Jim McMahon Portrait

Jim McMahon

Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton

First elected: 3rd December 2015


Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
29th Nov 2021 - 4th Sep 2023
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
6th Apr 2020 - 29th Nov 2021
Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government) (Devolution)
9th Jan 2018 - 6th Apr 2020
Shadow Minister (Communities and Local Government) (Devolution)
9th Oct 2016 - 9th Jan 2018
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
7th Mar 2016 - 31st Oct 2016
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee
7th Mar 2016 - 31st Oct 2016


There are no upcoming events identified
Division Votes
Wednesday 29th November 2023
Data Protection and Digital Information Bill
voted Aye - in line with the party majority
One of 140 Labour Aye votes vs 0 Labour No votes
Tally: Ayes - 194 Noes - 275
Speeches
Wednesday 29th November 2023
Rural Councils: Funding
Thank you, Mrs Latham. I apologise to the hon. Member for West Dorset (Chris Loder) for being slightly late; I …
Written Answers
Wednesday 22nd November 2023
Dental Services
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) adult and (b) child NHS dental …
Early Day Motions
None available
Bills
Wednesday 22nd March 2023
Water Quality (Sewage Discharge) Bill 2022-23
A Bill to make provision about the monitoring of water quality; to set a target for the reduction of sewage …
MP Financial Interests
Monday 3rd October 2022
1. Employment and earnings
12 August 2022, received £225 from Ipsos MORI, 3 Thomas More Square, London E1W 1YW, for a survey. Hours: 2 …
EDM signed
Monday 24th February 2020
Assaults on shopworkers
That this House deplores the rise in verbal and physical abuse of shopworkers, notes that according to research conducted by …
Supported Legislation
Monday 16th March 2020
Assaults on Retail Workers (Offences) Bill 2019-21
A Bill to make certain offences, including malicious wounding, grievous or actual bodily harm and common assault, aggravated when perpetrated …

Division Voting information

During the current Parliamentary Session, Jim McMahon has voted in 573 divisions, and never against the majority of their Party.
View All Jim McMahon Division Votes

Debates during the 2019 Parliament

Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.

Sparring Partners
Grant Shapps (Conservative)
Secretary of State for Defence
(39 debate interactions)
Lindsay Hoyle (Speaker)
(31 debate interactions)
George Eustice (Conservative)
(16 debate interactions)
View All Sparring Partners
View all Jim McMahon's debates

Oldham West and Royton Petitions

e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.

If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.

If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).

Petitions with highest Oldham West and Royton signature proportion
Jim McMahon has not participated in any petition debates

Latest EDMs signed by Jim McMahon

24th February 2020
Jim McMahon signed this EDM on Monday 24th February 2020

Assaults on shopworkers

Tabled by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
That this House deplores the rise in verbal and physical abuse of shopworkers, notes that according to research conducted by USDAW, over 400 retail workers were assaulted each day last year and that 62 per cent of retail staff have been the victim of either verbal or physical abuse; further …
69 signatures
(Most recent: 15 Sep 2020)
Signatures by party:
Labour: 55
Scottish National Party: 4
Democratic Unionist Party: 3
Conservative: 3
Independent: 2
Social Democratic & Labour Party: 1
Liberal Democrat: 1
Green Party: 1
4th September 2019
Jim McMahon signed this EDM as a sponsor on Wednesday 4th September 2019

CONFLICT IN KASHMIR

Tabled by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
That this House expresses huge concern about the revocation of Articles 370 and 35A in Kashmir by the Indian Government, stripping away the right to special status for the people of Kashmir; is extremely alarmed by the road to ethnic cleansing opened up by the ongoing communications blackout and the …
27 signatures
(Most recent: 30 Sep 2019)
Signatures by party:
Labour: 23
Conservative: 1
Independent: 1
Scottish National Party: 1
Green Party: 1
View All Jim McMahon's signed Early Day Motions

Commons initiatives

These initiatives were driven by Jim McMahon, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.

MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.


6 Urgent Questions tabled by Jim McMahon

Wednesday 28th June 2023
Thursday 23rd March 2023
Thursday 23rd February 2023
Thursday 19th May 2022
Monday 13th September 2021
Tuesday 29th June 2021

1 Adjournment Debate led by Jim McMahon

2 Bills introduced by Jim McMahon


A Bill to make provision about the monitoring of water quality; to set a target for the reduction of sewage discharges; to provide for financial penalties in relation to sewage discharges and breaches of monitoring requirements; to require the Secretary of State to publish a strategy for the reduction of sewage discharges from storm overflows, including an economic impact assessment; and for connected purposes.

Commons - 40%

Last Event - 2nd Reading
Friday 21st April 2023

The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session. This means the Bill will make no further progress. A Bill to reduce the voting age to 16 in parliamentary and other elections; to make provision about young people's education in citizenship and the constitution; and for connected purposes.

Commons - 20%

Last Event - 1st Reading: House Of Commons
Wednesday 19th July 2017
(Read Debate)

242 Written Questions in the current parliament

(View all written questions)
Written Questions can be tabled by MPs and Lords to request specific information information on the work, policy and activities of a Government Department
7th Nov 2023
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many deaths in care homes relating to covid-19 were registered in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in each month since January 2020.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 7 November is attached.

28th Jun 2023
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled The Border Target Operating Model: Draft for Feedback, published on 5 April 2023, what steps his Department plans to take to implement the proposed changes without disrupting supply chains.

Following publication of the draft Border Target Operating Model, we have worked closely with businesses to develop our plans.

The new Border Target Operating Model sets out a new global regime of border controls that makes better use of technology and data to reduce friction and costs for businesses and consumers, while also protecting public, plant and animal health. It will create a radically simpler yet secure experience for businesses moving goods across the UK border. Businesses have indicated that they will need time to prepare for these changes, and the phased approach outlined in the draft Border Target Operating Model was designed with this in mind.

We are working to ensure that businesses throughout the supply chain are aware of and understand the new requirements. As we have done with all major border changes, we will take a pragmatic approach as controls are introduced, working with businesses to monitor trade flows and support them to be compliant.

Alex Burghart
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) agriculture, (b) forestry and (c) fishing businesses were registered in (a) 2010, (b) 2015 and (c) 2020.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman Parliamentary Question of 20th April is attached.

28th Jan 2022
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the value for money of the work conducted by Sir Dave Lewis as the Prime Minister's Supply Chains Advisor

During his time as the Prime Minister's Supply Chains Advisor, Sir Dave Lewis worked across Government and with industry to help resolve a number of acute, short term issues. Sir Dave Lewis advised the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on immediate improvements and potential long term changes to UK supply chains. Work on supply chains continues to be a focus for the Government.

Sir Dave Lewis’ role was unpaid.

28th Jan 2022
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the outcomes have been of the work undertaken by Sir Dave Lewis as the Prime Minister's Supply Chains Advisor; what the cost was to the public purse of that work.

During his time as the Prime Minister's Supply Chains Advisor, Sir Dave Lewis worked across Government and with industry to help resolve a number of acute, short term issues. Sir Dave Lewis advised the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on immediate improvements and potential long term changes to UK supply chains. Work on supply chains continues to be a focus for the Government.

Sir Dave Lewis’ role was unpaid.

14th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the impact of supply shortages in the used light goods vehicle market on inflation; and if he will publish projections of that impact for the next two years.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility set out its forecasts for inflation in the October 2021 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

Lee Rowley
Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
13th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the correlation between supply and demand in the (a) secondhand van and (b) greener vehicles market.

The latest industry statistics show that demand for electric vehicles is stronger than ever, with about as many fully electric car registrations in 2021 as in the five years of 2016 to 2020 combined. In 2021 as a whole, 11.6% of all new cars registered were fully electric, trending upwards throughout the year, with over 1 in 4 new cars sold being fully electric in the month of December.

Lee Rowley
Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
11th Dec 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to extend the provisions made under the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 to cover (a) the holding of AGMs and (b) other aspects co-operative society governance.

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 introduced temporary measures to provide companies and other qualifying bodies - including co-operative societies - with flexibilities in the manner in which they conducted general meetings (including annual general meetings) in the light of coronavirus restrictions. Originally due to expire on 30 September 2020, these flexibilities were extended first to 30 December and then again, by regulations laid before Parliament on 25 November, to 30 March 2021.

18th Sep 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish a list of the number of (a) theatres operating and (b) theatre closures in each year since 2010.

The Department does not systematically collect or publish data on the number of theatres operating across the country, but its advisory arm's-length body, The Theatres Trust, maintains a database of over 1,000 theatres in operation, which can be found online at https://database.theatrestrust.org.uk.

John Whittingdale
Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
27th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of potential effect of the switch off of the Vodafone 3G network in 2023 on rural communities; and what steps the Government plans to take to rural communities as 3G networks are phased out.

We are committed to extending good quality mobile coverage across the UK. In March 2020, the government announced a deal with the mobile network operators, including Vodafone, to increase 4G coverage to 95% of the UK landmass. The Government’s ambition is for the majority of the population to have access to a 5G signal by 2027 and we want to ensure that UK businesses reap the full benefits of 5G.

There is no explicit regulatory requirement for mobile network operators to maintain a 2G or 3G network and the government has limited powers to compel operators to maintain, switch off or streamline specific networks. It is for operators to take final decisions on the provision of network services.

The Government welcomes 3G networks being switched off in a responsible way, and will continue to work with mobile network operators to ensure a smooth transition that meets the needs of business users and consumers, including rural communities.

Julia Lopez
Minister on Leave (Minister of State)
23rd Sep 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what financial support he plans to provide to lower league football clubs to compensate for lost gate receipts as a result of the postponement of enabling spectators to attend football matches during the covid-19 outbreak.

Football clubs, at all levels, form the bedrock of our local communities. There have been countless examples during the pandemic of football clubs across the country demonstrating their importance to their local area, volunteering both time and money during these difficult times.

The Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses throughout the pandemic, including a comprehensive and sizable package of direct fiscal support for business through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support. Many football clubs have benefited from these measures.

Where it can, we will expect the top tiers of professional sport to look at ways in which it can support itself, with government focusing on those most in need. I also welcomed the Premier League announcement to advance funds of £125 million to the EFL and National League to help clubs throughout the football pyramid.

As the Prime Minister said on 22 September, the government recognises the implications of being able to admit spectators on sports clubs and is working urgently on what the government can do to support them.

Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
6th Jan 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what support is available to enable fans to have a greater say on the running of the football club they support.

Football clubs and grounds are the heart of local communities, they have unique social value and many with a great history. it is vital they are protected and fans should have their voices heard.

The Fans Fund, funded by the Premier League and administered by the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA), includes funds to assist Supporters’ Trusts of clubs in the National League, English Football League and Premier League with the professional fees needed to build a credible bid when an ownership opportunity arises.

The FSA can provide support and advice to fans considering supporter ownership as part of their important work representing and connecting football fans across the country.

The Premier League and English Football League now also require clubs meet with supporters at least twice a year to discuss strategic issues, giving fans the opportunity to shape the direction of the club.

We have committed to a fan led review of football governance, which will include consideration of the Owners’ and Directors’ test.

6th Jan 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with Twitter on moderating hate speech, harassment and bullying online.

Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook on a range of issues, including moderating hate speech, harassment and bullying online. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the gov.uk website.

2nd Nov 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason the Regional Schools Commissioner did not engage in the Q1 Serious Case Review conducted by the Manchester Safeguarding Partnership; and whether that decision was based on the policy of his Department.

Regional School Commissioners do not have a direct role in handling safeguarding cases and are not expected to act themselves.

8th Sep 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of attainment of (a) early years, (a) primary and (c) secondary pupils in Oldham as a result of its status as an Opportunity Area compared with those levels in other areas.

Evidence is at the heart of the Opportunity Areas programme. We are working closely with the ‘What Works Centres’ (including the Education Endowment Foundation) to identify and implement evidence-based interventions in Opportunity Areas that offer the best value for money and the potential to drive real change.

We continue to track progress in all of the Opportunity Areas to determine whether improvements have been realised against the priorities identified at the outset of the programme. The priorities identified in the Oldham Opportunity Area can be found in the delivery plan published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-mobility-and-opportunity-areas. An evaluation of the programme is underway and will be published in due course.

In 2017, the percentage of children in early years education achieving a good level of development by age 5 in Oldham was 63.6%. In 2019, this percentage had increased to 68.1%, which is an increase of 4.5 percentage points.

The increase in all children in England achieving a good level of development by age 5 between 2017 and 2019 was 1.1 percentage point. In comparison, Oldham’s attainment in early years has increased faster than the England increase. With 68.1% of children achieving a good level of development by age 5, Oldham remains below 2019’s England average of 71.8%.

In Oldham, the percentage of pupils in primary school reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of key stage 2 increased from 57.2% in 2017 to 62.7% in 2019. This is a 5.5 percentage point increase. This is higher than the increase in England of 3.7 percentage points. At 62.7% of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of KS2 in 2019, Oldham remains below the 2019 England average of 65.3%.

In Oldham, the average Attainment 8 scores of pupils in secondary school at the end of key stage 4 had decreased by 1.5 percentage points between 2017 and 2019: it decreased from 43.6% in 2017 to 42.1% in 2019. This decrease was larger than the decrease in England of 0.4 percentage points, from 46.4% in 2017 to 46.8% on 2019. In 2019, Oldham’s Attainment 8 scores of pupils at the end of key stage 4 were 4.7 points lower than the England average.

For comparison to other areas, the department’s published data for early years can be found at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-early-years-foundation-stage-profile, data on primary school pupils can be found at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-key-stage-2, and data on secondary school pupils can be found at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-gcses-key-stage-4.

Michelle Donelan
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
1st Sep 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the advice which informed the decision not to make the wearing of face coverings by pupils aged 12 and over a requirement in schools in England.

The Department’s priority is for pupils to safely return to schools and colleges and we have taken the latest medical and scientific advice into account at each stage of responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.

On 21 August 2020, the World Health Organisation published a new statement (https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-children-and-masks-related-to-covid-19) advising that children aged 12 and over should wear face coverings under the same condition as adults, in particular when they cannot guarantee at least a 1 metre distance from others and there is widespread transmission in the area. As a result, the Department has revised its guidance on face coverings in schools and colleges. The guidance for schools can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

It is reasonable to assume that staff and young people will now have access to face coverings due to their increasing use in wider society, and Public Health England has made available resources on how to make a simple face covering.

28th Aug 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of the 200,000 devices and 4G wireless routers distributed from May to July 2020 to disadvantaged school children were (a) allocated and (b) distributed to children in each local authority in Greater Manchester.

The Department has delivered over 220,000 laptops and tablets and over 50,000 4G wireless routers to local authorities and academy trusts for children who would not otherwise have access, as part of over £100 million invested to support remote education and access to online social care.

The devices were an injection of support to help local authorities and academy trusts to provide access to education and social care during the COVID-19 outbreak. Local authorities and academy trusts are responsible for distributing the devices and are best placed to know which children and young people need access to a device.

On 27 August, the Department published information on which local authorities and academy trusts had received devices through the programme, including each local authority in Greater Manchester. This information can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data.

The Department is now supplementing this support by making an initial 150,000 additional devices available this academic year in the event face-to-face schooling is disrupted as a result of local COVID-19 restrictions and children become reliant on remote education.

This scheme will enable schools to support disadvantaged children in years 3 to 11 who do not have access to a device. Devices will also be able to be ordered for disadvantaged children across all year groups who are shielding as a result of official advice, all year groups who attend hospital schools and those completing their Key Stage 4 at a further education college.

19th Sep 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the economic benefits of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.

A general economic assessment of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 is not available.

However, assessments of current policies for increasing access to nature indicate there will be economic benefits. For example, the Coast to Coast National Trail currently generates significant economic benefits as England's most popular long-distance route, attracting approximately 6,000 annual end-to-end walkers who contribute £7 million to the local economy. A baseline study for the King Charles III England Coast Path showed that over 29 million leisure walking trips took place on English coastal paths in 2017. Over £379 million is spent in the national economy as a result of trips to use English coastal paths, of which £350 million is spent within local coastal economies.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
19th Sep 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the economic impact of the use of combined sewer overflows on coastal businesses in England and Wales.

The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan was published in August 2022, alongside an Impact Assessment which considers costs and benefits of the final targets to businesses, the public, wider society and government spending where applicable.

Water is a devolved area. The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan applies to companies wholly or mainly in England.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
18th Sep 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

The Government believes that the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 plays a very important part in our overall approach towards tackling dangerous dogs. This is why we are taking urgent action to bring forward a ban on XL Bully dog types under the Act following a concerning rise in attacks and fatalities, which appear to be driven by this type of dog. In the meantime, we have been working hard with the police, local authorities and animal welfare groups to help prevent attacks by encouraging responsible dog ownership, to ensure dog control issues are addressed before they escalate and to make sure the full force of the law is applied across all breeds of dog.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
10th Jul 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries of 6 July 2023, Official Report, column 921, if she will publish all water company storm overflow plans that she has received in full.

In February 2023, the Secretary of State asked water and sewerage companies to produce an action plan for every storm overflow in England. As a result, I have received all the draft water company plans.

Action Plans will be published following a review to ensure there is a standardised level of accuracy and consistency across the plans.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
5th Jun 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the number of cases of avian flu in the UK; and what information her Department holds on the number of cases in EU countries.

Since the start of the current epizootic in October 2021, 344 cases of avian influenza (343 cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 and 1 case of low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) H7N3) have been confirmed in poultry and other captive birds in the UK. Although new cases have slowed, there have been 186 cases (185 cases of HPAI H5N1 and 1 case of LPAI H7N3) since 1 October 2022 (the start of year 2 of the epizootic), including 155 HPAI H5N1 cases in England, 21 HPAI H5N1 cases and 1 LPAI H7N3 case in Scotland, 8 HPAI H5N1 cases in Wales and 1 HPAI H5N1 case in Northern Ireland. This compares to a total of 158 cases of HPAI H5N1 in year one of the epizootic (October 2021 to September 2022), including 134 cases in England, 7 cases in Wales, 11 cases in Scotland, 6 cases in Northern Ireland.

Further details on the current situation for HPAI and LPAI in the UK and Europe can be found in the risk and outbreak assessments published on GOV.UK at Avian influenza (bird flu) in Europe, Russia and the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This includes information on outbreaks and events in both domestic poultry, captive birds and wild birds in Europe reported by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the reference laboratory Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVe). We continue to monitor the current situation both in Europe and globally, as well as the effectiveness of any disease control measures taken.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
25th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress the Government has made on delivering an avian influenza vaccine.

Vaccination of poultry and captive birds against avian influenza, excluding those in licensed zoos in England, is not currently permitted. However preventative vaccination for avian influenza may be an option for the future but is unlikely to be a viable option for the 2023/24 high risk season. Defra established in February 2023 a cross government and industry task force to explore potential for use of vaccination as a preventive measure for avian influenza.

In parallel to the work of the avian influenza vaccination task force Defra in conjunction with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) will continue to monitor the development and availability of vaccines for their utility in preventing and responding to avian influenza outbreaks as they are put forward for market authorisation by vaccine manufacturers.

Any future decisions on disease control measures, including the use of vaccination, will be based upon the latest scientific and ornithological evidence, and veterinary advice.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
25th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the economic impact of avian influenza on the poultry sector and what support her Department provides to (a) poultry farmers and (b) others affected.

We are aware that the ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza has created challenges for poultry and egg producers. To support poultry producers and others affected by this unprecedented outbreak, on the 28 October 2022 Defra announced new support for the poultry industry to assist farmers and producers with the impacts of avian influenza. This includes a change to the existing avian influenza compensation scheme allowing us to provide swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures and give earlier certainty about entitlement to compensation.

We also introduced market support measures to assist businesses impacted by avian influenza. These included allowing seasonal poultry producers to slaughter birds, freeze them and then sell them as defrosted products during the period 28 November to 31 December 2022 and concessions to the labelling of free-range eggs from poultry housed under avian influenza mandatory housing measures for longer than the 16-week period for which an automatic derogation applies.

We continue to monitor the impacts of avian influenza on the poultry and allied sectors.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
25th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has plans to support egg producers (a) affected by avian influenza and (b) generally.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to the unprecedented challenges the industry, including the egg sector, has faced in the past few years.

Defra has been working closely with the egg sector and has acted where appropriate in response to the recent unprecedented avian Influenza (AI) outbreak. We announced changes to the AI compensation scheme on 28 October 2022 by allowing compensation to be paid for farmers from the outset of planned culling rather than at the end. This allowed Defra to provide swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures and give farmers earlier certainty about entitlements to compensation. We also granted a concession to the marketing standards rules for the labelling of free-range eggs from poultry that have been housed under an AI Prevention Zone with mandatory housing measures for longer than the 16-week period for which an automatic derogation applies.   More widely, the Government has put in place a number of measures which the egg industry has been able to access, including cuts to VAT and fuel duty and support through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.

In December 2022 I hosted an egg industry roundtable which brought together representatives of the egg supply chain from across the UK. The Roundtable focused on addressing the challenges that the sector had been facing due to the increase in input costs caused by the war in Ukraine. The meeting was productive with a clear willingness from all parties to address issues affecting the supply chain.

At the recent No 10 Food Summit, I announced that we would be undertaking a supply chain fairness review of the egg sector.

We continue to keep the egg sector under constant review including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group and our ongoing regular engagement with sector stakeholders.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
25th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to curb the spread of avian influenza to minimise impact on businesses.

Defra’s approach to avian influenza prevention and control is set out in the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain supported by the Mitigation Strategy for Avian Influenza in Wild Birds in England and Wales. To help stop the spread of avian influenza, Avian Influenza Prevention Zones (AIPZs) are in force across the UK. This means it is a legal requirement for all bird keepers (whether they have pet birds, commercial flocks or just a few birds in a backyard flock) to follow strict biosecurity measures to limit the spread of and eradicate the disease. The mandatory housing measures that were lifted on 17 April 2023 together with the enhanced biosecurity measures required by the AIPZ have been vital in protecting flocks across the country from avian influenza.

In addition, where infection in poultry or other captive birds does occur, swift and humane culling of birds on infected premises coupled with good biosecurity are used to prevent the amplification of avian influenza and subsequent environmental contamination and to reduce the risk of disease spread from infected premises.

Together, the Government and bird keepers must do everything we can to keep disease out of kept bird flocks. We all have a shared responsibility to ensure that if disease occurs it is diagnosed early, that good management practices ensure that the risk of further spread is minimised, the outbreak is controlled, and disease is eradicated. Scrupulous biosecurity is the most effective method of disease control available and all bird keepers should apply enhanced measures at all times to prevent the risk of future outbreaks.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
25th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with food producers on the impact of avian influenza on (a) poultry producers and (b) egg producers.

The Government continues to work closely with the poultry industry to tackle the unprecedented outbreak of avian influenza which has been affecting the UK. Defra Officials and Ministers in conjunction with the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the Food Standards Agency and devolved administration representatives have met regularly throughout the outbreak with industry bodies including the British Egg Industry Council, British Poultry Council, British Free Range Egg Producers Association and the Game Farmers Association in addition to individual producers representing the breadth of the poultry sector.

We are continuing to keep the market situation under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments, and our ongoing engagement with industry stakeholders.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
25th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of potential risks of pets and domestic animals encountering dead birds that have contracted avian influenza.

While avian influenza viruses are predominantly considered a pathogen of birds, the virus can infect mammals. Findings of influenza of avian origin in mammals are uncommon and there is no evidence to suggest an increased risk to non-avian wildlife. The main risk to non-avian pets is from eating or chewing on dead wild birds or from feeding them raw poultry, gamebird, wildfowl or other wild bird meat with an unknown provenance. Pets should not be allowed to feed on or play with infected or potentially infected sick or dead birds. While there is a small risk to cats if they catch wild birds which are infected, common garden birds are considered a lower risk of being infected with avian influenza than ducks, geese, swans and gulls.

Infection of mammals including pets with influenza of avian origin is notifiable; failure to report suspicion of infection or detection of influenza of avian origin in mammals is an offence. Further information on the case definition for influenza of avian origin and reporting requirements in mammals including pets can be found in our Influenza A (H5N1) infection in mammals: suspect case definition and diagnostic testing criteria guidance.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency carries out year-round avian influenza surveillance of dead wild birds submitted via public reports and warden patrols. Members of the public are encouraged to report findings of dead wild birds using the new online reporting system or by calling the Defra helpline (03459 33 55 77).

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May to Question 183788 on Water: Sewage, which overflows cause the most harm to businesses.

The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan was published in August 2022, alongside an Impact Assessment which considers costs and benefits of the final targets to businesses, the public, wider society and government spending where applicable.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May to Question 183788 on Water: Sewage, which overflows cause the most harm to public health.

In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan in water company history. In our £56 billion Plan, protecting public health at bathing waters was one of our main priorities.

Storm overflows near bathing waters have the potential to impact public health. Our plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows includes a specific target for bathing water. This ensures we are prioritising improvements that secure the greatest benefit for public health.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May to Question 183788 on Water: Sewage, which overflows cause the most harm to the environment.

In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history. In our £56 billion Plan, protecting public health at bathing waters is one of our main priorities. The Plan frontloads action in particularly important and sensitive areas including designated bathing waters and high priority ecological sites.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May to Question 183788 on Water: Sewage, if she will publish the dates of meetings she has had on the impact of sewage pollution on public health.

The department regularly publishes transparency data, including on ministerial meetings.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in the South West; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.

Region

Megalitres per day (MLd)

London

554.7

North East

135.1

North West

413.8

Yorkshire

283.1

East Midlands

509.3 covers the whole midlands area i.e. East and West

West Midlands

South East

549.1 (excl London)

East of England

248.4

South West

190.3

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in the East of England; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.

Region

Megalitres per day (MLd)

London

554.7

North East

135.1

North West

413.8

Yorkshire

283.1

East Midlands

509.3 covers the whole midlands area i.e. East and West

West Midlands

South East

549.1 (excl London)

East of England

248.4

South West

190.3

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in the South East; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.

Region

Megalitres per day (MLd)

London

554.7

North East

135.1

North West

413.8

Yorkshire

283.1

East Midlands

509.3 covers the whole midlands area i.e. East and West

West Midlands

South East

549.1 (excl London)

East of England

248.4

South West

190.3

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in the West Midlands; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.

Region

Megalitres per day (MLd)

London

554.7

North East

135.1

North West

413.8

Yorkshire

283.1

East Midlands

509.3 covers the whole midlands area i.e. East and West

West Midlands

South East

549.1 (excl London)

East of England

248.4

South West

190.3

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in the East Midlands; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.

Region

Megalitres per day (MLd)

London

554.7

North East

135.1

North West

413.8

Yorkshire

283.1

East Midlands

509.3 covers the whole midlands area i.e. East and West

West Midlands

South East

549.1 (excl London)

East of England

248.4

South West

190.3

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in Yorkshire; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.

Region

Megalitres per day (MLd)

London

554.7

North East

135.1

North West

413.8

Yorkshire

283.1

East Midlands

509.3 covers the whole midlands area i.e. East and West

West Midlands

South East

549.1 (excl London)

East of England

248.4

South West

190.3

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in the North West; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.

Region

Megalitres per day (MLd)

London

554.7

North East

135.1

North West

413.8

Yorkshire

283.1

East Midlands

509.3 covers the whole midlands area i.e. East and West

West Midlands

South East

549.1 (excl London)

East of England

248.4

South West

190.3

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in the North East; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.

Region

Megalitres per day (MLd)

London

554.7

North East

135.1

North West

413.8

Yorkshire

283.1

East Midlands

509.3 covers the whole midlands area i.e. East and West

West Midlands

South East

549.1 (excl London)

East of England

248.4

South West

190.3

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
16th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place for water shortages in London; what medium term spending plans her Department has if that shortage takes place; and what the water leakage rate is in that region.

Defra recently published its Plan for Water which set out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide clean and reliable water to customers. To fulfil this duty there are statutory requirements to consult, publish and maintain water resources management plans, to balance water supply and demand at least twenty-five years into the future, and to develop drought plans setting out the actions taken to maintain secure supplies during drought events.

Water companies have been consulting on their draft water resources management plans and consulted on their drought plans in 2021. These plans are available on water company websites.

The Government expects water companies to take action to reduce levels of leakage and has consistently challenged them on their performance. Water companies have committed to a government endorsed target to reduce leakage by 50% sector-wide by 2050. As a first step, Ofwat has set requirements for water companies to cut leaks by 16% and reduce mains bursts by 12% by 2025. In July, Ofwat reported that industry wide leakage has reduced by 11% since 2017-18. In addition, water companies will need to contribute to delivery of Defra’s Water Demand Target under the Environment Act 2021 to reduce the use of public water supply per person in England by 20% by 2038. This includes a 37% reduction in leakage by 2038 on the pathway to meet their 50% reduction in leakage commitment by 2050.

The Environment Agency collects leakage data reported by water companies annually. It is provided by water company area. This means we cannot break down these data into specific regions such as the East and West Midlands. We have collated the data provided by the companies into regions based on their locations and information provided by regional water resources groups for the year 2021 – 2022.

Region

Megalitres per day (MLd)

London

554.7

North East

135.1

North West

413.8

Yorkshire

283.1

East Midlands

509.3 covers the whole midlands area i.e. East and West

West Midlands

South East

549.1 (excl London)

East of England

248.4

South West

190.3

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
3rd May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the risk to human health from sewage pollution in (a) rivers, (b) lakes and (c) beaches.

In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history – Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan. Our strict targets will see the toughest ever crackdown on sewage spills and will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.

In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible.

In the Plan, we state that water companies must significantly reduce harmful pathogens from storm overflows discharging into and near designated bathing waters, by either: applying disinfection; or reducing the frequency of discharges to meet Environment Agency spill standards by 2035.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
3rd May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential risks of contracting (a) Hepatitis A and (b) E.coli as a result of sewage pollution into rivers and water courses.

The Secretary of State has many meetings with Cabinet Ministers and discussions between departments continue.

In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history - Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan.

In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible.

E. coli is one of the standard faecal indicator organisms prevalent in sewage discharges but can also be found in agricultural runoff and road drainage. Bathing waters at beaches, lakes and rivers are designated under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to protect bathers’ health against faecal pollution. E. coli is one of the standards bathing waters are monitored for.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
3rd May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with the Chief Medical Officer on the impact of sewage pollution on levels of contraction of (a) Hepatitis A and (b) E.coli as a result of sewage pollution.

The Secretary of State has many meetings with senior members of government and officials, and discussions between departments continue.

In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history - Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan.

In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible.

E. coli is one of the standard faecal indicator organisms prevalent in sewage discharges but can also be found in agricultural runoff and road drainage. Bathing waters at beaches, lakes and rivers are designated under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to protect bathers’ health against faecal pollution. E. coli is one of the standards bathing waters are monitored for.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
3rd May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of sewage pollution on the contraction of (a) Hepatitis A an (b) E.coli.

In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history – Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan. Our strict targets will see the toughest ever crackdown on sewage spills and will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.

In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible.

In the Plan, we state that water companies must significantly reduce harmful pathogens from storm overflows discharging into and near designated bathing waters, by either: applying disinfection; or reducing the frequency of discharges to meet Environment Agency spill standards by 2035.

E. coli is one of the standard faecal indicator organisms prevalent in sewage discharges but can also be found in agricultural runoff and road drainage. Bathing waters at beaches, lakes and rivers are designated under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to protect bathers’ health against faecal pollution. E. coli is one of the standards bathing waters are monitored for.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
3rd May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her has Department made of the impact of sewage pollution in (a) rivers and (b) lakes on biodiversity.

The impact of sewage discharges on ecology varies depending on the pollutants it carries, their concentration, and the nature of the receiving water body.

In England, we have now set and committed to four legally binding targets for biodiversity.

  • By 2030 we will halt the decline in species abundance.
  • By 2042 we will reverse species decline, reduce the risk of species extinction and restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats, including rivers and lakes.

Action to restore or create freshwater habitats will support species in our indicator that live in and rely on lakes and rivers such as kingfishers, silver bream, perch, and minnow.

Our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan sets clear and specific targets for water companies, regulators and the Government, to work towards the long-term ambition of eliminating the ecological harm from storm overflows. These targets contribute to the Environment Act targets on biodiversity.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
3rd May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her department is taking to protect future risk to human health from sewage pollution in (a) rivers, (b) lakes and (c) beaches.

In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history – Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan.  Our strict targets will see the toughest ever crackdown on sewage spills and will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.

In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible.

In February 2023 the Secretary of State asked water and sewerage companies to set an action plan on every storm overflow in England, prioritising those that are spilling more than a certain number of times a year, and those spilling into bathing waters and high priority nature sites.

Further, in April, we announced a legally binding target to crackdown on sewage spills from storm overflows.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
3rd May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress her Department has made on tackling food price increases in March 2023.

Tackling inflation is this Government’s number one priority, with a plan to more than halve inflation this year.

Farmers and growers across the UK are facing global challenges from Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, in addition to the unprecedented Avian Influenza outbreaks occurring across the world. We are undertaking a range of actions to respond to these global challenges, including:

  • Paying Direct Payments in England in two instalments each year to help farmers with their cashflow.
  • Improved the Avian Flu compensation scheme for farmers to help farmers through the worst global outbreak in many years and eased marketing rules to give certainty over business planning.
  • Removed 25% tariff on maize imports from the USA to help with feed costs
  • Introduced measures to help with global impacts on fertiliser supply chains including short term support to protect vital CO2 production
  • Announcing 45,000 seasonal workers visas for the horticulture industry (an uplift of 15,000 compared with the start of 2022) with scope for up to 10,000 more if there is clear evidence of need, so that labour is not a limiting factor.
  • Provided £168 million in grants to drive innovation, R&D and improve productivity through greener equipment, robotics and automation.
  • Helping businesses with their costs through the Energy Bill Discount Scheme, business rates relief and extending the cut to fuel duty by 12 months, and small businesses will be fully protected from next year’s rise in corporation tax.
  • Provided 10,000 farmers with help and advice through the Future Farming Resilience Fund, which provides farmers with free advice to help farmers work out what to do for their business.

Further information on action we have taken to support our farmers and growers: Our record on farming: 30 actions we have taken to support our farmers and growers - Defra in the media (blog.gov.uk)

On 11 May 2023, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury met supermarkets to discuss the cost of food, and the Chancellor is meeting them again shortly to discuss how we ensure that consumers have access to a range of affordable food, in recognition of the pressures that people and producers are feeling.

We are keeping the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors all key agricultural commodities, so that we can work with the food industry to address the challenges they face.

Through regular engagement, Defra will continue to work with food retailers and producers to explore the range of measures they can take to ensure the availability of affordable food. For example, by maintaining value ranges, price matching and price freezing measures.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
3rd May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April to Question 182041 on Farms: New Businesses, what his Department's planned timescale is for the start of the New Entrant Support Scheme.

As set out in the Agricultural Transition Plan, we launched the pilot phase of the New Entrant Support Scheme in November as part of our co-design process. These pilots are testing a range of approaches to supporting new entrants and those looking to scale up their businesses to become successful entrepreneurs in the sector. The pilots will be evaluated and this will inform the type of future support for new entrants. The Department is also working closely with The Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture to coordinate wider activity on creating attractive career routes for those wishing to enter and those seeking to progress within the industry.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many new farms have been recruited to the New Entrant Support Scheme since its introduction; and what other steps her Department is taking to support new farmers.

The New Entrant Support Scheme is still under development. We are just completing five pilots to test different approaches to providing support to build entrepreneurial capacity in new and recent entrants to increase their potential to access land and finance. We will be evaluating these pilots over the next few months working with stakeholders with a view to deciding on the next steps in the autumn.

The Government is also contributing towards the establishment of a new professional body, The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH). This initiative is aimed at removing the fragmentation that exists within the current learning and skills landscape for farming businesses. TIAH will enable the industry, including those newly or recently entering it, to drive forward greater uptake of skills through creating clear career development pathways.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the South West in 2021-2022.

Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the East of England in 2021-2022.

Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the South East in 2021-2022.

Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the West Midlands in 2021-2022.

Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the East Midlands in 2021-2022.

Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the North West in 2021-2022.

Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in Yorkshire in 2021-2022.

Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in the North East in 2021-2022.

Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what percentage of rubbish sent to be recycled was rejected due to unrecyclable plastic materials in London in 2021-2022.

Defra do not hold the data to calculate the percentage of unrecyclable plastic material rejected from the waste material collected for recycling in England. Overall rejection tonnages for Household waste collected by Local authority and region can be found in the published datasets: ENV18 - Local authority collected waste: annual results tables 2021/22 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s statistics entitled Local authority collected waste management - annual results 2021/22, published 24 March 2023, what steps her Department is taking to work with manufacturers to reduce the use of unrecyclable packaging.

The UK Government wishes to see unnecessary or excess packaging on products reduced and, where used, for the packaging to be easy to recycle. These are key objectives of our new Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) policy, which will be introduced across the UK from 2024. This will include measures which will require businesses that use packaging to pay fees to cover the costs of collecting and treating household packaging waste handled by local authorities. This means that – for the first time - businesses will be responsible for the cost of managing their packaging once it reaches its end of life. From 2025, the fees producers pay will also be varied (modulated) so that fees for easily recyclable packaging will be lower than those for packaging that cannot be recycled. This will place a strong financial incentive on packaging producers to reduce the overall amount of packaging they use, encourage businesses to design and use packaging that is easily recyclable, and encourage the use of reusable and refillable packaging. This will reduce the amount of unsustainable packaging that is used each year, and ensure that the packaging that is used can be recycled and the materials returned into the economy.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Apr 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding opportunities are available for fishermen impacted by Crustacean Mortality in North East England; how much has been allocated to date; and where that information is published.

The panel of independent experts set up to assess the cause of crustacean mortality could not find a definitive cause for the mortalities, and concluded that maintenance dredging and capital dredging were very unlikely and exceptionally unlikely to have been the cause. A range of support is provided to the English seafood sector through the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS) and the £100 million UK Seafood Fund. FaSS includes grants of up to £100,000 to support diversification, such as gear to target new species and processing equipment to develop new products. Since opening in April 2021, FaSS has provided £2.2 million to seafood businesses in the North East and is open for applications now. In addition, the Fisheries Industry Science Partnerships (FISP) scheme, part of the UK Seafood Fund, is providing over £260,000 to a project led by the North-Eastern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (NEIFCA) that will help establish an ongoing survey programme for the inshore lobster fishery. Further information on this project can be found here: FISP projects: grants and contracts awarded in round 1 of the scheme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Feb 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Event Duration Monitors have been installed on storm overflows in each year since 2010; and how many of those monitors have been installed on storm overflows that stopped working in each year since 2010.

2010

2015

2018

2019

2020

2021

% of overflows with EDM

7%

10%

43%

57%

84%

88%

In 2021 we had 88% coverage of storm overflows with event duration monitors (EDMs), and we will have complete coverage by the end of this year. In 2021, only 2% of all installed EDMs failed to return data. Event Duration Monitoring has not stopped at any sites. There may be times where an individual monitor may go offline, but every step must be taken by water companies to ensure monitors get back online as soon as possible.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Feb 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the economic impact of crustacean die-offs in the North East on (a) businesses and (b) the fishing industry in that region.

We have assessed the impacts of this incident, including a comparison with landing data from previous years and with other parts of the country, for affected species. The North East Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority stock monitoring report (September 2022) indicated that at a regional scale, landings in late 2021 were broadly in line with historic data, and a significant reduction in landings in October and November 2021 were not observed.

The stock monitoring report also found, as the 2022 season progressed, lobster landings at a regional level were in line with seasonal expectations.

The UK Government currently provides a range of support to the fishing industry in that region, through the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS) and the £100 million UK Seafood Fund. Since opening in April 2021, FaSS has provided £2.2 million to seafood businesses in the North East and is open for applications now.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Feb 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the number of fishing business in the North East that have ceased trading since October 2021.

We do not hold the number of fishing business in the North East that have ceased trading since October 2021 so are unable to publish this.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Feb 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish a yearly breakdown of the number of fishers operating in the North East in each year since 2010.

This has already been published: UK sea fisheries annual statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
20th Feb 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish a yearly breakdown of number of fishers working in the North East in each year since 2010.

This has already been published at: UK sea fisheries annual statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
9th Jan 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help tackle the increase in the cost of eggs.

The UK egg industry operates in an open market and the value of egg commodities, including the farm gate egg price, is established by those in the supply chain including farmers, processors, wholesalers, retailers and consumers. While government may act in exceptional circumstances, we do not set retail food prices nor comment on day-to-day commercial decisions by companies.

I hosted an egg industry roundtable on 6 December 2022. This involved representatives from across the UK egg supply chain. The Roundtable focused on the various challenges that the sector is currently facing including the increase in input costs caused by the war in Ukraine and the impact of avian influenza. The meeting was productive and conducted in a spirit of co-operation with a clear willingness from all parties to address issues affecting the supply chain.

Defra continues to monitor the egg market and to work closely with the sector.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
9th Jan 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that there will be an adequate supply of milk to meet consumer demand in 2023.

The UK has a dynamic and resilient dairy industry and I am confident of its ability to continue to supply high quality fresh milk and dairy products to consumers. Defra continues to closely monitor the dairy market and maintains regular engagement with key dairy industry representatives.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
9th Jan 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish storm overflow spill data obtained through event duration monitoring for 2022.

Every April the EA publish a report showing the number and duration of spills over the previous year here: https://environment.data.gov.uk/dataset/21e15f12-0df8-4bfc-b763-45226c16a8ac. They will publish the data for 2022 in April 2023.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
9th Jan 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the number of birds that have been culled as a result of avian flu by species since 2020.

To prevent further spread of avian influenza birds on an infected premises are humanely culled. During the current highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreak (26 October 2021 to 10 January 2023) 7.48 million birds have died or been culled for avian influenza disease control purposes including 4.59 million chickens, 1.79 million turkeys, 980 thousand ducks, 48 thousand geese, 31 thousand quail, 35 thousand gamebirds and 7 thousand other captive birds.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
17th Nov 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many businesses have had properties damaged by flooding in each year since 2010.

The Environment Agency (EA) records properties (homes and businesses) affected by large flood events, through information provided during incidents, or through working with communities recovering from flooding. The EA does not distinguish between homes and businesses for large flood events. The table below provides the EA estimates for the number of properties flooded, but not necessarily damaged, during significant flood events since 2010.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities or Lead Local Flood Authorities may hold more detailed information for smaller scale events, and events where surface water was the major cause of flooding. Where Lead Local Flood Authorities hold more information, they publish this through Section 19 reports.

Between April 2015 and March 2021, the Government invested £2.6 billion in its first 6-year flood and coastal defence programme for England. This programme exceeded its target of better protecting 300,000 homes. The Government announced in 2020 that the amount invested in the 2021-2027 investment programme would be doubled in England to £5.2 billion, providing around 2,000 flood defences to better protect communities across England. Every English region is forecast to receive more investment in flood and coastal defences in this programme compared to the previous 2015 to 2021 investment programme.

Year

Flood event

Properties flooded

Properties protected

2010

Cornwall (Nov)

250

Data not available

2012

Nationwide (Mar -Dec)

7,900

200,000

2013/14

Nationwide / East Coast (Dec -May)

11,000

1.4 million

2015/16

North of England (Dec - Jan) Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank

17,000

23,400

2018

South East/ Midlands - Thunderstorms (May)

600 (+300 unconfirmed)

Data not available

2019

East / Midlands/ South East (June)

383

Data not available

2019/20 (winter)

Nationwide (Nov-Feb)

4,500

130,000

2019

Yorkshire & N England (7-22 Nov)

1,100

22,275

2019

Cornwall and South (19-23 Dec)

100

22,658

2020

Storm Ciara (9-14 Feb)

1,346

23,415

2020

Storm Dennis (16-23 Feb)

1,569

25,109

2020

Late Feb (24-29)

516

35,740

2020

Storm Bella (14-17 Dec) and Heavy rain (17- 31 Dec) Buckingham, Newport Pagnell, Northampton, Rugby

400

9,000

2021

Storm Christoph (18-20 Jan) North Wales and northern England

675

49,000

2022

Storm Dudley, Eunice, Franklin (15-22 Feb)

372

35,000

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
17th Nov 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many houses were damaged by flooding in each year since 2010.

The Environment Agency (EA) records properties (homes and businesses) affected by large flood events, through information provided during incidents, or through working with communities recovering from flooding. The EA does not distinguish between homes and businesses for large flood events. The table below provides the EA estimates for the number of properties flooded, but not necessarily damaged, during significant flood events since 2010.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities or Lead Local Flood Authorities may hold more detailed information for smaller scale events, and events where surface water was the major cause of flooding. Where Lead Local Flood Authorities hold more information, they publish this through Section 19 reports.

Between April 2015 and March 2021, the Government invested £2.6 billion in its first 6-year flood and coastal defence programme for England. This programme exceeded its target of better protecting 300,000 homes. The Government announced in 2020 that the amount invested in the 2021-2027 investment programme would be doubled in England to £5.2 billion, providing around 2,000 flood defences to better protect communities across England. Every English region is forecast to receive more investment in flood and coastal defences in this programme compared to the previous 2015 to 2021 investment programme.

Year

Flood event

Properties flooded

Properties protected

2010

Cornwall (Nov)

250

Data not available

2012

Nationwide (Mar -Dec)

7,900

200,000

2013/14

Nationwide / East Coast (Dec -May)

11,000

1.4 million

2015/16

North of England (Dec - Jan) Storms Desmond, Eva and Frank

17,000

23,400

2018

South East/ Midlands - Thunderstorms (May)

600 (+300 unconfirmed)

Data not available

2019

East / Midlands/ South East (June)

383

Data not available

2019/20 (winter)

Nationwide (Nov-Feb)

4,500

130,000

2019

Yorkshire & N England (7-22 Nov)

1,100

22,275

2019

Cornwall and South (19-23 Dec)

100

22,658

2020

Storm Ciara (9-14 Feb)

1,346

23,415

2020

Storm Dennis (16-23 Feb)

1,569

25,109

2020

Late Feb (24-29)

516

35,740

2020

Storm Bella (14-17 Dec) and Heavy rain (17- 31 Dec) Buckingham, Newport Pagnell, Northampton, Rugby

400

9,000

2021

Storm Christoph (18-20 Jan) North Wales and northern England

675

49,000

2022

Storm Dudley, Eunice, Franklin (15-22 Feb)

372

35,000

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
31st Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her predecessors forwarded official documents from their government emails to their personal email addresses from 24 July 2019 to 25 October 2022.

The Cabinet Office has published guidance to departments on the use of private email that covers how information is held for the purposes of access to information, and how formal decisions are recorded for the official record. This guidance is being updated to reflect changes in technology and ways of working, and will be published by the Cabinet Office in due course.

It is Government policy not to comment on individual Ministers’ security arrangements. Ministers receive support and expert advice to help them meet their obligations in the most appropriate and secure fashion. That includes regular security briefings for Ministers, and advice on protecting their personal data and mitigating cyber threats.

There is a place for the use of a variety of digital channels in fast moving modern environments. Ministers will have informal conversations from time to time, in person or remotely, and relevant content from such discussions is passed back to officials. They will also use a variety of digital communications channels for personal, political and Parliamentary matters.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
31st Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department provides to Ministers on the use of personal email accounts for the conduct of public business.

The Cabinet Office has published guidance to departments on the use of private email that covers how information is held for the purposes of access to information, and how formal decisions are recorded for the official record. This guidance is being updated to reflect changes in technology and ways of working, and will be published by the Cabinet Office in due course.

It is Government policy not to comment on individual Ministers’ security arrangements. Ministers receive support and expert advice to help them meet their obligations in the most appropriate and secure fashion. That includes regular security briefings for Ministers, and advice on protecting their personal data and mitigating cyber threats.

There is a place for the use of a variety of digital channels in fast moving modern environments. Ministers will have informal conversations from time to time, in person or remotely, and relevant content from such discussions is passed back to officials. They will also use a variety of digital communications channels for personal, political and Parliamentary matters.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
19th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a breakdown of the number of farmers in (a) England and (b) Wales in each year since 2010.

Statistics on the number of farmers (including full time, part time; and farmers, partners, directors and spouses) are available for England at Agricultural workforce in England at 1 June - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Agriculture is a devolved matter so Defra are only responsible for collecting data on English farms.

Agricultural workforce

Year

Farmers, partners, directors and spouses (number of people)

2010

170,478

2011

174,193

2012

173,124

2013

171,623

2014

173,697

2015

173,963

2016

173,083

2017

174,765

2018

178,128

2019

179,872

2020

181,895

2021

179,029

2022

179,769

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
19th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a breakdown of the number of farmers that have left the profession in (a) England and (b) Wales in each year since 2010.

We do not collect data on the numbers of farmers who leave the industry each year so no data is available for England. Agriculture is a devolved matter so we cannot provide comment on whether any Welsh data exists.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
17th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a breakdown of the number of people working as fishers in the UK in each year since 2010.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in their annual statistical publication publish a breakdown of the number of people working as fishers in the UK in each year ( UK sea fisheries annual statistics report 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

An extract from this report setting out the figures for 2010 to 2021 are supplied below.

Year

No. fishers

2010

12,703

2011

12,405

2012

12,445

2013

12,235

2014

11,845

2015

12,107

2016

11,757

2017

11,692

2018

11,961

2019

12,043

2020

11,298

2021

10,724

The methodology for this 'Employment Data' is published within the report ( Sea Fish Statistics 2021 - Annex B).

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
17th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings of research by Kantar, published on 11 October 2022, on potential rises in the average annual grocery bill.

My Department understands the pressure that rising food prices place on household budgets and the impacts on businesses across the food chain. Recent cost pressures in supply chains have led to continued food price inflation and we continue to monitor food prices using inflation statistics published by the Office for National Statistics.

We recognise that most household grocery bills will have increased given the food price inflation reported since mid-2021. Defra analysis shows that the exact impact will vary depending on the characteristics of the individual household, such as the age of the occupants. The impact will also be determined by the products the individual household purchases and the measures taken to protect against increased costs - for instance, switching to own-brand or value products.

Food prices are set individually by businesses and are influenced by the competitive market they work in and the cost pressures they face. It is not for HM Government to set retail food prices nor to comment on day-to-day commercial decisions by companies.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
17th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many veterinarians were practising in the UK in each year since 2010.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons monitor the levels of veterinary surgeons registered to practice in the UK on a twice daily basis. The number of veterinary surgeons registered in the UK has gradually risen from 17,260 to 28,643 from March 2010 to October 2022. An annual breakdown can be found on the Royal College’s website (www.rcvs.org.uk/news-and-views/publications/).

The number of veterinary surgeons registered in the UK with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has risen from 17,260 to 28,643 as of October 2022:

October 2022

28,643

May 2021

26,645

March 2020

26,200

March 2019

25,870

March 2018

24,422

March 2017

23,220

March 2016

22,009

March 2015

20,571

March 2014

19.682

March 2013

18,891

March 2012

18,413

March 2011

17,817

March 2010

17,260

Scott Mann
Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
17th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of H5N1 avian flu on the availability of (a) turkeys and (b) geese during in December 2022.

The United Kingdom poultry sector is highly resilient and plays a significant role in the production of high-quality turkeys and geese for our consumers.

The United Kingdom is currently experiencing the largest outbreak of Avian Influenza (AI) with over 200 cases confirmed across the country in poultry and other captive birds since October 2021. During the period 1 st-18 th October 2022, circa 315,000 turkeys and 17,000 geese have been affected (died and culled) because of AI.

We recognise that these outbreaks are very distressing for the individual turkey and geese farmers and businesses affected. However, the overall impact on food supply is relatively small, with approximately 10 million turkeys and 200,000 geese usually sold in the United Kingdom over the Christmas period.

Defra's objective in tackling any outbreak of Avian Influenza is to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible. Our approach considers the latest ornithological, epidemiological, veterinary and other scientific advice. Where necessary we are also able to declare Avian Influenza Prevention Zones (AIPZ) and mandatory housing measures within AIPZs to limit the spread of the disease.

Effective biosecurity combined with good flock management and husbandry practices is key to ensuring good health and welfare for all farmed animals and to limit the spread and eradication of this disease. Biosecurity guidance and a biosecurity self-assessment checklist have been published by Defra to assist all bird keepers in instigating and maintaining good biosecurity including compliance with the mandatory AIPZ measures.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
17th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the extraction of shale gas on the environment; and if he will publish those assessments.

The Environment Agency (EA) has been working on defining, assessing and controlling the potential environmental impacts of shale gas developments since 2013 when it produced and published a document titled An Environmental Risk Assessment for shale gas exploratory operations in England Published. This defined the range of environmental risks and the current regulatory controls and was the starting point for development of sector specific guidance. The current version of Onshore Oil and Gas Sector Guidance was published in 2019. It sets out what activities require environmental permits and how an applicant is required to demonstrate that the impact on the environment from these activities will be controlled.

The potential environmental impact of each site is assessed individually based on its specific environmental setting. Applicants are required to identify all environmental risks and provide a full demonstration of how these will be controlled. The EA assessed this information and sets out the limits and controls in a permit and how it reached the decision in an accompanying decision document.

The EA has undertaken a programme of scientific research on a range of topics relating to risk assessment and monitoring of potential impacts from hydraulic fracturing and shale gas. Since 2019 it has published 18 separate reports. The EA has liaised closely with government and industry bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive, the North Sea Transition Authority and UK Onshore Oil & Gas, so that scientific evidence and research findings are shared and understood.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
14th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a breakdown of the number of beach closures in England and Wales as a result of sewage pollution incidents in each year since 2010.

Neither my Department nor the Environment Agency holds information on the number of beach closures due to sewage pollution in England.

Local authorities have powers to restrict use and close beaches and are responsible for local beach management, including closures, in their respective areas.

This policy area is devolved to the Welsh Government.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
14th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding the Government has allocated to flood resilience schemes in each year since 2010.

The table below sets out HM Government spend on flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes over the last 10 years. The majority of the total represents capital funding for flood risk schemes.

Year

Total Government spend on FCERM schemes £ million

2011/ 12

572.9

2012/13

576.3

2013/14

606.2

2014/15

802.6

2015/16

710.8

2016/17

794.9

2017/18

777.0

2018/19

792.4

2019/20

866.7

2020/21

1,062.8

Source: Central Government Funding for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management in England (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
14th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the economic impact of beach closures as a result of sewage pollution on coastal businesses in (a) England and (b) Wales.

My Department has not made such an assessment for England. This policy area is devolved to the Welsh Government.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
14th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much money from the public purse has been spent on devising and implementing the Environmental Land Schemes in each of the last three years.

At this early stage in the Agricultural Transition, we need to dedicate more resource to the design and implementation of the Environmental Land Management schemes we’re bringing forward. We have made a commitment that, once fully operational, running costs of the schemes will not exceed 10% of the total cost of the schemes. Across Defra and delivery bodies we are spending approximately £90million from financial years 20/21 to 22/23 on designing and delivering the schemes.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
14th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish details of the amounts of funding the Environment Agency has received from all sources, in each year since 2010.

The information requested is provided in an attachment to this answer.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
14th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a yearly breakdown of the total number of Environment Agency staff for each year since 2010.

The requested information is provided in an attachment to this answer.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
12th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to control inflation on food prices.

My Department understands the pressure that rising food prices place on household budgets and the impacts on businesses across the food chain. Recent cost pressures in supply chains have led to food price inflation and we continue to monitor food prices using inflation statistics published by the Office for National Statistics.

Food prices are set individually by businesses and are influenced by the competitive market they work in and the cost pressures they face. It is not for HM Government to set retail food prices nor to comment on day-to-day commercial decisions by companies.

However, my Department continues to regularly engage with food retailers to explore ways in which they can support households by ensuring that affordable food remains available by, for example, maintaining value ranges, price matching, price freezing measures and the use of loyalty card offers.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
11th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether Environment Act targets will be published by 31 October 2022, as set out under the Environment Act 2021.

HM Government remains committed to the Environment Act 2021, and will publish ambitious, achievable, and robust targets soon.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
11th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether Biodiversity Net Gain will become mandatory in winter 2023 as proposed.

We remain committed to the implementation of biodiversity net gain, to make the achievement of a 10% gain mandatory for housing and other types of development. As previously announced, it is our intention to commence the Environment Act's requirement for development in November next year. Before then, we will be publishing a response to the consultation on net gain earlier this year that sets out further details of the approach.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
11th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the (a) resourcing and (b) financial costs of adapting over 430 pieces of retained EU law, as required by the Retained EU Law Bill; and if he will make a statement.

Defra has already reformed Retained EU Law in key areas through flagship legislation such as the Environment Act, Fisheries Act and Agriculture Act. The REUL Bill will make it easier to amend, repeal or replace REUL to build on this previous work, so the Department is currently assessing where these new secondary powers should be utilised, which will inform our approach to resourcing.

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
11th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a list of everyone he has met in his official capacity since his appointment.

Ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings are published quarterly on GOV.UK for all Ministers.

Defra: ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
11th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans his Department has to consult with environmental stakeholders on the implementation of the Government’s commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and sea for nature by 2030.

HM Government is committed to protecting 30% of land and sea in the UK by 2030 (30 by 30).

Achieving this will take collective endeavour and we want to work with partners across the country - from members of the public, the environmental sector, academics, farmers and landowners and the private sector - to deliver against this commitment.

Earlier this year (May 2022) we consulted on our approach as part of the Nature Recovery Green Paper. In the Green Paper we set out our intention to establish a framework to assess whether protected areas and Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures are contributing to nature recovery and where improvement is needed.

We have reviewed responses and will be working closely with key partners as we develop our approach.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
11th Oct 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department will take to meet the habitat restoration targets set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan; and if he will make a statement.

The Environment Act 2021 introduced a number of policies that will support the restoration of habitat. Biodiversity net gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities will work together to drive action, including to create or restore habitats that enable wildlife to recover and thrive, while conservation covenants will help secure habitat for the long term. LNRSs will provide the spatial framework for the Nature Recovery Network, which will guide creation, restoration and connectivity of habitats and sites to create mosaics of wildlife-rich habitat; and incentivise private partnerships.

The Nature for Climate Fund provides £750 million for the creation, restoration and management of woodland and peatland habitats. The Green Recovery Challenge Fund is estimated to deliver 0.6mha of habitat creation and restoration within & outside SSSIs. We set a target to raise at least £500 million in private finance to support nature’s recovery every year by 2027 in England, rising to more than £1 billion by 2030. This includes investment in protected sites and other landscape-scale action through delivery of the Nature Recovery Network.

The Environment Act also requires a new legally binding target to be set to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, in addition to at least one other long-term target for biodiversity. These world leading targets will drive wide-ranging actions to deliver nature recovery. We know that to meet them we will need large-scale habitat creation and restoration and that by improving connectivity we will maximise the benefits of newly created and restored habitat.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
8th Sep 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department will take to (a) raise environmental standards in the UK and (b) provide the necessary resources to his Department's executive agencies to enforce those standards.

The Government has already introduced a range of domestic measures in the Environment Act 2021 which will ensure we continue to drive forward environmental standards and are transparent about environmental protections. Through the Act, we will clean up the country’s air and water, increase biodiversity, reduce waste, and better use resources.

These changes will be driven by new legally binding environmental targets and enforced by the Office for Environmental Protection, which will hold the Government and public bodies to account on their environmental obligations.

As set out in the Nature Recovery Green Paper, we are considering how we organise Defra and its Arm’s-length Bodies to deliver our long-term targets. We are due to publish a response to the Green Paper in the near future.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
8th Sep 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department will take to (a) strengthen environmental protections as part of any review into retained EU law and regulations and (b) ensure the UK maintains comparable levels of environmental protections with the EU.

In reviewing retained EU law, Defra’s aim is to ensure that environmental law is fit for purpose and able to drive improved environmental outcomes, whilst also ensuring regulators can deliver efficiently. This will ensure the UK regulatory framework is appropriate and tailored to the UK.

The UK is a world leader in environmental protection and the Government has clear environmental and climate goals, such as those set out in the Environment Act, the 25 Year Environment Plan and the Net Zero Strategy respectively. We are committed to delivering our legally binding target to halt nature’s decline by 2030. Any changes to environmental regulation will need to support those goals as well as our international commitments including those with the EU.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
13th May 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) value for money from his Department's projects and (b) that those projects are completed (i) on time and (ii) within budget.

The department is strongly committed to delivering value for money and, wherever possible, completing projects as expected. To do so we work through the Defra Board, where ministers, senior officials and non-executive directors maintain oversight of the department's work, and through specific Delivery and Investment committees acting on delegated authority from the main board, that provide targeted scrutiny and oversight.

Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
28th Mar 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,, what assessment his Department has made of the economic impact on British farms of fuel price increases.

The situation and impacts on farmers in particular, and industry more widely, of increasing fuel prices, are being monitored closely. Defra is in regular contact with key industry figures including the National Farmers Union, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and key sector representatives.

The Government has announced steps to assist farmers with the availability of fertilisers to address uncertainty amongst growers and keep costs down for farmers, such as delaying changes to the use of urea fertiliser by at least a year to help farmer manage costs in light of pressure on the supply of ammonium nitrate fertilisers. Alongside revised and improved statutory guidance on the use of slurry and other manures during autumn and winter, we have introduced new slurry storage grants to help farmers meet the Farming Rules for Water and reducing dependence on artificial fertilisers by storing organic nutrients until needed or for onward processing.

Alongside these measures, further details of the Sustainable Farming Incentive have also been published today. Given current fertiliser prices, the priority must be to pioneer new technologies to manufacture more organic-based fertiliser products, and rediscover techniques such as using nitrogen fixing legumes and clovers as an alternative to fertiliser.

We have also released further details of the Sustainable Farming Incentive which will help farmers move towards sustainable farming practices over time. The Government will pay farmers to help them with the costs of sowing nitrogen fixing plants and green manures in their crops or in advance of their crops to substitute some of their fertiliser requirements for the coming season and reduce their dependence on manufactured fertilisers linked to the price of gas.

We will continue to engage with industry and farmers to understand any potential pressures and options to mitigate any risks, including through the recently established industry fertiliser roundtable and expanded Market Monitoring Group.

Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
24th Feb 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish his Department's assessment of the implications of a Russian invasion of Ukraine for the (a) UK’s food security and (b) price of grain products in the UK.

The UK has a highly resilient supply chain, with a high degree of food security which is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production, as well as imports through stable trade routes. Regarding grains, the UK is largely self-sufficient in barley and oats, and 81% self-sufficient in milling wheat (slightly higher for wheat overall), which is the most significant grain crop for food consumption in the UK.

We speak regularly with food industry figures, who remain confident in the food supply chain despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Defra is committed to continually assessing the UK’s food security and price of food, including grain products, and will continue to do so. UK food security assessments are achieved via consistent review and management, working closely with the food and drink sectors and producing a publicly available UK Food Security Report published at least once every three years. At this stage, the large number of possible scenarios means it would be premature to make an assessment of the potential impact on UK grain prices.

We will continue to monitor developments in wheat and other grains and their impacts on other products.

Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
4th Feb 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when eco-modulation fees for Extended Producer Responsibility will be announced to allow industry to invest in the right packaging solutions.

The Government will publish the response to its recent consultation on Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging in early 2022 which will set out the Government’s final policy positions, including on modulated fees.

Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
4th Feb 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the National Food Strategy prioritises the affordability of food and the resilience of the food supply chain, alongside the necessary health and environmental outcomes.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the COVID-19 response, with well-established ways of working with Government to respond to risks that may arise, including the recent challenges to our supply chains brought on by global pressures.

The forthcoming Government Food Strategy is a once in a generation opportunity to create a food system that feeds our nation today and protects it for tomorrow. It will build on existing work across Government and identify new opportunities to drive long-term change to make the food system healthier, more sustainable, more resilient, and more accessible for those across the UK, whilst considering the immediate pressures facing the sector.

We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country will now be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund will provide £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.

Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
28th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department will take to ensure equivalence of welfare, environmental and traceability standards in current and future trade deals that are relevant to food and drink imports.

As set out in our manifesto, we will not compromise on our high environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards in trade negotiations.

All agri-food products imported into the UK under existing or future free trade agreements will, as now, have to comply with our import requirements. A range of Government departments, agencies and bodies continue to ensure that standards are met including the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, The Veterinary Medicines Directorate and Health and Safety Executive.

In addition, since our exit from the EU we have created new functions to ensure imports meet our high standards. For example, the UK Office for Sanitary and Phytosanitary Trade Assurance has been set up within Defra to coordinate trade assurance in the UK for live animals and animal products. It will ensure trading partners meet the requirement of the UK’s biosecurity and SPS assurance regimes.

Further details on how our trade deals are consistent with the UK’s high environment, animal and plant health and animal welfare standards will be set out in the Government’s report on each trade deal as required under Section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020. The independent Trade and Agriculture Commission is also established and will provide advice on these areas to further assist Parliamentarians in their scrutiny of future trade deals.

Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
28th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of healthy pigs that will need to be culled as a result of labour shortages and supply-chain issues for (a) the rest of 2022 and (b) 2023; and if he will publish any forecasts that his Department has made on the economic impact of that matter on the pig industry.

Defra does not collect data on the number of pigs culled on farms. Producers, who are responsible for the welfare of animals on farm, are also not required to submit such data to us. However, from our engagement with the pig sector, we understand that around 30,000 pigs have been culled on farms since 1 September 2021. This is largely due to the backlog of pigs on farm caused by a unique combination of factors including the Covid-19 pandemic, shortages of labour in the processing sector, interruption of CO2 supplies and disruptions to the export market, particularly with exports to China.

We have provided a package of measures to help address the challenging circumstances that the pig sector has faced. These include temporary work visas for up to 800 pork butchers, and Private Storage Aid (PSA) and Slaughter Incentive Payment (SIP) schemes to facilitate an increase in the throughput of pigs through abattoirs. In addition, Defra continues to work with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and other Government departments to expand existing markets and to open up new export markets for British pork.

We will continue to keep the uptake of the schemes under review. In the longer term, we will conduct a review into supply chain fairness in the pig sector. This work will soon be underway.

The Government will continue to monitor the evolving situation and work closely with the industry through this challenging period.

Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
27th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the (a) advice sought in reversing the ban on the use of neonicotinoids and (b) any assessments that the Government has undertaken on the impact on (i) bees, (ii) pollination and (iii) food production of the use of those insecticides.

The UK Government continues to support the existing restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids. We will consider emergency authorisations for limited and controlled use in special circumstances where diseases, pests or weeds cannot be controlled by any other reasonable means.

An emergency authorisation has been agreed for the use of a neonicotinoid seed treatment for sugar beet crops in 2022. The reasons for this decision and the advice provided by the Health and Safety Executive, the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides, Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Defra economists can be found at Neonicotinoid product as seed treatment for sugar beet: emergency authorisation application - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
27th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to limit the spread of avian flu.

Defra’s objective in tackling any outbreak of avian influenza is to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible from the UK poultry and captive-bird population and regain UK World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) disease-free status.

Defra’s approach to the control of avian influenza is set out in the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain and the Contingency Plan for Exotic Notifiable Diseases of Animals in England. Swift and humane culling of birds on infected premises coupled with good biosecurity is used to prevent the amplification of avian influenza and subsequent environmental contamination and to reduce the risk of disease spread from infected premises. Current policy is in line with international standards of best practice for disease control.

In addition, to mitigate the risk of spread of avian influenza from wild birds to poultry and other captive birds, an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) came into force across Great Britain on 3 November 2021 and in Northern Ireland on the 17 November 2021, with additional housing measures coming into force across the UK on 29 November 2021. These measures mean that it is a legal requirement for all bird keepers across the UK to keep their birds indoors and follow strict biosecurity measures to limit the spread of and eradicate the disease in poultry and other captive birds.

In line with the implementation of the AIPZ, changes to the bird gathering general license in England, Wales and Scotland were made on the 8 November 2021 and in Northern Ireland on the 17 November 2021, such that gatherings of poultry are no longer permitted.

Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
26th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will provide details of engagements he (a) has had and (b) plans to have with representatives of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority regarding the implementation of the Clean Air Zone in Greater Manchester; and what additional economic transitional support the Government plans to bring forward to support businesses, in the context of the effect of covid-19 on the supply of new vehicles.

We have regular engagement with Transport for Greater Manchester and the Greater Manchester Councils on the implementation of the Clean Air Plan at all levels, and are continuing to do so.

We have provided a substantial £132 million from the Clean Air Fund to Greater Manchester authorities to help businesses and individuals upgrade to compliant vehicles. This is on top of providing £36 million to enable the implementation of the Clean Air Zone. The HGV support scheme has recently opened for applications but the remaining funds have not yet been spent. We are aware that Greater Manchester has proposed a review of funds and we continue to engage with them on the evidence.

Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
26th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of trends in the changes to (a) air quality and (b) CO2 emissions in (i) Dover and (ii) the surrounding areas over the last three years; and if he will publish the data the Government holds on those levels for each month of the last three years.

There is one locally managed automatic monitoring site located in Dover, measuring roadside concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (PM10). Data from this site can be obtained directly from the Local Authority or from the UK Air Website, through the following URL:

https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/datawarehouse

CO2 concentrations are not measured by any Defra managed monitoring networks. Anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, are estimated via the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, available through the following URL:

https://naei.beis.gov.uk/data/

Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
25th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish a timetable for finalising an EU-UK SPS agreement under the Trade Specialised Committee of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement; and if he will provide details of engagements he (a) has had or (b) plans to have with representatives of relevant business sectors in connection with that agreement.

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) includes an SPS chapter which allows the UK and the EU to take a risk-based approach to our respective SPS border controls and provides a basis for cooperation on avoiding unnecessary barriers to trade.

A key part of this is the Trade Specialised Committee, which is tasked with regularly reviewing the Parties' SPS measures, including certification requirements and border clearance processes, and their application, in order to facilitate trade between the Parties.

We are open to discussions with the EU on additional steps to further reduce trade friction, but these cannot be on the basis of future alignment with EU rules. This would compromise UK sovereignty over our own laws.

We regularly engage with industry stakeholders to seek their views on SPS trade issues under the TCA. As part of this engagement, we have and will continue to use existing mechanisms, such as the Ministerial F4 meeting and its Borders and Transport sub-group, to gather views from across the food chain.

Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
19th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to improve water quality in the river Wye.

The Wye catchment area is internationally important for biodiversity, principally due to the wide range of rare river wildlife. This Government is committed to restoring water quality across the country, which is closely linked with our legally binding target to halt the decline in nature by 2030 under the Environment Act.

Natural England, Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and other partners are working together to find effective solutions to restore the River Wye Special Area of Conservation (SAC) to a favourable condition. These measures are set out in the Nutrient Management Plan and the Phosphate Action Plan. The Nutrient Management Board meets quarterly to identify and review actions that achieve the phosphorus conservation target of the River Wye Special Area of Conservation, supported by a Technical Advisory Group.

In addition, we are almost doubling funding for the Catchment Sensitive Farming programme. This extra £17 million will allow all farms in England, including those in the Wye catchment, access to free 1-2-1 advice and support farmers to help them reduce water and air pollution through management of farmyard manure and soils, among other things. We have also recently increased funding to the Environment Agency for 50 new farm inspectors. These will be targeted at high-risk catchments such as the Wye. Our future farming programme will further support this, such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive which will open this year and focus on supporting actions that farmers can take to improve soil health and manage their nutrients sustainably.

This Government is also the first to take action to tackle the historic infrastructure issue of sewage overflows by publishing a new draft set of strategic priorities for Ofwat, the financial regulator for the water industry. In this publication, the Government set out its expectation that water companies must take steps to "significantly reduce the frequency and volume of sewage discharges from storm overflows." The landmark Environment Act has placed our ambition on a statutory footing, setting a duty for water companies to achieve a progressive reduction in the adverse impacts of discharges from Storm Overflows.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
13th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) information his department holds and (b) estimate he has made of levels of air pollution at each motorway junction in Greater Manchester in the latest period for which information is available.

The Defra Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) and UK Urban NO2 Network (UUNN) have a combined 106 monitoring sites in Greater Manchester. We also model annual mean concentrations of air pollutants on urban major roads across the UK. However, we do not assess air pollution at motorway junctions because the Air Quality Standards Regulations stipulate that air quality should not be assessed in microenvironments, including within 25m of a junction.

There are locally managed sites in Greater Manchester, including sites monitoring urban traffic concentrations of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, located on 'Trafford A56' and 'Tameside A635 Manchester Road'.

The UK Air website provides data from monitoring sites within Greater Manchester, including locally managed sites and sites managed by Defra. This data is accessible through the following URL:

https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/interactive-map?network=nondefraaqmon

Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
12th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the data his Department holds on how staff pay at the Environment Agency compares to the average public sector pay award.

Pay awards in the Environment Agency are established within the annually published pay guidance for the Civil Service. Information on staff roles and salaries is published in accordance with requirements for Civil Service departments and non-departmental public bodies: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/7c590663-2e85-4606-a60b-ab1bd103edcf/organogram-of-staff-roles-salaries.

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
25th Feb 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been allocated to each Greater Manchester local authority area for flood defence works since 2010.

The Environment Agency (EA) administers Grant in Aid (GiA) funding on behalf of Defra, investing in flood and coastal risk management schemes across England wherever the risk is highest, giving careful consideration to where each scheme will benefit the most people and property. The EA uses a consistent set of criteria to prioritise funding for schemes proposed by all risk management authorities, which ensures a fair distribution of funding based on agreed priorities, principles and needs.

In Greater Manchester, the EA has invested £50.7 million in flood defences since 2010, providing better protection for around 6,020 homes.

The table below shows the capital GiA expenditure on flood and coastal erosion risk management between April 2010 and March 2019, by local authority, within Greater Manchester. This include schemes led by the EA and by the local authorities.

Local Authority

2010/11 to 2018/19 Government Investment (£k)

Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

1,353

Bury Metropolitan Borough Council

6,605

Manchester City Council

2,001

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council

2,654

Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council

2,756

Salford City Council

16,277

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

1,126

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council

1,278

Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council

67

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

16,575

Total

50,692

Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
15th Nov 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the effectiveness of oversight of taxi licencing.

The Government is responsible for setting the regulatory structure within which 263 licensing authorities in England license the taxi and PHV trades. The Government issues guidance to assist authorities in carrying this out.

The Government has set out the measures it expects licensing authorities to take to safeguard passengers through the publication of the Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards in 2020. The Government has just published updated Best Practice Guidance for licensing authorities in England which encourages proportionate regulation to enable the sector to deliver safe, accessible, and affordable services that meet the differing needs of passengers. The Department for Transport engages regularly with taxi and private hire vehicle licensing authorities on a range of issues regarding the regulation of the sector.

The Government remains committed to introducing legislation, when parliamentary time allows, to enable the setting of national standards in licensing, enhancing licensing authorities’ compliance and enforcement powers and to establish a national licensing database of all licensees.

Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
15th Nov 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps with local authorities to ensure that taxi licencing processes support (a) passenger safety and (b) fair competition.

The Government set out the measures it expects licensing authorities to take to safeguard passengers through the publication of the Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards in 2020. Public safety remains the priority of taxi and private hire vehicle licensing, and the Government is clear that where standards need to be high and rigorously applied, they must be.

The Government has published updated Best Practice Guidance to assist licensing authorities in England. The updated guidance challenges licensing authorities to consider the necessity of some requirements that they place on the trade. This approach will provide a framework for fair competition and enable the trade to deliver the range of safe, available, affordable and accessible services required to meet the range of differing passenger needs.

Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
23rd Oct 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) properties and (b) businesses purchased for Phase 2B of HS2 his Department intends to sell.

Any land and property that is no longer required will be sold, and a programme is being developed to do this. An assessment of the exact numbers of land and property assets that will be sold has yet to be made as some of the assets will be retained for Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Huw Merriman
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
23rd Oct 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department's expected timeline is for selling all land previously acquired for Phase 2B of HS2; and who has oversight of this.

Any land and property that is no longer required will be sold, and a programme is being developed to do this. It will take some time to develop this programme, and we will set out further detail on these next steps, and will engage in full with those communities who are affected as we do.

Huw Merriman
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
18th Sep 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department holds data on the number of commercial flight cancellations made per calendar year.

Information on the number of commercial flight cancellations made per calendar year at UK airports is collected and published by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Table 4a of the UK airport data publication provides information on the overall number of cancelled air transport movements by airport:

https://www.caa.co.uk/data-and-analysis/uk-aviation-market/airports/uk-airport-data/

The UK flight punctuality statistics publication provides more detailed information on commercial flight cancellations, such as route-level breakdowns, for selected UK airports:

https://www.caa.co.uk/data-and-analysis/uk-aviation-market/flight-punctuality/uk-flight-punctuality-statistics/

22nd Nov 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many homes have been subject to compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) as part of the plans for the Eastern leg of HS2; and how much those CPOs have cost.

HS2 Ltd is yet to deposit a Hybrid Bill for Phase 2b, and therefore has not acquired any properties on that part of the route under Compulsory Purchase powers.

Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
22nd Nov 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much additional capacity the cancelled HS2 Eastern Leg and Northern Powerhouse Rail plans would have added to the network, by route.

The Integrated Rail Plan sets out the capacity improvements that the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) core network from Liverpool to York will deliver. These capacity improvements equal those in previous proposals from Transport for the North, with over a 500% increase on journeys from Liverpool to Leeds alone.

The IRP also confirms that a new HS2 line will be built from Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway, which will deliver more capacity to Nottingham and Derby compared to previous plans, and the same capacity uplift to Chesterfield and Sheffield. Upgrades to the East Coast Main Line will deliver similar or more capacity from London and Birmingham to the North East compared to previous plans, and potentially more capacity to places from London that did receive benefit under previous plans, such as Wakefield, Doncaster, Grantham and Peterborough. Leeds capacity will depend on decisions reached following the development work to assess the most effective way to take HS2 trains to Leeds for which the Government is providing £100m.

Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
22nd Nov 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much the Government has spent on the HS2 Eastern Leg to date; and if he will publish a breakdown of that spending.

Since the Prime Minister announced the Integrated Rail Plan in February 2020, development of the Eastern Leg of HS2 has been paused to avoid nugatory spend whilst the Integrated Rail Plan took this work forward. Safeguarding of the Eastern leg route remains in place pending conclusion of work on the most effective way to serve Leeds and towns and cities along the Eastern Leg. Any property that has been acquired already by the Government but is not required for the eventual route will be resold.

Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
17th Nov 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of (a) the amount of available storage space for imported goods at UK ports and (b) how that compares to (a) each of the previous five years and (b) first six months of 2021.

UK ports have invested heavily over the last decade to develop facilities capable of handling the largest ships, many cargo types, and the equipment to handle these efficiently. The UK is also home to many global port groups and has attracted significant inward investment. As such the UK is generally well placed in terms of capability and capacity in normal circumstances.

The current circumstances for the shipping and freight sectors are exceptional and unprecedented. There is increased international demand and disruption due to the pandemic, which combined with the current peak season is seeing operational difficulties on a global level. In the UK these effects are being exacerbated by wider supply chain challenges.

The capacity, volume, and operational factors of storage space at UK ports is not routinely monitored by Government and is a commercial matter for ports and their partners. However, this Department has maintained close engagement with the sector over the last year and through the pandemic to understand their operational pressures. The lessons learned by the sector at the end of 2020 have meant that the ongoing international issues have been handled with more stability throughout this year and peak period approached in a better position, but wider factors have negated that benefit.

17th Nov 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of port infrastructure in the UK.

UK ports have invested heavily over the last decade to develop facilities capable of handling the largest ships, many cargo types, and the equipment to handle these efficiently. The UK is also home to many global port groups and has attracted significant inward investment. As such the UK is generally well placed in terms of capability and capacity in normal circumstances.

The current circumstances for the shipping and freight sectors are exceptional and unprecedented. There is increased international demand and disruption due to the pandemic, which combined with the current peak season is seeing operational difficulties on a global level. In the UK these effects are being exacerbated by wider supply chain challenges.

The capacity, volume, and operational factors of storage space at UK ports is not routinely monitored by Government and is a commercial matter for ports and their partners. However, this Department has maintained close engagement with the sector over the last year and through the pandemic to understand their operational pressures. The lessons learned by the sector at the end of 2020 have meant that the ongoing international issues have been handled with more stability throughout this year and peak period approached in a better position, but wider factors have negated that benefit.

17th Nov 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what lessons his Department has learnt from the delays at ports in December 2020.

UK ports have invested heavily over the last decade to develop facilities capable of handling the largest ships, many cargo types, and the equipment to handle these efficiently. The UK is also home to many global port groups and has attracted significant inward investment. As such the UK is generally well placed in terms of capability and capacity in normal circumstances.

The current circumstances for the shipping and freight sectors are exceptional and unprecedented. There is increased international demand and disruption due to the pandemic, which combined with the current peak season is seeing operational difficulties on a global level. In the UK these effects are being exacerbated by wider supply chain challenges.

The capacity, volume, and operational factors of storage space at UK ports is not routinely monitored by Government and is a commercial matter for ports and their partners. However, this Department has maintained close engagement with the sector over the last year and through the pandemic to understand their operational pressures. The lessons learned by the sector at the end of 2020 have meant that the ongoing international issues have been handled with more stability throughout this year and peak period approached in a better position, but wider factors have negated that benefit.

17th Nov 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the likelihood of delays on roads leaving UK ports in December 2021.

The Department works closely with the Home Office on assessing potential risks from traffic disruption at ports, particularly the impact on roads in Kent arising from disruption to the Short Strait.

There are many factors which affect the likelihood of delays including bad weather affecting sailings from Dover or operational issues affecting the port or Eurotunnel; it is necessary therefore to plan for a range of scenarios. The Kent Resilience Forum is responsible for planning and managing any traffic congestion arising from disruption on the Short Strait and the Department, along with other departments, works closely with the Forum and shares intelligence and any analysis to help it with its planning.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
9th Nov 2021
GMB
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his oral contribution of 4 November 2021, Official Report, Column 1047, what the basis is for his statement that the GMB union supports (a) stopping people from flying, or allowing them to go on holiday only once every five years and (b) preventing people from using their cars.

My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State mis-spoke during Transport Questions. What he meant to say was that the plan that Labour is proposing - to stop people from flying, or to allow them to go on holiday only once every five years, and to prevent them from using their cars - is opposed by the GMB union, who usually support them.

16th Sep 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on how many days the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency application website has (a) crashed and (b) been unable to accept applications over the last 12 months.

The information is not available in the format requested. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s combined electronic services were available for 99.96 per cent of the time against a target of 99.5 per cent between January and September 2021.

Trudy Harrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
6th Sep 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 6 September 2021 to Question 36717 on Rolling Stock: Procurement, what authority was responsible for ensuring that train operating companies met the (a) financial, (b) performance and (c) other terms of their rail franchise agreements between 2010 and 2021.

The Department for Transport is responsible for the management of rail contracts, including ensuring that financial, operational and other terms are adhered to.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
3rd Sep 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people have been working on applications to the DVLA in each of the last 12 months.

The quickest and easiest way to make an application to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is by using its extensive suite of online services. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their documents within a few days.

However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application. The DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day and social distancing measures coupled with industrial action by members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has led to delays for customers who make paper applications. There are currently around 1.5m paper applications awaiting processing at the DVLA. It is important to note that in normal circumstances, given that the DVLA receives around 300,000 items of mail each week, there are usually around 400,000 items awaiting processing. It is estimated that one third of the current backlog is directly attributable to the PCS strike action. No figures are available for the number of applications to the DVLA that have been lost.

The DVLA continues to look into opportunities to reduce the backlog and has been developing additional new online services and recruiting additional staff. The DVLA is exploring the possibility of securing extra office space to house more staff to work predominantly on driver’s medical casework and queries. This will be surge capacity accommodation and resource to help reduce backlogs while providing future resilience and business continuity.

It is not possible to provide figures for the number of people working on applications as most DVLA operational roles require staff members to carry out a range of tasks, which includes processing applications. The number of people working at the DVLA also fluctuates daily because of factors including leave, working patterns and other absences.

3rd Sep 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many applications there are in the backlog of applications to the DVLA.

The quickest and easiest way to make an application to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is by using its extensive suite of online services. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their documents within a few days.

However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application. The DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day and social distancing measures coupled with industrial action by members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has led to delays for customers who make paper applications. There are currently around 1.5m paper applications awaiting processing at the DVLA. It is important to note that in normal circumstances, given that the DVLA receives around 300,000 items of mail each week, there are usually around 400,000 items awaiting processing. It is estimated that one third of the current backlog is directly attributable to the PCS strike action. No figures are available for the number of applications to the DVLA that have been lost.

The DVLA continues to look into opportunities to reduce the backlog and has been developing additional new online services and recruiting additional staff. The DVLA is exploring the possibility of securing extra office space to house more staff to work predominantly on driver’s medical casework and queries. This will be surge capacity accommodation and resource to help reduce backlogs while providing future resilience and business continuity.

It is not possible to provide figures for the number of people working on applications as most DVLA operational roles require staff members to carry out a range of tasks, which includes processing applications. The number of people working at the DVLA also fluctuates daily because of factors including leave, working patterns and other absences.

3rd Sep 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many applications to the DVLA have been lost by the DVLA in the last 12 months.

The quickest and easiest way to make an application to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is by using its extensive suite of online services. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their documents within a few days.

However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application. The DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day and social distancing measures coupled with industrial action by members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has led to delays for customers who make paper applications. There are currently around 1.5m paper applications awaiting processing at the DVLA. It is important to note that in normal circumstances, given that the DVLA receives around 300,000 items of mail each week, there are usually around 400,000 items awaiting processing. It is estimated that one third of the current backlog is directly attributable to the PCS strike action. No figures are available for the number of applications to the DVLA that have been lost.

The DVLA continues to look into opportunities to reduce the backlog and has been developing additional new online services and recruiting additional staff. The DVLA is exploring the possibility of securing extra office space to house more staff to work predominantly on driver’s medical casework and queries. This will be surge capacity accommodation and resource to help reduce backlogs while providing future resilience and business continuity.

It is not possible to provide figures for the number of people working on applications as most DVLA operational roles require staff members to carry out a range of tasks, which includes processing applications. The number of people working at the DVLA also fluctuates daily because of factors including leave, working patterns and other absences.

20th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 19 July 2021 to Question 31501, what authority was responsible for regulating train operating companies from 2010 to 2021.

From 2010 to 2021 The independent regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), formerly named the Office of Rail Regulation until April 2015, was responsible for ensuring that train operating companies complied with health and safety law, competition and consumer law, and the terms of their licences.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
19th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 3 July 2021 to Question 29872 on Public Transport: Ventilation, what the budget is for enforcement activities for ventilation in each of the last ten years for (a) buses, (b) trains and (c) other forms of public transport; what enforcement action has been taken in respect of ventilation on (i) buses, (ii) trains and (iii) other forms of public transport in each of the last ten years; and when he last met with industry bodies representing operators of (A) buses, (B) trains and (C) other forms of public transport to discuss ventilation.

Transport companies must make sure that there is an adequate supply of fresh air in enclosed areas and this has not changed during the pandemic.

The type of ventilation in use across vehicles on the UK public transport network, varies according to vehicle age and vehicle type. Some older rail rolling stock and almost all UK buses are reliant on opening windows and doors for passenger ventilation.

The Office of Rail and Road carries out health and safety enforcement of railway operators, but there is not a specific budget covering ventilation matters and the regulator does not hold records for specific ventilation enforcement activities. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the ORR has encouraged all train and station operators to review their risk assessments and is continuing to monitor duty holders’ safety management systems and risk assessment arrangements.

For vehicles with Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, the exact standard which the ventilation meets will be dependent on the standard in place when the vehicle was designed. Measuring ventilation rates is extremely difficult, with the need to consider stopping patterns, occupation rates and weather conditions in addition to the capability of any HVAC systems in place.

We are working with transport operators to identify areas of poor ventilation for improvement following SAGE and HSE guidance to further ensure that ventilation on public transport is adequate. Our recent safer transport guidance for operators includes measures to assess and address the risk of Covid-19.

12th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the level of (a) expertise in and (b) experience of rail in his Department's rail reform team.

The Department’s rail reform team has an excellent level of experience in Rail and other industries.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
12th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the delivery time for new fleets on (a) East Midlands Railway and (b) West Coast Partnership manufactured by Hitachi: and if he will make a statement.

The delivery timescales for new rolling stock are set out in the supply agreements between the operators and the manufacturers. The Department monitors delivery of new fleets against the requirements set out in national rail contracts or franchise agreements.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
12th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2021 to Question 27274 on Rolling Stock: Procurement, what estimate he has made of the trajectory of whole life rolling stock leasing costs on train fleets ordered since February 2016; and if he will make a statement.

In line with our published guidance on how to assess costs and benefits of government schemes and policies, DfT consider a whole life asset approach for estimating rolling stock appraisals.

The Department’s value for money framework for completing assessments and communicating to decision makers can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dft-value-for-money-framework.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
12th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2021 to Question 27274 on Rolling Stock: Procurement, what specific assessment he has made of the best value bids for taxpayers of rolling stock ordered since February 2016.

Procurement of rolling stock has been undertaken by operators as part of their franchise requirements. As part of their bids, operators would have set out their evidence to demonstrate how they achieve the best value for taxpayers.

The Franchise Agreements can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/transport/rail-franchising.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
12th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2021 to Question 27274 on Rolling Stock: Procurement, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to passenger rail operating contracts since March 2020 on rolling stock leasing costs for new train fleets (a) procured and (b) agreed by his Department since February 2016.

Rolling stock leasing costs were contracted between the respective operator and owner as part of the franchising process. The department continues to monitor rolling stock related costs closely throughout the life of the contracts to ensure that they are in line with what has been agreed and that what is proposed will deliver benefits to passengers.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
12th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2021 to Question 27274 on Rolling Stock: Procurement, to what extent (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have (a) overseen and (b) agreed the rolling stock procurement processes undertaken by (i) Greater Anglia, (ii) TransPennine, (iii) West Midland Trains, (iv) South Western Railway and (v) c2c since February 2016.

Procurement of rolling stock has been undertaken by operators as part of their franchise requirements. As part of their bids, operators would have set out their approach to meet the minimum requirements in the invitation to tender. These bids will have been evaluated by officials and Ministers advised appropriately through the franchise competition process.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
12th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2021 to Question 27274 on Rolling Stock: Procurement, to what extent the specification for new rolling stock (a) procured and (b) agreed by the operators of (i) Greater Anglia, (ii) TransPennine, (iii) West Midland Trains, (iv) South Western Railway and (v) c2c was determined by the requirements set out by his Department as part of the invitation to tender for the relevant franchise.

The invitation to tender for previous franchise competitions sets out the minimum requirements that bidders are to meet, and it is for bidders to provide evidence as to whether existing or new build rolling stock meets those requirements.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
8th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 17 January 2020 to Question 1751 on London-Exeter Railway Line: Rolling Stock, whether he has exercised the call option over the leasing costs of the 36 Eversholt Rail funded class 802 bi-modes operating on the West of England route of the Great Western Region; and whether the discussions with the incumbent operator to secure the best price for all train leases for the existing train fleet have concluded.

The Call Option was exercised by the Department. However, further commercial discussions with the rolling stock leasing companies (ROSCOs) led to a revised improved offer which enabled the Call Option to be withdrawn.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
8th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to help ensure adequate ventilation in (a) trains, (b) buses and (c) other forms of public transport to reduce risk of covid-19 infection; what plans he has to issue guidance operators of public transport services on transport ventilation; what standards or criteria his Department advises are used to plan and measure transport ventilation; and whether his Department plans to make funds available to improve standards of ventilation on public transport.

Guidance on ventilation is included within the Department’s ‘Safer Transport Guidance for Operators’. It suggests operators consider how they can increase ventilation and air flow, and asks that wherever possible operators and businesses should ensure that a fresh air supply is consistently flowing though vehicles, carriages and transport hubs. The guidance sets out a number of ways in which this might be achieved including through the opening of windows, the use of air conditioning systems and through the use of filters. The Department’s public facing communications messaging asks that passengers open windows wherever possible and safe to do so.

The Department is also working with the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operating companies, to continue to develop guidance for operators on train ventilation. Operators are currently trialling the use of new high grade filters which are likely to offer further protection against airborne Covid transmission. Where trains are ventilated using an air conditioning system, the air in the carriage will be completely replaced every 6-9 minutes.

Buses typically rely on opening windows for passenger ventilation. Industry is using a range of methods to ensure that these windows are kept open, including through the use of window stickers, on-board announcement and the placing of small blocks in the windows which prevent them from being fully closed. Coach operators carry out risk assessments, with mitigations including enhanced ventilation and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) filters.

Aviation has high standards of ventilation and uses HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters as standard on passenger aircraft.

The Department is currently working with operators to understand scope for further ventilation improvements and to understand how we can best support industry moving forwards.

5th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of (a) increases in the steel price and (b) other commodity price fluctuations on Network Rail’s infrastructure investment programme during Control Period 6 from 2019 to 2024.

Our latest assessments do not currently predict an impact on Network Rail’s budget for Control Period 6. Network Rail are pro-actively monitoring commodity prices including steel following the recent volatility. They have long term contractual mechanisms in place to ensure that the prices they pay are based on independently compiled indices which protect them from short term spikes in market prices.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
5th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 June 2021 to Question 11609 on Rolling Stock: Procurement, what assessment he has made of the effect of (a) provisions and (b) specifications of passenger rail operating contracts on ​the level of rolling stock leasing costs for new train fleets (i) procured and (ii) agreed by his Department since February 2016.

Rolling Stock ordered since 2016 was procured by the winner of the relevant franchise competition. The winner would through competition of both the manufacturing and financing deliver the best value bids as part of their bids for the franchise. The detailed specification would have been for the operator to decide taking into account the requirements of the Invitation to Tender for the appropriate franchise at that time.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
5th Jul 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what impact assessments his Department has undertaken on the potential effect on covid-19 transmission of the removal of rules on the mandatory wearing of face coverings on public transport; and if he will publish those assessments.

The Social Distancing Review: Report was published on 5 July. The Review considered a range of evidence related to social distancing, face coverings and 'work from home' guidance: scientific, social, economic and behavioural. The policies of international comparators were also considered.

As outlined in the Prime Minister's speech, the UK has made huge progress this year, the deployment of vaccines by the National Health Service (NHS) has put the UK in a strong position to ease restrictions. The Government has continued to be led by data and will only move to step 4 subject to meeting the four tests.

28th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether any departmental business has been conducted on private email addresses; and what mechanisms are in place to ensure that full records are kept of that business.

Departmental business is conducted through the official DfT email systems. Any correspondence to external addresses will be directed to our official DfT channels.

All DfT staff and ministers have DfT email accounts and sign up to acceptable use and cyber security operating policies, which state that departmental business must be conducted via DfT email addresses, and not personal email or other web-based mail system.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
28th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether a risk assessment has been carried out on the secure holding of CCTV footage within his Department.

The Department and its Executive Agencies have risk assessments and policies in place for the usage of CCTV and the secure storage of CCTV footage. All CCTV systems have had a Data Protection Impact Assessment undertaken which includes a review of controls for the usage and secure storage of CCTV footage.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
17th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what settlement figure his Department agreed after the termination of the rail franchise agreements for (a) Greater Anglia, (b) TransPennine, (c) West Midland Trains, (d) South Western Railway and (e) c2c; what assessment he has made of the value for money of the settlement figures agreed; and if he will make a statement.

The following termination sums were agreed with Train Operators (rounded to the nearest 100,000) – (a) Greater Anglia - £30,500,000, (b) TransPennine - £0, (c) West Midland Trains - £90,500,000, (d) South Western Railway - £68,800,000 and (e) c2c - £7,900,000.

In addition to the termination sums, there are further sums due from certain operators as part of their termination obligations. These are to be finalised and a further update will be provided on these amounts in due course.

The Termination Sums were arrived at following a stringent process which took into account value for money as well as a range of other factors.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
17th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 14 June 2021 to Question 13162 on Great British Railways, what assessment he has made of how ministerial powers to issue (a) guidance and (b) mandatory directions to Great British Railways (GBR) interact with the regulatory powers that the Office for Rail and Road will have to scrutinise GBR.

Further to the previous Answer to Question 13162, Ministers will hold Great British Railways to account through a structured framework underpinned by legislation.

The ORR will focus on monitoring and reporting, scrutinising Great British Railways’ delivery of its objectives and providing expert advice to Ministers. It will be a core part of the system that will hold Great British Railways to account.

We will make an announcement on next steps in relation to the legislative framework that underpins the relationship between Ministers and Great British Railways in due course.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
14th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the level of debt sustained by Network Rail.

As reported in their Annual Report and Accounts 2020, Network Rail has £54.6bn of historical debt, which is an increase on the previous year’s level (of £54.1bn) due to increases in the valuation of RPI-linked bonds.

Network Rail have been restricted from raising any further commercial debt since they were reclassified to the public sector in 2014. Since the start of Railway Control Period 6 in April 2019, the Department has chosen to provide funding for operating, maintaining and enhancing the railway through grant rather than loan funding. The level of debt is therefore not expected to rise from its current level.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
14th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the average per capita savings that will accrue to passengers as a result of the new timetable that will be in operation once the Transpennine Route Upgrade programme has been completed; and if he will make a statement.

TransPennine Route Upgrade (TRU) - is the key East-West artery across the Northern economy. It forms the most direct existing rail link between several major cities. The passenger-related benefits of delivering TRU are formed from a combination of journey time and performance improvements, where passengers will benefit from arriving at their destinations sooner with a faster, more reliable and punctual service; furthermore, the service enhancements will benefit commuters - who can realise the potential of being more productive during the journey due to more frequent, less crowded service. The route upgrade spanning a large section of the northern economy will enhance connectivity and play an important role in improving peoples access to jobs. Major rail infrastructure programmes such as TRU will deliver significant economic benefits to passengers, but not direct savings.

Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
9th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) performance measures and (b) regulatory framework the Great British Railways body will operate within covering (i) infrastructure, (ii) operations and (iii) track access arrangements.

Strong measures and structures will be put in place to ensure Great British Railways is accountable, transparent and reflective of its need to serve passengers, freight customers and taxpayers.

Funding streams will be conditional on meeting Great British Railways' mandate for delivering customer needs and making efficiency improvements.

Great British Railways will be subject to a series of mandates, including to operate in the interests of passengers, freight customers and local communities.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) will scrutinise Great British Railways’ delivery of its objectives across the business, and will provide expert advice to the Secretary of State and devolved administrations. ORR will have powers to require improvement plans, encourage best practice and support problem solving across the sector. They will also act as an appeals body for operators, able to direct Great British Rail to change its decision where it has not applied its track access and charging policies fairly.

The government will consult with partners across the rail industry on the development and implementation of the new rules-based track access system. We will make an announcement on next steps in due course.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
9th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the proposed level of (a) Departmental and (b) parliamentary oversight will be of the Great British Railways body.

The Secretary of State for Transport will be accountable to Parliament for how the railways deliver for passengers, communities, the economy, the environment and taxpayers. Ministers will hold Great British Railways to account through a structured framework underpinned by legislation.

Ministers will take key funding decisions and have strong levers to set direction and pursue government policy. Ministers will also have statutory powers to set long-term strategy and have powers to issue guidance and mandatory directions to Great British Railways on any matter at any time.

These statutory and administrative controls will be vital to ensuring that Great British Railways will be focussed on delivering value for taxpayers, passengers and freight customers. Parliament, including through Select Committees, will continue to hold Ministers to account for these key strategic functions. Parliament will also be able to hold Great British Railways leadership team to account for rail planning and operations.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
9th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the total cost to the public purse of the Transpennine Route Upgrade programme.

The Transpennine Route Upgrade is a multi-billion pound programme, expected to be the largest investment in the existing rail network over the next 5 years. At this stage it is not possible to be specific about the total cost as we continue to work through design and development phases for the project. Funding of £589m was announced in July 2020, and an extra £317m in May 2021 to improve connectivity between Leeds, Manchester and York and commence early works, including electrification between York and Church Fenton. An update to the Business Case will be presented this Summer.

Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
7th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) value for money for the public purse of rolling stock procured since 2015 and (b) trajectory of leasing costs over the 30 to 35-year asset life of those trains.

Rolling stock is procured by the private sector to meet the needs of train operators as part of their bids in respect of the former franchise process and value-for-money will have been taken into account overall.

The costs of leasing rolling stock over its life is a matter for the owners and will take into account potential factors such as market competition, maintenance, refurbishment and other such costs. All factors will be considered when awarding contracts to make sure that the value-for-money is achieved for the taxpayer.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
7th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Written Statement of 21 September 2020, HCWS460 on Rail update, if he will publish the tougher performance targets for operators under the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements.

The Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (ERMA) allow the Department to assess operator performance through either a qualitative based scorecard assessment or through the use of quantified targets.

All ERMA operators are currently assessed using a scorecard assessment. The scorecard criteria for the ERMA is more exacting than the EMA it replaces setting a higher bar for the level of performance an operator must achieve to earn a management fee. The scorecard criteria has already been published on the .gov.uk website.

The Department is currently evaluating the case for transitioning the remaining ERMA operators onto quantitative based targets from September of this year.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
7th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what contractual relationships his Department has entered into with (a) KPMG, (b) EY and (c) other external consultants to develop the proposals in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail published 20 May 2021; and if he will make a statement.

To develop proposals in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, the Department was supported by the following consultancies:

Ashurst; PWC; Rail Delivery Group; Eversheds Sutherland; Britain Thinks; Steer Davies Gleave; Jacobs; and Deloitte.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
7th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of additional staff required to administer a national system of concessionary rail contracts.

Transformation on the scale set out in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail cannot happen overnight. Government is setting up a Rail Transformation Programme within the Department for Transport and working with the rail sector to ensure a common understanding of the vision, establish the phases of delivery, and work collectively with the sector to design and implement this major project.

We expect to launch initial competitions for Passenger Service Contracts by the time the emergency recovery agreements end in 2022. Further detail will be announced in due course.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
7th Jun 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the timeline for procurement by Great British Railways.

We will replace franchising with a more commercially sustainable model. New Passenger Service Contracts will ensure that private sector innovation is targeted where is it is most needed, with private sector operators strongly incentivised to run high quality punctual services, manage costs and attract more passengers.

Transformation on this scale cannot happen overnight. Government is setting up a Rail Transformation Programme within the Department for Transport and working with the rail sector to ensure a common understanding of the vision, establish the phases of delivery, and work collectively with the sector to design and implement this major project.

An announcement on next steps will be made in due course.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
27th May 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish an updated Rail Network Enhancement Pipeline.

We will publish an update to the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline in the coming months.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
27th May 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the total rail enhancement funding available to Network Rail for Control Period 6 is; what the actual spend is in years (a) one and (b) two; and what the forecast total spend is for years (i) three, (ii) four and (iii) five.

The budget for Rail Enhancements for England and Wales during Control Period 6 (CP6, 2019/20-23/24) is £9.4 Billion.

The actual spend in years requested was:

(a) one (2019/20) = £1,475 Million

(b) two (2020/21) = £1,477 Million

The latest forecast spend (Network Rail Period 1, 2021/22) for years requested is:

(i) Three (2021/22) = £1,952 Million

(ii) Four (2022/23) = £2,185 Million

(iii) Five (2023/24) = £2,320 Million

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
25th May 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what comparative data his Department holds on (a) deaths on the hard shoulder of existing motorways and (b) deaths on the lane that was previously a hard shoulder which is now used as a live running lane.

The STATS19 reporting system provides data on fatalities from road traffic accidents in Great Britain. Other than accidents which occur on a hard shoulder, STATS19 does not provide accurate and specific lane data information to be able to make this comparison.

The Secretary of State has asked the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to examine the evidence base for the relative safety of All Lane Running (ALR) motorways. That work will include looking at whether there any other data that could be used to enhance our understanding of the relative safety of ALR motorways.

12th Apr 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when will the preferred bidder of the HS2 rolling stock procurement process will be announced.

As referenced in the latest 6 monthly parliamentary report published on 23 March 2021, HS2 Ltd is finalising the procurement of the new HS2 rolling stock for Phases One and 2a, with the contract award anticipated later this spring.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/hs2-6-monthly-report-to-parliament-march-2021

Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
12th Apr 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding has been provided under the Bikeability grant scheme on average per child in each of the last 10 years.

Between 2010/11 and 2019/20 the average funding provided to Bikeability grant recipients per training place delivered has varied between £29 and £38. The figures vary because the grant provided for delivering different Bikeability modules range from £5 per pupil for the basic level 1 Bikeability training, to £40 per pupil for the more comprehensive level 3 Bikeability training. Some children do more than one type of training or module. The figures refer to Bikeability training delivered in England, but not including London. More detailed figures are available on the Bikeability website at https://bikeability.org.uk/support/publications/

More widely, by way of context, from 2006 (when Bikeability started) to 2010, on average 65,360 children were trained every year; since 2010, on average 328,472 children have been trained every year.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
12th Apr 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the DfT OLR Holdings Limited Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2020, what assessment he has made of the value for money for the public purse of the Company operating with the risks set out on page 12 (a) that the Company is not sufficiently well equipped to manage any further Franchise Operations should this be required and (b) concerning the Company's ability to deliver timetable changes, due to lack of resource resilience having adverse impact on revenue, operational efficiency and reputation.

In deciding whether to transfer an operator to the Department for Transport’s Operator of Last Resort (DOHL) in order to maintain the continuity of passenger services, the Secretary of State has regard to the Statement of policy on the exercise of the Secretary of State's power under section 26(1) of the Railways Act 1993.

It is entirely appropriate that DOHL identifies all and any potential risks to passenger services, including the management of potential further franchise operations or its ability to deliver timetable changes. The company works closely with the Department to ensure it has the capacity and expertise to ensure these risks are managed and that it has both the capacity and capability to address those risks should they manifest. This is good management practise in any business.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
12th Apr 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether smart motorway schemes referenced the Road Investment Strategy 2: 2020 - 2025 that have not yet started main works will (a) include emergency refuge areas no more than a mile apart and (b) be built to the other new safety standards detailed in his Department's March 2020 smart motorway safety evidence stocktake and action plan.

Highways England (HE) is delivering all the actions set out in Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan over the RIS2 period, confirmed in HE’s Strategic Business Plan 2020-25, along with implementation dates.

The safety improvements in the 2020 Action Plan consisted of a package of 18 measures, costing £500 million, and included; committing to a new standard for spacing of places to stop in an emergency and considering a national programme to install more emergency areas on existing smart motorways; the rollout of a radar-based stopped vehicle detection (SVD) system across the All Lane Running (ALR) motorway network; faster attendance by more HE traffic officer patrols; and upgrading cameras across the ALR motorway network to enable automatic detection of Red X violations, which can then be enforced by the police.

Earlier this year, the Secretary of State asked for a first-year progress from Highways England detailing its progress in delivering the 18-point Action Plan and identifying actions that can be delivered ahead of schedule. He asked for this by 12 March 2021. Highways England has provided the Department with the report, and work is rapidly being completed to assess it so it can be published shortly, once the Secretary of State is assured that the proposals are sufficiently robust.

12th Apr 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Bikeability grant was last put out to contract.

The management for delivery of the Bikeability grant was last competed in 2016 under the Highways England Specialist Professional and Technical Services (SPATS) framework. The contract was awarded to Pell Frischmann with a start date of 8 September 2016 and an end date of 31 August 2018, with the option to extend for a further two years. The proposal included the establishing of an independent charity with a view to the management of the programme being transferred to this charity, and the management functions were duly transferred to the new charity, the Bikeability Trust, on 1 September 2018.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
18th Mar 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost to the public purse was of the Oxford to Cambridge expressway project before it was cancelled.

Highways England invested approximately £28 million in developing the Oxford to Cambridge expressway project. The analysis undertaken as part of that project is now supporting the consideration of where alternative future road investment may be needed in this area.

17th Mar 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his oral contribution of 11 March 2021, Official Report, column 995, how many deaths there have been on smart motorways to date.

The latest information will be included in Highways England’s report on progress with the actions set out in Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan. This will be published shortly.

15th Mar 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of the relocation of his Department's civil servants to (a) Birmingham and (b) Leeds in each forthcoming financial year.

The Department’s strategy for growing its presence in Birmingham and Leeds is focussed on relocating roles, not individuals, recruiting local talent in and around Birmingham and Leeds. Additionally, existing staff will be able to relocate to Birmingham and Leeds on a voluntary basis, continuing in their current role from a new location.

The cost of doing so is dependent on a number of factors including the proportionate mix of new starters and the relocation of existing staff, and the required changes in estate.

We are working with Government Property colleagues to source office solutions in both locations which may require different short and medium-term options. Separately we have actively consolidated our London estate as flexible ways of working lead us to having less reliance on traditional office space.

Better use of technology and innovative working practices will enable us to continue working effectively from multiple locations and minimise travel costs between offices.

The relocation of 650 roles to Birmingham and Leeds will support the local economies, creating jobs and supporting inward investment, as part of Levelling Up.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
15th Mar 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many miles of road in England are (a) conventional motorways, (b) controlled motorways, (c) dynamic hard shoulder, (d) all-lane running and (e) strategic road network.

The latest complete figures available for motorway road classes are shown in the table below. These figures have been compiled using the different data sources which have been outlined in the footnotes for the table:

Road Class

2019[1]

a) Conventional Motorway

1,564

b) Controlled Motorway

141

c) Dynamic Hard Shoulder

63

d) All Lane Running

141

e) Total SRN [2]

4,519

Source: Highways England scheme information and DfT


  1. Road Length Statistics on the Strategic Road Network in England

  1. DfT Road Length Statistics on the Strategic Road Network in England

3rd Mar 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the total number of driving deaths on smart motorways in each of the last five years.

The Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, published by the Department in March 2020, provides a table in Annex D, page 76, showing the number of reported fatal casualties between 2015 and 2018. This is reproduced here:

Road Class

Number of Reported Fatal Casualties

2015

2016

2017

2018

Conventional Motorway¹

81

72

83

67

Controlled Motorway¹

6

2

3

8

Dynamic Hard Shoulder¹

5

2

1

1

All Lane Running¹

0

1

4

10

All SRN ‘A’ Roads²

132

154

145

165

Sources: 1 - STATS19, Highways England Statistics on motorway fatal casualties in England from 2015-18. 2 - STATS19, DfT Statistics on fatal casualties on the Strategic Road Network in England from 2015-18

The latest strategic safety evidence, which includes data for 2019, will be published as part of the one-year stocktake progress update report.

3rd Mar 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many fines were handed out to motorists for offences committed on smart motorways in each of the last five years.

Highways England install and maintain speed cameras and Red X compliance technology to allow the police to issue fines. Information on enforcement and prosecutions is not held by Highways England or the Department, but by the individual police authorities who act as the enforcement authority.

26th Feb 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2021 to Question 154650, how many (a) Traffic Officers and (b) control room staff across Highways England’s regional operations have responsibility for managing the SRN, including the All Lane Running sections in each of the last five years.

The table below provides an annual breakdown of Full Time Equivalent (FTE), on-road Highways England Traffic Officers as of 31 March, each year. The current data is the number of FTE Traffic Officers as of 31 January 2021:

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Current

Traffic Officer FTE

864

850

884

958

929

890

Pursuant to the Answer to Question 154650, the figure of 1091 provided included Traffic officers and their supervisors, on a headcount basis.

The table below provides an annual breakdown of FTE control room staff as of 31 March each year. Control room staff roles comprise control room operators of the regional operations and control centres.

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Current

Control Room FTE

311

308

336

373

365

382

19th Feb 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many staff at Highways England have been dedicated to recovering broken down vehicles on smart motorways in each of the last five years.

Highways England’s traffic officers patrol the entire SRN to respond to incidents, including collisions and breakdowns. There are 1091 Traffic Officers and 340 control room staff across Highways England’s regional operations that have responsibility for manging the SRN, including the All Lane Running (ALR) sections.

Highways England has worked closely with the recovery industry to ensure that its working practices are aligned when working on the SRN. In relation to the ALR sections of the SRN, it has implemented its plans to improve relationships with the recovery industry, and in line with Action 16 of the Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, has established the Recovery Industry Executive Committee, which has strengthened regional working groups and refreshed guidance on the joint working protocols for breakdown recovery in ALR environments.

27th Jan 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of UK railway stations have steps but no lift access.

We estimate that around fifth of our 2,500 stations have step free access that meets current accessibility standards. The Rail Delivery Group remain responsible for ensuring the accessibility data on the National Rail Enquiries website remains accurate and up to date. More than 75% of journeys are through step free stations compared with less than 50% in 2005. Train Operators must have policies in place to help those who need an accessible station get to their nearest one.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
25th Jan 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many confirmed cases of covid-19 there have been among his Department's (a) employed staff and (b) sponsored agency staff; and how many of those staff have had to self-isolate as a result of covid-19.

Staff in the Department for Transport and its agencies, in line with Government policy, are instructed to work from home where possible.

Any member of staff who tests positive for COVID19 is not required to share this information with their employer unless they are unable to work due to illness or a requirement to self-isolate.

The Department and its Executive Agencies record the total number of staff who are unable to work due to having symptoms of COVID19. This number might include those with symptoms but who have not received the outcome of a test. Similarly, it might exclude those in isolation at home who are continuing to work as they are asymptomatic.

The system is set up to record current absences. On 25/01/2021 these numbers were as follows:

Individuals

Headcount

DfTc

20 (0.6%)

3320

DVLA

49 (0.78%)

6266

DVSA

40 (0.85%)

4733

MCA

0 (0%)

1133

VCA

2 (0.95%)

211

Given the expectation that staff will work from home where they can, where staff are required to self-isolate this should not impact their ability to carry out their job.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
14th Jan 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the (a) environmental and (b) economic benefits to (i) passengers and (ii) taxpayers of taking a whole life asset approach to rail infrastructure including rolling stock.

In line with our published guidance on how to assess costs and benefits of government schemes and policies, DfT do take into account a whole life asset approach for estimating environmental and economic impacts including for rail infrastructure and rolling stock appraisals where appropriate. We are unaware of any recent assessment of the whole life asset approach itself, it is industry best practice.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
14th Jan 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which ferry routes have been affected by the redeployment of ferries to support the transportation of freight since the UK left the EU.

The Department for Transport, on behalf of the Government, has secured additional capacity for the transportation of Category 1 goods. The Government Secured Freight Capacity has been procured through four Ferry Operators: Brittany Ferries, P&O, DFDS, and Stena Line. These freight operators will provide capacity equivalent to over 3000 HGVs per week, across nine routes, operating from eight ports in England: Teesport, Hull, Felixstowe, Harwich, Tilbury, Portsmouth, Newhaven, and Poole. The current contracts provide capacity until 30 June 2021.

11th Jan 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Government last reviewed the merits of its decision to exempt high value business travellers from existing covid-19 quarantine restrictions for international arrivals in England.

The Secretary of State must review the need for the requirements imposed by the “Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020 (“the Regulations”) at least every 28 days. This means determining whether each of the requirements remain necessary to achieving the public health aims of the Regulations. The statutory review includes consideration of both the requirement for international arrivals to complete a Passenger Locator Form and the requirement to self-isolate for 10 days, as well as consideration of the package of the measures as a whole including exemptions. Each restriction is judged by reference to its continuing necessity as the pandemic develops; and based on the available information at each stage about the effectiveness and impact of the measures in reducing the domestic transmission from imported cases of COVID-19.

The last review of the Regulations was completed on 11th January 2021. The next review of the Regulations must be completed by 8th February 2021.

14th Dec 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2019 to Question 208287 on Railways: Standards, what progress has been made on learning and sharing the lessons on the introduction of new rolling stock.

Operators, working alongside manufacturers, owners and other industry partners, remain the key players in the procurement and introduction of new trains as they have the practical implementation knowledge of what is required. The Rail Delivery Group published a guide in March 2020 which describes good practice that organisations should consider when commissioning and introducing new trains. The guide can be found here:

https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/files/Publications/RDG-ENG-GN-008-NewTrains-AGoodPracticeGuide2.0.pdf

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
9th Dec 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of the decision to provide financial support to airports but not international railway stations during the covid-19 outbreak.

During the Covid-19 response, Government has provided unprecedented financial support that has been made available to all sectors of the economy.

On 24 November, the Department announced a financial support scheme to support eligible commercial airport and ground handling businesses by reducing cash burn, enabling businesses to unlock shareholder and lender support. Eligible businesses will be able to apply to the scheme from early 2021. Further details will be published shortly.

The Government has been engaging closely with international rail operators since the outbreak of Covid-19 earlier this year to monitor its ongoing impact and support operators to access available support to address their particular needs, where appropriate, and will continue to do so.

7th Dec 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his announcement of 3 December 2020 of a Christmas travel plan, how many train operating companies are suspending their peak travel times on 23 and 24 of December 2020.

A number of train companies are planning to relax peak travel restrictions over the Christmas period, including Avanti West Coast, London North Eastern Railway, Cross-country and East Midlands Railways, while others are planning to lift restrictions on some services or on particular days such as Christmas Eve.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
25th Nov 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Spending Review 2020, what revised estimate he has for the (a) total £10.4 billion rail enhancements budget and (b) total £30.9billion operations, maintenance and renewals budget within Network Rail’s Control Period 6.

Network Rail’s operations, maintenance and renewals budgets have not been changed as a result of Spending Review 2020 and workbanks will continue to be based on the five-year regulatory funding settlement for 2019-2024. The Spending Review settlement means that the comparable figure for the enhancements budget over the same period would now be £9.4bn. As part of SR2020 over £2 billion of funding has been confirmed in 2021-22 for rail services and builds on the estimated £12.8 billion of support for transport services that the government has already committed to provide in 2020-21

The Spending Review Settlement includes over £58 billion of investment confirmed for road and rail transport between 2021-22 and 2024-25, delivering some of government’s largest capital portfolios and levelling up across the country. This includes record investment in strategic roads and rail.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
19th Nov 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many full-time equivalent traffic officers were employed by Highways England in each region of England in each year since 2010.

The table below provides an annual regional breakdown of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Traffic Officers as of 31 March each year. Records pre- dating the creation of Highways England in 2015 are not held.

Region On Road Traffic Officers

2016 FTE

2017 FTE

2018 FTE

2019 FTE

2020 FTE

Yorkshire & North East

88

87

96

111

108

North West

159

162

182

205

196

East Midlands

60

69

78

78

86

West Midlands

107

104

121

126

119

South West

90

86

85

96

92

South East

183

174

171

163

162

East

179

167

150

180

166

Total FTEs

864

850

884

958

929

(Total FTE numbers may differ slightly to the sum of the regional sections due to rounding of partial FTEs)

21st Oct 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether membership of the Rail Delivery Group is a contractual requirement for train operating companies under the (a) Emergency Measure Agreements and (b) the Emergency Recovery Measure Agreements.

The Emergency Measures Agreements and Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements do not contain a contractual requirement for train operating companies to be members of the Rail Delivery Group. However, train operating companies are required to hold an ORR licence as a condition of entry into and to retain the franchise agreement.

Condition 28 of the ORR Statement of National Regulatory Provisions (SNRP) that the SNRP holder ORR ‘shall: (a) become and thereafter remain a Licensed Member of RDG; (b) comply with its obligations under the RDG Articles; and (c) procure that any member of its Group that is entitled under the RDG Articles to become a Member of RDG: (i) becomes and thereafter remains a Member of RDG; and (ii) complies with its obligations under the RDG Articles.’

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
21st Oct 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of Network Rail effectiveness in working with members of the Rail Delivery Group to deliver value for money across the network; and if he will make a statement.

Network Rail and Rail Delivery Group have been working together extremely effectively, particularly as we navigate our way through the pandemic. However, the extraordinary challenge facing the railway and its fragmented nature makes it more vital than ever that we simplify the system together under an accountable guiding mind. The Government will publish a White Paper with its plans for rail reform once the course of the pandemic becomes clearer.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
21st Oct 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the use of rail industry data in rail (a) operations and (b) infrastructure; and if he will make a statement.

The department uses data extensively to underpin all decisions it makes on rail operations and infrastructure, and keeps the quality of its data sources and analysis under continual review.

We are working closely with the rail industry to deliver improvements to data sharing, as set out in the Joint Rail Data Action Plan 2018 and Rail Sector Deal 2018. This will help to identify the value of industry rail data assets across a wide set of use cases and unlock access to data across the industry, for government and for external stakeholders, improving transparency and stimulating innovation.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
21st Oct 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what incentives are included in the (a) Emergency Measure Agreements and (b) Emergency Recovery Measure Agreements for train operators to (i) reduce costs and (ii) increase revenues.

Under Emergency Measures Agreements (EMAs), Train Operating Companies could receive small performance related fees based on whether they have acted efficiently, including managing costs appropriately and protecting and generating revenue.

Following the expiry of the EMAs, operators have moved onto Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (ERMAs), where a far higher proportion of the fee is based on performance than under the EMAs. Under ERMAs, operators are measured against a range of performance criteria, including financial efficiency. Further financial performance targets may be set by my Department within the ERMAs, which will be appropriately calibrated to ensure they promote financial efficiency and minimise the net cost to the taxpayer.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
20th Oct 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether it is his policy to increase regulated rail fares by the rate of RPI inflation on 2 January 2021.

Government is considering plans for regulated rail fares in January. Taxpayers have been very generous in their support to keep trains running throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, and it is only fair that passengers also contribute to maintaining and improving the services they use. Any fares rise will help fund crucial investment in maintaining railway services to enable social distancing and support our economic recovery.

Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
2nd Mar 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2020 to Question 20593 on Social Security Benefits: Suicide, how many deaths by suicide her Department has investigated in each year since 2010.

The National Audit Office recently published their briefing note on information held by the DWP on deaths by suicide of benefit claimants. This report can be accessed via the following link:

https://www.nao.org.uk/report/information-held-by-the-department-for-work-pensions-on-deaths-by-suicide-of-benefit-claimants/

25th Feb 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of claimants of social security benefits who have died by suicide in the last twelve months for which figures are available.

The Department interacts with millions of people, and among them are some of the most vulnerable people in our society. When we are informed a claimant has, tragically, died as a result of suicide, the Department will investigate. However, the fact that we have carried out a review does not mean that DWP has been found culpable in the circumstances or events leading to a death. This is up to a coroner to establish.

We are continuously improving support and guidance to staff on how best to support vulnerable people, and we are constantly looking at our processes, striving for improvement.

17th Nov 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish the number of registered dentists in (a) Oldham and (b) England in each year since 2010.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dentists and dental care professionals (DCPs) practising in the United Kingdom and enforces the standards they must adhere to. To practise in the UK, dentists and DCPs are required to hold registration with the GDC.

The Department does not hold data on how many dentists and DCPs have been registered with the GDC. The GDC holds its own data on dentists and DCPs who have been registered with them. The GDC regularly publishes registration reports on its website, and these are available at the following link:

https://www.gdc-uk.org/about-us/what-we-do/the-registers/registration-reports

Andrea Leadsom
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
17th Nov 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) adult and (b) child NHS dental patients in (i) Oldham and (ii) England have seen a dentist in each year since 2010.

The following table shows the number of adults and children seen by a dentist in both Oldham Local Authority and England since 2010/11:

England

Oldham Local Authority

Financial Year

Adults seen

Children seen

Adults seen

Children seen

2010/11

21,401,000

7,771,000

Not Available

Not Available

2011/12

21,761,000

7,813,000

Not Available

Not Available

2012/13

21,927,000

7,837,000

Not Available

Not Available

2013/14

22,009,000

7,907,000

Not Available

Not Available

2014/15

22,032,000

7,992,000

Not Available

Not Available

2015/16

22,140,449

6,723,854

99,555

35,315

2016/17

22,159,223

6,799,092

100,068

35,881

2017/18

22,060,778

6,901,430

100,760

37,036

2018/19

21,959,979

7,000,685

101,958

38,026

2019/20

21,012,985

6,299,306

99,472

34,741

2020/21

18,190,987

3,946,048

88,516

20,017

2021 – 2022

16,409,636

5,589,201

82,382

30,475

2022 – 2023

18,111,609

6,372,892

90,816

35,216

Source: NHS Dental Statistics for England (NHS Digital)

Note: Data for Oldham Local Authority is not available for the years prior to 2015/16. This is due to changes in National Health Service geographies, which has meant that the data cannot be precisely mapped to the local authority in previous years.

Andrea Leadsom
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
17th Nov 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for registering with an NHS dentist in (a) Oldham and (b) England in the latest period for which data is available.

Patients do not routinely join dental waiting lists in the National Health Service and are only registered with a dental practice for a course of treatment. We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will include how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients.

Andrea Leadsom
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
17th Nov 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her Department's timescale is for removing the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in Royal Oldham Hospital.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
17th Nov 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of replacing the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in Royal Oldham Hospital.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
25th May 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the risks of (a) bird to human and (b) human to human transmission of avian influenza.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works closely with partners to monitor and investigate the risk to human health of avian influenza (influenza A H5N1). Our latest assessment of United Kingdom risk from avian influenza remains at limited mammalian transmission. Current evidence suggests the avian influenza viruses we are seeing circulating in birds around the world do not spread easily to people. However, the virus can spread to people following close contact with infected birds and UKHSA has introduced a screening programme to monitor those exposed to learn more about the risk.

Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
19th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to provide additional covid-19 vaccination sites in Herefordshire.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

19th Feb 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many staff are working in hotels used for hotel quarantine; and of those how many have been vaccinated against covid-19.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.

Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
14th Jan 2021
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which private companies are involved with the logistics and transportation of covid-19 vaccines; and what role each such company has in that process.

Public Health England (PHE) is responsible for the central storage and distribution of ultra-low temperature COVID-19 vaccines, from receipt of the vaccines in the United Kingdom through to distribution to initial National Health Service locations in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. PHE uses an existing contract with a specialist medical logistics company to undertake COVID-19 vaccines logistics and transportation operations, in addition to operates for the national immunisation programme. We are unable to provide the name of the contractor for security reasons.

Additional distribution companies have been commissioned by NHS England for onward distribution to primary care. Information on private companies involved in the logistics and transportation of the COVID-19 vaccine by NHS England will be published shortly on the Contracts Finder Service which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder

30th Nov 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many completed covid-19 tests have gone missing (a) nationally and (b) by local authority.

We do not publish data in the format requested.

Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
12th Oct 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many covid-19 source transmissions have been associated with public transport use for each Greater Manchester authority area since 1 March 2020; what proportion of all transmissions in each Greater Manchester authority area in that time period those transmissions represented; and what the proportions were of those transmissions in other settings in each Greater Manchester authority area in that time period.

This information is not collected in the format requested.

Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
12th Oct 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Government has made of the effectiveness of the local covid-19 lockdown restrictions imposed on Oldham in August 2020 relating to (a) meeting outdoors, (b) funeral mourner attendance and (c) public transport use.

In August, aggregated mobility information from multiple data sources suggested that time spent in household settings, be that outdoors or at family events, fell somewhat after the ban on household mixing. Time spent at transit stations also fell markedly across Greater Manchester following the August measures. The number of household contacts in contact tracing data fell following local interventions in Oldham and following the national rule of six. COVID-19 infections subsequently fell in Oldham.

The Government continues to assess the transmission of COVID-19 and the impact of local interventions on its trajectory. At the start of November, ‘R’ was above one everywhere and the virus was more widespread in the North West. Further action was required to address the rise in cases. The national restrictions took effect on 5 November in response to the continued threat of the epidemic in its second wave. These ended on 2 December. The tiers of interventions will be strengthened in comparison to the previous tiers to prevent a return to growing infections.

12th Oct 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many covid-19 source transmissions have been associated with attendance at funerals in each Greater Manchester authority area since 1 March 2020; what proportion of all transmissions in each Greater Manchester authority area in that time period those transmissions represented; and what the proportions were of those transmissions in other settings in each Greater Manchester authority area in that time period.

The information is not held in the format requested.

15th Sep 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many care home staff were tested for covid-19 in each Greater Manchester local authority area in each week since 1 July 2020.

We do not hold data in the format requested.

Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
8th Sep 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release of 21 August 2020 entitled, More targeted action in local areas to curb the spread of coronavirus, when he plans to update his Department's COVID-19 contain framework: a guide for local decision-makers to include the requirement to consult with local MPs on restrictions.

The Contain Framework sets out how each local authority will respond and work to deliver their Local Outbreak Control Plans. The Framework and local plans will continue to evolve and reflect the changing scenario and learning. This includes currently undertaking a review of the sharing of information and consultation process for areas of concern including how local hon. Members are engaged and involved.

1st Sep 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of occupational data is captured on the Coronavirus test booking system, by local authority area in England.

Record level test and case data (including sex, age, occupation and postcode) is available to all upper tier local authorities who sign data sharing agreements. All now have access. The data are the latest that Public Health England will have received at the point of extraction.

Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
28th Aug 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) T1 and (b) T2 covid-19 tests have been carried out, by local authority area per 100,000 population.

We do not publish data in the format requested.

Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
28th Aug 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish occupational data for those testing positive for covid-19 in each local authority in England.

Public Health England does not publish data of the occupation of those who test positive for COVID-19. There is currently no planned publication date for this information as the dataset requires careful assessment to ensure that the data is accurate and representative.

Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
17th Mar 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the ability of the social care system in England to continue to provide care during the outbreak of covid-19, and if he will place a copy of that assessment in the House of Commons Library.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government, local authorities and providers themselves to make sure the adult social care sector has the support it needs to plan for and respond to COVID-19.

New guidance for the adult social care sector is now available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-residential-care-supported-living-and-home-care-guidance

We have created a senior leaders’ group to oversee the adult social care response to COVID-19. This group is supported by our national partners, including the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care, the Local Government Association, NHS England, Public Health England, the Care Quality Commission and adult social care provider representatives.

In addition, we are providing £2.9 billion of funding to protect and support the most vulnerable in society. The funding package will support hospitals, councils and adult social care providers to help cope with COVID-19.

Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
25th Feb 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of reductions in local government public health funding on food safety and public protection.

Currently, the allocation of funding for food safety and public protection at a local level is ultimately for decision by local authorities as there is no ring fencing.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA), as the Government department with responsibility for food safety, sets the standards that local authorities should meet and monitors delivery against these. FSA monitoring data provides evidence that resources for food safety are reducing but that the available resources are being targeted to where there is greatest risk.

Where performance issues are identified within individual local authorities, the FSA takes action to secure improvements including highlighting where resources are not sufficient to ensure public health protection.

Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
25th Feb 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals on the mandatory display of food hygiene ratings in England.

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is operated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in partnership with local authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Food businesses covered by the scheme are provided with stickers showing their rating. Those in Wales and Northern Ireland are already required by law to display the stickers at their premises, while those in England are encouraged to do so.

The FSA has put together an evidence-based case for the necessary legislation to mandate display which is expected to be submitted for ministerial consideration in the near future.

Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
6th Jan 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Education and Skills Funding Agency on increasing the level of apprenticeship levy for adult care workers from the current lowest band of £3,000.

No such discussions have taken place.

Apprenticeships are an important entry route into the social care sector, offer an excellent opportunity for employers to upskill existing staff and train new staff as part of high-quality training programmes, and provide clear career progression routes through the sector.

Apprenticeship standards are allocated funding bands based on recommendations made to the Department for Education by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), which is an employer led Non-Departmental Body. The funding bands for Adult Care Worker and Lead Adult Care Worker apprenticeships were reviewed by IfATE in January 2019. Following discussions with the social care trailblazer group (a group of employers involved in developing apprenticeship standards for their industry) and looking at available evidence, both were retained at the same funding rate.

IfATE continue to keep the funding of all standards under review to ensure that funding bands remain appropriate.

6th Jan 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GPs per 1,000 population were available in Oldham in each year from 2010 to date.

The number of full time equivalent doctors (FTE) in general practice (excluding locums) per 1,000 patients in Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) since 2015 has been provided in the table below. General practitioner (GP) locums are excluded as improvements have been made to GP locum recording methodology and figures are not comparable across the time series. Data is not included prior to 2015 as improvements were made to the methodology for recording all staff working in general practice in September 2015 and data prior to this is not comparable.

Number of doctors in general practice per 1,000 patients in NHS Oldham CCG

FTE per 1,000 patients (excluding locums)

2015

0.44

2016

0.46

2017

0.43

2018

0.53

2019

0.54

Source: NHS Digital

Notes

1. Data as at 30 September.

2. Figures shown do not include GPs working in prisons, army bases, educational establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres, walk-in centres and other alternative settings.

3. Each period, figures contain estimates, for practices that did not provide fully valid General Medical Practice GP records.

4. FTE refers to the proportion of full time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. One would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time. In Registrars' contracts one FTE = 40 hours. To ensure consistency, these FTEs have been converted to the standard wMDS measure of 1 FTE = 37.5 hours in the table.

Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
28th Mar 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the amount of funding required to fulfil the UN pledge to end hunger by 2030.

Conflict, climate change and Covid-19 have caused food insecurity and acute hunger to reach record levels. Almost 1 billion people in 92 countries already did not have enough food to eat before Russia started its war of aggression against Ukraine, and 55 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, were estimated to be in acute hunger crisis, emergency or famine conditions, with the likelihood for the situation to deteriorate further.

The amount of funding needed to achieve the Zero Hunger Sustainable Development Goal has been assessed in recent years by the relevant institutions, with significant variations. These figures are now likely to increase as a result of Russia's barbaric attack against Ukraine.

The UK is monitoring the situation closely and has encouraged key partners to focus on preventing a global food price crisis immediately. We anticipate that this will be through a combination of policy and programme responses, both humanitarian and longer-term assistance. We are also discussing through the relevant G7 fora and are encouraging the relevant multilateral institutions to prioritise rapid information, analysis, policy options and prevention and mitigation response.

Amanda Milling
Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
18th Sep 2023
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the contribution of the cooperative sector to the UK economy.

The Government is committed to having a thriving co-operative sector and creating a modern and supportive business environment in the UK. The Government acknowledges the vital contribution co-operatives make to the economy, serving local communities up and down the UK. The latest Co-operative and Mutual Economy Report 2023, conducted by the trade body Co-operatives UK, found that co-operatives generated a combined, annual turnover of £40.9 billion, a 3.7% increase from 2022 levels.

The Government has taken significant steps to support the co-operative sector in recent years. For example, the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 helped cut through the legal complexity involved in running a co-operative, improving their competitiveness. Additionally, at Budget 2021, the Government announced the £150m Community Ownership Fund. This allows community groups to bid for up to £2 million matched-funding to help them buy or take over local community assets at risk of being lost and run them as community-owned businesses, supporting co-operative entrepreneurship. To date, 195 projects across the UK have benefitted from the fund.

Earlier this year, the Government-supported Co-operatives, Mutuals, and Friendly Societies Act 2023 came into force, which grants HM Treasury the power to bring forward regulations to give those mutuals further flexibility in determining for themselves the best strategies for their business regarding their surplus capital.

Furthermore, the Government also aims to continue to develop a modern and supportive business environment to set co-operatives and mutuals up for success. The Government has commissioned the Law Commission to conduct reviews of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 and the Friendly Societies Act 1992. These reviews will investigate necessary changes to legislation that will help support co-operatives and friendly societies in their future growth and success.

Andrew Griffith
Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
28th Mar 2022
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department has (a) allocated and (b) spent in each year since 2015 on ending food poverty.

The government is providing support to families worth over £22 billion in 2022-23 to help them with the cost of living. This includes:

  • providing the majority of households with £350 to help with rising energy bills;
  • helping people keep more of what they earn by cutting the Universal Credit taper rate and increasing Universal Credit work allowances, meaning that 1.7 million households will on average keep around an extra £1,000 on an annual basis;
  • a further rise in the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour from April 2022. This means an increase of over £1,000 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the NLW.

The Spring Statement goes further, with the government announcing an increase to the annual National Insurance Primary Threshold and Lower Profits Limit to £12,570, a cut to fuel duty, and an additional £500m to help with the cost of essentials through the Household Support Fund.

We have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers and we are investing over £200 million a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English local authorities.

In total, the government will provide £250 billion of support in 22-23 through the welfare system across the UK, including £40 billion through Universal Credit and £111 billion through the State Pension.

The latest published statistics as part of DWP's Households Below Average Income publication show the percentage of households that were food insecure has fallen from 8% in 2019-20 to 6% in 2020-21.

28th Mar 2022
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken through the Spring Statement to tackle food inflation.

As the global economy recovers from COVID-19, many economies are experiencing high inflation, in part due to pressures from rising energy and commodity prices, along with disruptions to global supply chains caused by a mismatch between elevated global demand and bottlenecks in supply as a result of the pandemic.

The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living as a result of high inflation, and that a range of factors mean individuals may experience cost rises differently. Including the measures announced in the Spring Statement, the Government is providing support to families worth over £22 billion in 2022-23.

John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
28th Mar 2022
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the cooperative sector's contribution to the economy.

The Government recognises the value of co-operatives. It is clear they offer a different way of running a business, supporting the needs of their members and their local communities.

Co-operatives UK, the UK’s largest industry body for co-operatives, publishes a report each year about the scale of the sector. Their 2021 report, published in December, noted that there were over 7,200 co-ops employing over 250,000 people, with a combined turnover of £39.7 billion.

John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
14th Oct 2020
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of reducing Government wage subsidies from 80 per cent to 67 per cent during the covid-19 outbreak; and what assessment he has made of the effect of implementing that reduction on people on the minimum wage.

Overall levels of support have been generous by international standards, including compared to countries like Germany and France, or Ireland where eligibility criteria means many companies don’t even qualify for support.

The government has always been clear that paying 80% of normal pay through CJRS, supporting 9.6 million jobs at a level far higher than almost anywhere in the world, is simply not sustainable.

The new Job Support Scheme (JSS) will support businesses that need it most; protecting jobs in businesses facing lower demand over the winter due to Covid-19 and helping them prepare for recovery. Where the Government has had to go further on health restrictions and close business premises in some areas, the Job Support Scheme is being expanded to protect jobs and help businesses reopen more quickly once those restrictions are lifted. The scheme will cover businesses that are legally required to close their premises as a direct result of Coronavirus restrictions set by one or more of the four governments in the UK.

For low income households, Universal Credit provides further income protection. A working household on the Universal Credit taper will see their UC award increase by 63p for every £1 they lose in earnings (and for those households that also pay income tax and NICs, the impact on their overall income will be even smaller).

Companies can of course top up employees’ wages, and the JSS forms just one part of a wider package of government support for individuals, including rental support, mortgage holidays, and extra funding for the welfare safety net.

Steve Barclay
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
23rd Sep 2020
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what impact assessment his Department has undertaken on the ending of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme at the end of October.

The CJRS has helped 1.2 million employers across the UK furlough 9.6 million jobs, protecting people’s livelihoods. Many of these employments will have already been resumed. Across the whole of the UK and all ages, the number of employments furloughed has decreased from a peak of 8.9 million on 8 May to about 4.8 million on 31 July. The CJRS must be temporary and the Government must ensure people can get back to work safely and get the UK economy up and running again.

Building on the action taken in the face of the immediate threat posed by the virus, the second phase of the Government’s response began with the targeted Plan for Jobs. The Plan places emphasis on job creation through the Kickstart scheme, a £2 billion fund to create hundreds of thousands of new, high-quality 6-month subsidised jobs for young people; as well as job protection through the Job Retention Bonus, which specifically encourages firms to keep on workers they previously furloughed. It also supports jobseekers with direct help to find work and to gain the skills they need to gain employment.

The Government is adapting its response to the changing context, evolving as restrictions have changed. On 24 September the Government introduced a Winter Economy Plan including the new Job Support Scheme, which targets support on those businesses that need it most; focusing on those that are being affected by coronavirus and can support their employees doing some work, but that need more time for demand to recover.

28th Aug 2020
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what conditions were included in financial support packages through the Birch scheme to airline operators.

Any companies seeking support must have exhausted all other options before being considered, and any support given will be on terms that protect the taxpayer, with existing lenders and shareholders expected to contribute to and share in the financial burden. Companies seeking such support would need to agree to appropriate conditions – including those relating to tax, supplier payment terms, climate change and corporate governance.

Kemi Badenoch
President of the Board of Trade
28th Aug 2020
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish a list of rateable values for airports and ancillary uses in England.

Rateable values (RVs) for all rateable non-domestic properties in England are published in the rating lists. The latest RVs can be found here: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/business-rates-find.

28th Aug 2020
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what economic assessment he has made of the effect of ending the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

After eight months of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the scheme will close at the end of October. The scheme must be temporary and the Government must ensure people can get back to work safely and get the UK economy up and running again.

The longer people are on furlough, the more likely it is their skills could fade, making it harder for them to get new opportunities. It is in no-one’s long term interests for the scheme to trap people in jobs that only exist because of the subsidy.

Building on the action taken in the face of the immediate threat posed by the virus, the Government is now proceeding with the second phase of its response with the targeted Plan for Jobs which will support the UK’s economic recovery while continuing to prioritise people’s health.

6th Jan 2020
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of vehicle checks that will be required daily from (a) Great Britain to Northern Ireland and (b) Northern Ireland to Great Britain after the UK leaves the EU.

No such estimate is available. The deal agreed with the EU will enable the Government to ensure that no tariffs are payable for goods moving from Northern Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom and that there is no hard border on the island of Ireland. The deal also ensures that unfettered access for goods moving from Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK can be maintained.

18th Sep 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on the dog attacks recorded by the police in each year since 2010.

The Home Office collects data from police forces in England and Wales on the number of offences recorded of an “Owner or person in charge allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control in any place in England or Wales (whether or not a public place) injuring any person or assistance dog” and of an "Owner or person in charge allowing a dog to enter a non-public place and injure any person" recorded by the police in England and Wales, since 2015/16.

Data provided in the table below is from 38 territorial police forces and British Transport Police in England and Wales who have been able to supply this information.

Year

Number of Offences

2015-16

12,509

2016-17

15,465

2017-18

16,507

2018-19

16,727

2019-20

16,812

2020-21

18,110

2021-22

20,117

2022-23

23,641

Note: excludes Devon and Cornwall, Humberside, Staffordshire and West Midlands Police Force Areas.

Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
18th Sep 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many attacks on shop workers have taken place in each year since 2010.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on assaults or threats on the staff of wholesale and retail premises in England and Wales as part of the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS). The data was most recently published in May 2023 and is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/crime-against-businesses-findings-from-the-2022-commercial-victimisation-survey

The CVS provides information on the proportion of premises which experienced assaults on their staff and an estimation of how frequently premises experienced these incidents. It does not provide information on the number of incidents of assaults on retail workers.

Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
15th Jun 2023
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on how many submissions to the Truth Project set up by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse were made by residents in each of the Greater Manchester authorities.

The Department does not hold this information. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has now completed its work. In line with the commitment made by the Inquiry, all information relating victims and survivors taking part in the Truth Project was securely destroyed when the Inquiry closed. Information about the Truth Project, including some statistics, are available on the following website: https://www.iicsa.org.uk/victims-and-survivors/truth-project

Sarah Dines
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
14th Apr 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the data for dog and cat thefts in each police force area in England and Wales for every year since 2010.

We recognise the distress pet theft causes and are committed to preventing these cruel crimes

The Home Office does publish data on police recorded theft offences as part of the quarterly ONS ‘Crime in England and Wales’ statistics, but it does not separately identify the number of thefts for dogs and cats.

However, information on the scale of pet theft was gathered as part of the Pet Theft Taskforce, which engaged a number of key organisations and experts in the field to shine a light on the existing evidence.

The evidence included aggregated data from 33 police forces in England and Wales on trends in reported dog thefts since 2015 and is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pet-theft-taskforce-report/pet-theft-taskforce-report.

As part of the taskforce we are working with the police to ensure these thefts are recorded in a consistent way and readily identifiable within forces’ information management systems.

6th Jan 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people have been recruited by the armed forces from the Oldham Metropolitan Borough area in each year from 2010 to date.

The requested information is available for the past five years and is provided in the following table:

Intake to the Untrained Regular Force from Oldham Local Authority:

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

2018-19

Tri-Service

50

50

40

30

40

Notes:

1. The requested information is only held from 2014 onwards.

2. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 in line with disclosure control policy. Figures ending in 5 are rounded to the nearest 20 to avoid bias, 5 or fewer is represented by '~', 0 is represented by '-'.

3. Due to limitations with the data sources, figures are approximate prior to rounding.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
28th Jan 2022
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the number of covid-19 Additional Relief Fund schemes which have (a) been established and (b) distributed funds to local businesses.

Local authorities are responsible for setting up their own local schemes and awarding support to businesses. Ministers and officials have regular conversations with counterparts in other Government departments.

12th Oct 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of the response to the covid-19 outbreak on the (a) (i) direct and (ii) indirect costs, (b) income and (c) other liabilities of Oldham council; and how much additional funding his Department has allocated to that local authority (A) for its covid-19 response and (B) to mitigate the effects of the outbreak.

We are providing local authorities with an unprecedented package of support, including over £4.8 billion in funding for?spending?pressures, comprising of £3.7 billion of un-ringfenced grants and over £1.1 billion for the Infection Control Fund.

Oldham has received £16.64 million from the three rounds of unringfenced grants. Oldham has received £4.6 million from the Infection Control Fund.

In total, over £28 billion has been committed to local areas to support councils, businesses and communities across government. This comprehensive package of support includes direct financial support and cashflow measures for councils, bus and tram services, support for the homeless and both grants and rates reliefs for businesses, as well as several other grants.

In addition the Prime Minister has announced a further £1 billion of funding for local authorities, details of which will be announced shortly.

We will continue to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on local government and are taking steps to address and support individuals and local authorities.

25th Feb 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Fair Funding Review formula.

The Government aims to implement the local authority Review of Relative Needs and Resources in 2021-22, and plans to publish a major consultation on this in the Spring. We will place a copy of the consultation in the Library at that time.

6th Jan 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many County Court hearings were cancelled in Greater Manchester in each year from 2010 to date, by reason for cancellation.

The information requested is not available.

Information about cancelled hearings is not held in this form because there are many types of County Court hearing and reasons why they may not proceed. HMCTS does collect data about the numbers (not by reason) of adjourned small claims, fast track and multi track hearings and can be found at Annex A

Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
6th Jan 2020
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Magistrates' Court hearings have been cancelled in Greater Manchester in each year from 2010 to date, by reason for cancellation.

The information requested is not available.

Information about cancelled hearings is not held in this form because there are many types of Magistrates’ Court hearings and reasons why they may not proceed.

HMCTS does collect data about effective, cracked, ineffective and vacated trials, it is published here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2019 and can be found in the ‘Trial effectiveness at the criminal courts tool’.

Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
18th Sep 2023
To ask the Leader of the House, how many Government Bills have been withdrawn in each year since 2010.

Parliament has been informed on each occasion a bill has been withdrawn. Information on the bills withdrawn in each session is available on the Parliament website at: https://bills.parliament.uk/.

Penny Mordaunt
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons