Written questions by Wild.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to section 2.1 of HM Treasury’s policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, which new initiatives have been launched to support priority sectors.

Defra, jointly with Welsh Government are currently consulting on proposals to streamline the process for setting and amending exemptions within the environmental permitting framework, empowering regulators to operate in an agile and outcome-driven fashion in support of both economic growth and environmental protections. The regulations the Environment Agency (EA) implements spans aspects of sectors, such as advance manufacturing and clean energy, in the priority list. In April the EA launched a pilot priority tracked service for significant infrastructure and major housebuilding projects, ahead of launching a full service later in the year, to allow developers to work with a dedicated team on their permits and track progress. On 31st March, the EA launched a “standard rules” approach to support research and development activities at industrial installations, this will make it easier to trial and scale-up new technologies and processes to boost investment and productivity.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will commission Ofwat to provide an assessment of the potential impacts of extending competition to the residential retail water market.

Ofwat has a duty to protect the interests of consumers, wherever appropriate, by promoting effective competition and does this through the economic regulation of the sector. As part of the Independent Commission’s call for evidence, the Commission sought views on the strengths and limitations of existing competition schemes - as well as potential options for reform - to areas including the New Appointments and Variations market and competitive delivery models for large infrastructure projects. The Commission is planning on reporting to the government by Q2 2025.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Extended Producer Responsibility fees on trends in the levels of pub closures; and what steps his Department is taking to support pubs in adhering to Extended Producer Responsibility regulations.

In October 2024, the Government published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the pEPR scheme on packaging producers as a whole. This impact assessment did not split the assessment by sector. The Government has worked closely with industry, including the brewing sector, throughout development of Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR). Feedback from stakeholders was factored into finalising the regulations, including formally consulting stakeholders on a draft of the pEPR regulations in 2023. pEPR obligates brands and packaging producers to pay the costs of managing household packaging waste. In most cases, this will not be individual pubs but the business supplying the pub with packaged goods. My officials have recently attended a number of events organised by the brewing industry, to discuss pEPR and to listen and respond to concerns raised by their members. We have provided extensive guidance to all sectors on how to comply with their obligations under pEPR and continue to work with the brewing sector and others to further refine both the guidance and the wider scheme.