The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer 194164, how many civil servants in his Department of what grade spent some or all of their time working on the Hunting Act 2004 or matters relating to it in each year since 2010.
George Eustice
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave 7 April 2014, Official Report, column 61W.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much of the Government’s Business Rates Relief Fund for flooded businesses has been (a) allocated to local authorities and (b) received by businesses to date.
Brandon Lewis
As at 2 June 2014, 979 businesses were in receipt of a business rates relief from their local authority as a result of the impact of flooding. There are no set or advance allocations to councils. The fund works by councils retrospectively claiming back the cost of the business rate relief (in the same way, for example, as the Bellwin Scheme has always worked). 66 local authorities recently submitted claims for reimbursement; the deadline for applications was 26 May. Subject to data checking, we expect reimbursement payments in the region of £4 million to be made shortly.
Further information on the available flood support schemes is available on the gov.uk website at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/flood-support-package-for-homeowners-and-businesses
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-04-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many full-time employees in the operations and legal services departments of the Environment Agency work on (a) operations and (b) legal services.
Dan Rogerson
As of 28 February this year, the Environment Agency directly employs 8,532 full-time equivalent employees within Operations and Legal Services, shown below. These figures exclude employment agency staff and contractors and are rounded to whole full time equivalent numbers.
|
Operations |
8,377 |
|
Legal Services |
155 |
|
Total |
8,532 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether approval will be given for fracking sites on flood plains; and if he will make a statement.
Dan Rogerson
For surface installations required for borehole construction and hydraulic fracturing, the Environment Agency is a statutory adviser in the planning process. Where appropriate, it will require flood risk assessments. It may object to developments if flood risk is unacceptable or require conditions on how the site is constructed and operated to mitigate flood risk, through flood consents.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to ask the Independent Expert Panel which recently reported on the first year of the pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire to report on the second year of such culls.
George Eustice
I have no plans to ask the Independent Expert Panel to report on the second year of the pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much of the Government’s Council Tax Relief Fund for people whose homes have been flooded has been (a) allocated to local authorities and (b) received by residents to date.
Brandon Lewis
As at 2 June 2014, 4,031 households were in receipt of a council tax discount from their local authority as a result of the impact of flooding. There are no set or advance allocations to councils. The fund works by councils retrospectively claiming back the cost of the council tax relief (in the same way, for example, as the Bellwin Scheme has always worked). Local authorities recently submitted the first round of claims for reimbursement. Subject to data checking, we expect reimbursement payments in the region of £1.8 million to be made shortly.
Further information on the available flood support schemes is available on the gov.uk website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flood-support-package-for-homeowners-and-businesses
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-04-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many requests to leave the Environment Agency under the voluntary early release scheme are from staff in the operations and legal services departments.
Dan Rogerson
As of 1 April this year, the Environment Agency had received 956 requests within its operations and legal services departments to leave the organisation under its voluntary early release scheme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-04-02.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2014, Official Report, column 595W, on flood control, what the extra sum allocated in Budget 2014 is for each of the devolved administrations for flood defence in (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16.
Danny Alexander
HM TREASURY
Maria Eagle MP
GARSTON & HALEWOOD
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2014, Official Report, column 595W, on flood control, what the extra sum allocated in Budget 2014 is for each of the devolved administrations for Government funding for flood defence in 2014-15 and 2015-16. [194953]
DANNY ALEXANDER
The table below sets out the extra funding allocated to the devolved administrations through the Barnett formula which reflected new funding provided to UK government departments for flood defence measures at Budget 2014.
|
Scotland |
Wales |
Northern Ireland |
||||
|
2014-15 £m |
2015-16 £m |
2014-15 £m |
2015-16 £m |
2014-15 £m |
2015-16 £m |
|
|
Flood Maintenance (Resource) |
2.0 |
3.5 |
1.2 |
2.0 |
0.7 |
1.2 |
|
Flood Maintenance (Capital) |
6.0 |
2.5 |
3.5 |
1.4 |
2.0 |
0.8 |
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he was informed that cage trapping and shooting of badgers had been implemented alongside the free shooting of badgers within two days of the beginning of the pilot badger cull in Somerset in 2013.
George Eustice
Both controlled shooting and cage trapping and shooting methods were always available to the cull companies. There was no compulsion on the contractors to use a defined proportion of cage trapping and controlled shooting. How they used these two methods was a decision for them to make. As the pilot culls progressed, cull companies decided to use more cage trapping, as this technique was found to work well under certain circumstances. Ministers were kept informed of progress during the pilot culls from an early stage.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the Tourism Industry Fund for businesses in flood-affected parts of England has been (a) allocated to local authorities and (b) received by businesses to date.
Mrs Helen Grant
The Government’s tourism package on flood support was not grant based but, alongside a marketing programme, was funded business support offered via local workshops and drop in clinics to tourism and tourism related businesses. These sessions were organised locally by Destination Organisations on behalf of VisitEngland. They were accessed by over 700 businesses. Money was only allocated to local authorities where they were the accountable body for the Destination Organisations. This totalled £83,798 but not all Destination Organisations have local authorities as their accountable body.