Every parliamentary written question tabled by Lee Anderson this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 21–40 of 75 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with UK fishers on (a) challenges and (b) support required.
Defra Ministers meet with representatives of the fishing industry regularly to discuss a wide variety of issues including to understand their perspectives on challenges and support they need.
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with water companies on the cost of water bills to customers.
It is important that customers get value for money from their water bills and that support is available for those who need it. I meet water companies frequently to discuss a range of issues, including customer bills. As the independent economic regulator, it is Ofwat’s responsibility to scrutinise water company business plans and ensure the prices water companies charge their customers are fair and proportionate. It does this through its Price Review, every five years. Ofwat published the results of the 2024 Price Review in December 2024, this sets out company expenditure and customer bills for the next five years, up to 2030. These price controls came into effect on 01 April 2025. Price Review 2024 will deliver substantial improvements for customers and the environment through a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector - the highest level of investment in the water sector since privatisation. The average annual bill rise over the next 5 years will be £31 (or 36%). This will vary across households depending on their circumstances. Information on bills for each water company is available on Ofwat’s website. All water companies have measures in place for customers who struggle to pay for their water and wastewater services, such as WaterSure, social tariffs, payment breaks and holidays, and debt management support. Moreover, Government expects industry to keep the current support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers are supported. The Government has committed to reforming the WaterSure support scheme which supports low-income households with high essential water use due to having a medical condition or three or more children living at home and has consulted on extending the list of qualifying benefits to include non-means tested disability benefits. This proposal is designed to provide better support for low-income households where a medical condition leads to high essential water use. The proposed reforms would also increase support for existing households and update the regulations to reflect best practice adopted across the water sector. The department will publish the response to the consultation in the coming months. Bill increases are necessary to make up for years of under-investment and make sure water companies can deliver a good service to customers and protect the environment. The Government is also bringing forward root and branch reform to secure better outcomes for billpayers and restore trust and accountability. This includes the creation of a powerful new consolidated regulator, which will work to ensure water company bills are fair and affordable for customers. These reforms are detailed in the Government’s Water White Paper.
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of increasing water bills on households.
It is important that customers get value for money from their water bills and that support is available for those who need it. I meet water companies frequently to discuss a range of issues, including customer bills. As the independent economic regulator, it is Ofwat’s responsibility to scrutinise water company business plans and ensure the prices water companies charge their customers are fair and proportionate. It does this through its Price Review, every five years. Ofwat published the results of the 2024 Price Review in December 2024, this sets out company expenditure and customer bills for the next five years, up to 2030. These price controls came into effect on 01 April 2025. Price Review 2024 will deliver substantial improvements for customers and the environment through a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector - the highest level of investment in the water sector since privatisation. The average annual bill rise over the next 5 years will be £31 (or 36%). This will vary across households depending on their circumstances. Information on bills for each water company is available on Ofwat’s website. All water companies have measures in place for customers who struggle to pay for their water and wastewater services, such as WaterSure, social tariffs, payment breaks and holidays, and debt management support. Moreover, Government expects industry to keep the current support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers are supported. The Government has committed to reforming the WaterSure support scheme which supports low-income households with high essential water use due to having a medical condition or three or more children living at home and has consulted on extending the list of qualifying benefits to include non-means tested disability benefits. This proposal is designed to provide better support for low-income households where a medical condition leads to high essential water use. The proposed reforms would also increase support for existing households and update the regulations to reflect best practice adopted across the water sector. The department will publish the response to the consultation in the coming months. Bill increases are necessary to make up for years of under-investment and make sure water companies can deliver a good service to customers and protect the environment. The Government is also bringing forward root and branch reform to secure better outcomes for billpayers and restore trust and accountability. This includes the creation of a powerful new consolidated regulator, which will work to ensure water company bills are fair and affordable for customers. These reforms are detailed in the Government’s Water White Paper.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support people with the cost of water bills.
It is important that customers get value for money from their water bills and that support is available for those who need it. I meet water companies frequently to discuss a range of issues, including customer bills. As the independent economic regulator, it is Ofwat’s responsibility to scrutinise water company business plans and ensure the prices water companies charge their customers are fair and proportionate. It does this through its Price Review, every five years. Ofwat published the results of the 2024 Price Review in December 2024, this sets out company expenditure and customer bills for the next five years, up to 2030. These price controls came into effect on 01 April 2025. Price Review 2024 will deliver substantial improvements for customers and the environment through a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector - the highest level of investment in the water sector since privatisation. The average annual bill rise over the next 5 years will be £31 (or 36%). This will vary across households depending on their circumstances. Information on bills for each water company is available on Ofwat’s website. All water companies have measures in place for customers who struggle to pay for their water and wastewater services, such as WaterSure, social tariffs, payment breaks and holidays, and debt management support. Moreover, Government expects industry to keep the current support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers are supported. The Government has committed to reforming the WaterSure support scheme which supports low-income households with high essential water use due to having a medical condition or three or more children living at home and has consulted on extending the list of qualifying benefits to include non-means tested disability benefits. This proposal is designed to provide better support for low-income households where a medical condition leads to high essential water use. The proposed reforms would also increase support for existing households and update the regulations to reflect best practice adopted across the water sector. The department will publish the response to the consultation in the coming months. Bill increases are necessary to make up for years of under-investment and make sure water companies can deliver a good service to customers and protect the environment. The Government is also bringing forward root and branch reform to secure better outcomes for billpayers and restore trust and accountability. This includes the creation of a powerful new consolidated regulator, which will work to ensure water company bills are fair and affordable for customers. These reforms are detailed in the Government’s Water White Paper.
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment the Government has made about the potential merits of using in-ovo sexing technology as an alternative to male chick culling in the egg industry.
As stated in the recently published Animal Welfare Strategy1 we will encourage industry to end the practice of culling male laying hen chicks. In recent years there has been rapid global progress in a range of technologies that could help end the routine culling of male chicks by identifying or determining the sex of chick embryos before hatching as set out in the Animal Welfare Committee’s ‘Opinion on alternatives to culling newly hatched chicks in the egg and poultry industries’.
Food and Rural Affairs, how much their Department has spent on (a) advertising and (b) marketing in each of the last three years.
The table below details Defra’s advertising and marketing costs for the 22/23, 23/24 and 24/25 financial years. Defra publishes details on spend on a monthly basis on GOV.UK as part of routine government transparency arrangements. 22/2323/2424/25Advertising£274,456.69£827,530.88£26,426.58Marketing spend (other)£192,984.23£484,027.95£18,322.07 The current Government came into power within the 2024/25 financial year and completed a review of all 131 public campaigns with spend of over £100k.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce antisocial behaviour from visitors to countryside areas.
Natural England (NE) continues to actively promote the Countryside Code through a range of public information campaigns. Recent initiatives have included educational outreach in schools and broader public campaigns aimed at raising awareness of responsible behaviour in the countryside, such as the importance of keeping dogs on leads. As part of a 2023–2025 campaign, NE partnered with Shaun the Sheep to promote responsible behaviour around livestock and to engage children, young people, and families in learning about the Countryside Code. These initiatives reflect the Department’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that the public can enjoy the countryside safely and responsibly, while protecting the natural environment and those who live and work there.
Food and Rural Affairs, whether their Department has run any (a) recruitment and (b) internship schemes aimed to increase the number of people from underrepresented groups in the workforce in the last year.
As set out in the Civil Service People Plan 2024 - 2027, we are committed to ensuring we attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds to create a modern Civil Service, now and for the future 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 Going Forward into Employment (GFiE) accredits life chance recruitment pathways across government. GFiE pathways recruit people from a wide range of backgrounds into the Civil Service, including people from low socio-economic backgrounds, prison leavers, veterans, carers and care leavers. People recruited by GFiE develop skills, gain experience and build a career, contributing to the Opportunity Mission and to the wider economy. Defra took part in the Autism Exchange Internship Programme in 2025 and previous years. This Cabinet Office led scheme supports young, autistic people aged 18 - 25 to gain work experience and develop employability skills. Defra also participates in the Fast Stream Summer Internship Scheme, which from 2026 will be targeted at those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of food labelling regulations in supporting consumers to make informed choices.
All food and drink sold on the UK market, including that which is imported, must comply with food labelling rules. The rules require what information must be provided to consumers and how this must be done. The fundamental principle of food labelling rules is that information provided to the consumer must not mislead and must be labelled effectively.The government continues to review the effectiveness of existing legislation through post implementation reviews. Food regulations contain a statutory review clause which requires the Secretary of State to publish a report every five years.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to increase urban wildlife habitat.
Nature Towns and Cities, a new initiative, supported by Defra, is committed to bringing the benefits of nature and greenspace to everyone in the UK. It has recently awarded £15.4 million to 19 partnerships, covering 40 towns/cities, enabling local authorities, working with their communities to transform their urban environment for people and nature. Birmingham has successfully become the UK’s first official Nature City, with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole collectively becoming the first Nature Towns. Natural England’s Green Infrasturcture (GI) Standards include an urban nature recovery standard to expand and connect habitats and species in urban/urban fringe areas and reverse the decline in biodiversity. The GI Mapping Database provides a layered view of England’s green/blue spaces. Designed to support planning, policy, and nature recovery efforts by visualizing how natural assets are distributed and accessed. Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) are a flagship measure in the Environment Act. A good example which is centred around urban nature recovery is NATURE FOR ALL. A Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Greater Manchester.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce disparities in accepted materials for recycling across different local authorities.
The Simpler Recycling reforms will ensure that across England, people will be able to recycle the same materials, whether at home, work or school. Every household and workplace (businesses and relevant non-domestic premises like schools and hospitals) across England will be able to recycle the same materials in the following core waste streams: metal, glass, plastic (including cartons), paper and card, food waste, and garden waste (for households only). These reforms will make recycling easier and ensure there is a comprehensive, consistent service across England. This will reduce confusion with recycling to improve recycling rates, ensuring there is more recycled material in the products we buy, and that the UK recycling industry will grow. Simpler Recycling will be implemented as follows: Simpler Recycling has now come into effect for all workplaces with 10 or more full-time equivalent employees in England. This requires workplaces to separately recycle dry mixed recycling (plastic, metal, glass), paper and card, and food waste. We are keen to hear from stakeholders on how they are implementing the changes required. By 31 March 2026, local authorities will be required to collect the core recyclable waste streams from all households in England. This includes introducing weekly food waste collections for all homes, unless a transitional arrangement applies (affected local authorities have a later implementation date set in regulations). Micro-firms (workplaces with fewer than 10 employees), have until 31 March 2027 to comply, and plastic film collections from all households and workplaces will also be required by then.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help preserve Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Ashfield constituency.
Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) continue to be one of the most effective tools for protecting and enhancing biodiversity and deliver a wide range of health and socio-economic benefits. Natural England has an ongoing programme to assess the condition of SSSI features and implement restoration actions. Recent work in Ashfield includes monitoring at Teversal Pastures SSSI, where two units with species-rich neutral grassland are in favourable condition and managed through a Countryside Stewardship Mid-tier scheme consented by Natural England. At Friezeland Grassland SSSI, monitoring led to a new Countryside Stewardship scheme with capital works to restore lowland neutral grassland. Natural England also monitored Annesley Woodhouse Quarries SSSI, leading to a Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier scheme to increase grazing and management. In the 2024 autumn budget we allocated £13m to Protected Site Strategies which will develop spatial restoration plans for priority sites, such as Sherwood Forest in the adjoining district of Newark and Sherwood. These strategies will put in place action to restore protected sites and manage the impact of environmental harm. The Nature Restoration Fund in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will allow a more strategic approach to SSSI restoration and deliver improved environmental outcomes.
Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to end the culling of badgers.
Work is progressing at pace on a comprehensive new bovine TB strategy, to drivedown bovine TB rates to save cattle and farmers’ livelihoods and end the badger cull by the end of this parliament.
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with stakeholders on ending farrowing crate usage for pigs.
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation. The Department has met with key stakeholders, as part of the development of our overarching approach to animal welfare, and a broad range of animal welfare issues have been discussed.
Food and Rural Affairs, for what purposes their Department has used artificial intelligence in the last year.
In the last 12 months, Defra has explored the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across a range of areas to improve delivery of public services, strengthen resilience, and support innovation. AI has been deployed in habitat maps, such as Living England, and peatland restoration projects, such as AI4Peat, to enhance biodiversity monitoring, and in the Environment Agency’s FloodAI trial to improve flood forecasting, strengthen early warning systems, and protect critical infrastructure. Before any application is deployed, the department considers data and security protection risks to ensure AI is applied responsibly. Guidance on the safe, effective, and responsible adoption of AI can be found in the Government’s AI Playbook. The department also acknowledges the mandatory obligation under the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS) to report where algorithms are used in decision-making. As of September 2025, Defra has published several ATRS records, including Local Authority Waste Collection Cost Groupings, Hello Lamp Post, and Living England, covering algorithmic tools in environmental protection and public engagement. The department is also piloting the use of artificial intelligence to analyse open sources online for emerging civil contingencies risks and issues. Internally, the department has piloted AI-powered tools to automate the migration of legacy IT systems to modern cloud environments and rolled out Microsoft Copilot Chat to streamline day-to-day tasks, improve productivity, and support staff in working more efficiently.
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with stakeholders from the fishing industry.
The Fisheries Minister and officials regularly engage with stakeholders across the UK fishing industry through established forums and working groups, including producer organisations, trade associations, and Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities. The Department also works closely with the devolved governments and Arms’ Length Bodies to ensure a joined-up approach to fisheries management. Most recently, the Secretary of State and the Fisheries Minister visited Newlyn at the end of July to meet representatives of the Cornish fishing sector, and the Fisheries Minister visited Northern Ireland on 20 and 21 August, which included discussions with fishermen, processors and industry leaders in Portavogie, Ardglass and Kilkeel.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help tackle dog on dog attacks.
Defra is working with the police, local authorities and animal welfare groups to encourage responsible dog ownership, to ensure dog control issues are addressed before they escalate and to make sure the full force of the law is applied. As part of this work, we have reconvened the Responsible Dog Ownership taskforce to explore measures to promote responsible dog ownership across all breeds of dog. The taskforce is considering four themes: education, training for both dogs and their owners, enforcement, and improving data on dog attacks. We look forward to receiving the findings and recommendations from the taskforce in due course.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of light pollution from large industrial units.
The Government does recognise that good use of artificial light can contribute to preventing accidents; reducing crime and creating safer spaces and promoting the night time economy, benefiting us all in various ways. The Government has put in place a range of measures to ensure that light pollution is effectively managed through controls in the planning system; the Permitted Development Regime and the Statutory Nuisance Regime. The Environmental Protection Act requires local authorities to take reasonably practicable steps to investigate complaints of artificial light emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to human health or a nuisance and they have powers to take action where there is a problem.
Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department provides on the assessments used to decide whether to return a dangerous dog to its owner after it has been seized.
Dogs that are prohibited under section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and which do not have a valid certificate of exemption could be seized by the Police. In these cases, there is an interim exemption scheme which allows suspected prohibited dogs to remain with their owners in advance of a court hearing. It is for the Police to determine whether to make use of this scheme on a case-by-case basis.
Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department provides on the assessments used to decide whether to return a dangerous dog to its owner after it has been seized.
Dogs that are prohibited under section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and which do not have a valid certificate of exemption could be seized by the Police. In these cases, there is an interim exemption scheme which allows suspected prohibited dogs to remain with their owners in advance of a court hearing. It is for the Police to determine whether to make use of this scheme on a case-by-case basis.