Asked by: Samantha Dixon (Labour - City of Chester)
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 Fifty-first Report of the Committee of Public Accounts of Session 2022-23 on Tackling Defra’s ageing digital services, HC 737, published on 10 May 2023, how much of the £871 million allocated in the 2021 Spending Review to be spent by his Department on digital investment over three years has been spent.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
At least £381.5 million of the £871 million allocated in the 2021 Spending Review to be spent by Defra on digital investment has been spent as of 31 December 2023.
Approximately £134 million of the £871 million was allocated to Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) for their own IT expenditure and so is monitored through individual ALB finance processes rather than central Defra finance.
Asked by: Samantha Dixon (Labour - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of flood defences.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working closely with the Environment Agency and relevant authorities to ensure flood defences impacted by recent flooding are repaired as quickly as possible; around 14,000 asset inspections have been conducted following the recent storms with action taken wherever asset performance was compromised.
This year and last, £200 million is being invested in maintaining flood risk assets, with the aim of achieving our current target of between 94-95% in target condition.
In the City of Chester, in the current Flood and Coastal Risk Management capital programme, £20,000 of Flood Defence Grant-in-Aid funding has been allocated for projects in the constituency, which will better protect properties from flooding. There is also a proposed project in the Stretford and Urmston constituency (Longford Brook Flood Alleviation Scheme).
Asked by: Samantha Dixon (Labour - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that water companies meet their target for reduced pollution incidents by 2025.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
While the water sector has delivered a 15% reduction in category 1-3 pollution incidents since 2019, companies are not on track to meet the 2024-25 target. Both the Government and regulators expect water companies to step up this improvement. Ministers regularly meet with the regulators to discuss progress and have engaged directly with water companies who are not performing to the standard we expect.
The Environment Agency regularly meets with water companies to assure progress against their pollution reductions plans, which water companies are required to publish. Pollution offences may be subject to action in line with the Environment Agency’s Enforcement and Sanctions Policy.
Ofwat requires underperforming companies to produce detailed service delivery plans, and Ministers will be following this up with regular meetings with Chairs and CEOs to track progress. I have also written to Ofwat’s Chair and CEO asking them to outline the detailed steps they will take to hold all water companies to account on these findings.
Where companies have underperformed against their commitments, they will be required to return money directly to customers through their bills. Based on the results of Ofwat’s 2022-23 Water Company Performance Report, water companies will have to return £114 million over 2024-25.
Asked by: Samantha Dixon (Labour - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that water companies (a) sample water entering their water treatment plants and (b) publish data on this.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is no requirement currently for water companies to sample and publish data on the quality of water entering their waste water treatment plants. However, they are required to sample treated effluents from their plants which are discharged to the environment. These samples are analysed and assessed for compliance against protective environmental permit requirements. This information is reported to the Environment Agency and published on GOV.UK.
However, a new requirement in S. 82 of the Environment Act 2021 requires sewerage undertakers to continuously monitor the quality of the receiving water upstream and downstream of their assets. This will allow sewerage undertakers to assess the impact of discharges from their assets on the receiving watercourse. The requirement covers both storm overflows and the treatment works discharges and is being introduced in 2025.
Asked by: Samantha Dixon (Labour - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that water companies publish the data they collect on water quality in a timely manner.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is driving up monitoring and transparency of water quality data. We have increased the number of storm overflows monitored across the network from 7% in 2010 to 91% now, and we will reach 100% by end of this year.
The Government has also required water companies to publish Event and Duration Monitoring (EDM) data annually since 2020. Data from 2022 was published in March 2023.
The Government is taking additional steps to further improve water quality data published by companies. In April 2023 we launched a consultation on continuous water quality monitoring, setting out proposals to enhance the monitoring of watercourses to show not just whether an overflow is discharging but also its impact on the receiving watercourse. The Government is currently analysing responses and will respond to the consultation in due course.
The Environment Agency has secured through the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP), the monitoring of Storm Overflows through Event Duration Monitoring (EDM). There will be 100% coverage in England by December 2023. We secure the monitoring and reporting of EDM performance to the Environment Agency through requirements on water and sewerage company discharge permits.
Defra and Government have introduced statutory requirements on the water and sewerage companies to publish EDM data annually and in near real time.
There are also statutory requirements on water and sewerage companies through the environment act for water and sewerage companies to monitor and report on the water quality impacts of their discharges through installation of continuous water quality monitors. The Environment Agency is supporting Defra in their technical standards work around this monitoring and reporting and facilitating delivery by water and sewerage companies through the Environment Agency WINEP PR24 and future programme.
Asked by: Samantha Dixon (Labour - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that fishers meet the mandatory requirement under their fishing vessel licence conditions to report any bycatch of marine mammals to the Marine Management Organisation within 48 hours.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that accidental bycatch in fisheries is one of the greatest threats faced by sensitive marine species such as cetaceans, and we remain fully committed to tackling this issue.
The UK introduced new rules in 2021 making it a mandatory requirement under fishing vessel licence conditions for fishers to report any marine mammal bycatch to the MMO. On the introduction of this requirement, communications were sent out by Defra, the Devolved Administrations and the MMO to ensure that industry understood the new obligations. Responsibility for enforcing licence conditions in Scotland and Northern Ireland is a matter for the Devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Samantha Dixon (Labour - City of Chester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to prevent discarding of fishing nets in the sea by vessels landing at ports.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is committed to protecting the marine environment from all human-induced stressors, including marine litter such as abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear (ALDFG). We are exploring methods to recycle and reuse ALDFG as well as end of life gear at ports and aquaculture farms with the intention of moving the sector to-wards a circular economy model.
The UK is also working collaboratively at the International Maritime Organization to further address actions that have been identified under its 2018 Action Plan and 2021 Strategy on marine plastic litter from ships, in particular ALDFG.
As a Contracting Party to the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, the UK is implementing actions under the new OSPAR Regional Action Plan for Marine Litter to tackle fishing gear as marine litter and have committed to ambitious targets under the North East Atlantic Environment Strategy.
The UK is a member of the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI), the first initiative dedicated to tackling this problem on a global scale. Through the UK’s £500m Blue Planet Fund that was launched in 2021, we are also working in partnership with de-veloping countries to tackle marine pollution, including ALDFG.