Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
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 re-introduce the moratorium on allowing the development of incinerators to go ahead; and what his policy is when an incinerator project has received planning permission but work hasn't commenced.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy, which will support economic growth, deliver green jobs, promote the efficient and productive use of resources, minimise negative environmental impacts and help us accelerate to Net Zero. There will, however, still be a need for the safe and sanitary management of residual waste. In accordance with the Waste Hierarchy, sending residual waste that cannot currently be prevented, prepared for reuse, or recycled to Energy from Waste plants is preferable to disposal in landfill.
We are clear that we do not support incineration overcapacity. Local authorities act independently of central Government, and Ministers have limited remit to intervene in the day-to-day affairs of local authorities. Once planning permission is granted the default time limit within which to begin construction is three years from the moment of the grant of planning permission. However, local planning authorities may vary this if there are good planning reasons for doing so.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
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 guidance by the Central Digital and Data Office entitled Guidance on the Legacy IT Risk Assessment Framework, published on 29 September 2023, how many red-rated IT systems are used by his Department; and how many red-rated IT systems have been identified since 4 December 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, has established a programme to support departments managing legacy IT. CDDO has agreed a framework to identify ‘red-rated’ systems, indicating high levels of risk surrounding certain assets within the IT estate. Departments have committed to have remediation plans in place for these systems by next year (2025). It is not appropriate to release sensitive information held about specific, red-rated systems or more detailed plans for remediation within Defra’s IT estate, as this information could indicate which systems are at risk and may highlight potential security vulnerabilities.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what is the annual cost to the public purse of his Department's expenditure on (a) IT infrastructure, (b) IT infrastructure purchased prior to 2013 and (c) legacy IT infrastructure for each year since 2010.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The total main technology services costs are below for each year from 2018/2019 for Defra, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Rural Payments Agency, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Marine Management Organisation. We cannot provide this information pre 2018/2019 as IT services, and therefore costs, were disaggregated across all parts of Defra group before 2018.
Departments are actively managing their legacy estates and are either seeking to fund or are seeking to exit legacy systems via their existing change plans. The right approach varies: work under way includes upgrades, complete system replacements and migration to public cloud.
2018/2019 | 2019/2020 | 2020/2021 | 2021/2022 | 2022/2023 |
164,966,582 | 158,456,692 | 180,763,658 | 181,673,444 | 196,388,040 |
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
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 Central Digital & Data Office's guidance entitled, Guidance on the Legacy IT Risk Assessment Framework, published 29 September 2023, how many red-rated IT systems are used by his Department as of 21 November 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
As of 21 November 2023 Defra, as a Ministerial Department, has to date identified one red-rated legacy IT system as defined in the Central Digital and Data Office Legacy IT Risk Assessment Framework, but work to continually refine and broaden our use of the risk framework continues. Departments are actively managing their legacy estates and are either seeking to fund or are seeking to exit legacy systems via their existing change plans. The right approach varies: work under way includes upgrades, complete system replacements and migration to public cloud.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the timetable is for carrying out flood prevention work at the River Thames in Reading.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
More than 700 properties, roads and other infrastructure are at risk of flooding from the Thames in north Reading and Lower Caversham. The Environment Agency (EA) has engaged widely with the community to raise awareness of flood risk and to get feedback on plans for a flood risk management scheme which would include flood walls, embankments and a channel to bypass Reading Bridge. The EA is reviewing feedback from the community and if there is support for the scheme it will progress work to secure the necessary permissions and funding.