Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to improve the flood resilience of the river (a) Rother and (b) Hipper in the Chesterfield area.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency is:
The Environment Agency also carried out a flood warning validation exercise following Storm Babet to help improve the flood warning service.
To ensure that communities are better protected, Defra has established a ministerially led cross-governmental Flood Resilience Taskforce, with the first meeting taking place in September. The Flood Resilience Taskforce will ensure that preparedness and resilience to flooding is reviewed regularly before the start of the main flood season; and that it is continuously improved to ensure optimum protection to people, homes and businesses. It will also provide ministers with longer-term oversight of wider floods resilience strategy and investment programmes.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of impact of the Environment Improvement plan 2023 on the targets listed in the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are committed to the Environment Act targets. This Labour government is committed to ensuring the Environmental Improvement Plan is fit for purpose and will focus on delivering our Environment Act targets.
The new government will work in partnership with civil society, communities and business to restore and protect our natural world.
We intend to publish the Annual Progress Report on implementation of the Environmental Improvement Plan this summer, which will reveal the situation labour have inherited. This will cover the April 2023 to March 2024 reporting period in accordance with section 9 of the Environment Act 2021.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the UK's progress in meeting the targets included in the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are committed to the Environment Act targets. This Labour government is committed to ensuring the Environmental Improvement Plan is fit for purpose and will focus on delivering our Environment Act targets.
The new government will work in partnership with civil society, communities and business to restore and protect our natural world.
We intend to publish the Annual Progress Report on implementation of the Environmental Improvement Plan this summer, which will reveal the situation labour have inherited. This will cover the April 2023 to March 2024 reporting period in accordance with section 9 of the Environment Act 2021.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to amend the targets included in the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are committed to the Environment Act targets. This Labour government is committed to ensuring the Environmental Improvement Plan is fit for purpose and will focus on delivering our Environment Act targets.
The new government will work in partnership with civil society, communities and business to restore and protect our natural world.
We intend to publish the Annual Progress Report on implementation of the Environmental Improvement Plan this summer, which will reveal the situation labour have inherited. This will cover the April 2023 to March 2024 reporting period in accordance with section 9 of the Environment Act 2021.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to review the Environment Improvement plan 2023.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are committed to the Environment Act targets. This Labour government is committed to ensuring the Environmental Improvement Plan is fit for purpose and will focus on delivering our Environment Act targets.
The new government will work in partnership with civil society, communities and business to restore and protect our natural world.
We intend to publish the Annual Progress Report on implementation of the Environmental Improvement Plan this summer, which will reveal the situation labour have inherited. This will cover the April 2023 to March 2024 reporting period in accordance with section 9 of the Environment Act 2021.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hectares of plantations on ancient woodland sites have had licences granted for clearfell and replanting with non-native trees in the last five years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Forestry Commission is the regulator for the legal felling of trees in England under the provisions in the Forestry Act. Most felling licences issued require felled trees or areas of woodland to be replaced by replanting or allowed to regenerate. The exception to this is a thinning licence, where sufficient woodland cover is retained so as not to require restocking.
When considering a felling licence application the Forestry Commission will judge the proposals against the UK Forestry Standard, the government’s approach to sustainable forestry. This is available on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uk-forestry-standard. This standard encompasses the impacts on biodiversity and recognises the importance of priority habitats and species. This is why a felling licence also includes advice and guidance on additional issues a landowner needs to take into account.
The restocking conditions in a felling licence are put in place to help meet the aims of the management of the site through good silvicultural practice. While the Forestry Commission does advise on a suitable species mix there are no provisions in the Forestry Act to mandate the source of trees and whether they are native or non-native.
The guide to Managing England’s woodlands in a climate emergency, advises to manage ancient woodlands in a manner which conserves important biodiversity and heritage features. Greater diversification of species and origin of stands is advised, with a focus on southerly provenances of native species. Due to the unknown nature of acceleration of climate change, management intervention may need to be more frequent in order to preserve these rare habitats effectively. This is available on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/managing-englands-woodlands-in-a-climate-emergency.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 bring the majority of Plantation on Ancient Woodland Sites into restoration by 2030.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Keepers of Time policy, updated in 2021, sets out our principles and objectives to protect and improve ancient and native woodland and trees for future generations. Restoring ancient woodlands that are ecologically degraded is a high priority for the Government. This includes restoring plantations on ancient woodland sites by gradually transforming stands from non-native planted species to native species.
We provide support and incentives through Countryside Stewardship and the HS2 Woodland Fund to restore plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS). We are currently considering how best to support and incentivise PAWS restoration in future environmental land management schemes while making sure they continue to provide owners with income. We support Forestry England to manage ancient woodland sites across the nation’s forests to improve their ecological value and ultimately restore all plantations on ancient woodland sites to resilient native woodland.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) his Department's budget for and (b) the amount spent on the planting of trees was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Data on tree-specific funding is only available from 2020, when the Nature for Climate Tree Programme was established. Since then, Defra has had a capital spend (CDEL) of £232 million on planting trees in England.
The planting of trees has also been funded by Countryside Stewardship payments. Since 2016, £120 million has been claimed planting and managing trees and for managing and enhancing woodlands.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of applicants to the Landscape Recovery scheme were entering land on which they are (a) tenants and (b) owners.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Landscape Recovery offers farmers and land managers the opportunity to co-design a bespoke, long-term agreement to produce environmental and climate goods whilst supporting environmentally sustainable domestic food production across landscape-scale projects.
Landscape Recovery Round 1 supports 22 projects. Project areas range between 500 and 5,000 hectares, covering a total of over 40,000 hectares. Round 2 is expected to support 34 projects, covering a total of over 200,000 hectares. Rounds 1 and 2 include over 250 and over 700 land managers, respectively. The majority of projects currently in Round 1 involve at least one tenant, and it is expected that over three quarters of Round 2 projects will include tenants. We want to make Landscape Recovery work in a range of contexts, especially where there is a diversity of land managers. We are closely monitoring how the scheme works for tenants in light of the findings and recommendations of the Rock Review.
We have a legal duty to assess the impact of all our Environmental Land Management schemes, including Landscape Recovery, on food production. All Landscape Recovery projects are required to assess their impact on food production in detail during the project development phase. We also introduced a food production criterion at the application phase in Round 2, through which we assessed how bidders were taking into consideration food production in their plans, mitigating any negative impact where possible and supporting sustainable food production.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 hectares of land managed by each applicant to the Landscape Recovery scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Landscape Recovery offers farmers and land managers the opportunity to co-design a bespoke, long-term agreement to produce environmental and climate goods whilst supporting environmentally sustainable domestic food production across landscape-scale projects.
Landscape Recovery Round 1 supports 22 projects. Project areas range between 500 and 5,000 hectares, covering a total of over 40,000 hectares. Round 2 is expected to support 34 projects, covering a total of over 200,000 hectares. Rounds 1 and 2 include over 250 and over 700 land managers, respectively. The majority of projects currently in Round 1 involve at least one tenant, and it is expected that over three quarters of Round 2 projects will include tenants. We want to make Landscape Recovery work in a range of contexts, especially where there is a diversity of land managers. We are closely monitoring how the scheme works for tenants in light of the findings and recommendations of the Rock Review.
We have a legal duty to assess the impact of all our Environmental Land Management schemes, including Landscape Recovery, on food production. All Landscape Recovery projects are required to assess their impact on food production in detail during the project development phase. We also introduced a food production criterion at the application phase in Round 2, through which we assessed how bidders were taking into consideration food production in their plans, mitigating any negative impact where possible and supporting sustainable food production.