Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding from the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme has been allocated to projects in the (a) Cannock Chase constituency and (b) the Cannock Chase National Landscape area.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Over £570,000 has been spent on approved projects in the Cannock Chase National Landscape area since the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme (FiPL) launched in July 2021, with further projects in progress and to be completed by the end of 24/25.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the farming in protected landscapes programme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The interim evaluation of the programme found the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme (FiPL) to be delivering positively for nature, climate, people, and place, with over 7,000 farmers participating and 3,700 projects in the first three years across our National Parks, National Landscapes and The Broads. We will be sharing further detail from the final evaluation report due later this year.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
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 support waste collection authorities to deliver mandatory household food waste collections from 2026-27.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To support waste collection authorities to deliver household food waste collections, we provided capital transitional funding in February 2024 to cover reasonable costs of purchasing trucks and bins needed to deliver weekly food waste collections from 31 March 2026.
We are preparing to deliver transitional resource new burdens funding to local authorities for weekly food waste collections for households in two batches, one in early 2025 and the other in spring 2025.
Funding for ongoing resource funding from 1 April 2026 is subject to agreement through a spending review and we will confirm details when we can.
We are also working with sector specialists WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) to provide guidance on best practice and scope additional areas of support.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the capacity of anaerobic digestion facilities, in the context of the planned introduction of mandatory food waste collections in 2026-27.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s preference is for unavoidable food waste to be collected for treatment by anaerobic digestion (AD): producing bio-gas and digestate.
Defra has been working with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to estimate AD capacity in England. Based on current estimates, there will be sufficient AD capacity in England to treat the increased tonnage of food waste expected to be collected once Simpler Recycling’s mandatory food waste collection requirements commence between 2025-2027. Defra intends to publish a Recycling Infrastructure Capacity Analysis soon. This will set out anticipated waste volumes to 2035, mapping this modelling against known waste management infrastructure for various waste streams, including food waste. The analysis will signal where there is likely over or under-provision of waste management capacity.
DESNZ’s Green Gas Support Scheme (GGSS) provides tariff-support for biomethane produced via AD and injected into the gas grid, supporting investment in AD plants. Under the GGSS, at least 50% of all biomethane by energy content must be produced using waste or residue feedstock. In England, we expect that food waste collected due to Simpler Recycling reforms will constitute a significant portion of AD feedstocks.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of a mandatory charge for single-use coffee cups.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the urgent need to limit the environmental impact of single-use plastic, including fibre composite cups.
The Government has committed to reducing waste by moving to a circular economy. The Secretary of State has convened a Small Ministerial Group on Circular Economy and asked his Department to work with experts from industry, academia, civil society, and the civil service to develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England; supporting Government’s Missions to kickstart economic growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower.
We will consider the evidence for action right across the economy and evaluate what further interventions may be needed in the plastics sector as we develop the Circular Economy Strategy.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
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 reduce response times for applications to the Sustainable Farming Incentive.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Sustainable Farming Incentive has been expanded to now include Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier actions, with around a further 80 new actions now available for customers to select. The scheme is in the late stages of the controlled rollout, something always normally undertaken when new schemes are implemented to make sure that everything is working as expected for everyone. This allows the Rural Payments Agency to monitor all aspects closely, covering not only the technical elements of the application process but also including customer guidance and support. carrying out additional checks on all applications before issuing agreements. These checks are being scaled back as we move through this initial controlled period, and the number of agreements being offered has increased since the start of October.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the (a) powers and (b) resources of the Environment Agency to regulate landfill sites.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The regulatory framework in place is designed to serve operators and protect the local community. Where poor performance does occur the Environment Agency has a range of powers to bring sites back into compliance and, where necessary, to take enforcement action against operators. Regulatory oversight of permitted sites is funded by permitting fees, which are calculated on a full cost recovery basis, in line with the Polluter Pays principle and HM Treasury’s managing public money guidance.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
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 reduce pre-consumer plastic waste in supply chains.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has convened a Small Ministerial Group on Circular Economy and asked his Department to work with experts from industry, academia, civil society, and the civil service to develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England. The Strategy will include a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions that the Government will make in particular sectors and value chains; supporting Government’s Missions to kickstart economic growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower.
We will consider the evidence for action right across the economy and evaluate what further interventions may be needed in the plastics sector as we develop the Circular Economy Strategy.
It’s also worth noting that there is a legal obligation for waste producers to manage their waste, including plastic waste, in accordance with the Waste Hierarchy. The Hierarchy puts waste management options into priority order: prevention, reuse, recycle, recovery (including energy recovery), disposal (landfill). Landfill must always be a last resort.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the recycling rates of plastic film.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Yes, Defra is supporting the multi-million-pound FlexCollect project, launched in May 2022, funding local authorities to roll out kerbside plastic film collection trials. This will help gather insights to support effective collections more widely ahead of the requirement to collect plastic film from workplaces and households under Simpler Recycling.
Kerbside plastic film collections from workplaces and households will be introduced by 31 March 2027 in England. Defra is only directly responsible for delivering this in England via Simpler Recycling. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are working on their own plans to introduce plastic film collections under extended producer responsibility for packaging.
Asked by: Josh Newbury (Labour - Cannock Chase)
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 help (a) increase biodiversity on farms and (b) ensure that farms are financially sustainable.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government will champion British farming. Our new deal for farmers will build a resilient and healthy food system, that works with nature and supports British farmers.
We have already delivered on our commitment to restore stability by continuing the rollout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), whose objectives include increase of biodiversity on farms. We are optimising SFI and other farming schemes that include biodiversity objectives. This includes Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery’s Round 1, both of which support farmers in protecting and enhancing the natural environment and increasing biodiversity. We will ensure these schemes work efficiently for farmers, food security and the environment.
To support British farmers, we will also: