Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to support farmers who are affected by the changes made to inheritance tax regulations at the Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s commitment to our farmers remains steadfast. We are reforming the Agricultural Property Relief on Inheritance Tax in way which protects small family farms. Changes are expected to only affect around 500 claims for agricultural property relief in 2026-27.
The Government has committed to support farmers through a farming budget of £5 billion over two years – more money than ever for sustainable food production. 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 in 2025/26. This funding will deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience.
Environmental Land Management schemes will remain at the centre of our offer for family-owned farms and other 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 small, grassland, upland and tenant farmers. We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve these schemes, to make them work for farming and nature.
The Government will invest a further £2.4bn over the next two years to protect communities across the country from the devastating impacts of flooding by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences.
This range of support forms part of the government's New Deal for Farmers. The Government is also supporting family-owned farms and other farmers by protecting them from being undercut by low welfare and low standards in trade deals, by lowering energy bills for farmers by switching on GB Energy, and by using the Government’s own purchasing power to back British produce so that 50% of food brought in hospitals, army bases and prisons is locally produced or certified to high environmental standards.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 implications for his animal welfare policies of breeding dogs for animal testing.
Answered by Scott Mann
The Animal Welfare Act 2006 does not apply to animals used in scientific procedures. Protections in scientific procedures are instead provided by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA). ASPA is administered and enforced by the Home Office. Every establishment that conducts work under ASPA has a standard condition in its licence that requires appropriate care and accommodation standards for animals to be applied. The standards of care and accommodation are available in a published Code of Practice, and these standards also cover the welfare of dogs bred for use in scientific procedures. The Home Office regulator inspects against these standards of care and accommodation.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Animal Welfare Act 2006, when the Government plans to publish its investigation into the importation and sale of foie gras.
Answered by Scott Mann
The Action Plan for Animal Welfare noted that HM Government has made clear that the production of foie gras from ducks or geese which have been force fed raises serious welfare concerns and that the production of foie gras by force feeding is already illegal in the UK. The Action Plan also noted that now that the UK has left the EU, we are committed to building a clear evidence base to inform decisions on banning the import or sale of foie gras and other products derived from low-welfare systems.
HM Government is currently continuing to build this evidence base. No specific deadline has been set for this exercise, and further evidence that people may wish to share with HM Government would be gratefully received.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 prevent destructive fishing in Marine Protected Areas.
Answered by Mark Spencer
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
We have built a comprehensive network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) covering 40% of English waters and are now focusing on making sure they are properly protected. Nearly 60% of our 178 English MPAs are already protected from damaging fishing activity, including byelaws this year in the first four offshore sites, which ban bottom towed gear over sensitive habitats. We are aiming to have all MPAs in English waters protected from damaging fishing activity by 2024. We recently consulted on a legally binding target under the Environment Act to improve the condition of the species and habitats protected in these sites. In July we launched a consultation on five candidate Highly Protected Marine Areas in English waters. With the highest level of protection in England’s seas to enable the ecosystem to fully recover, many activities including commercial and recreational fishing would be prohibited. HPMAs would complement the existing MPA network. Any HPMAs Government decides to designate following the consultation would be designated by July 2023.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 plans to introduce a scheme that would incentivise British farmers to grow cereal crops.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges in the past few years. For the cereal crops that are produced domestically, the UK is 88% self-sufficient.
Cereals are internationally traded commodities, and their supply chains are dynamic and responsive to global market developments in price and availability. Government works with international partners to facilitate the smooth functioning of that global food trade. We keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group and have increased our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real-time intelligence and to identify where mitigations are available. In 2021 we also permanently removed Basic Payment Scheme 'greening measures' on crop diversification and ecological focus areas. This means that farmers are free to react to market signals when making crop planting decisions, as well as adjusting their plans according to the weather, their soil type, and their long-term agronomic strategy.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 take steps to ban the practice of using the whip in horse racing.
Answered by Steve Double
The irresponsible use of the whip is unacceptable. The British Horseracing Association (BHA), British racing’s governing and regulatory body, is responsible for the safety of racehorses at British racecourses including rules governing the use of the whip.
The BHA recently published their response to a public consultation on the use of the whip in British racing in July 2022. The BHA accepted 20 recommendations made to them by the Whip Steering Group which can be found here: https://www.britishhorseracing.com/press_releases/improving-standards-and-enhanced-deterrents-at-the-heart-of-20-recommendations-published-as-part-of-british-horseracings-whip-report/
Defra will continue to engage with the sector to ensure that the welfare of racehorses remains at the forefront of the British horseracing industry’s priorities.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 reasons for Severn Trent water rate costs for consumers increasing by 7 per cent in Ashfield compared to 3 to 4 per cent across the UK; and what steps his Department is taking reduce those increased costs.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Severn Trent's increase in their water charges relates to several factors, including an increase in the rate of inflation, new investment to support green economic recovery and revenue adjustments, which corrects previous cost and revenue estimates. These costs and adjustments are in line with the revenue controls set by the regulator, Ofwat, for all water companies. Ofwat carefully scrutinises water company investments to ensure value for customer money.
We expect all companies to make sure their customers are aware of the schemes available for those struggling to pay their bills. That includes bill discount schemes such as Watersure and social tariffs, payment holidays, adjusting payment plans and getting support for customers on managing their personal finances.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 ensure healthy food choices remain affordable.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The Government monitors consumer food prices using the Consumer Prices Index including Housing costs (CPIH). Food prices are traditionally affected by a wide range of domestic and international factors - from local manufacturing costs to global commodity prices. Given strong competition in the UK food retail sector, retailers normally try to absorb short-term cost pressures for a period of time. In any given year, food prices tend to go up and down. Food prices are set individually by businesses and it is not for the UK Government to set retail food prices nor to comment on day-to-day commercial decisions by companies.
In December 2021 we published the first UK Food Security Report which included data on household food security and food prices. We recognise that some people require extra support over the winter, which is why vulnerable households across the country can access a new £500 million support fund to help them with essentials. The Household Support Fund provides £421 million to help vulnerable people in England with the cost of food, utilities and wider essentials. The Barnett Formula applies in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 takes to (a) ensure (i) Severn Trent and (ii) other water companies operate to an adequate standard and (b) protect consumers from persistent issues with the water supply system.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Ofwat, the independent economic regulator for water and wastewater services in England and Wales, holds all water companies to account for the delivery of secure and resilient water services.
Through its price review process, Ofwat has set improvement targets for all companies to reduce main bursts by 12% and supply interruptions by 41% between 2020 and 2025. Companies must publish their performance annually against key targets.
Customers of water and sewerage companies are entitled to guaranteed minimum standards of service under the guaranteed standards scheme. Where a company fails to meet any of these standards of service then it is required to make a specified payment to the affected customer.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 publish the (a) statutory and (b) non-statutory public inquiries being undertaken by his Department.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
There are no statutory or non-statutory public inquiries currently being undertaken by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.