Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What recent assessment he has made of the effect of sewage discharges on water quality in rivers.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Last year, the Environment Agency (EA) reported that there had been good progress in meeting water quality targets. Since 1995, investment in sewage treatment has achieved a 61% reduction in the amount of phosphorus and a 72% reduction in the amount of ammonia discharged to rivers. We will continue to work with the water companies.
Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to strengthen the powers the environment agency has to determine whether a person or a company is fit and proper to be granted a licence regarding the disposal or incineration of waste.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Last year the Government committed to implementing measures to raise the standard of operator competence at permitted waste sites by strengthening the Environment Agency’s assessment and enforcement powers.
We are now delivering on these published commitments. In January we passed legislation requiring all waste facilities to have a written management plan to minimise the risks of pollution to the environment.
www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1227/part/3/made
In March we widened the scope of past offences the Environment Agency can consider when assessing competence for applications for waste facility permits:
In the coming months we will update Core Guidance to strengthen the Environment Agency’s enforcement capabilities when considering operators’ past performance. Further measures to tackle crime and low levels of performance in the waste industry are set out in our Resources and Waste Strategy.
Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what voluntary access arrangements to inland waterways for recreational purposes have been negotiated in the last 10 years; and how many additional miles of waterway have been made available to canoeists through this mechanism.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Information of this nature is not held by the department.
Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the total length of unmanaged waterways in England to which canoeists have an undisputed right of navigation.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire, Pauline Latham, on 19 February 2019 to PQ 220196.
Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of waste incineration capacity.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
An assessment of England’s municipal waste treatment capacity – including incineration with energy recovery – was set out in the Resources and Waste Strategy and the associated Evidence Annex published in December 2018. Existing operational capacity is sufficient to treat around 36% of municipal residual waste at current levels. While energy from waste plays an important role in diverting waste from landfill, our emphasis is on greater waste prevention, re-use or recycling.
Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2019 to Question 206757 on Environmental Stewardship Scheme, how many of those agreements did not have any aftercare visits.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The answer to Question 206757 records that 1892 Agreements lasted the full ten years. A total of 1677 of these received one or more visits. While this data suggests 215 of these agreements did not receive a visit, this data has only been held since 2014 and does not record where visits may have occurred in the years prior to this date.
Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2019 to Question 206757, on Environmental Stewardship Scheme, how many of those visits occurred in the final year of the agreement.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Of the 1677 visits recorded, 866 of these are recorded as visits in the final year of the agreement. Records have only been collated since 2014 and many of these agreements will also have received visits prior to their final year.
Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many of the higher level Environmental Stewardship Agreement which have lasted for 10 years were amended as a result of a care visit.
Answered by George Eustice
311 Higher Level Environmental Stewardship agreements that have lasted 10 years were amended as a result of a care visit.
Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many higher level environmental stewardship agreements have completed 10 years and of these how many have had (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four and (e) five or more aftercare visits.
Answered by George Eustice
So far 1892 higher level stewardship agreements have lasted the full ten years of their term. Of these agreements and since central records began: 832 received one visit, 423 received two visits, 226 received three visits, 99 received four visits, 97 received five or more visits.
Asked by: John Grogan (Labour - Keighley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many members of each of the boards of National Park authorities live in (a) London, (b) Tyne and Wear, (c) Merseyside, (d) West Yorkshire, (e) South Yorkshire, (f) West Midlands and (g) Greater Manchester.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The number of members of England’s national park authorities whose main address is given as being in (a) London, (b) Tyne and Wear, (c) Merseyside, (d) West Yorkshire, (e) South Yorkshire, (f) West Midlands and (g) Greater Manchester is as follows:
London | 0 |
Tyne and Wear | 0 |
Merseyside | 0 |
West Yorkshire | 1 |
South Yorkshire | 3 |
Greater Manchester | 1 |
This data has been provided by national park authorities.