Every parliamentary written question tabled by Caroline Voaden this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 41–43 of 43 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to reintroduce the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill; and whether he plans to ban the use of snares.
The Government will introduce the most ambitious programme for animal welfare in a generation. As outlined in our manifesto, we will bring an end to the use of snare traps. We are considering the most effective way to deliver this commitment and will be setting out next steps in due course.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the water industry invests in proven nature-based solutions for natural flood management.
Defra recognises that nature and catchment-based solutions in the water sector have an important role to play. The strategic policy statement in 2022 set out the governments priorities for Ofwat. This set out that water companies should significantly increase their use of nature and catchment-based solutions to achieve multiple benefits for the environment and the public including natural flood management. We expect companies and regulators to work towards delivering these solutions as a matter of preference. The Working with Natural Processes (NFM) Evidence Directory provides natural flood management information and case studies: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-with-natural-processes-to-reduce-flood-risk.The Environment Agency is producing new long-term investment scenarios to quantify the benefits of natural flood management for the next 50 to 100 years in England.
Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Environment Agency guidance entitled Water companies: environmental permits for storm overflows and emergency overflows, published on 13 September 2018, how exceptional circumstances, in which the use of storm overflows is permitted, are defined.
The guidance document referred to in the question does not define ‘exceptional circumstances’ for storm overflows. ‘Exceptional circumstances’ were not referenced in either the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive or the regulations which transposed this Directive in England and Wales: the Urban Waste Water Treatment (England and Wales) Regulations 1994. The term ‘exceptional circumstances’ was, however, used in relation to storm overflows by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the European Commission v UK (Re Storm Water Overflows) case, where ‘situations such as unusually heavy rainfall’ were characterised as ‘exceptional circumstances’. In its 2018 Storm Overflow Assessment Framework guidance, the Environment Agency (EA) sets out a methodology for assessing ‘exceptional rainfall’. Defra, the EA and Ofwat are currently reviewing and updating the guidance on the regulation of storm overflows and sewerage. This will include further clarification on how 'exceptional circumstances' may be defined.