Asked by: Amanda Hack (Labour - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who is the Minister responsible for the implementation of the Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Baroness Hayman of Ullock was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with responsibility for animal welfare for England.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what evidence her Department submitted to the Office for National Statistics' review of the ethnicity harmonised standard, including in relation to the recording of Sikhs and Jewish people as ethnic groups.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
An initial response to the public consultation is due to be published in April, followed by a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026. This report will include all formal responses to the consultation, and the names of the organisations that responded.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 her Department’s press release entitled Clearer rules to support councils in fight against litter louts, published on 3 March 2026, what additional funding and resources her Department has provided to local authorities to support enforcement of littering offences.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To support local councils to make good use of their fixed penalty powers for littering the Government has laid new Statutory Guidance, “Litter enforcement powers: when and how to use them” in Parliament. Local councils will need to have regard to this guidance when using their powers. This guidance is available at: Litter enforcement powers: when and how to use them - GOV.UK
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will be issuing a small grant payment to local authorities in England to support them to familiarise themselves with the Litter Enforcement Guidance.
The Government has also laid the ‘Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse statutory guidance in Parliament which outlines the standards expected of local authorities and other duty bodies (e.g. National Highways) with regards to their duty to keep their land clear of litter and refuse. This guidance can be found on: Code of practice on litter and refuse - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will issue guidance to firearms licensing departments on mandating training for firearms being used for deer management at either grant or renewal.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Chief Constables have operational responsibility for firearms licensing. However, as set out in the Deer Impacts Policy Statement published by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) on 2 March.
The Home Office will work with the National Police Chief’s Council and Defra to explore whether the existing Guide on Firearms Licensing Law might be amended to encourage police forces to consider requiring those who use their firearms to shoot deer lawfully to first be able to demonstrate a minimum level of competence in doing so.
Any proposed changes to the Guide will be subject to discussions with stakeholders.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many directors with responsibility for human resources are employed across their department and its executive agencies; and how many of those directors hold professional HR qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development or equivalent professional bodies.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All directors with responsibility for human resources hold MCIPD and FCIPD qualifications. The number of directors is not releasable due to privacy protections.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to protect the UK’s national security, in the context of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Nature Security Assessment on Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security, published on 20 January 2026.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Nature security assessment forms part of routine cross-government resilience planning and complements the UK’s National Security Strategy, National Risk Register and Chronic Risk Analysis.
Climate change and nature loss act as risk multipliers, increasing pressures on food systems, water security and global stability. Assessing these risks helps ensure the UK is better prepared to anticipate, respond to, and mitigate future challenges.
The UK is already taking action to address the potential risks identified in the assessment. Internationally, the UK is investing in forest and ocean protection and is on track to invest £11.6bn of International Climate Finance between 2021 to 2026, including £3bn for vital habitats such as tropical rainforests and marine ecosystems, and to support indigenous communities.
The Government recognises that food security is national security. As set out in the UK Food Security Report 2024, our production and trade remain stable, but risks from nature loss, water insecurity and climate change post challenges to long-term resilience.
We are supporting domestic food production through investment in sustainable farming, innovation and technology, and by rewarding farmers for environmentally sustainable production. This includes a record £11.8 billion investment in sustainable farming over this Parliament.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 paragraph 88 of the policy paper entitled UK Government Resilience Action Plan, published on 14 July 2025, how many meetings have been attended by civil servants within their Department in relation to the Home Defence Programme; which directorate in the Department owns the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme; and what the job title is of the civil servant leading and cohering the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Resilience Action Plan sets out the Government’s strategic approach to how we will strengthen our domestic resilience and invest to protect the nation. Defra officials regularly attend meetings to discuss the implementation of the Resilience Action Plan as well as matters of national security and defence.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is actively contributing to this work with a team coordinating the department’s planning for home defence. This is overseen by the Director for Ministerial, Growth & Resilience, currently SRO for the Home Defence Programme.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any civil servants hired by her Department were recruited over another person on the basis of a protected characteristic in each of the last three years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Civil Service recruitment must follow the rules set out in legislation within the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaGA) 2010, which outlines the requirements to ensure that civil servants are recruited on merit, via fair and open competition.
Compliance with CRaGA is overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission, which publishes Recruitment Principles setting out the detailed rules departments must follow.
For departments who use Civil Service Jobs to manage their recruitment, applicants are asked to provide diversity data on a voluntary basis only and no details are shared with hiring managers.
The positive action measures in the Equality Act 2010 allows employers to take proportionate action that aims to reduce disadvantage, meet different needs and increase participation. More information on this can be found on gov.uk.
Employers who choose to use positive action can help people who share a particular protected characteristic to overcome certain barriers under the measures. However, employers need to ensure they do this in a way which does not unfairly disadvantage other groups as this could amount to ‘positive discrimination’, which is unlawful.
Asked by: Lord Markham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 16 February (HL14539), whether water companies are required to make an active contribution to the protection and improvement of public health.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Water companies have statutory and regulatory duties to protect and improve public health and actively take steps to meet them. These include completion of risk assessments and the sampling of drinking water supplies that may cause the supply not to be wholesome. “Wholesomeness” is defined in the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016 as water which does not contain any microorganism, parasite, or substance at a concentration or value which would constitute a potential danger to public health.
Where a water company is also legally required to add fluoride to water supplies to improve public health, it must do so in a way that complies with the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s Code of Practice on Technical Aspects of Fluoridation of Water Supplies 2021.
Protecting and improving public health is also a priority in the Government’s planned reforms for the water sector. A new taskforce, led by the Chief Medical Officer for England, will support the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, providing independent and technical advice on public health risks from water and opportunities to improve water treatment and protection.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of vaping devices that contain (a) multiple cartridges, (b) pods and (c) refill containers that can be used simultaneously or sequentially within a single device on the health of the people using that device.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will stop vapes and nicotine products from being deliberately branded, promoted, and advertised to children and will provide the Government with new powers to restrict the packaging, device appearance, and display of vapes and other nicotine products to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine.
On 8 October 2025, we launched a Call for Evidence which sought evidence on the size and shape of vapes, vape tanks, and the components of vaping products, including pods, puff-count capacity, and nicotine delivery.
We are now reviewing the responses, and these will help inform decisions around our future regulatory approach once the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has been enacted.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as part of their upcoming Circular Economy Growth Plan, will consider evidence across a range of interventions, including but not limited to the regulation of product features to support increased recyclability.