Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to review rules around burning solid fuels in (a) general and (b) smoke control zones.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Domestic combustion remains a major source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions in the UK, and ownership of solid fuel appliances is increasing.
The Government recognises that it is important that we take further action to reduce emissions from domestic burning, and the impact on human health. We are currently evaluating a number of options to reduce emissions of PM2.5 from domestic burning both in and outside of Smoke Control Areas.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
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 his Department's policy paper entitled The waste prevention programme for England: Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste, updated on 10 August 2023, what progress he has made on developing a pilot Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for textiles; what his planned timetable is for publication of that pilot scheme; and what progress he has made on an impact assessment for non-domestic premises to support the textiles waste hierarchy.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The EPR sandbox led by UKFT, and funded by UK Government is using data to explore a system that incentivises circular economy principles across the textiles supply chain. We look forward to the results of this project later this year.
Since publication of Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste we have been engaging with stakeholders across the supply chain to develop the proposals for the consultation and build the evidence base for the impact assessment. The consultation is our priority, but we are open to other suggestions from the industry about what the most effective interventions could be, including how a potential Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for textiles could work.
We are collaborating with our delivery partner the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on the Textiles Waste Hierarchy. It will be a comprehensive guide for organisations that will be impacted by the proposals and those who handle used textiles. By including examples of good practice and case studies we hope, once developed, it will help organisations and citizens navigate changes that will reduce textiles waste across the supply chain.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to Question 8086 tabled by the hon. Member for Bedford on 5 January 2024 on hornets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
A response was published on 12 February 2024. I apologise for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
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 is taking steps to help eradicate Asian hornets from the UK before spring 2024.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In 2023 the National Bee Unit (NBU) – part of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) - located and destroyed 72 Asian hornet nests. The NBU has been taking action against Asian hornet since 2016 and has a fine-tuned response. They frequently find a nest within a day of an initial sighting being reported. Previously the highest number of nests the NBU had dealt with in one year was 4. Nevertheless, the NBU drew on further resources from wider APHA to provide an effective response to this unprecedented number of Asian hornet nests.
Asian hornet is inactive over winter, normally between November and March. During this period any new queens released from nests in the autumn hibernate. Only a proportion of these will survive and go onto create new nests in spring. Therefore, no further contingency action will be taken until the spring when the hornets start becoming active.
We are developing further plans for 2024 which will be announced prior to the spring. The NBU will continue to respond to credible sightings of Asian hornet and eradicate any nests that are located.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
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 made an assessment of the potential merits of working with (a) OFWAT and (b) water companies on (i) desalination and (ii) other sustainable water supply solutions.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Defra recently published its Plan for Water setting out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. The National Framework for water resources sets out in detail how the Government, regulators and regional groups, including water companies, will work together to improve water resources management. This includes reducing demand, halving leakage, developing new water supplies and moving water to where it is needed.
Earlier this year, regional water resources groups and water companies consulted on their draft water resources plans. These statutory plans set out how each company will secure water supplies sustainably for at least the next 25 years. Within their plans, water companies consider all options, including demand management and water resources infrastructure, such as desalination. The draft water resources management plans contain proposals for multiple new schemes by 2050, including 9 new desalination schemes, 9 new reservoirs, 11 new water recycling schemes, and several new internal and inter-company transfers to share resources.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to take steps to introduce a national textile recycling scheme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government’s 2018 Resources & Waste Strategy for England identified textiles as a priority sector for action. Our ambitions to minimise textile waste will be outlined in the upcoming document Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste, which constitutes a new Waste Prevention Programme for England. We expect to publish this in summer 2023.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
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 include glass in the deposit return scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The full response to our consultation on a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will be published in due course.
However, as part of our response to the consultation on Extended Producer Responsibility, we announced any DRS in England and Northern Ireland would not include glass.
Concerns were raised that including glass in a DRS risked reducing the amount of glass available to remelt, whilst making reverse vending machines larger and more complicated, as well as causing extra risk to both shop staff and consumers.
Glass will be subject to regulation via Extended Producer Responsibility and continue to be recycled at the kerbside.