Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
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 whole supply chain emissions reporting requires clear disclosure of gross emissions, and does not permit narrower Scope 1 and 2 reporting elsewhere in the chain to obscure the Scope 3 impacts of primary producers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
While the framework for business climate reporting is a policy matter for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, Defra is working with industry to support a consistent and robust approach to climate reporting for the food and drink sector. Our Food Data Transparency Partnership is improving comparable emissions data across the supply chain, from farms to retailers, including around Scope 3 emissions accounting.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
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 how the costs of emissions reductions in the dairy supply chain are distributed between producers, processors, retailers and consumers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
While the Government has not undertaken a specific assessment of how the costs of dairy supply chain emissions reductions are distributed, we are committed to working with the whole food supply chain to reduce agricultural emissions to strengthen food security whilst supporting farm profitability. As part of this, we are supporting businesses to invest in their supply chains to improve resilience and sustainability, with financial benefits flowing to farmers.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what financial support is available to farmers for protecting existing carbon stores such as peatland, permanent grassland, hedgerows, woodland and mature trees.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the information available on GOV.UK which outlines grant funding for peatland restoration and management (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-funding-boost-to-protect-englands-iconic-peatlands) and trees and woodland grants (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/where-to-find-grants-for-trees-and-woodland). Additionally, Environmental Land Management schemes include actions that support peatland, permanent grassland, hedgerows, woodland and mature trees.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
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 agricultural carbon reporting frameworks distinguish clearly between independently verified data, modelled estimates and elements that remain unquantified.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For farms businesses and agricultural products Defra is developing a standardised approach to carbon reporting. The work aims to establish robust methodologies and criteria for high-quality farm carbon assessments. It will improve the consistency and reliability of emissions data, enabling transparent and comparable greenhouse gas reporting for the agri-food system.
For UK territorial emissions Defra operates a world leading agricultural emissions accounting system, compliant with requirements set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. National emissions estimates are verified with real world measurements and modelled using science-based methodologies which are independently reviewed and publicly available.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
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 potential merits of using GWP* alongside GWP100 to account for methane emissions from livestock, in order to reflect whether herd-level emissions are increasing, stable or declining over time.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra recognises the ongoing debate on how best to account for short-lived greenhouse gases such as methane. While GWP* can provide useful insights into methane's warming effects, it is not currently considered a suitable replacement for conventional emissions reporting metrics in agriculture. The GWP* concept of "no additional warming" risks implying that continued methane emissions are environmentally neutral and may weaken incentives for emissions reductions. GWP100 remains the internationally agreed metric for greenhouse gas reporting. The UK will continue to engage in international discussions and monitor emerging evidence, guided by the best available science and international consensus.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
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 potential merits of recognising existing carbon stocks held in peatland, permanent pasture, hedgerows and woodland on farms, in addition to new annual carbon sequestration, within agricultural emissions accounting methodologies.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory accounts for greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration from managed land through the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector, alongside the agriculture sector. Together, these form the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) component of national greenhouse gas reporting.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
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 (a) the potential merits of creating a distinct classification of responder, separate from reactor, for non-reactor cattle that test positive to non-statutory bovine tuberculosis tests and may be latently infected and non-infectious and (b) the potential impact of such a classification on (i) compensation costs and (ii) farmer-led disease management.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The recently published recommended Bovine TB Control Strategy for England (https://tbhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-Recommended-Bovine-TB-Strategy.pdf) proposes facilitating wider access to privately funded ancillary bovine TB testing to support earlier detection of infected cattle and disease management.
The Government will now consider the recommendations in the proposed Strategy, including the creation of a distinct, formal classification of ‘responder’ for TB control purposes, and the potential impacts of such a classification.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
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 make Animal and Plant Health Agency bovine tuberculosis testing data accessible with appropriate permissions and GDPR safeguards to private veterinary surgeons engaged with the herds concerned.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal and Plant Health Agency has an established process enabling cattle keepers to request TB testing data relating to their herds. Keepers need to complete and submit a request proforma to APHA. Keepers may then choose with whom they wish to share their herd's test data.
The recently published recommended Bovine TB Control Strategy for England (https://tbhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-Recommended-Bovine-TB-Strategy.pdf) emphasises the importance of providing secure TB farm-level data to farmers and their vets in a timely manner, to aid decision making. Government will now carefully consider the recommendations in the proposed strategy.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance and reassurance they have offered to local authorities in interpreting the Standards of Modern Zoo Practice 2027 in regard to farmed reindeers.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for Great Britain, published in May 2025, apply to all zoos in Great Britain licensed under the Zoo Licensing Act 1981 (the 1981 Act). The new Zoo Standards contain requirements that are applicable to all licensed zoo animals, including reindeer, as well as containing requirements for specific species, such as elephants and great apes. Defra has not provided any separate guidance to local authorities on the new Zoo Standards on reindeer licensed under the 1981 Act.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what conversations they have had with local authorities on the interpretation of the Standards of Modern Zoo Practice 2027.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government published new Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for Great Britain on 24 May 2025. The Standards will come into force from May 2027 and will replace the current 2012 Secretary of State’s Standards of Modern Zoo Practice.
One of the objectives in updating the Standards has been to make requirements clearer to aid enforcement and compliance. As set out in the Animal Welfare strategy published in December 2025, the Department is working with the Zoos Expert Committee, which contains local authority representation – as well as other local authority zoo licensing groups – to update licensing guidance and inspection forms to make it more straightforward for local authorities to enforce the new Standards.