Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish a progress report against the food strategy goals.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government Food Strategy set out our vision for a prosperous agri-food sector. Last year's Farm to Fork Summit was the next step in growing a thriving British food and drink sector, which will put more British produce on supermarket shelves in the UK and around the world. This will also help us to deliver our clear ambition in the strategy to maintain production at current levels, where we produce domestically 60 per cent by value of all the food we need.
At the NFU Conference on 20 February 2024, the Prime Minister announced that we will make the UK Farm to Fork Summit an annual event.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
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 page 73 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, published on 27 October 2021, how much and what proportion of the £0.3 billion allocated to his Department for (a) tree planting and (b) peat restoration for the 2024-25 financial year has been spent; and how much he plans to spend on tree planting in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Our financial year runs from April to March, therefore, the 2024-25 financial year has not started, so no money has been spent for this financial year.
The current spending review runs up to March 2025, therefore no budgets have been formally agreed past this point.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
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 Fourth Report of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee of Session 2022-23 on Rural Mental Health, HC248, published on 9 May 2023, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations in the section entitled Rural mental health service provision, policy and strategy development.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We remain committed to supporting thriving rural communities, as set out in our report Unleashing Rural Opportunity, published in June 2023.
Since the launch of the EFRA Committee’s inquiry in 2021, considerable progress has been made to help ensure access to mental health services in rural areas. The Government published its Response to the EFRA Committee Report on Rural Mental Health in October 2023.
The response recognised that people living and working in rural areas may face specific challenges in accessing the mental health services that they need and set out the various actions being taken forward to address mental health needs.
Key actions include:
To help improve the service and support on offer to farmers we will make up to £500,000 available to deliver projects that support mental health in the farming sector. This will build on the support already on offer through the Farming Resilience Fund, which has benefitted over 19,000 farmers to date.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of exemption applications to keep an XL Bully dog his Department has (a) received and (b) processed since the XL Bully ban was announced.
Answered by Mark Spencer
My Department will provide the total number of exemption applications received ahead of the deadline, as soon as possible. These applications are still being processed and may include duplicates, errors or ineligible applications. As of 19 February, we have issued over 54,000 Certificates of Exemption.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the National Police Chiefs Council on the (a) enforcement and (b) prioritisation of the addition of XL Bully type dogs to Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra worked closely with the National Police Chiefs Council in developing and delivering the ban on XL Bully type dogs. Representatives from the National Police Chiefs Council formed part of the expert group that developed the conformation standard for the XL Bully, so the breed type could be banned in law. We have continued to engage regularly with their representatives on the enforcement of the XL Bully ban and have supported the police to deliver additional training to Dog Legislation Officers to make sure the ban is effectively enforced.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost to the public purse is of training dog legislation officers to enforce the addition of XL Bully type dogs to Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra has spent £102,320 to support the police to deliver additional training to Dog Legislation Officers to make sure the ban on XL Bully type dogs is effectively enforced.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
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 launch a consultation on the potential impact of increasing production costs on farmers’ mental health.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government understands the pressures some farmers are facing in light of rising input costs. We are keeping the situation under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. We also continue our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real time intelligence.
In addition to this, we are providing expert business support to farmers under the Future Farming Resilience Fund. One of the key required outcomes for the Resilience Fund is that farmers’ mental health and wellbeing are supported, where required. Some delivery providers are offering this support from in-house experts and others are signposting support available from external expert services.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the money unspent across his Department's budgets in 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra has agreed with HM Treasury to budget exchange from 2023/24 to 2024/25 the following: £47.9 million Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL) for the Future Farming and Countryside Programme; £24.2 million CDEL for the Science Capability in Animal Health Programme; and £33.21 million CDEL for the Borders Programme. In addition, Defra has reprofiled £116.24 million CDEL primarily to reflect more accurate spend over future years.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on the agreements made at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15).
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The UK played a leading role at COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in securing agreement to a historic package of measures to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. Our priority for COP16 and beyond is to drive global delivery of these agreements both at home and abroad, by working closely with our international partners.
Since COP15, we have worked internationally to drive delivery of the Kunming Montreal targets, including by:
Domestically we have:
The four nations of the UK are working together and aim to publish a UK-wide revised NBSAP (National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan) by May 2024, ahead of CBD COP16.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
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 ban on American XL Bullies on the (a) rescue and (b) veterinary sectors.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra worked closely with stakeholders including rescue and rehoming centres and the veterinary sector to consider the impacts of banning XL Bully dogs. We continue to engage with stakeholders to monitor the impacts of the ban.