Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Question: What steps his Department has taken to prepare for the expiration of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement provisions on fishing on 30 June 2026.
Daniel Zeichner:
The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides reciprocal access for UK and EU vessels during the fisheries adjustment period. The adjustment period ends in June 2026 after which access becomes a matter for annual negotiation as is typical between coastal states.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will amend the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 in line with the Merchant Shipping Act 1988.
Emma Hardy:
To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion over the next two years to improve flood resilience, by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. The list of projects to receive government funding in 2025/26 will be consented over the coming months in the usual way through Regional Flood and Coastal Committees, with local representation. We are committed to supporting coastal communities and ensuring flood and coastal erosion risk management is fit for the challenges we face now and in the future. Defra will consult in the new year on a new simpler and more flexible approach to floods investment that maximises value for the taxpayer and supports nature-based solutions. This will include a review of the floods funding formula.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will (a) introduce a licence fee for access to UK (a) territorial and (b) exclusive economic zone waters to foreign vessels granted permission to catch fish and (b) use that fee to invest in the UK fishing industry in 2026.
Daniel Zeichner:
The licensing of UK vessels to fish in UK waters is a devolved matter. The licensing of foreign fishing vessels to access UK territorial waters and exclusive economic zone is reserved.
Defra has no plans to introduce licence fees, although has powers to do so. Any fee would have to be non-discriminatory and apply to all vessels. Managing Public Money May 2023 would need to be taken into account. The general principle is that fees are to be used for cost recovery rather than investment.
Government funding schemes such as the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme in England, and the UK Seafood Fund, have provided investment and support for the fishing and seafood industry.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the percentage of food served in canteens in his Department that is British.
Daniel Zeichner:
Catering services at Defra are provided by our facilities management supplier, ISS. In the contract we require ISS to comply with Government Buying Standards (GBS) for food and catering services and ISS is encouraged to meet the best practice criteria of the GBS for food and catering services. The supplier is required to comply with the aims of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. ISS has confirmed that:
- The percentage of British products purchased by ISS, for use across the Defra locations where food is served in the UK, is estimated at 57.20%.
- This figure is based on the total value of food purchased for use across the Defra locations since April 2024.
Data is only available from April 2024 from this supplier.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the (a) UK's initial demand for total allowable catch and (b) agreed outcome was for quotas for each species in its negotiations with the EU on fish quotas in each year since 2021.
Daniel Zeichner:
Due to the nature of the negotiations, it is not appropriate to publicly disclose negotiating documents detailing the UK’s opening positions.
The Written Records detailing the outcome of the UK’s annual fisheries negotiations with the EU are published on GOV.UK.
Furthermore, Defra has published reports on the ‘economic outcome of negotiations for UK fishing opportunities’ on GOV.UK since 2021. These include annexes with the UK quota for each stock.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) limiting and (b) banning commercial trading of fishing licence quotas.
Daniel Zeichner:
The Government is not planning any assessment on commercial trading of fishing licence quotas. Quota trading helps our fishing industry by allowing quota to flow to those who most need it. This helps maximise uptake and mitigate choke risks. It also provides important flexibilities for British businesses. For example, it allows fishermen to sell quotas when adverse weather, vessel failure or other problems mean quotas would otherwise go unused.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing (a) provenance and (b) tax tests to prevent vessels with foreign owners from flying a UK flag of convenience when commercial fishing in UK waters.
Daniel Zeichner:
The Government is not considering the introduction of provenance and tax tests on owners of British fishing boats. These vessels are already required to provide genuine economic benefits to the UK through the economic link licence conditions.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing legislation to require that all fish caught in (a) UK territorial waters and (b) the UK exclusive economic zone are (i) landed and (ii) processed in the UK.
Daniel Zeichner:
The Government is not considering the introduction of legislation that would require all fish caught within UK waters to be landed and processed in the UK. British fishing boats currently have the flexibility to land their fish into ports and markets which offer the best facilities and prices. They must also meet the economic link licence condition which ensures their activities provide a genuine economic benefit to the UK. It is not this Government’s intention to limit vessel owners from making these business decisions in their best interest.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of conducting a review into the food labelling system.
Daniel Zeichner:
Defra is in the process of conducting a Post Implementation Review of the Food Information Regulations 2014 and the Country of Origin of Certain Meats Regulations 2015 to assess their success against their origin policy objectives.
Furthermore, we plan to publish a summary of responses to a recent public consultation on fairer food labelling.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Question: What the average (a) waiting time for people calling and (b) time people spent on hold for his Department was in each of the last five years.
Daniel Zeichner:
The average waiting time for people calling the Defra General Helpline in each of the last five years is set out below:
Reporting Year | Average Wait Time (minutes, seconds) |
2024 / 2025 | 01:11 |
2023 / 2024 | 01:23 |
2022 / 2023 | 00:50 |
2021 / 2022 | 00:58 |
2020 / 2021 | 00:32 |
2019 / 2020 | 00:20 |
Please note, a reporting year runs 1 April to 31 March. Therefore, the data provided for 2024/2025 covers 1 April 2024 to 4 November 2025.
Defra does not hold data on the time people spent on hold to the Defra General Helpline after getting through to a call-handler in each of the last five years. Whilst Defra’s call logging system records the length of the call from the second the call is answered by the call-handler to the second the customer hangs up, any periods on hold during that time, for instance whilst the call-handler searches for an answer to a question asked or whilst the call-handler transfers the person to another contact, are not measured.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department have experience in farming.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the staff turnover rate in his Department was in each of the last five years.
Daniel Zeichner:
Figures are taken from the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey for the core department. The data reference point in time is 31 March at each year.
Reference Period | Civil Service Turnover* | Departmental Turnover** |
12 months up to 31 March 2024 | 7.4% | 14.3% |
12 months up to 31 March 2023 | 8.6% | 15.7% |
12 months up to 31 March 2022 | 7.3% | 13.7% |
12 months up to 31 March 2021 | 5.1% | 13.1% |
12 months up to 31 March 2020 | 8.1% | 14.6% |
* includes all moves out of the Civil Service over the specified year.
**includes moves between Civil Service departments within the year, in addition to moves included under the Civil Service turnover rate.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff employed by his Department work exclusively on farming issues.
Daniel Zeichner:
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Question: What estimate his Department has made of the percentage of food consumed in the UK that is produced domestically.
Daniel Zeichner:
In 2023, 58% of domestic consumption came from UK production (based on unprocessed value at farmgate), 24% from the European Union and the remaining 18% from the rest of the world. Data for 2024 will be published in Defra’s ‘Agriculture in the United Kingdom’ report in mid-2025.
Information on spending and staffing can be found in the department’s annual report and accounts.
This estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of people claiming Pension Credit in Great Yarmouth from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients in Great Yarmouth. This is essentially the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients who are not claiming Pension Credit pre-policy change, as an estimate of those who will no longer receive the Winter Fuel Payment.
Please note that the above figures do not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up that we might see as a result of the Government’s Pension Credit Awareness Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or Local Authorities.
The published Pension Credit figures refer to households rather than individuals, so the number of individuals receiving Pension Credit will be higher (i.e. taking account of households where it is a couple claiming Pension Credit).
In addition, while Pension Credit claimants constitute the majority of those that will be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment, pensioners who claim other qualifying means-tested benefits will also be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment. It is not, however, possible to include those on other qualifying means-tested benefits in these figures.
Question: how many positions in his Department included (a) diversity, (b) inclusion, (c) equity and (d) equality in their job title in each of the last five years; and what the total cost of the salaries of each such job was in each of those years.
Defra does not routinely collate information on specific words and collating this information would come at a disproportionate cost.
Information on spending and staffing can be found in the department’s annual report and accounts.
This estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of people claiming Pension Credit in Great Yarmouth from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients in Great Yarmouth. This is essentially the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients who are not claiming Pension Credit pre-policy change, as an estimate of those who will no longer receive the Winter Fuel Payment.
Please note that the above figures do not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up that we might see as a result of the Government’s Pension Credit Awareness Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or Local Authorities.
The published Pension Credit figures refer to households rather than individuals, so the number of individuals receiving Pension Credit will be higher (i.e. taking account of households where it is a couple claiming Pension Credit).
In addition, while Pension Credit claimants constitute the majority of those that will be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment, pensioners who claim other qualifying means-tested benefits will also be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment. It is not, however, possible to include those on other qualifying means-tested benefits in these figures.
Question: What steps his Department is taking to tackle coastal erosion in Hemsby; and if he will meet the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth to discuss the criteria for his Department's funding of coastal erosion programmes.
Defra knows the devastating impact flooding and coastal erosion can have on communities, including in Hemsby. That is why we are committed to supporting coastal communities and ensuring flood risk management is fit for the challenges we face now and in the future. We will establish a new Flood Resilience Taskforce to provide oversight of national and local flood resilience and preparedness ahead of and after the winter flood season.
The Environment Agency is working closely with Great Yarmouth Borough Council as they consider options for flood risk management of the area, taking into account the technical challenges. East Suffolk Council is leading on the Resilient Coasts project, part of the £200 million Flood and Coast Innovation Programme. This project includes Hemsby as a pilot location, and we look forward to hearing how this is progressing.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the funding criteria for coastal defences in Hemsby, and if he will visit Hemsby.
Emma Hardy:
Great Yarmouth Borough Council is the responsible risk management authority for coastal erosion at Hemsby. The shoreline management approach for Hemsby’s coastline is managed realignment, as outlined in the Shoreline Management Plan which has been developed locally by the East Anglia Coastal Group and included consultation with the community.
We must also be mindful of the negative impacts of defence solutions on neighbouring coastal communities where erosion can be exacerbated. This was highlighted in the Shoreline Management Plan for the area where this is a major driver for the longer-term managed realignment policy.
Under the inherited approach to investing in flood schemes, Grant in Aid investment at Hemsby is challenging due to high costs associated with the technical aspects of providing protection to an actively eroding sand dune. This means that the benefit cost ratio for investment is likely to be marginal and most typical engineering options, with assured benefits, are likely to be uneconomic to deliver.
In opposition, we said we would look at the funding formula for flood schemes. It remains our intention to do this, to ensure flood risk management is fit for the challenges we face both now and in the future. We are examining all use of flood defence resources to ensure that the Government maximises safety from potential flooding within the difficulty financial legacy the country was left by the previous government.
I regret Ministers currently have no availability to visit the Honourable Member’s constituency at this time but will keep his invitation in mind.