Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
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 plans to take to support the horticultural sector in the peat free transition.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only. Defra is committed to protecting our nature-rich habitats, including peat bogs, and is looking at next steps regarding measures to ban horticultural peat including how the Department will continue to work alongside the horticultural sector to accelerate progress on the peat free transition.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
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 (a) protect the health of (i) women and (ii) the public generally from chemical pollution and (b) promote (A) research, (B) regulation and (C) public awareness in this area.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to protecting human health and the environment from the risks posed by chemicals. We do this by monitoring, assessing chemical risk and banning or highly restricting certain chemicals. The UK Regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (UK REACH) requires companies to identify and manage the risks presented by the chemicals they manufacture or market in GB. Action to assess and manage the risks posed by specific chemicals is also set out annually in the UK REACH Work Programme. Under UK REACH, there is a restriction mechanism to limit or ban chemical substances if they pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment.
We also restrict the most harmful chemicals through regulations that implement legally binding international conventions on chemicals and hazardous waste: Stockholm (Persistent Organic Pollutants), Basel (cross border hazardous wastes and disposal), Minamata (mercury) and Rotterdam (hazardous chemicals). These regimes have led to a reduction in chemical pollution. Monitoring demonstrates that emissions of Persistent Organic Pollutants to air, land and water have fallen between 2001 and 2021.
We work across Government and with relevant agencies, such as the UK Health Security Agency and with the Health and Safety Executive to identify gaps in our evidence and commission new research, which is published in the interests of transparency. Through the Environment Agency, Defra has published research into key chemicals of concern, such as Per- and Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances (PFAS), with a view to understanding the policy options to protect human health and the environment. The UKHSA provides public health advice to Local Authorities, Government Departments and Agencies where chemicals are found in the environment including drinking water, air and soil, to protect the health of the public including women. UKHSA also undertakes research in Environmental Exposures and Chemical Threats and Hazards in partnership with universities, including research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded Health Protection Research Units (HPRU) and, and publishes the Chemical hazards compendium which provides information on chemicals to the public.
This Government is committed to protecting human health and the environment from the risks posed by chemicals. We are bound by the Public Sector Equality Duty which requires us to consider how the exercise of our functions may impact people with different protected characteristics, including sex.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
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 (a) extended producer responsibility fees and (b) other tax increases on the viability of UK breweries.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The 2024 pEPR impact assessment can be found here.
The impact assessment estimated the pEPR producer fees would generate over £1 billion annually to support local authority collection and disposal services, including recycling services. We expect Greenhouse Gas Emissions savings of approximately 0.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the 10-year appraisal period.
Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief would have ended entirely in April 2025, creating a cliff-edge for businesses. Instead, the Government has decided to offer a 40 per cent discount to RHL properties up to a cash cap of £110,0000 per business in 2025-26 and frozen the small business multiplier.
By tapering RHL relief to 40%, rather than letting it end, the Government has saved the average pub, with a rateable value (RV) of £16,800, over £3,300 in 2025.
At Budget, the Government also announced that from 2026-27, it intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for RHL properties with rateable values below £500,000. This permanent tax cut will ensure that they benefit from much-needed certainty and support. The Government intends to fund this by introducing a higher multiplier on the most valuable properties, which includes the majority of large distribution warehouses, including warehouses used by online giants.
The rates for any new business rate multipliers will be set at Budget 2025 so that the Government can take into account the upcoming revaluation outcomes as well as the economic and fiscal context.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
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 take steps to ensure that fees under the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme are sustainable for businesses using glass packaging.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The 2024 pEPR impact assessment assessed the impact of introducing the pEPR scheme on packaging producers as a whole and the transfer of monies from producers to Local Authorities and impacts on other market actors such as Government for tax implications, reprocessors and exporters, and wider business benefits.
The impact assessment estimated the pEPR producer fees would generate over £1 billion annually to support local authority collection and disposal services, including recycling services. We expect Greenhouse Gas Emissions savings of approximately 0.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the 10-year appraisal period.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to amend standards for cat and dog pens.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 require businesses providing the following activities to hold a licence issued by their local authority: selling dogs or cats, dog breeding, boarding for dogs or cats, home boarding for dogs, dog day care or keeping or training dogs or cats for exhibition. Statutory guidance details the licence conditions, including conditions relating to housing and accommodation for dogs and cats.
Defra recently completed a post-implementation review (PIR) of the Regulations, which can be found at - The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 Post Implementation Review. The Government is considering the findings and will be outlining more detail on next steps in due course.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many infrastructure contracts overseen by his Department have been let with the stipulation that a Project Bank Account must be applied in the last year.
Answered by George Eustice
The government’s infrastructure contracts make provision for the use of Project Bank Accounts (PBAs), and departments have committed to use PBAs on all infrastructure projects unless there are compelling reasons not to do so. Due to the range of infrastructure projects undertaken by government, the approaches taken will vary.
Ten infrastructure contracts overseen by the Environment Agency in the last year have been let with the stipulation that a PBA must be used.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the effectiveness of animal welfare regulations requiring (a) host families who care for animals on behalf of another and (b) businesses that run animal care services to acquire a licence for each animal they care for.
Answered by David Rutley
The controls on animal boarding were recently modernised. The new Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 came into force on 1 October 2018. These require those in the business of boarding animals in catteries or dog kennels to be licensed, including those that run dog day care and dog home boarding businesses. The controls only apply to those running a business and not the non-commercial care of someone else’s animal (for example dog sitting). Licences are not issued for each animal but on the basis of the business as a whole. The controls are supported by statutory guidance for local authorities in particular to help determine the business test. The controls were the subject of wide consultation and collective agreement of Ministers, and Defra officials are in contact with MHCLG colleagues on issues of shared interest.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
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 Autumn Budget 2017, if he will list the 25 new schemes that will receive a share of the £36 million funding for flood protection; and what criteria his Department used to allocate that funding.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The £36 million of the £76 million funding announced for flood defence at the Autumn 2017 Budget has been allocated to the 37 projects in the list attached. The criteria was that each scheme needed to be a new project that could be completed in the next 3 years, that schemes needed to either generate sufficient benefits in terms of reduced flood risk to qualify for 100% Government funding or have a high confidence of securing any partnership contributions needed.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
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 13 December 2017 to Question 118084, on Dredging, what steps he has taken to ensure that works relating to the development of the Hinkley B site comply with the London Convention 1972.
Answered by George Eustice
The Secretary of State is the appropriate licensing authority for the English inshore and offshore regions, although most of the Secretary of State’s licensing functions have been delegated to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (MCAA). Under Section 71(6) of the MCAA the MMO is required to comply with international law when exercising its licensing functions, including the London Protocol 1996. This Protocol was adopted in 1996 to modernise the London Convention 1972.
The MMO has issued one licence for maintenance activities at Hinkley Point B for the removal of sand and cobble material along the base of the sea wall, in order to keep the power station’s surface water drains clear. The licence is valid between 2015 and 2025, and allows for removed material to be deposited or ‘spread’ across a beach located to the east of Hinkley Point B.
Any dredging activities associated with the original construction of Hinkley Point B station would have been considered by the relevant regulator at the time of the application.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what process his Department undertook to ensure that the UK has complied fully with the London Convention 1972 in issuing the dredge and disposal permit Marine Licence 12/45/ML?
Answered by George Eustice
Marine Licence 12/45/ML was issued by Natural Resources Wales, which is a matter for the Devolved Administration.