Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Ofwat on ensuring that future price review processes consider strategic developments including new towns such as Tempsford.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s Water Delivery Taskforce is working to bring together Government, regulators and water companies to ensure sufficient water and wastewater capacity is delivered to accommodate the government’s growth ambitions, including for new homes.
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers and set out how they plan to continue to do so through statutory Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs). Water companies consult on revised WRMPs every five years, which inform Ofwat’s price review decisions.
The water companies must also maintain their WRMPs and are required to review the plans annually to take account of changes. This includes changes to demand forecasts as a result of housing growth that cannot be accommodated in existing WRMPs. This year, we strengthened and clarified this change process with water companies, issuing guidance to companies on how we will engage and assess any change needed to accommodate growth.
The WRMP process works closely alongside Ofwat’s price review cost change process, which allows companies to access additional funding for investment to support the growth, including investment such as sewage treatment works: PR24-Cost-change-process-–-Demand-growth-investment-additional-guidance.pdf.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the water industry regulatory framework in providing flexibility to enable water and wastewater companies to respond to major new housing growth, including the proposed Tempsford new town.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s Water Delivery Taskforce is working to bring together Government, regulators and water companies to ensure sufficient water and wastewater capacity is delivered to accommodate the government’s growth ambitions, including for new homes.
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers and set out how they plan to continue to do so through statutory Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs). Water companies consult on revised WRMPs every five years, which inform Ofwat’s price review decisions.
The water companies must also maintain their WRMPs and are required to review the plans annually to take account of changes. This includes changes to demand forecasts as a result of housing growth that cannot be accommodated in existing WRMPs. This year, we strengthened and clarified this change process with water companies, issuing guidance to companies on how we will engage and assess any change needed to accommodate growth.
The WRMP process works closely alongside Ofwat’s price review cost change process, which allows companies to access additional funding for investment to support the growth, including investment such as sewage treatment works: PR24-Cost-change-process-–-Demand-growth-investment-additional-guidance.pdf.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 (a) efficacy and (b) adequacy of the Over Thirty Months Scheme for cattle.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
While cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in the UK are now rare, the confirmation of a new case in Scotland in May highlighted the continued importance of the robust BSE control measures we have in place that have greatly reduced the incidence of BSE in the UK. These controls include the Over Thirty Months (OTM) rule, which acts as a safeguard to both human and animal health. The OTM rule requires the removal at slaughter from cattle aged over thirty months old, tissues which are designated by the World Animal Health Organisation (WOAH) as Specified Risk Material (SRM), because they contain the highest level of potential BSE infectivity. The removal of SRM from cattle aged over thirty months is an internationally recognised requirement.
No assessment of the OTM rule is currently planned while we await the outcome of the recent application that England, Wales, and Scotland have made to WOAH to have our BSE risk status reduced from ‘controlled’ to ‘negligible’.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 ending the automatic right of new housing developments to connect to the sewage system.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Water Industry Act 1991 permits owners of premises or of private sewers to connect to the public sewer and to discharge into it foul and surface water. A sewerage company may, however, refuse this connection if it appears that the construction or condition of the connecting drain or sewer does not reasonably satisfy the standards it reasonably requires or if the connection would be prejudicial to its own sewerage system. Where there are questions or disputes about reasonableness, the regulator - Ofwat - would make the final determination.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to commence schedule 3 of the Floods and Water Act 2010.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains firmly committed to delivering standardised sustainable drainage systems in new developments as stated in our Plan for Water (April 2023). A consultation will take place shortly and final implementation decisions will be made on scope, threshold and process.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 ensure that Agricultural Land Classifications cannot be amended to facilitate approval of solar farm planning applications.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Agricultural Land Classification system in England and Wales (ALC) was developed to support planning policy and protect high quality agricultural land from loss to development. Land is assessed according to the extent that its physical or chemical characteristics impose long term limitations on agricultural use, using the approved criteria. The assessment does not consider land use.
Instead, the National Planning Policy Framework sets out clearly that local planning authorities should consider all the benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land, when making plans or taking decisions on new development proposals. Where significant development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, planning authorities should seek to use poorer quality land in preference to that of a higher quality.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which seeds that are permitted under Article 49(1) of Regulation (EC) 1107/2009 have not been provided authorisation for use from 1 January 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Prior to EU Exit, the legislation quoted allowed seeds treated with a plant protection product (PPP) authorised in at least one Member State to be imported, marketed and used in GB. After Exit, arrangements were put in place to allow the import and use of treated seeds to continue until the end of 2023, following which all seed treatments would need GB authorisation.
I have listened to farmers and recognise the importance of access to treated seeds from the EU, particularly in the feed and horticulture sectors. I am preparing to lay secondary legislation in the autumn, through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REUL), to ensure measures are in place, before the current scheme for importing treated seeds ends in December.
The aim of this legislation will be to extend transitional arrangements for the import of treated seeds from the EU and EEA and will also include provisions to address the important issue of parallel imports.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 Answer of 29 April 2021 to Question 185334 on Water Industry (Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers) Regulations 2011, when he plans to commence that consultation.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Defra has reviewed the case for implementing Section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. Officials will be taking forward the work to seek to implement Section 42 and to consider supplementary regulations to adopt existing sewerage assets, such as private wastewater pumping stations, constructed since July 2011.
We will continue to engage with stakeholders and plan to develop a public consultation on our implementation approach to help build our evidence base on policy options and our assessment of costs and benefits.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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) ensure the preservation of existing hedgerows and (b) encourage the creation of new hedgerows.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Hedgerows are one of the most important ecological building blocks in our farmed landscape. They maintain the distinctive character of our countryside and provide crucial habitats and food for wildlife.
Legal protection for hedgerows in England and Wales is provided by the Hedgerows Regulations 1997.
These regulations prohibit the removal of most countryside hedgerows (or parts of them) without first seeking approval from the local planning authority. It determines whether a hedgerow is ‘important’ because of its wildlife, landscape, historical or archaeological value and should not be removed.
A local authority also has the power to impose enforceable planning conditions on a developer to protect hedges or trees assessed as being worthy of retention, which might otherwise be harmed by construction or the new land-use. Land managers in receipt of Basic Payment Scheme payments are also required to protect hedgerows on their land.
Agri-environment schemes such as Countryside Stewardship fund the management and planting of hedgerows to deliver recognised benefits for wildlife, landscape, and the historic environment. Hedgerow management is one of the most popular options within Countryside Stewardship.
Following our exit from the European Union the development of our new environmental land management schemes will continue to recognise the role and fund the management of hedgerows. The hedgerow standard, part of the new Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme, will pay farmers to plant more hedgerows, leave them uncut or raise the cutting height.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 Answer of 30 July 2019 to Question 280227 on Rodents: Gough Island, what (a) recent steps have been taken since 2019 and (b) are planned as part of the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund to eradicate non-native mice to protect the Tristan albatross on that island.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The UK Government has continued to provide support to RSPB for its programme to eradicate invasive non-native mice from Gough Island, to help save critically endangered seabirds such as the Tristan Albatross from extinction.
I am pleased to report that the RSPB has completed the eradication stage of the programme and will be continuing to monitor its impact.