Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help increase prosecutions for fly tipping.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In partnership with the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, which includes local authorities and the police, we have produced a guide on how local authorities, and others, can present robust cases to court to support sentences that properly reflect the severity of fly-tipping. This guide is available at National Fly-tipping Prevention Group | Keep Britain Tidy
Through the Prime Minister’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, we are also encouraging councils to increase enforcement activity against fly-tippers. Our fly-tipping intervention grants have also seen nearly £1.2m awarded across more than 30 councils to help purchase equipment to tackle fly-tipping. Many of the projects are using the funds to install CCTV which can be used help catch perpetrators. Another round of grants for tackling fly-tipping are to be awarded in the spring.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his Department's timescales are for (a) publishing the tender documents for the licenses for the Green Flag awards and (b) awarding those licenses.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities owned Green Flag Awards Scheme, currently operated under licence by Keep Britain Tidy, sets the national standard for public green spaces and encourages local authorities and other public landowners to ensure parks and green spaces are welcoming, safe, well-maintained and promote biodiversity and community participation.
We will provide further updates about the licensing scheme shortly.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has held discussions with (a) local authorities, (b) retailers, (c) Keep Britain Tidy and (d) other stakeholders on banning the sale of disposable barbecues.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Earl Russell (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what financial resources they are allocating to anti-littering campaigns in England.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra launched the “Keep it, Bin it” anti-litter campaign in 2018 with Keep Britain Tidy to encourage people to dispose of their litter responsibly. Defra spent over £200,000 on scoping, developing and launching the campaign. Since 2019/20, the campaign has been funded by external partners. Keep Britain Tidy have now made the campaign available to local authorities and landowners for local use.
In response to COVID-19, Defra spent just under £100,000 on the development and launch of the 'Respect the Outdoors' campaign which included messaging about littering among other issues. We also contributed £30,000 for Keep Britain Tidy's Love Parks campaign, which encouraged people to treat our parks with respect.
We have previously provided nearly £1million across 44 councils to help them to purchase new bins, in support of targeted interventions to reduce litter. Across the last two years, our fly-tipping grant scheme has awarded nearly £1.2million to help more than 30 councils tackle the dumping of waste at known hot-spots.
We have also used social media to raise awareness of the impact of litter and to encourage individuals to put their rubbish in the bin or to take it home. The cost of these activities cannot be separated. Likewise, spend on Defra staff cannot be disaggregated.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to increase recycling of chewing gum.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra, in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy and chewing gum producers, have established the Chewing Gum Task Force through which gum producers will take greater responsibility for the litter and staining caused by their products. Gum producers will be investing up to £10 million over five years to help tackle the issue. As part of the programme of works the Task Force will look at ways of supporting innovation and sharing latest research, which might include recycling of chewing gum.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 26 January to Question 126656 on Parks, for what reason the Park Action Group has not met since 2019; when it is scheduled to meet; and if he will publish the membership of the Group.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
As per my answer of 26 January 2023, the Government recognises that parks and green spaces are vital to communities and the people they serve, which is why the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund (LUPF) announced in August 2021 as part of the Levelling Up agenda will help to increase accessibility to quality green space across the UK, and level up areas which are most deprived of green space and provide communities with a place to come together.
The department continues to engage with relevant stakeholders.
The membership of the Park Action Group were: Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for Education (DfE), Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Home Office (HO), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE), Fields in Trust, Local Government Association (LGA), Parks Alliance, Natural England, National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces (NFPGS), Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), Groundwork, National Trust, Keep Britain Tidy, National Association of Local Councils (NALC), Parks Practitioner, Public Health England and Sport England.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
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 help tackle plastic pollution in national parks.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Natural England has recently updated the Countryside Code which makes clear visitors’ responsibilities in protecting the environment when accessing the outdoors, including the need to take rubbish and food waste home, using public bins or recycling if possible.
We also launched the “Keep it, Bin it” anti-litter campaign in 2018 with Keep Britain Tidy to encourage people to dispose of their litter responsibly. Last year, Keep Britain Tidy made the campaign available to local authorities and other land managers for local use.
Thanks to our single-use carrier bag charge, the number of single-use plastic carrier bags sold by the main retailers has fallen by over 97%. According to Keep Britain Tidy, in 2014/15, plastic bags were noted as a top 20 most common type of litter found in England. In 2020, plastic bags were no longer a top 20 item across the UK.
We have also consulted on introducing a deposit return scheme for drinks containers. We estimate that the scheme can reduce drinks containers being littered by 85%. Further details on when a Deposit Return Scheme will be introduced will be set out in the Government response to last year's consultation. We are working towards publication in late 2022.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the amount of money being spent on graffiti removal; and what assessment they have made of its impact in residential areas.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government has commissioned environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy to conduct research on the costs, impacts and public perceptions of graffiti, including the role of street art, and how data sources can be leveraged to improve local environmental quality. The research is expected to be published early next year.
In the recently published Build Back Better High Streets Strategy, we committed to produce new guidance for local authorities and business owners on best practice for managing graffiti, supported by a new £2 million fund. The guidance will give examples of good practice, draw on the latest research (including that mentioned above) and professional expertise in this area and highlight the importance of keeping high-street infrastructure clean and clear of graffiti.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What steps he is taking to reduce the amount of litter in the environment.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since publishing our 2017 Litter Strategy we have both increased and introduced new penalties for littering, launched an anti-litter campaign with Keep Britain Tidy and provided nearly £1 million to help councils purchase new bins.
More recently, we have brought together chewing gum producers to establish a voluntary producer responsibility scheme through which they will invest up to £10 million over five years to help clean up our streets and facilitate long-term behaviour change.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to extend the use of roadside funnel bins following the trial in 2017.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Following National Highways’ trial of roadside funnel bins in 2017 at Lymm Truckstop, a further 44 bins have been installed including at Sandbach and Maidstone Service Areas. National Highways continue to work with Motorway Service Area (MSA) operators to encourage them to install bins and trial different interventions to influence drivers to dispose of their rubbish responsibly.
More broadly, National Highways has commissioned charity Keep Britain Tidy to carry out research into littering behaviour on the Strategic Road Network (SRN). The behavioural insights and outputs from this research will be used by National Highways to implement targeted campaigns including social media campaigns, improvements to rest areas, installation of more drive-up bins, distribution of ‘pinned bins’, and engagement with families and employees.