Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress he has made with Cabinet colleagues on ensuring that at least half of all food purchased by the public sector is locally-produced and sustainable.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government continues to have an ambition for half of all food supplied into the public sector to be sourced locally or certified to higher environmental standards, whilst being in line with WTO and domestic procurement obligations. Defra continues to engage across Government Departments to develop proposals which support this ambition, as well as driving net zero, public health and animal welfare outcomes.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the National Food Strategy will include the role of biodiversity in the food supply.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our ambitious food strategy will set and deliver clear long-term outcomes that create a healthier, fairer, and more resilient food system, and in doing so will consider elements of the food system that can contribute towards those outcomes.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase the financial resilience of farms in the wake of increasing extreme weather.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s commitment to British farmers, including family farms, remains steadfast. We will always champion British farming to boost rural economic growth, strengthen food security and improve the environment.
Defra’s farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8bn for environmental land management schemes. This funding will deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience.
Additionally, across England, we will invest £2.4 billion over the next two years to improve flood resilience, by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. We are prioritising investment in repairing and restoring critical assets, including investing an additional £36 million into maintaining key strategic assets in 2024-25 and £72 million in 2025-26.
All this funding enables us to keep momentum on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve these schemes, to make them work for farming and nature.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase the resilience of farm businesses by improving biodiversity.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s commitment to British farmers, including family farms, remains steadfast. We will always champion British farming to boost rural economic growth, strengthen food security and improve the environment.
Defra’s farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8bn for environmental land management schemes. This funding will deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience.
Additionally, across England, we will invest £2.4 billion over the next two years to improve flood resilience, by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. We are prioritising investment in repairing and restoring critical assets, including investing an additional £36 million into maintaining key strategic assets in 2024-25 and £72 million in 2025-26.
All this funding enables us to keep momentum on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve these schemes, to make them work for farming and nature.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make it his policy to conduct an audit of the effectiveness of carbon sequestration by all land use categories.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government publishes estimates of the sequestration of carbon in the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector for a range of sector categories as part of its annual UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions statistics.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on preventing large organisations from offshoring emissions.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is working cohesively to address carbon leakage risk across international and domestic actions.
The UK’s current main measure to address carbon leakage is free allocation under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which is under review by the UK ETS Authority. The government is additionally introducing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on 1 January 2027, developing voluntary product standards and an embodied emissions reporting framework, and working to address carbon leakage risk internationally through existing fora such as the Climate Club and World Trade Organisation.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of restrictions on the use of single-use plastic.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials are in the process of conducting a Post Implementation Review of the Environmental Regulations 2020, which includes the bans and restrictions on plastic straws, stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds. This is due to be published in October 2025. The department has also commissioned a report to evaluate the policies under the Environmental Regulations 2023.
Defra officials are working with trading standards officers in local authorities, online platforms, and relevant businesses to ensure restrictions are effective and that any breaches of the legislation are being enforced. Breaches in legislation are the responsibility of local authorities.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that fire and rescue services are equipped to manage large-scale farm fires effectively.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is the responsibility of Fire and Rescue Authorities to set local priorities based on their Community Risk Management Plans to ensure that Fire and Rescue Services have the appropriate equipment and training needed to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring manufacturers of agricultural vehicles to fit fire suppression kits.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 set out the essential requirements that must be met before a machinery product is placed on the UK market, in order to protect users of that machinery from any undue harm. This includes agricultural vehicles in scope.
As part of those existing requirements, machinery must be designed and constructed in such a way as to avoid any risk of fire or overheating posed by the machinery itself or by gases, liquids, dust, vapours or other substances produced or used by the machinery.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of current payment schemes for upland farmers.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Upland farmers have a key role to play in the future for delivering sustainable food production and our environmental targets.
The Government has committed to support farmers through a farming budget of £5 billion over two years, including £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8 billion for environmental land management schemes in 2025/26.
Environmental Land Management schemes will remain at the centre of our offer for farmers, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery all continuing. These offer funding streams for farmers to make their businesses more sustainable and resilient, including those who have been often ignored such as upland farmers.
We recognise the unique challenges that upland farmers face. We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve these schemes and ensure they work for everyone, including upland farms.