Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) improve the sustainability of and (b) increase the use of regenerative farming practices.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Environmental land management is the foundation of our new approach to farming. Our new schemes will pay for sustainable farming practices (such as reducing carbon emissions, creating, and preserving habitat, and making landscape-scale environmental changes) and improvements to animal health and welfare.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers for actions that support food production and can help improve farm productivity and resilience, while protecting and improving the environment. On 21 June 2023, we announced the new and improved SFI 2023 offer – containing 23 actions which will offer farmers additional actions and more flexibility to choose the actions they want to get paid for. When adopted at scale, these actions will support sustainable food production and contribute towards the environmental targets set out in the government’s Environmental Improvement Plan. Farmers were invited to register their interest in SFI 2023 from 30 August, and can sign up from 18 September.
The Landscape Recovery scheme supports a regenerative approach to agriculture. It focusses on restoring nature across a wider landscape, bringing together landowners and managers who want to take a more large-scale, long-term approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land. Projects involving elements of regenerative farming can apply - with round two LR pilot applications closing on 21 September 2023.
Our Countryside Stewardship scheme includes actions that can form part of a regenerative or restorative farming approach; to improve soil quality, enhance biodiversity, decrease water pollution, and restore, create, and manage habitats. We are expanding the scheme to make around 30 additional actions available to farmers by the end of 2024, as well as targeting our funding towards actions in places where they can have the biggest impacts, in ways that are joined up across larger areas.
We are also offering farmers and land managers, including those who take a regenerative approach, funding for equipment, technology, and infrastructure that improves farm productivity and benefits the environment through the Farming Investment Fund. This offers funding for equipment, technology, and infrastructure that improves farm productivity and benefits the environment.
The Farming Innovation Programme encourages groups of farmers, growers, businesses, and researchers to get involved in collaborative research and development. Farmers testing out regenerative approaches to agriculture will be able to apply for these grants, and we believe that by working together, they will be able to solve challenges and exploit opportunities for increasing productivity and environmental sustainability in the agricultural and horticultural sectors in England.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on reducing the use of cages for hens.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The egg sector is making good progress in moving away from cages. The proportion of eggs that come from caged hens has steadily decreased from 47% of total throughput in Q4 2017, to 21% in Q1 2023.
We will continue to work with retailers and producers to ensure we maintain and enhance the high standards of animal health and welfare we have in this country, including on our farms. The Government’s animal welfare priorities for its Animal Health and Welfare Pathway include supporting producers to transition away from confinement systems.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had discussions with the Home Secretary on the potential merits of introducing a national rural crime unit to tackle fly-tipping in rural areas.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.
I do however appreciate the difficulty and cost that fly-tipping poses, especially to landowners, and we are working with a wide range of interested parties through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG), such as the National Farmers Union, National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and local authorities to promote and disseminate good practice, including how to prevent fly-tipping on private land. We recognise the support of the police on this issue by welcoming the focus on fly-tipping in the NPCC’s Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025.
We are also working with the NFTPG to develop a fly-tipping toolkit which will share best practice on a range of issues related to tackling fly-tipping. Work is currently underway on the next part of the toolkit which will cover how local authorities can set up and run effective partnerships to tackle fly-tipping. We hope to complete this in the spring.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support the private sector to (a) invest in and (b) develop new technologies to help meet her environmental targets.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have set out our delivery plans for each of the environmental targets in our Environmental Improvement Plan which was published on 31 January 2023. The delivery of the targets will require a shared endeavour across the whole of Government, business and the individual decisions we all make. We will continue working with the private and third sector to ensure we are tapping into their expertise.
We will support the development of and investment in new technologies through a variety of routes including the forthcoming update to the Green Finance Strategy, the introduction of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill and Government’s own R&D funding such as the £270m Farming Innovation Programme and £75m net zero pathway funding. We will also work to enable the appropriate regulatory environment to enable investment in innovation, such as through the Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat to support water company innovation, and wider regulatory reform outside the European Union.
Defra continues to work alongside the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to build Earth Observation Capacity in order to monitor the environment, to meet targets.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help secure more temporary seasonal workers.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra continues to speak regularly with the sector and other Government departments to understand labour supply and demand, including both permanent and seasonal workforce requirements, and to make sure that the sector’s workforce requirements are understood across Government.
On 16 December 2022, the Government announced that an allocation of 45,000 visas will be made available in 2023 enabling edible and ornamental horticulture businesses to recruit foreign workers for up to six months. This is an uplift of 15,000 visas compared to the allocation at the start of 2022 and additional Operators have been brought in to add resilience to the route’s operation. A further 10,000 visas are potentially available for horticulture should there be demand and contingent on sponsors and growers continuing to improve worker welfare standards. The Seasonal Worker visa route will continue to operate until at least the end of 2024 and food and farming businesses can continue to draw on EU nationals living in the United Kingdom with settled or pre-settled status to meet their seasonal worker needs.
In addition, the Government has commissioned an independent review of labour shortages in the food supply chain. It will consider how automation, domestic labour and migrant labour can contribute to tackling labour shortages across the farming, processing, and food and drink manufacturing as sectors that are critical for food production and food security. It will report in spring 2023.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help encourage companies to transition away from testing products on animals.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There has been significant progress in moving away from using animals to assess chemicals hazards, although there are some hazards where there is no immediate prospect of developing a non-animal alternative that could be used as the standard test method across the full range of chemicals. The UK contributes internationally to the development of non-animal alternatives for chemical testing through collaborative research programmes and work at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which develops internationally standardised tools and guidance to support companies and regulators in the use of non-animal methods. Defra also co-chairs a cross-Whitehall working group focused on the integration of non-animal methods into chemicals and wider risk assessment where they are equal to or offer improvements to accuracy, speed and efficiency. Our approach to regulation aligns with this direction of travel; REACH contains the last resort principle, which means that an animal study can only be carried out once a company has exhausted other ways of assessing the chemical's hazard.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to tackle illegal dog fertility clinics.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, only veterinary surgeons are permitted to perform canine artificial insemination. Any non-vet undertaking canine artificial insemination, including the taking of blood samples, is therefore in breach of the Act.
Those operating canine fertility clinics, and owners using their services, are required under The Animal Welfare Act 2006 to protect the animals involved from harm and to provide for their welfare in line with good practice. A breach of these provisions may lead to imprisonment, a fine, or both. Anyone who is concerned about the welfare of breeding dogs should report the matter to their local authority who have powers to investigate.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
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 she has made of potential impacts of global food shortages on the UK's domestic food security.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges. We enjoy considerable self-sufficiency in food. We produce 61% of all the food we need, and 74% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year. These figures have changed little over the last 20 years.
Our food import dependency on the Eastern Europe region is very low, and we have strong domestic production of many of the products we do import. We do not expect any significant direct impact on overall UK food supply as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
We speak regularly with food industry figures, who remain confident in the food supply chain. The capability, levers, and expertise to respond to disruption lie with industry. Government's role is to support and enable an industry-led response.
We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. We have also increased our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real time intelligence.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps her Department has taken to help ensure that environmental protections are fully complied with on private land.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Public and private land are subject to the same environmental protections. The United Kingdom is a world leader in environmental protections and Defra is committed to maintaining these
Public bodies responsible for environmental protections such as the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Rural Payments Agency already help and advise landowners and tenants on how to comply where appropriate, and where necessary will enforce rules whether on public or private land
The power of entry provisions contained in Section 108 of the Environment Act 1995 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/25/section/108#:~:text=(b)he%20apprehends%20on%20reasonable,Schedule%2018%20to%20this%20Act) do not distinguish private land from public land. The majority of the sites that the Environment Agency regulates by way of permit are on private land and are inspected in accordance with the applicable legislation. Decisions about compliance and enforcement are made in line with the Environment Agency's Enforcement & Sanctions Policy (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environment-agency-enforcement-and-sanctions-policy/environment-agency-enforcement-and-sanctions-policy).
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to bring forward legislative proposals on banning the live (a) sale and (b) transportation of crustaceans.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is considering carefully the implications of recognising in law the sentience of decapod crustaceans and is working constructively with industry and stakeholders on these issues.
Currently legislation protects all animals from being transported in a way likely to cause injury or suffering. Invertebrates are protected from injury or unnecessary suffering during transportation by a general duty of care provision in Article 4 of The Welfare of Animals (Transport) (England) Order 2006 (WATEO) and equivalent national legislation in Scotland and Wales. WATEO requires that animals are transported in receptacles or means of transport under conditions (in particular with regard to space, ventilation, temperature and security) and with such supply of liquid and oxygen, as are appropriate for the species concerned.