Written questions by Morton.

Food and Rural Affairs, how her Department oversees Enforcement action taken by the Environment Agency in relations Extended Producer Responsibility.

Defra officials are working closely with the Devolved Governments and the national regulators, including the Environment Agency (EA), to ensure that robust plans are in place to scrutinise the accuracy of submissions and to bring into compliance those producers that have not yet registered or reported data. This is supported by more than doubling the number of EA compliance officers working on pEPR. Since the 1 October 2025 submission deadline, the EA and other regulators tracked down and brought more than 2,000 businesses into compliance.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer to question 99517 when will her Department be able to update the house of the proposed new approach to dual use packaging as referred to by the Minister.

Defra is working closely with stakeholders to assess all options to amend the household packaging definition (regulation 8) in the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) regulations. This includes both sector-based interim measures, as well as a long-term solution that addresses all affected sectors. We understand that this is a high priority issue for stakeholders and will provide an update as soon as possible.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of whether packaging predominantly used in hospitality settings is being correctly classified under extended producer responsibility regulations.

Some packaging classified as household packaging under the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) regulations will ultimately end up being managed through commercial waste management operations. Defra is working closely with stakeholders on this issue, including with representatives of the hospitality and food and drink sectors. Work is ongoing to look for opportunities to reduce the amount of packaging waste managed commercially that is liable for pEPR disposal cost fees.

Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance has been issued to the Environment Agency on distinguishing between household and non-household packaging, particularly where products are primarily used in the on-trade.

Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, the regulators, including the Environment Agency, have a statutory duty to issue guidance for producers about the evidence which may be used to demonstrate that the household packaging conditions are met. Defra officials work closely with the regulators to ensure that we are aware of any issues and challenges, including where any future amendments to the pEPR regulations might be needed.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to update the classification criteria for household and non-household packaging under Extended Producer Responsibility to better reflect real-world usage and distribution.

Defra is working closely with stakeholders to assess all options to amend the household packaging definition (regulation 8) in the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) regulations. This includes both sector-based interim measures, as well as a long-term solution that addresses all affected sectors. We understand that this is a high priority issue for stakeholders and will provide an update as soon as possible.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to HCWS1281 on reform to the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, what plans she has to regulate veterinary and animal healthcare businesses; how price transparency and consumer protections will be enforced; what progress she has made in responding to the Competition and Markets Authority’s investigation into the veterinary sector.

Under the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons is currently unable to regulate businesses. Defra’s consultation on reform of this Act, released on 28 January, proposes that all veterinary and animal health businesses (those owned by allied veterinary professionals) be licensed and regulated. This may include policies surrounding price transparency and consumer rights, in line with the outcomes and remedies of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) market investigation into the household pet veterinary sector. The CMA’s investigation is currently ongoing. Its final report is expected in the spring and Defra shall respond to it within 90 days of its publication.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to HCWS1281 of 28 January 2026 on reform to the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, what assessment the Government has made of the potential impact of allowing veterinary nurses and allied veterinary professionals to practise more independently; what safeguards will be introduced to maintain animal welfare and clinical standards; how accountability will be enforced under a licence-to-practise model; and what steps will be taken to ensure public confidence in the regulatory framework.

Registered Veterinary Nurses are highly qualified and are regulated by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Any work they do will remain within their competencies though some tasks that veterinary nurses regularly do now, may no longer need a veterinary surgeon to be present; this opens up the ability to undertake district nursing. Allied veterinary professionals (AVPs) are currently unregulated and work independently of vets; regulating them will protect animal health and welfare. Like veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses, under our proposals, all AVPs will need the correct training, and be licensed and accountable to the regulating body. If they do not meet the required standards, they can be reported, and subject to the fitness to practise procedures (similar to the current RCVS disciplinary framework). Defra is additionally proposing an oversight body to review the actions of the regulator– ensuring further accountability.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1281 of 28 January 2026 on reform to the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, what timeline the Government has set for the consultation, response and any subsequent legislation; what engagement is taking place with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, veterinary nurses, allied veterinary professionals and animal welfare organisations; and what interim measures are being considered to address workforce shortages while reforms are developed.

The consultation on reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 opened on 28 January and is due to close on 25 March. Defra will analyse the responses and aim to reply within 12 weeks of the consultation closing, with subsequent legislation depending on parliamentary time. Defra has co-designed the consultation with numerous stakeholders including the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the British Veterinary Association, the British Veterinary Nursing Association and the Vet Schools Council. Key stakeholders for allied veterinary professions, including animal welfare organisations, have also worked with officials on how they would fit into any new legislation. Defra is working across Government to address the shortfall in vets including the UK Government manifesto commitment to prioritise UK-EU recognition of professional qualifications (RPQ). Defra welcomes the fact that the number of homegrown vet students continues to rise with four new vet schools opening in the last six years.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help reduce fly-tipping in suburban and semi-rural areas.

Fly-tipping is a serious crime which blights communities and places significant costs on both taxpayers and businesses. Local authorities are responsible for tackling fly-tipping in their local areas and we want to see an effective enforcement strategy at the centre of their efforts to tackle the problem. We are taking steps to help councils make good use of their powers, including seeking powers in the Crime and Policing Bill to provide statutory fly-tipping enforcement guidance to local authorities. We are reviewing local authority powers to seize and crush vehicles of fly-tippers and we intend to publish guidance to support councils to make better use of this tool soon. In our manifesto we committed to forcing fly-tippers to clean up the mess that they have created. We will provide further details on this commitment in due course. Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG), through which we work with a wide range of interested parties, including local authorities and the National Farmers Union to share good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping, including on private land. The NFTPG has developed various practical tools, guidance and case studies highlighting best practice. These are available at: https://nftpg.com/.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to HCWS1230, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed reforms to the Sustainable Farming Incentive on levels of domestic food production, farm profitability and the distribution of scheme payments; how the revised scheme will address the previous concentration of funding; and when revised actions, payment rates and transitional arrangements will be published.

Some of the main improvements the Government is making to the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer are: A simpler and more focused offer, with fewer actions and less complexity. There will still be plenty of choice – but with a stronger focus on actions that support sustainable food production. SFI must work alongside food production, not displace it, so the Government will limit how much land can be put into certain actions and review payment rates for others. These changes will make funding go further, allowing more people to benefit from agreements. Previously, 90% of SFI spending went on fewer than 40 of the 102 actions available and a quarter of SFI money goes to just 4% of farms. This is not fair. Therefore, Ministers are considering ways to address this, such as introducing an agreement value cap, and are making improvements to the offer to ensure more farmers can access funding.

Food and Rural Affairs, in reference to HCWS1230, 8 January 2026, when the Farming Roadmap will be published; what timescales it will set out for future changes to farm support; and how it will provide long-term certainty for farmers.

The Farming Roadmap will set the course of farming in England for the next 25 years. Over the last year, the Government has held workshops with farmers, industry leaders and farming and environmental groups to identify themes and content the roadmap should include. Defra will aim to publish later this year (2026).

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to HCWS1230, what funding she has allocated to the place-based uplands approach announced at the Oxford Farming Conference; what objectives it is intended to achieve; and how food production will be safeguarded within that approach.

The Government knows how important upland landscapes are for farming, nature and rural economies, and is committed to investing in this work to deliver meaningful benefits for upland communities. By empowering local decision‑making, Defra will unlock the economic potential of the uplands and ensure that the people who live and work there can shape their future and decide what will help their communities thrive. Defra has allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. The department will say more about funding for the place-based uplands approach in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of proposed waste reforms on local authorities such as Walsall Council.

The Government remains committed to supporting councils in delivering the collection and packaging reforms. Between Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) and Simpler Recycling, we have already invested over £1.4 billion in English local authorities to improve recycling collections, benefitting every household. We have guaranteed councils £1.1 billion income from pEPR this financial year, alongside having already invested over £340 million to support councils on weekly food collections. Simpler Recycling is estimated to decrease local authorities' net waste service costs by £211 million by 2035 (2023 prices, discounted; source: The Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2025).

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support councils to improve recycling rates.

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 and, with the other collection and packaging reforms, will support the use of more recycled material in the products we buy, and the growth of the UK recycling industry. By shifting the financial burden of the end-of-life costs from taxpayers to producers, Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging will secure local authority funding (approximately £1.4 billion annually in the UK and approximately £1.1 billion annually in England) for the improved management of discarded packaging materials, driving in turn improvements in the quality and quantity of recycled packaging materials, as well as investment in domestic reprocessing facilities.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to HCWS1230, when the Farming and Food Partnership Board will be established; what criteria will be used to ensure balanced representation across the farming and food sectors; and what role the Board will play in the development of future farming policy.

Defra is committed to resetting the relationship between the Government and food and farming sectors as a genuine partnership. More details on the timeline for establishing the new board will be made available as soon as possible.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to HCWS1230, how her Department will define small farms for the purposes of reopening the Sustainable Farming Incentive; what assessment she has made of barriers to participation for small and family-run farms under previous schemes; and how her Department will measure whether access to support has improved.

The Government will publish a precise definition of a small farm before the first application window opens in June. This is one of the details the Government will be testing with key stakeholders. As confirmed at the Oxford Farming Conference, the Government will open two Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) application windows in 2026: an initial window from June for small farms, and also those without existing Environmental Land Management agreementsa second window opening from September for all other farmers The Government will provide more detail on the new SFI offer ahead of publishing the full scheme details before the first application window opens in June.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the consistency of household waste collection services across the West Midlands.

Under Simpler Recycling, Section 45A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (amended by the Environment Act 2021) will require all local authorities in England to make arrangements for a core set of materials to be collected for recycling from households from 31 March 2026. This includes introducing weekly food waste collections for all homes, unless a transitional arrangement applies (a transitional arrangement is where a local authority has agreed a later implementation date set in regulations). There will be additional requirements for plastic film to be collected as part of the plastic waste stream by 31 March 2027. Defra is working with local authorities to support readiness for these new obligations. To assist with this, we launched a Change Network to amplify existing information and guidance with endorsement from local authorities who are actively implementing or have recently implemented, the changes required.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Government’s commitment to invest £10.5 billion in flood defences by 2036, (a) how much has been allocated to each English region to date, (b) how many of the 151 completed schemes were operational during Storm Claudia, and (c) what assessment she has made of the effect of reprioritising £108 million towards maintenance on improving the condition and reliability of existing assets.

This Government will invest at least £10.5 billion into our flood defences between April 2024 and March 2036 better protecting nearly 900,000 properties. Having benefitted from over £745 million of capital funding in 2024/25, flood defence schemes have received an indicative allocation of over £659 million for 2025/26.Some of the 151 completed flood and coastal schemes are always operational, including during Storm Claudia, due to their fixed presence. Many areas benefitted from these, often combined with other scheme or defences. Whilst it is not possible to identify them individually, all Environment Agency assets operated as expected.This Investment is ensuring that 92.9% of Environment Agency-maintained flood defence assets in high consequence systems (those that protect a large number of properties) were at required condition in October 2025. This is an increase of 0.8% since Q2 in 2024. The investment will also reduce deterioration and target repairs to assets, benefitting an additional 14,500 properties in England.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s commitment to improve national flood forecasting, (a) what assessment she has made of the performance of the new flood warning system during Storm Claudia, (b) whether any delays or technical issues were recorded in the delivery of alerts to households, and (c) how the enhanced forecasting models developed by the Met Office and Environment Agency contributed to advance warning and local decision-making.

During Storm Claudia, the Environment Agency (EA) sent more than 130 flood warnings and 270 flood alerts. These reached people through text (315,000 messages), email (350,000), and automated calls (225,000). The Floodline recorded information service also handled about 1,500 calls. During Storm Claudia, there were 28 messages delayed by up to 1.5 hours because of a technical problem in the system’s infrastructure. This issue was quickly fixed. These anomalies aside, the system coped well with its first national incident, successfully delivering approximately 890,000 messages to the public. Enhanced flood-forecasting models, jointly developed by the Met Office and the EA, enabled early identification of emerging risks. Using ensemble rainfall forecasts, the Environment Agency produced national-level flood outlooks that were shared with all Category 1 and 2 responders and emergency services three days ahead of the event (13 November) through the daily Flood Guidance Statement.

Food and Rural Affairs, when the Flood Resilience Taskforce most recently met; what recommendations it has provided to Ministers since September regarding national readiness for severe weather events; and what assessment she has made of the Taskforce’s impact on improving cross-government coordination during Storm Claudia.

The Floods Resilience Taskforce most recently met in September and held two meetings on the 8th and 15th. The Taskforce discussed actions by members to prepare for, respond to and recover from flooding during autumn and winter. This included improvements to national flood modelling and forecasting and communication of flood warnings. Taskforce members including the Environment Agency, Defra and Natural Resources Wales were in contact throughout Storm Claudia principally through using their existing emergency response arrangements. Taskforce members work on improved national flood modelling helped preparations and response, and facilitated the deployment of the FloodRe Floodmobile demonstration unit, which showcases dozens of property flood resilience measures, to Monmouthshire, to support flood affected residents. The Floods Resilience Taskforce will next meet on 18 December and will discuss learning and recommendations from Storm Claudia.