Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to maximise critical mineral recovery from (a) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and (b) lithium-ion batteries.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy. We have convened a Circular Economy Taskforce, comprising experts from industry, academia, and civil society, to help develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England. To support this transition, the Circular Economy Taskforce will start with six priority sectors including electronics and transport, which includes electric vehicle batteries. Interventions, including on critical minerals, will be considered as part of the roadmaps for these sectors. We are also considering regulatory levers to increase battery collection rates and encourage best practise in end-of-life management.
The UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy will set the long-term ambition of secure supply of critical minerals UK and harnessing our competitive advantage in midstream processing and recycling. It will also outline how the ambition will be achieved through optimising domestic production and through strategic international collaboration.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 potential merits of adopting EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542 as part of the Circular Economy Strategy.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy. The Circular Economy Strategy will be supported by a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions that the government will make on a sector-by-sector basis, supporting government’s Missions to kickstart economic growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower. We are considering the evidence for sector-specific interventions right across the economy, including for batteries, as we develop our Strategy, including considering international best practices and regulations in other jurisdictions, including the EU.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 the use of pesticides by (a) local authorities and (b) other public bodies on the environment in public spaces.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of managing public spaces sustainably and its first priority is to ensure that pesticides do not harm human or animal health or pose unacceptable risks to the environment.
A pesticide may only be placed on the market following a thorough risk assessment that concludes all safety standards are met. All professional pesticide users must minimise the use of pesticides along roads and in areas used by the public, receive training and register with Defra.
They are encouraged to follow the principles of Integrated Pest Management, which aims to reduce reliance on chemical pesticides by making use of lower risk alternatives and promoting natural processes. The UK Pesticides National Action Plan sets out how the Government will continue to promote the sustainable use of pesticides.
It is for each Local Authority to decide the best way of delivering effective and cost-effective weed control without harming people or the environment. I recently held a roundtable with local authorities, the Local Government Association and the Pesticide Action Network to share best practice on reducing pesticide use. I am keen to see best practices shared more widely, helping to support effective, innovative and sustainable pesticide use across our public spaces.
I am keen to see best practices shared more widely, helping to support effective, innovative and sustainable pesticide use across our public spaces.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 potential impact of banning snares on animal welfare.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will introduce the most ambitious programme for animal welfare in a generation. As outlined in our manifesto, we will bring an end to the use of snare traps in England. We are considering the most effective way to deliver this commitment and will be setting out next steps in due course.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of including a farm education option in the Sustainable Farming Incentive.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Educational access features as part of the wider Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes and we are developing it further as a new 3-year capital item; we expect this to be available later in 2025. It will be a stand-alone capital item, though applicants must have an agri-environment or woodland agreement with management actions for this capital item. In countryside stewardship, currently eligible visitor groups are school age children and care farming groups only, but in the new educational access capital item, more diverse groups of people will be able to visit and benefit from an educational experience on farms and woodland across England.
As part of the development of the new educational access capital item, funding levels were considered, and agreement holders will receive £363 per visit, up to a maximum of 25 visits per agreement year.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he would make it his policy to create exemptions for Extender Producer Responsibility depending on (a) a producer’s sustainability and (b) B-Corp status.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are no exemptions planned for producers with B-Corp status. While private ESG schemes like B-Corp certification can play an important role in driving sustainability, they are complementary to, rather than a replacement for regulatory measures like pEPR.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 improve data in the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment system.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Waste Electronics and Electrical Equipment regulations make producers responsible for the electrical products they place on the market when they become waste. Data is collected on the tonnage of electrical products every producer sells within the UK and the tonnage of waste that they recycle appropriately to ensure they are meeting the requirements of the regulations. Defra is also updating the WEEE Regs to create a separate reporting category for vapes, so vape manufacturers pick up their fair share of recycling costs.
We have convened a Circular Economy Taskforce to help us develop a Circular Economy Strategy for England. The Strategy will be supported by a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions that the government will make on a sector-by-sector basis, supporting government’s Missions to kickstart economic growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower. We are considering the evidence for sector-specific interventions right across the economy, including in electronic waste, as we develop our Strategy.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 ensure that (a) polluted and (b) unsafe (i) beaches and (ii) bathing areas have signage to alert the public.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
At designated bathing water sites in their area, local authorities have a statutory duty to display information on a static sign about water quality and pollution sources, and to display advisory notices during pollution incidents. The information on the signage required by the Bathing Water Regulations 2013, consists of: the current classification symbol, with the “advice against bathing” symbol if the bathing water quality classification is Poor; a general description of the bathing water, based on the Environment Agency profile; and the address of a website where more detailed information can be found.
If the bathing water is subject to short-term pollution, the notice includes this information, and the number of pollution risk forecasts made during the preceding bathing season.
Other signage regarding safety and pollution is a matter for the relevant local authority.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 (a) expedite payments and (b) improve the payment structure of the Rural Payments Agency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) understands the importance of cashflow for farmers and rural businesses and has in recent years made more payments for the schemes they administer, earlier in the payment window. The agency has also taken steps to improve the flow of payments. This includes making Delinked payments from August in 2024, compared to historically Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments from December, earlier partial payments on Countryside Stewardship, and moving to a quarterly payments structure for the Sustainable Farming Incentive. Schemes will continue to be administered with payment frequency in mind.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 direct funding from fees through the Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme towards recycling (a) infrastructure and (b) awareness campaigns.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
pEPR makes packaging producers responsible for the costs incurred by UK Local Authorities in managing household packaging waste, including the fees they pay to recycling facilities. This will provide around 1.5 billion pounds of new funding in the UK in 2025-26, including 1.1 billion in England. This funding will underpin the Simpler Recycling reforms in England and stimulate investment in associated recycling infrastructure. The scheme administrator, PackUK, is also obliged to provide information to the public and to businesses concerning packaging re-use, recycling, recovery, and disposal, as well as the prevention of packaging litter. The cost of providing this information is covered by producer fees.