Written questions by Chowns.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to meet the target of designating 50 new sites of special scientific interest each year.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of the fines levied against water companies since October 2023 a) has been b) is going to be reinvested into river restoration projects; and if she will put mechanisms in place to publicly track i) where and ii) how much fine monies are spent on river restoration.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Government News Story published on 19 June 2025 entitled Government to invest over £100m in water company fines to local environmental projects, if she will publish a timeline for the allocation of unallocated fines levied against water companies since October 2023 into projects to clean up the water environment.

Awaiting answer.

Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales to combine their flood risk assessment maps.

The Environment Agency’s (EA) flood mapping enables delivery of flood and coastal risk management (FCRM) in line with Government policy. EA flood risk is modelled differently from Natural Resources Wales (NRW) because it better supports how flood risk is managed locally and nationally. Border communities may benefit from reviewing flood risk across both nations, and customers can align both nations flood risk mapping should they choose. The EA and NRW do work closely on FCRM cross boundary planning matters.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had discussions with small farmers on improving the new Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Defra has engaged over 30 stakeholder organisations on the policy design of the SFI26 offer. This engagement included farmer representatives such as the National Farmers Union and the Tenant Farmers Association, ensuring the views of smaller farm businesses were fully considered. Defra has utilised the insight gathered from this engagement to develop options and proposals for the new iteration of the scheme. Later this year Defra will open the Sustainable Farming Incentive offer in two windows: the first from June 2026 for small farms and also farms without existing Environmental Land Management revenue agreements; the second from September for all farms.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is planning to take to ensure that practices around River Friendly Farming are included under the new Sustainable Farming Incentive.

SFI includes a number of actions to support rivers, such as BFS6 (“6m to 12m habitat strip next to watercourses”). The Government is also supporting river restoration through Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT), Landscape Recovery (LR), and ELM Capital Grants: CSHT provides a number of grants which support farmers/land managers to enhance their environmental habitats, including watercourses, such as CSW25, which directly supports the management of riparian and water edge habitats.Round 1 of LR includes a core aim of restoring England’s streams and rivers: this Round is taking forward 22 projects and providing funding for them to develop their proposals for the long-term restoration of nature within their respective landscapes.Defra will reopen the Capital Grants offer in July. This new round will make £225 million, 50% more than in 2025, available to farmers to buy equipment or services that help them make farming and environmental improvements across England.

Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to increase funding for River Friendly Farming practices under the new Sustainable Funding Incentive.

SFI includes a number of actions to support rivers, such as BFS6 (“6m to 12m habitat strip next to watercourses”). The Government is also supporting river restoration through Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT), Landscape Recovery (LR), and ELM Capital Grants: CSHT provides a number of grants which support farmers/land managers to enhance their environmental habitats, including watercourses, such as CSW25, which directly supports the management of riparian and water edge habitats.Round 1 of LR includes a core aim of restoring England’s streams and rivers: this Round is taking forward 22 projects and providing funding for them to develop their proposals for the long-term restoration of nature within their respective landscapes.Defra will reopen the Capital Grants offer in July. This new round will make £225 million, 50% more than in 2025, available to farmers to buy equipment or services that help them make farming and environmental improvements across England.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of including incentives for river friendly farming in the new Sustainable Farming Incentive.

SFI includes a number of actions to support rivers, such as BFS6 (“6m to 12m habitat strip next to watercourses”). The Government is also supporting river restoration through Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT), Landscape Recovery (LR), and ELM Capital Grants: CSHT provides a number of grants which support farmers/land managers to enhance their environmental habitats, including watercourses, such as CSW25, which directly supports the management of riparian and water edge habitats.Round 1 of LR includes a core aim of restoring England’s streams and rivers: this Round is taking forward 22 projects and providing funding for them to develop their proposals for the long-term restoration of nature within their respective landscapes.Defra will reopen the Capital Grants offer in July. This new round will make £225 million, 50% more than in 2025, available to farmers to buy equipment or services that help them make farming and environmental improvements across England.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the current Sustainable Farming Incentive break clause on farmers’ ability to effectively plan environmental improvements.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) does not include a break clause.

Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on the programme to roll out badger vaccination as part of the strategy to eradicate bovine TB; and when she plans to publish the new bovine TB strategy.

In March, following a successful procurement, the Government awarded a contract to establish a new badger vaccination field force. Vaccination is already being carried out by APHA field teams in several areas and through a community‑led programme in East Sussex, demonstrating that large‑scale vaccination is practical, including in areas previously subject to culling. Further work includes a new NFU‑led project now underway in Cornwall to test scalable, cost‑effective vaccination approaches. The Government expects the outcome of the co‑designed bovine TB strategy to be presented later in the spring.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many cases Natural England is investigating for potential breaches of the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (England) (No.2) Regulations 2006 on semi-natural grassland for (a) 2025, (b) 2024 and (c) 2023.

Figures by financial year can be found in Natural England’s published enforcement reports here. The 2023/24 report is due to be published soon, and work is underway on the 2024/25 report.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme on Natural England's caseload for investigations of potential breaches to the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) (England) (No.2) Regulations 2006.

No formal assessment was deemed necessary in relation to the potential impact of the closure of the 2024 Sustainable Farming Incentive offer to new applications on the incidence of EIA (Agriculture) Regulations breaches.

Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish the River Wye Diffuse Water Pollution Plan.

Diffuse Water Pollution Plans are not published by Defra. The River Wye Diffuse Water Pollution Plan is being prepared by the Environment Agency (EA). The EA will be sharing it with the partners and stakeholders who are working together to achieve improvements of water quality in the Wye Catchment. This plan is part of a broader programme of work to manage nutrient levels and improve water quality in the Wye catchment.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to reform processes for the (a) monitoring and (b) management of (i) ponds, (ii) headwater streams and (iii) other small waters.

The Environment Agency (EA) has in recent years expanded monitoring of headwater streams through its new Small Streams Network, and an increased number of smaller lakes with the Lake Surveillance Network, part of the Natural Capital Ecosystem Assessment Programme. The evidence from this new monitoring will be subject to ongoing data analysis. The EA also undertake occasional operational and investigative monitoring in very small streams in response to pollution, or where they are of particular importance locally. Additionally, the Government will respond to the recommendations published in the final report of the Independent Water Commission through a White Paper and a new water reform bill, bringing forward root and branch reform to secure better outcomes for customers, investors and the environment and restore trust and accountability. Together with the building blocks the Government has already put in place, this will mark the most fundamental reset to our water system in a generation.

Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the publication of a joint intelligence committee report into the destabilising impact of the climate and nature crises on national security has been delayed.

Defra routinely conducts and updates assessments on a range of threats. HMG publishes assessments in the National Risk Register and Chronic Risks Analysis, including on biodiversity loss and its interactions with ecosystems, on GOV.UK

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 33250, what progress her Department has made on joint cross-border research on the River Wye.

Cleaning up the River Wye remains a government priority.Officials in Defra and the Welsh Government continue to collaborate to roll out the £1 million cross-border River Wye research announced earlier this year. Local stakeholders including local farmers, environmental groups, and citizen scientists, will play a crucial role in gathering evidence and shaping the research. Officials will shortly update stakeholders on next steps and will attend the local Nutrient Management Board in Herefordshire. A research workshop will also shortly take place, where stakeholders can continue to shape research plans and help us gather actionable evidence to tackle pollution in this iconic catchment.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of raising the minimum juice content for cider to 50%.

The Government has not assessed an increase to the minimum juice content for cider. Engagement with the sector has suggested that an increase to 50% is not supported by the industry and is not what consumers in the UK would expect from their cider products.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to include traditional orchards in the list of irreplaceable habitats for biodiversity net gain.

The Government has stated its intention to review the definition of irreplaceable habitats in due course, to ensure it remains robust and supports decision making.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will include the live exports ban, as set out in the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Act 2024, in the list of exceptions to dynamic alignment that the Government will seek during negotiations on the EU UK Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement.

This Government has been clear about the importance of being able to set high animal welfare standards. While I am unable to comment in detail on negotiations regarding the Agreement, we expect them to start in the Autumn.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses to benefit from largest flood defence investment programme in history, updated on 2 July 2025, on what evidential basis the £7.9 billion commitment over 10 years represents (a) a record level of investment and (b) the largest flood defence investment programme in history; and whether this level of funding represents an increase in funding on an annual basis.

Delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change, we’re investing a record £2.65 billion over two years (2024/25 and 2025/26) to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. We’re committing a further £4.2 billion over three years from April 2026, an increase of 5% compared to current investment levels, as announced at Spending Review 2025. These investments compare to an annual average of £1.09 billion spent under the previous government between 2021/22 and 2023/24. On 16 June we announced a £7.9 billion capital commitment into flood defences for the next 10 years, to March 2036. This commitment represents a record level of capital investment and is the largest flood defence investment programme in history, both in terms of its total amount and the 10-year duration of the commitment.