Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
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 transparency in the allocation of licences for commercial bluefin tuna fishery; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing alternative management models to enable wider participation by inshore fishermen.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2025, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) published comprehensive online guidance outlining the process for fishers, including those from the inshore fleet, to apply for access to the bluefin tuna commercial fishery. This guidance included detailed information on how applications would be assessed along with a timeline for the process.
Following assessment, the MMO contacted all applicants directly to inform them of the outcome of their applications.
To support the development of the fishery Defra commissioned external evaluations of the commercial bluefin fishery in 2023 and 2024 and continue to engage with fishers and other stakeholders on the ongoing management.
We must act within international rules set by The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and will continue to evaluate the best way to provide social and economic benefits for UK fishers in a sustainably managed commercial bluefin tuna fishery.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
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 potential impact of social tariffs on household water affordability; and what steps he is taking to ensure that water companies provide adequate support for customers struggling to pay their bills.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies must ensure support is available for vulnerable customers who are struggling to pay their bills. Companies have therefore more than doubled the number of customers that will receive help with their bills through social tariffs – from 4% to 9 and government expects industry to keep the current support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers across the country are supported.
The Independent Water Commission made a recommendation to consult on a National Social Tariff which the Government is taking into consideration and will provide a response to later this year in a White Paper.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national social tariff for water bills.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Independent Water Commission made a recommendation to consult on a National Social Tariff which the Government is taking into consideration and will provide a response to later this year in a White Paper.
The Government is working with industry to keep current support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers across the country are supported and expects water companies to ensure support is available for vulnerable customers who are struggling to pay their bills. Companies have therefore more than doubled the number of customers that will receive help with their bills through existing social tariffs – from 4% to 9%.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
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 prioritise the development of reservoir capacity in the South West as part of the Government’s water resilience strategy; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of this on (a) households and (b) businesses in Cornwall.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains committed to a twin track approach to improving water resilience. This involves urgent action to improve water efficiency and reduce water company leaks, alongside investing in new supply infrastructure, including new reservoirs and water transfers.
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers, efficiently and economically and they have recently set out how they plan to continue to supply water to their household and business customers through statutory Water Resources Management Plans. The Government will work with regulators to ensure the water companies’ plans are delivered.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
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 promote the separation of clean water from (a) sewage systems and (b) natural surface water drainage ponds in new housing developments.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is strongly committed to improving the implementation of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and we are looking at what additional steps might be taken to support this. Better delivery of SuDS may be achieved by continuing to improve the current planning policy-based approach and looking at ways of improving the approach to adoption and maintenance, rather than commencing schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. A final decision on this matter will be made in the coming months.
In June this year, the Government introduced new national standards, making clear that SuDS should be designed to cope with changing climatic conditions as well as delivering wider water infrastructure benefits in the form of flood prevention and storm overflow reduction, offering reuse opportunities, reducing run off, and helping to improve water quality, amenity, and biodiversity.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
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 assessed the potential merits of allowing the Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund to be used for the acquisition of sustainable refrigerated light commercial goods vehicle transport.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund will invest £360 million over the next 12 years to support the next generation of fishermen and breathe new life into our coastal communities. We will work with the industry to target investment where it matters most, for example considering investment in new technology and equipment to modernise our fishing fleet. We will provide more detail on this in due course. In the meantime, England’s Fisheries and Seafood Scheme is open for applications and provides grant funding for electric and hybrid refrigerated vehicles.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has considered introducing a waste code for black mass to align the UK and EU classification systems.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Prospective changes to the List of Waste in England will be considered as we develop proposals for our Circular Economy Strategy. Any specific regulatory changes should be subject to consultation.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has considered introducing a code for black mass, in the context of the forthcoming (a) industrial and (b) circular economy strategy.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Prospective changes to the List of Waste in England will be considered as we develop proposals for our Circular Economy Strategy. Any specific regulatory changes should be subject to consultation.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the roll out of inshore vessel monitoring systems by marine management organisation type approved suppliers.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) regularly assesses the progress of I-VMS uptake by the fishing industry and receives regular updates from the type-approved device suppliers, alongside marine engineer device installation paperwork and validation of successful installation from the suppliers. This information has allowed the MMO to tailor and target communication with the fishing industry throughout the roll-out and support industry be prepared for the forthcoming Statutory Instrument. The choice of supplier is a matter for the individual vessel owner and the MMO is not party to this relationship.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many non-compliance warning letters for inactive inshore vessel monitoring systems have been sent to fishermen by the Marine Management Organisation since 12 May 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has not sent non-compliance warning letters to licence holders with non-reporting devices. On 16 May, ‘for information only’ letters were sent by MMO to 291 licence holders with I-VMS devices on vessels it knows to have been actively fishing, and where the device had not been transmitting data. These letters were not warning letters and stated a desire to work with vessel owners to help them achieve compliance.