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 estimate his Department has made of the total calorific value of food available within the UK in the event of a disruption to supply chains.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK does not have national food stockpiles or current plans to create these. The UK has a resilient food supply chain that is well equipped to deal with potential disruption. This high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources including strong domestic production and imports through stable trade routes.
Defra published the second edition of the UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) in December 2024. The UKFSR sets out an analysis of statistics relating to food security, serving as an evidence base to inform Government policy and public understanding. It tracks trends in domestic production, import reliance, inflation, and supply chain. The next UKFSR will be published in 2027.
The annual UK Food Security Digest is published in the years between the UK Food Security Report, with the first one released in December 2025. It covers a selected range of priority indicators that are of high interest and/or highly variable.
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 estimate his Department has made of the adequacy of the volume of food held in storage for use in a national emergency.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK does not have national food stockpiles or current plans to create these. The UK has a resilient food supply chain that is well equipped to deal with potential disruption. This high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources including strong domestic production and imports through stable trade routes.
Defra published the second edition of the UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) in December 2024. The UKFSR sets out an analysis of statistics relating to food security, serving as an evidence base to inform Government policy and public understanding. It tracks trends in domestic production, import reliance, inflation, and supply chain. The next UKFSR will be published in 2027.
The annual UK Food Security Digest is published in the years between the UK Food Security Report, with the first one released in December 2025. It covers a selected range of priority indicators that are of high interest and/or highly variable.
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 estimate she has made of the number of days of food stocks nationally in the event of a significant disruption to supply.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK does not have national food stockpiles or current plans to create these. The UK has a resilient food supply chain that is well equipped to deal with potential disruption. This high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources including strong domestic production and imports through stable trade routes.
Defra published the second edition of the UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) in December 2024. The UKFSR sets out an analysis of statistics relating to food security, serving as an evidence base to inform Government policy and public understanding. It tracks trends in domestic production, import reliance, inflation, and supply chain. The next UKFSR will be published in 2027.
The annual UK Food Security Digest is published in the years between the UK Food Security Report, with the first one released in December 2025. It covers a selected range of priority indicators that are of high interest and/or highly variable.
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 plans his Department has to develop food storage and distribution capacity for use in national emergencies.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK does not have national food stockpiles or current plans to create these. The UK has a resilient food supply chain that is well equipped to deal with potential disruption. This high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources including strong domestic production and imports through stable trade routes.
Defra published the second edition of the UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) in December 2024. The UKFSR sets out an analysis of statistics relating to food security, serving as an evidence base to inform Government policy and public understanding. It tracks trends in domestic production, import reliance, inflation, and supply chain. The next UKFSR will be published in 2027.
The annual UK Food Security Digest is published in the years between the UK Food Security Report, with the first one released in December 2025. It covers a selected range of priority indicators that are of high interest and/or highly variable.
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 resilience of food supply chains.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK does not have national food stockpiles or current plans to create these. The UK has a resilient food supply chain that is well equipped to deal with potential disruption. This high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources including strong domestic production and imports through stable trade routes.
Defra published the second edition of the UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) in December 2024. The UKFSR sets out an analysis of statistics relating to food security, serving as an evidence base to inform Government policy and public understanding. It tracks trends in domestic production, import reliance, inflation, and supply chain. The next UKFSR will be published in 2027.
The annual UK Food Security Digest is published in the years between the UK Food Security Report, with the first one released in December 2025. It covers a selected range of priority indicators that are of high interest and/or highly variable.
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 illegal waste sites are known to the Environment Agency in each English district in the most recent year for which data is available; and what estimate she has made of the total number of large-scale illegal waste sites, including those not officially recorded.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has provided the attached dataset which shows the number of illegal wastes sites by Local Authority Area as of 7 October 2025, from the total of 517 sites active at that time.
The EA does not hold a view on what would make a site large scale because it assesses risk posed by sites. There are 151 sites that it considers to be higher risk sites.
The number of illegal waste sites will change as sites are stopped and new sites are found.
The EA is unable to report on anything in relation to sites not officially recorded.
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 waste crime officers are currently employed by the Environment Agency; and how many large-scale illegal waste sites have a designated waste crime officer assigned to them.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are 331 full-time employees directly involved in waste crime. This number includes officers in the Area and National operational teams who respond to illegal waste sites, prevent and disrupt waste crime at sites in England, prevent illegal exports of waste to other countries, conduct criminal investigations and combat fraud and money laundering related to waste regimes.
The Environment Agency does not designate a waste crime officer to individual sites. Instead, teams work together to respond to reports of illegal waste sites.
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 was the cost to the public purse of landfill site regulation, monitoring, and remediation over the last five years.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) regulates permitted landfill sites on a full cost‑recovery basis. The costs of regulation are met by the landfill operators, primarily through annual subsistence charges which are paid by permit holders. These charges cover routine inspections and audits, assessment of monitoring and reporting requirements and ensuring that sites are properly closed and remediated at the end of their operational life.
Where the EA is required to undertake additional or non‑standard regulatory activity, landfill operators are required to pay supplementary charges to cover the full cost of that work.
As a result, the regulation of permitted landfill sites should not impose an ongoing cost on the public purse. Any additional costs would arise only in exceptional circumstances, such as enforcement action where cost recovery is not possible and intervening in cases where a site has been abandoned and the permit disclaimed. The EA does not currently hold figures for these additional costs.
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 estimate his Department has made of the level of national water storage capacity.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency’s National System Simulation Model, which includes 90% of England’s supply system, shows the current national total storage capacity of 2.03 billion cubic metres for public water use.
Havant Thicket reservoir is currently under construction and a further 9 new reservoirs are planned by water companies. These are expected to provide an additional water supply of over 700million litres per day by 2050.
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 his Department has made of the level of surplus water availability during periods of expected drought.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies must plan for secure supplies during severe droughts, without the need for emergency restrictions. The 2024/2025 annual review of water company data showed that England has an overall surplus. However, this is less than expected in half of areas. Regulators are working closely with water companies to improve progress on delivering new water supplies and managing water demand reductions in response to this.