Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding farmers are offered for flood management.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is funding environmental land management (ELM) schemes, which include measures to support farmers with managing flood risks or investing in natural flood management. The Government has committed to investing £11.8 billion in the farming budget over the course of this Parliament, with funding for ELM increasing from £800 million in 2023/24 to £2 billion by 2028/29.
Data on the uptake and spend on individual actions in these schemes is regularly published and available at: Agri-environment scheme uptake data - GOV.UK
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the flooding risk to farms; and what percentage of farms are at high flood risk.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our new national flood risk assessment (NaFRA) shows that of the 85,000 square kilometres of agricultural land in England, over 11,000 square kilometres is in areas at risk of flooding from rivers and sea.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of expanding flooding support eligibility for farmers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is funding environmental land management (ELM) schemes, which include measures to support farmers with managing flood risks or investing in natural flood management. The Government has committed to investing £11.8 billion in the farming budget over the course of this Parliament, with funding for ELM increasing from £800 million in 2023/24 to £2 billion by 2028/29.
Data on the uptake and spend on individual actions in these schemes is regularly published and available at: Agri-environment scheme uptake data - GOV.UK
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many water outage incidents have occurred in each of the last five years.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies are Category Two Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and have duties to plan for emergencies, including water outage incidents. In England, the Security and Emergency Measures Direction 2022 (SEMD) is the main legislative framework specific to water companies for emergency planning.
This Government has been clear there is no excuse for poor performance, and that water companies must take seriously their role in meeting the public and regulators’ expectations. The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) regulates water company performance against SEMD requirements. The DWI has a range of tools to hold companies to account, including serving companies with enforcement orders.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 levels of resilience of water treatment works.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ofwat has a legislative duty to further the resilience of water companies’ water supply and wastewater systems to enable them to meet long-term need.
The Government is preparing to respond to the recommendations of the Independent Water Commission, including on asset health and resilience. Reforms outlined in this response will form the basis of a new water reform bill to be introduced during this Parliament.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans are in place for periods of water shortage and supply outages.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In England and Wales, The Security and Emergency Measures Direction 2022 (SEMD) is the main legislative framework specific to water companies for emergency planning. It requires water companies to ensure continuation of their water distribution functions during an emergency. Separate arrangements apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Companies are required under the SEMD framework to plan for a wide range of disruptive scenarios, including continuous monitoring of risks such as severe winter weather. In addition to SEMD requirements, companies are also incentivised under Ofwat’s performance targets regime to minimise supply interruptions and resulting customer impacts. The Drinking Water Inspectorate regulates water company performance on SEMD performance.
Water companies are also Category Two Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and have duties to plan for emergencies and cooperate with other organisations in their Local Resilience Forums in understanding risk, planning and exercising.
Defra maintains regular strategic engagement with water companies on resilience planning. This includes in advance of forecast periods of severe weather. Water companies also engage with their Local Resilience Forums during responses to water outages.
Defra undertakes strategic risk assessment, planning and engagement with the water sector and other government departments to regarding water outage risk.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
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 she has made of the number of people leaving the agricultural sector.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra produces statistical estimates of the number of people working on commercial [see a below] agricultural holdings in England. Defra does not monitor the numbers leaving and entering the sector separately, therefore estimates show the net change in the workforce.
Estimates in the table below show a decrease of 1.9% in the agricultural workforce in England between June 2024 and 2025.
Agricultural workforce in England at 1 June:
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | % change 2025/2024 |
Total people working on commercial agricultural holdings | 292,401 | 284,797 | 279,493 | -1.9% |
Notes
(a) Commercial holdings are those registered with the Rural Payments Agency for payments or livestock purposes and with significant levels of farming activity.
Full data series for England and the UK are published here:
Agricultural workforce in England at 1 June - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Agricultural Workforce in the United Kingdom at 1 June - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of the Department's budget is allocated to work on flood defences and mitigation.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Delivering on the Plan for Change, this government is investing at least £10.5 billion until 2036 to construct new flood schemes and repair existing defences, protecting communities from the devastating impacts of climate change.
The proportion of Defra Group’s total budget allocated to Floods in 2025/26 is 20%. This remains the second largest area of the Defra Group budget.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Department is taking to help tackle water scarcity.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of having enough water through the Environment Improvement Plan – ‘Goal 3: Water - We will ensure English waters are clean, resilient and plentiful.’ Within this plan, there are stretching targets to reduce demand for water.
The Government is playing its part by introducing a new mandatory water efficiency label and reviewing building standards to help people use a little less water.
In addition, water companies are required to publish water resources management plans (WRMP) that set out how the companies will provide secure public water supplies for a 25-year period. The recently published 2024 WRMPs set out how water supplies would be maintained over the coming years through demand management, leakage reduction and enhancing supplies from river and groundwater sources in the time period before new strategic sources of water, such as large reservoirs, come online.
The Environment Agency (EA) published the National Framework for Water Resources in June 2025, which sets out the current and future pressures on water resources and the main actions needed across government, regulators, regional groups, water companies and all sectors of use to address the challenge of water scarcity. This includes the need for joined-up planning between different water-using sectors to identify collaborative solutions for water resources.
The EA is carrying this work forward, with a programme of resilience workstreams across sectors, including for public water supply, agriculture, energy, and data centres.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the difference is in legal duties and obligations between limit values under the Air Quality Standards Regulations and air quality targets for PM2.5 concentrations set in the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Air Quality Standards Regulations (AQSR) 2010 establish legally binding standards across the UK, for numerous air pollutants, including PM2.5. The AQSR limit value for PM2.5 concentrations is 20 micrograms per cubic meter in England and responsibility for meeting the target lies with the Secretary of State.
Targets established through the Environment Act 2021 (The Environmental Targets (Fine Particulate Matter) (England) Regulations 2023) set legally binding targets of annual mean concentration of 10 micrograms per cubic meter or lower by 2040, and a 35% reduction in population exposure by 2040 (compared to 2018 levels). These apply to England only and responsibility for meeting the targets lies with the Secretary of State. The Environmental Improvement Plan also sets out non-legally binding interim targets.
Some AQSR standards are mirrored in the Local Air Quality Management framework. This is not the case for the Environment Act 2021 targets, although local authorities are required through the Air Quality Strategy to contribute to targets being met.