draft SPS mandate for negotiations pending approval through the Council of the European Union.