Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of high levels of pollutants in food produced near waste incinerators in Europe; and whether they have any plans to conduct similar assessments in the UK.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has not made any assessment of reports on this subject and does not plan to conduct any such assessments in England.
The impact on food produced in proximity to waste incinerators is considered as part of environmental permitting regulations. The EA is responsible for deciding whether new incinerators in England should get a permit to operate. For each permit application it receives, the EA uses the results of air quality modelling and a human health risk assessment (HHRA) to determine the impact of the proposed incinerator.
The HHRA assesses impacts on the food chain. Impact assessments are very conservative and permit decisions are based on worst-case scenario impacts.
The EA also consults the UK Health Security Agency and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on every permit application it receives and will not issue a permit if the proposed plant could cause significant pollution or harm to human health, including via the food chain.
The FSA is responsible for the management of public health risks in relation to food. In general, the FSA considers that if incinerator facilities are correctly operated and monitored, with the appropriate level of emissions abatement, there should be no impact on the local area in terms of elevated levels of contaminants in soil and locally produced food. Measures are in place to manage the risk from chemical contaminants and keep levels as low as reasonably achievable through good practices and regulatory controls.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 work with metro mayors to create a plan for flooding across Yorkshire.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Lead Local Flood Authorities have a duty to develop, maintain, apply and monitor a strategy for local flood risk management in its area, and the Government is supportive of them working together to deliver shared mitigations for a wider area.
The Government has committed to reform the current approach to local flood risk planning by 2026, ensuring every area of England will have a more strategic and comprehensive plan that drives long-term local action and investment and supports a catchment-based approach. To strengthen collaboration, we will encourage flood and coastal erosion risk management activities across local authority boundaries and explore options to join up flood resilience with other responsibilities held by Mayors or Combined Authorities.
As part of the Government’s six-year £200 million flood and coastal innovation programme (FCIP), £8 million is allocated to four adaptation pathways to support work in the Thames and Humber estuaries, the Severn Valley and Yorkshire to trial and develop ways of planning ahead and making wise investment choices for the decades to come in the face of the long-term uncertainties brought by climate change. The West Yorkshire Adaption Pathway (WYAP) project is developing a community-scale surface water flood risk adaptation plan for a town in West Yorkshire. The South Yorkshire Adaption Pathway (SYAP) project aims to develop an adaptation pathway plan for South Yorkshire which will ensure that all decision-making on, and implementation of, long-term, future adaptation is as efficient and effective as possible.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21017 on Darwin Plus, if he will provide a breakdown of Darwin Plus fund projects funded since 2019.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Pursuant to the Answer of 18 April to Question 21017, a summary of Darwin Plus projects funded since 2019, broken down by Territory, can be found below. These figures include the latest awards from Rounds 12 of Darwin Plus Main and Fellowships, Round 1 of Darwin Plus Strategic, and Round 3 of Darwin Plus Local.
Overseas Territory | Grant Funding from 2019 - 2024 |
Anguilla | £4,818,639.72 |
Bermuda | £961,876.60 |
British Antarctic Territory | £1,368,375.75 |
British Indian Ocean Territory | £1,695,969.14 |
British Virgin Islands | £4,652,346.29 |
Cayman Islands | £4,152,086.03 |
Falkland Islands | £3,789,195.36 |
Gibraltar | £319,343.10 |
Montserrat | £2,842,585.69 |
Pitcairn, Henderson, Oeno and Ducie Islands | £423,105.00 |
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha | £6,486,241.84 |
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands | £5,278,964.75 |
Sovereign Base Area of Akrotiri and Dhekelia | £1,883,252.50 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | £4,120,137.14 |
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, how many full time staff work in the Environment Agency Economic Crime Unit.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Fifteen full-time staff worked for the Environment Agency Economic Crime Unit on 22 April 2024.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
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 help reduce flooding in urban areas.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing £5.6 billion between 2021 and 2027 to better protect communities across England from flooding and coastal erosion. This investment includes a record £5.2 billion capital investment programme, a £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme, £170 million for economic recovery from flooding and over £30 million of funding for flood incident management.
This investment will benefit both urban and rural communities. We forecast that around 55% of the £5.2bn investment, and around 60% of schemes, will better protect properties in urban areas. This includes investment in major flood projects benefitting urban areas, such as the Thames Estuary Programme, the Southsea Coastal Scheme, and others.
Flood risk is also an important consideration in the planning system and there are strong safeguards in place. In 2022/23, 96% of all planning decisions complied with Environment Agency advice on flood risk.
On 13 March 2024 the Government published its response to the National Infrastructure Commission’s study into ‘reducing the risk of surface water flooding’. Our response sets out actions to strengthen and further develop the implementation of current policy, supporting lead local flood authorities to access better data, information and to improve co-operation between bodies.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to tackle diet-related ill-health, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to promoting a healthy diet for adults and children and are delivering an ambitious programme of work to create a healthier environment to help people make healthy food choices to improve health and to tackle diet related ill health. There are a range of measures in place to support improving diets, promoting physical activity and reducing obesity.
Regulations on out of home calorie labelling for food sold in large businesses, including restaurants, cafes and takeaways, came into force in April 2022. Restrictions on the placement of products high in fat, sugar or salt in key selling locations, came into force on 1 October 2022. We will be implementing restrictions on the sale of less healthy products by volume price such as ‘3 for 2’ and will introduce restrictions on the advertising of less healthy products before 9pm on TV and paid for less healthy product advertising online from 1 October 2025.
We are working with the food industry to make further progress on reformulation and ensure it is easier for the public to make healthier choices. The Food Data Transparency Partnership will help enable and encourage food companies to voluntarily demonstrate progress on the healthiness of their sales.
The Government continues to promote the Eatwell Guide principles through the NHS.UK website and government social marketing campaigns such as Better Health Healthier Families and Start for Life. We are also supporting more than three million children through the Healthy Foods Schemes and helping schools boost physical activity to help children maintain a healthy weight and good overall health through the Primary School PE and Sport Premium and the School Games Organiser Network.
We are continuing to support local authorities to improve the uptake of the NHS Health Check, England's cardiovascular disease prevention programme. The NHS Health Check helps to prevent a range of conditions including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Each year the programme engages over 1 million people and prevents around 400 heart attacks or strokes.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the impact of sewage discharges on sports clubs engaged in (a) swimming, (b) surfing, (c) angling, (d) canoeing and (e) other water sports.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
In our Sport Strategy, ‘Get Active’, we set out our unapologetic ambition to build a more active nation and our vision to ensure the sector can thrive in the years ahead. Outdoor recreation on our nation’s coastline and in our rivers, lakes and canals are vital to the participation landscape.
We recognise the need for water sport participants to have access to consistent and up-to-date data about bathing water quality. DCMS is working with relevant water based National Governing Bodies and the Outdoors For All Coalition to understand the barriers to accessing and participating in green and blue spaces.
Designated bathing waters and water quality monitoring in England remain the responsibility of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency (EA). DEFRA is a permanent member of the National Physical Activity Taskforce, which ensures that we deliver coordinated policy in this area.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department has taken to support water sports clubs that have been impacted by high levels of e. coli in (a) rivers and (b) other bodies of water.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
In our Sport Strategy, ‘Get Active’, we set out our unapologetic ambition to build a more active nation and our vision to ensure the sector can thrive in the years ahead. Outdoor recreation on our nation’s coastline and in our rivers, lakes and canals are vital to the participation landscape.
We recognise the need for water sport participants to have access to consistent and up-to-date data about bathing water quality. DCMS is working with relevant water based National Governing Bodies and the Outdoors For All Coalition to understand the barriers to accessing and participating in green and blue spaces.
Designated bathing waters and water quality monitoring in England remain the responsibility of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Environment Agency (EA). DEFRA is a permanent member of the National Physical Activity Taskforce, which ensures that we deliver coordinated policy in this area.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce (a) single-use and (b) other plastic waste.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In December 2018, the UK Government published its Resources and Waste Strategy. This sets out how we will achieve a circular economy for plastic and achieve our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042.
Our goal is to maximise resource efficiency and minimise waste to keep plastic in circulation for longer by following the principles of the waste hierarchy: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. One way will do this is by making producers more responsible for the plastic they make with our incoming Collection and Packaging Reforms.
Single-use plastics are a particularly problematic type of plastic that makes up much of our waste. We have introduced bans, including most recently in October 2023, on the supply of many unnecessary single-use plastic items. To tackle the use of virgin plastics, the Government brought in the Plastic Packaging Tax in April 2022.
Internationally, the UK is a founding member of the High Ambition Coalition, a group of over 60 countries calling for an ambitious and effective UN Treaty to end plastic pollution. At the current round of negotiations in Canada, we are continuing to support a treaty that will address the full lifecycle of plastic to tackle the problem of plastic pollution globally, including through designing out waste and supporting a circular economy for plastic.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
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 commence schedule 3 of the Floods and Water Act 2010.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains firmly committed to delivering standardised sustainable drainage systems in new developments as stated in our Plan for Water (April 2023). A consultation will take place shortly and final implementation decisions will be made on scope, threshold and process.