Every parliamentary written question tabled by Shivani Raja this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 1–20 of 20 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason no official minute or departmental read-out was produced following the 2025 meeting between the Defra Minister and the Minister responsible for fire at which proposed burning regulations were discussed.
Awaiting answer.
Food and Rural Affairs, when the Government expects to publish the proposed Access to Nature Green Paper.
This Government committed in the 2025 Environmental Improvement Plan to bringing forward an Access to Nature Green Paper. This will provide an opportunity to explore options for improving and expanding access, test potential approaches, and gather robust evidence before any decisions are taken. A timetable for publication has not yet been confirmed, but further updates will be provided in due course.
Food and Rural Affairs, with regard to Commitment 86 of the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, whether the her Department has identified a suitable legislative vehicle to repeal the 2031 cut-off date for recording historic public rights of way.
Repeal of the 2031 cut-off date for recording historic public rights of way will require primary legislation. A specific legislative vehicle has not yet been identified. The Government is keeping this under consideration and will bring forward the necessary provisions when parliamentary time allows.
Food and Rural Affairs, on what date her Department first became aware of written representations from private sector companies alleging procedural irregularities in the BNG metric digitisation procurement; what steps her Department has taken in response to those representations; and whether her Department has sought advice from the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The statutory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) metric is a Government‑owned tool and is currently only available to users in spreadsheet format. The existing tool has well‑recognised issues relating to accessibility, usability, and data integrity, which the Government's digitisation project will address. Contract C24064 is for Application Development Services and provides digital specialist support and programme delivery capability. The Discovery phase of the BNG metric digitisation project explored a wide range of user needs and potential options and does not represent a delivery commitment. Discovery reports are not routinely published but can be made available on request. Defra first became aware of written representations from private sector companies alleging procedural irregularities in the BNG metric digitisation procurement on 4 March 2026. Checks were undertaken to make sure the work is following due process. User research activities conducted during the Discovery phase were reviewed and found to be compliant with Government standards for research, and therefore further advice has not been sought. We are keen to work with private sector BNG technology providers to ensure digitisation of the BNG metric is a success.
Food and Rural Affairs, which body has overall responsibility for consolidating greenhouse gas emissions data across the central government office estate; and what estimate has been made of the total cost across all departments of measuring, collecting, reporting and validating that data in 2024–25.
Defra consolidates greenhouse gas emissions. This is published in GGC annual reports. The last published report for 2021 to 2024 published here Greening Government Commitments April 2021 to March 2024 report - GOV.UK estimates in year 3, the Government’s overall emissions were 41% lower than the baseline based on data reported to Defra at that time. There is no estimate of cost of this work however a small team of c.2FTE produces this report as part of wider responsibilities. Departments are encouraged to provide data that is already collected for other purposes and are not required to put in place specific arrangements to collect this data solely for GGC reporting purposes.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help increase access to nature for people living in urban areas.
The Government is committed to ensuring everyone lives within a 15-minute walk of a green or blue space. Currently 80% of people are within this range, with this figure at 78% in urban areas. We have set out how we will make access more equitable and remove barriers to access in our Environmental Improvement Plan. This includes progressing plans to deliver nine new National River Walks across England, one in each region, to enhance access to nature. The Mersey Valley Way, which runs from Stockport into Manchester, will be the first of those nine new walks. We will identify locations for the next tranche of river walks through a competition that will be launched before the end of 2026. The Government is also investing £1 billion in tree planting and support to the forestry sector over this parliament. Access to nature is an important part of our work both within the public forestry estate and more broadly including with the 15 Community Forests which bring trees closer to where people live. Last year (2024/25) the Community Forests created over 2,200 hectares of new woodland, with 70% of woodlands planted having full or partial public access and 8% of schemes being within the most deprived areas of the country.
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact of converting productive agricultural land to solar farms on food security.
The Government does not believe that the accelerated roll-out of solar generation poses a threat to food security. The total area used by solar farms is very small. Even in the most ambitious scenarios, we only expect up to 0.4% of total UK land to be occupied. The analysis carried out in the Land Use Framework suggests there are opportunities for renewables (including solar) to be built on some agricultural land in England while maintaining food production nationally. This is partly through safeguarding our most productive agricultural land from change, and through introducing multifunctional land use such as agrivoltaic systems, combining food and energy production. All solar projects are subject to a rigorous planning process, in which the views and interests of the local community and impacts on the environment and land use are considered, including any impact on food production. Planning guidance makes clear that, wherever possible, developers should utilise brownfield, industrial, contaminated, or previously developed land. Where the development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, lower-quality land should be preferred to higher-quality land.
Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance is issued to police forces on the investigation of suspicious animal deaths; and what recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of investigative standards in such cases.
Police forces investigate suspicious animal deaths under the statutory powers provided in the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which enables officers to act where there is evidence that an animal has suffered, or is likely to suffer, harm. These powers apply to circumstances involving the unexplained or potentially unlawful death of an animal. Decisions on how such investigations are carried out are matters for individual Chief Constables, who hold operational independence and are responsible for determining the investigative approach taken by their forces. Police forces may also draw on wider investigative frameworks developed by the College of Policing, which support officers in handling cases that may involve criminal harm to animals. Defra has not undertaken any recent formal assessment of investigative standards in relation to suspicious animal deaths.
Food and Rural Affairs, how many Basic Payment Scheme 2023 claimants have accessed support through the Farming Resilience Fund since October 2021.
We do not hold the information in a form that allows us to identify Basic Payment Scheme 2023 claimants specifically. However, the scale-up phase of the Farming Resilience Fund ran from late 2022 to early 2025. During this phase, over 17,000 beneficiaries received one-to-one support through the Fund. Providers also offered group support, such as webinars and workshops, which reached around a further 12,000 beneficiaries.
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the financial impact of being required to apply Extended Producer Responsibility charges retrospectively in the absence of published official rates for relevant material streams on businesses.
The Regulations do not impose a retrospective charge and were subject to the required legal and parliamentary scrutiny before coming into force To prepare businesses for the implementation of the packaging pEPR scheme we have now published illustrative base fees, based on local authority waste management costs forming the basis for indicative local authority payments for 2025, and on packaging tonnages reported by large producers for the first 6-months of 2024. These illustrative base fees for the first time show point estimates as opposed to ranges, providing further certainty to businesses. Producers were required to submit their final 2024 data by 1 April 2025. Following this deadline, regulators are conducting regulatory checks. Once checks are conducted to an appropriate level we will use 2024 data and insight from regulator checks to publish packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) base fees in June 2025.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle potential abuse of the Extended Producer Responsibility exemption threshold; and whether he has made an assessment of the impact of the £2 million turnover exemption on fair competition.
As the environmental regulator for England, the Environment Agency (EA) conducts compliance checks to ensure businesses accurately assess themselves against regulatory thresholds. These checks include, but are not limited to, open-source reviews of company accounts via the Companies House website and requests for evidence to verify reported turnover. The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 provide for the assessment of turnover thresholds within corporate groups. Where such a group exists, the turnover of all companies performing a producer function must be aggregated to determine whether the £2 million threshold is met. This measure prevents businesses from establishing additional entities to remain below the threshold. All EA producer compliance monitoring audits include a review of company structures to ensure that all relevant organisations within a corporate group comply with the regulations. In October 2024, the Government published an updated impact assessment for the introduction of Extended Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR), this includes an analysis of the impact of pEPR on competition.
Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to publish the final pricing and billing rates for the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme.
Producers were required to submit their final 2024 data by 1 April 2025. Following this deadline, regulators are conducting regulatory checks. Once checks are conducted to an appropriate level, we will use 2024 data and insight from regulator checks to publish packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) base fees in June 2025.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help tackle the import of hunting trophies of (a) endangered, (b) vulnerable and (c) other species; and whether he plans to include a ban on such imports.
The import of hunting trophies is regulated through the UK Wildlife Trade Regulations, which implements the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The government committed to banning the import of hunting trophies in its manifesto and we will deliver on this. Defra is engaging with relevant stakeholders to ensure that we can deliver a ban on the import of hunting trophies from species of conservation concern in the most effective way.
Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to publish the findings of his Department's consultation entitled Consultation on fairer food labelling, which closed on 7 May 2024; and what his planned timetable is for introducing mandatory labelling to support (a) informed consumer choice and (b) higher animal welfare standards.
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central, Gareth Snell on 23 December 2024, PQ UIN 20692.
Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding consumer choice in the water market for homeowners by offering alternative providers.
Given their inherent nature, many parts of the water and wastewater value chain are subject to natural monopolies where there is limited scope for competition in the market – meaning there is a risk companies will not deliver the services their customers want or charge higher prices to increase their profits. As monopoly service providers, it is important that water companies are held to account on poor performance and drive improvements that benefit customers and the environment. Ofwat, as the independent regulator, has the statutory duty to hold water companies to account for the delivery of affordable, secure, and resilient water services; protecting the interests of consumers whilst ensuring the companies properly carry out and finance their statutory functions. Furthermore, the Independent Water Commission, led by Sir Jon Cunliffe, was launched in October 2024 by the UK and Welsh Governments to recommend reforms to reset the water sector regulatory system. On 27 February, the Commission launched a wide-ranging Call for Evidence which is open for views from all interested parties until 23 April. The Call for Evidence covers many areas, including consumer protection, the environment and public health. The Commission will make its final recommendations to both UK and Welsh Governments this summer.
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) phasing out and (b) banning cages for laying hens; and what steps he plans to take to ensure farmers are provided with support to transition to higher animal welfare systems.
We are firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and want to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards. The use of cages for laying hens is an issue we are currently considering very carefully. The Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare Grant was recently offered to commercial laying hen and pullet keepers in England. It supports these farmers to improve the health, welfare, and productivity of their flocks through access to grants toward the cost of upgrading their housing. Applications closed on the 18 September 2024 and we will be writing to all applicants shortly to notify them of next steps.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support communities affected by recent flooding in Leicester; and whether he plans to make a flood recovery grant available to local authorities.
Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities. This Government will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. During recent flooding, the Environment Agency has been operating flood assets and working with local partners across England to prevent and reduce the severity of the flooding. In Leicester, the Environment Agency will continue to deploy officers to affected communities to assess the impacts of flooding to properties and businesses. It will also continue to work with the local resilience forum to identify further opportunities to reduce flood risk in Leicestershire and support the resilience of communities to flooding. There are no plans to activate Defra's Property Flood Resilience grant scheme as the current scale of flooding has not met the threshold for its activation. Local Authorities should have contingencies in place for flooding and be able to provide support through their normal mechanisms.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to hold water companies accountable for financial mismanagement.
Ofwat monitors the financial position of all water companies, taking action when needed to strengthen company’s long-term financial resilience and producing an annual ‘Monitoring Financial Resilience Report’ to provide a publicly available assessment of the financial resilience of each water company. Ofwat has also strengthened its powers to improve financial resilience, including stopping water companies paying dividends where financial resilience is compromised and preventing customers funding executive bonuses where companies do not meet performance expectations. Furthermore, the Water (Special Measures) Bill will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector. And finally, on 23 October, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Welsh Government, launched an Independent Commission on the water sector regulatory system. The commission aims to build consensus for a resilient and innovative water sector and a robust wider regulatory framework that will deliver long-term benefits and ultimately serve both customers and the environment.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to (a) provide funding for flood defence infrastructure, (b) help tackle the impact of climate change and (c) otherwise mitigate flood risks in Leicester.
This Government is investing £2.4 billion over this year and next year to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. Climate change projections are built into the design of new flood defences to make sure they are fit for the future. The £8 million Leicester Conveyance Flood Risk Management Scheme was completed in 2019 to reduce the flood risk to over 2000 properties in Leicester. Flood Risk Management Authorities continue to work in partnership to identify further opportunities to reduce flood risk in Leicester and support communities to become more resilient to flooding in the future.
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of banning the import and sale of fur products on (a) businesses and (b) consumers in Leicester.
Defra is continuing to build the evidence base on the fur sector in Great Britain. This includes commissioning our expert Animal Welfare Committee (AWC) to produce a report on what constitutes responsible sourcing of fur. The AWC report will add to our understanding of the fur industry and help inform our next steps.