Aphra Brandreth MP: written questions
4 Jul 2024–3 Jul 2025
How these years work
Our reporting years run from 4 July to 3 July, starting with the 2024 general election. They are not official parliamentary sessions. Office costs keep IPSA’s April–March financial years. Records may cover only part of a year; a missing record does not mean no work was done.
Read what this MP said, asked and contributed in Parliament.
29 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Agricultural ShowsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 30 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 63805More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2025 to Question 61476 on Agricultural Shows, which agricultural shows (a) he has and (b) his Ministers have attended since 5 July 2024.
Answer: Defra Ministers have attended the following: Royal Cornwall ShowGroundswellGreat Yorkshire Show (in both 2024 and 2025)Royal Highland ShowRoyal Norfolk Show
Answered 16 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordFarms: Domestic VisitsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61684More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farm visits (a) he has and (b) his Ministers have undertaken since 4 July 2024.
Answer: Defra ministers regularly visit farms in a range of counties and meet with farmers and the wider industry nearly every week.
Answered 30 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordWater Companies: FinesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61683More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what options his Department considered for the use of fines collected from water companies.
Answer: Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies sin...
Answered 27 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordWater Companies: FinesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61681More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether funds raised through fines on water companies will be allocated to support (a) water quality and (b) infrastructure improvements in the same areas where breaches occurred.
Answer: Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies sin...
Answered 27 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordWater Companies: FinesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61679More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which rivers have been identified by his Department as priority sites for improvement using funds raised through fines on water companies.
Answer: Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies sin...
Answered 27 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordWater Companies: FinesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61678More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any fines levied on water companies are being used to support water quality improvements at Lake Windermere.
Answer: Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies sin...
Answered 27 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordWater Companies: FinesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61677More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what options were considered by his Department for the use of water company fines before the decision to direct them towards water projects was taken.
Answer: Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies sin...
Answered 27 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordWater Companies: FinesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61676More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how long discussions have been taking place within government on the allocation of water company fines towards water restoration and infrastructure projects.
Answer: Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies sin...
Answered 27 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordWater Companies: FinesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61675More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the revenue that will be raised from fines imposed on water companies for environmental breaches in the next 12 months.
Answer: Environmental enforcement, including fines, is provided by independent regulators Ofwat and the Environment Agency (EA). Enforcement activity and subsequent fines are affected by a wide variety of factors and the Government does not have a predicted figur...
Answered 30 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordWater Restoration FundDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61674More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of funding through the Water Restoration Fund will be used to support water (a) quality and (b) infrastructure projects.
Answer: Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies sin...
Answered 27 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordWater Restoration FundDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 20 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61673More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press release entitled Government to invest over £100m in water company fines to local environmental projects, published on 19 June 2025, when he decided to use f
Answer: Following the Spending Review, the Government has confirmed water company fines will be allocated to local environmental projects and programmes to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. Over £100 million in fines has been levied against water companies sin...
Answered 27 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordLivestock: WalesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 19 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61477More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Welsh Government’s decision to ban the movement of livestock from England into Wales; and what discussions
Answer: I refer the honourable member to the answers given on X June 2025 to PQs 61013 and 61014 regarding the potential impact of bluetongue regulations in North Shropshire. Disease control is a devolved matter, and it is for the devolved administrations to asse...
Answered 24 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordAgricultural ShowsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 19 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 61476More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many agricultural shows (a) he and (b) his ministerial team have attended since 4 July 2024.
Answer: Ministers are attending a range of agriculture shows across the UK. Most recently, Ministers have attended the Royal Cornwall Show and the Royal Highland Show.
Answered 26 Jun 2025
Original Parliament recordSustainable Farming Incentive: Food SupplyDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 23 Apr 2025AnsweredUIN 47502More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme on food security.
Answer: This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period. Food security requires a long-term picture of resilience to shocks. ...
Answered 6 May 2025
Original Parliament recordEnvironmental Land Management SchemesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39272More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department has distributed from its Environmental Land Management budget this financial year to date; and how much remains.
Answer: In line with its obligations under the Agriculture Act 2020, Defra regularly publishes an annual report setting out commitments in the previous financial year. Defra intends to publish the annual report for the financial year 2024/25 later this year.
Answered 28 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSustainable Farming IncentiveDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39270More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive were outstanding as of 12 March 2025; and what steps his Department is taking to process applications submitted before the s
Answer: As of the 24 March, of the applications that had been submitted for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 14,191 had received an agreement offers and 3,700 had not yet received an agreement offer.
Answered 24 Apr 2025
Original Parliament recordSustainable Farming IncentiveDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39268More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what communications his Department plans to send to farming businesses affected by changes to the Sustainable Farming Incentive; and what support he plans to provide to staff in his De
Answer: A letter from Minister Zeichner was sent to all farm businesses on 12 March advising them of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive to new applications. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will be writing to farm businesses affected shortly with mor...
Answered 25 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSustainable Farming IncentiveDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39267More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the ability of the Rural Payment Agency to process changes to the Sustainable Farming Incentive.
Answer: The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) in recent years has delivered improvements to accessibility of their services, streamlined application processes and delivered improvements in the issuing of agreements and payment performance and are well placed to continu...
Answered 25 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordCountryside Stewardship SchemeDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39266More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to open the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier in summer 2025.
Answer: Defra announced on 11 December 2024 that the full Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier scheme guidance will be published before applications open in summer 2025.
Answered 24 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSustainable Farming IncentiveDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39265More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason his Department did not provide six weeks' notice when closing the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme for new applications.
Answer: The high uptake of the scheme means it is fully subscribed. The decision to close the scheme to new applications was taken at that point. We could not give any advance notice because we needed to ensure fair access to the scheme and avoid creating a sudde...
Answered 28 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSustainable Farming IncentiveDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39264More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the amount of notice the National Farmers' Union was provided with before his Department announced that the Sustainable Farming Incentive
Answer: As with all demand-led schemes there comes a point when they are fully-subscribed. We ensured farmers and their representative bodies were made aware when that happened.
Answered 2 Apr 2025
Original Parliament recordAgriculture: FinanceDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39262More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to (a) monitor agricultural spend against the budget and (b) reduce the time taken to make financial decisions.
Answer: We monitor forecasts of scheme uptake and spend against the current year budget on an ongoing basis and respond accordingly to maximise the amount that can be delivered. Furthermore, we have a full understanding of commitments into future years arising fr...
Answered 28 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSustainable Farming Incentive: ReviewsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39248More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how he plans to consult farmers on the review of the Sustainable Farming Incentive in a transparent way.
Answer: Since we launched the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) in 2022 we have worked closely with the farming sector to develop and improve the offer to make sure it worked for as many different farmers and land types as possible. We will continue to do this ...
Answered 28 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSustainable Farming IncentiveDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39247More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will reopen the Sustainable Farming Incentive to new applications.
Answer: We have closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for new applications because the current SFI budget has been successfully allocated, with large-scale uptake of the scheme and 37,000 live SFI agreements delivering towards our environmental targets. ...
Answered 28 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordFood SupplyDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 18 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39246More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) the war in Ukraine (b) the wider geopolitical situation and (c) the impact of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentiv
Answer: (a)The war in Ukraine led to rising oil, fuel and energy prices, which created inflationary pressures right across the food chain. Farmers experienced higher energy and fertiliser costs; manufacturers experienced higher production costs; and importers and...
Answered 2 Apr 2025
Original Parliament record
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4 Jul 2024–3 Jul 2025. One record per UIN and tabled date; the named department is not a measure of answer quality.
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