Local highway authorities are responsible for protecting the rights of the public to use footpaths and other rights of way. They are also responsible for determining their own local spending priorities. However, we have recently completed the £2 million Paths for Communities Programme, creating 53.28 kilometres of new bridleway and 21.42 kilometres of new footpath – in total over 74 kilometres of new public rights of way.

We are also introducing a balanced package of rights of way reforms as part of the Deregulation Bill. Those reforms will significantly improve the processes for recording and altering the public rights of way network. The reforms make the procedures more streamlined and will help complete the definitive map and statement by the 2026 cut-off date, thereby protecting historical public rights of way from extinguishment.

We are making good progress with coastal access. It has been implemented on four stretches of the coast in Cumbria, Dorset and Norfolk, and in Durham, Hartlepool and Sunderland. We have also announced that additional funding will be made available to complete the coastal path around England by 2020.

The UK Marine Policy Statement (MPS) is the framework for preparing Marine Plans and taking decisions affecting the marine environment. The MPS sets out the policy objectives for key activities taking place in the marine environment. This includes an assessment of marine aggregate resources, potential impacts from extraction activities and issues for consideration by decision-makers. Within English waters marine aggregate extraction activities are regulated by the Marine Management Organisation.

Government, regulators, The Crown Estate and the British Marine Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA) have collaborated on an extensive programme of research (over £25 million in ten years) into understanding and minimising the environmental impacts of aggregates dredging. Following the completion of that programme BMAPA and The Crown Estate recently commissioned and published Aggregate Dredging and the Marine Environment – an overview of recent research and current industry practice. The report is available on The Crown Estate website at www.the crownestate.co.uk

The marine aggregate industry has and continues to engage constructively with Government and regulators in developing marine plans and licensing policy and Marine Conservation Zones.

The Environment Agency holds this information locally and it would be disproportionately costly to collate the records to answer this question accurately in the time allowed.

Core Defra allows the following organisations to receive payments by the use of payroll deduction facilities:

Benenden Healthcare Society

Charitable Giving

Charity for Civil Servants

Civil Service Benevolent Fund

Civil Service Club

Civil Service Pension Scheme (including stakeholder pension)

Civil Service Retirement Fellowship

Civil Service Sports Council

Customs & Excise Sports Club

Customs Fund Insurance

Defra Lottery

Department of Environment Recreational Association

Dimensions Fitness

First Division Association

Fideliti

Forester Health Plan Scheme

Halfords

Hospital Saturday Fund

Hospital Savings Association

Prospect Union

Public and Commercial Services Union

Simply Health

Sovereign Health Care

Sun Life Assurance Company

Welsh Office Sports & Social Association

Westfield Health Scheme

In 2011/12 the Government funded approximately £450 million on agriculture and food related research, and in 2013 the Agricultural Technologies Strategy secured a further £160 million to accelerate innovation by UK food and farming businesses.

It is not possible to give separate figures for research into improvement of yields in arable farming as this is supported by a wide range of advances in knowledge and technology. Key ongoing research programmes in this area include:

• the £90 million Technology Strategy Board’s Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform,

• Defra’s Food and Farming research programmes (which can be searched at: http://randd.defra.gov.uk/),

• The £50 million p.a. Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programmes for Rural Affairs and the Environment,

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Research/About/EBAR/StrategicResearch/future-research-strategy)

• Research funded through the Research Councils (whose programmes can be searched via: http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/).

Research funders across Government coordinate many of their activities through the Global Food Security Programme (http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk ), and the UK Plant Health evidence group.

The Natural Environment White Paper set out our ambition to end the use of peat through a voluntary partnership with the horticultural sector by 2030.

The Government response to the Sustainable Growing Media Task Force report was published in 2013 and is available to view on the GOV.UK website. It set out where our resources will be focussed over the next few years to assist in the transition to sustainable growing media and reduced peat use. We are committed to working with the industry to deliver the Roadmap towards Sustainable Growing Media and to overcome the barriers to peat reduction. For example, we are supporting the development of a performance standard and criteria for responsibly sourced and manufactured growing media.

A policy review will take place in 2015 to assess the delivery of the roadmap and to identify further actions necessary.

The table below shows the household waste recycling rates achieved in each region in England between April 2012 and March 2013. These recycling rates include household waste that is recycled, composted or prepared for reuse, deducting any material that is rejected at collection or rejected at the gate by processors.

Source: WasteDataFlow

The Water Framework Directive establishes an approach for the management, protection and improvement of water resources across the EU at a River Basin District level. It requires surface water bodies to be classified into one of five ecological classes, and one of two chemical classes. Groundwater classification reflects water quantity and chemical status. One key aim is to achieve good ecological and chemical classification status by 2015 unless there are grounds for exemption or alternative objectives. Achieving 'good' status involves meeting certain standards for the ecology, chemistry, morphology and quantity of waters. In general terms, 'good' status means that water shows only a slight change from what would normally be expected under undisturbed conditions.

Classifications for water bodies in England under the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) are set out on the 2009 River Basin Management Plans, details of which are on the Environment Agency's website. Progress against the objectives set out in these plans for 2015, will be reported in 2016.

The classifications are made by the Environment Agency according to the River Basin Districts Surface water and Groundwater Classification (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Directions 2009.

The Environment Agency is now reviewing the River Basin Management Plans for the 2015-2021 period. This will involve updating the classifications of water bodies and objectives. It will be consulting on draft plans later this year.

In 2012, some of the delivery elements of processing Protected Food Names (PFN) applications were brought back into Defra to make the end to end process more efficient.

In addition, new EU Regulations came into force in 2013 which introduced a streamlined EU consultation process. To mirror this, Defra reviewed the UK’s PFN application process and introduced an option to reduce the standard 12 week consultation period to as short as four weeks, providing Defra does not receive notice of intention to object within this shorter period. However, if a notice of intention to object is received then a further eight weeks is permitted in order for complete details of the objection to be submitted.

Defra collects data from local authorities on waste generation and management through the WasteDataFlow reporting system. The table below

shows the household waste recycling rates achieved in each London authority between April 2012 and March 2013. These recycling rates include household waste that is recycled, composted or prepared for reuse, deducting any material that is rejected at collection or rejected at the gate by processors.

Source: WasteDataFlow

The difference between these two bodies was covered in the Explanatory Document to the Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances (Abolition) Order 2012 (Statutory Instrument No 2012/1923). The transition from one body to the other reflects changes in the arrangements for science advice in Defra and in the regulation of chemicals. The Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee (HSAC) has new terms of reference which are broader, more strategic and more flexible than those for the Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances (ACHS). ACHS members, including the chairman, have carried their remaining terms of office forward to the HSAC. We are in the process of recruiting new members for HSAC to fill current and anticipated vacancies.

Further information about the HSAC, including its new terms of reference and code of practice, can be found on the Defra website.

The Environment Agency carries out detailed condition surveying and modelling assessments both for rivers and for the sea. The Environment Agency does this to understand the potential likelihood and consequences of flooding in London. These assessments drive an annual programme of maintenance, repair and improvement.

The most significant risk of flooding in London is from the sea. The Thames tidal defences are a world-class system providing a one in 1,000 standard of protection to London. This means that in any given year there is a 0.01% probability of flooding from the sea. The Environment Agency assesses the condition of London’s tidal flood defences at least twice annually. The Thames Barrier is assessed monthly during a test closure.

Through the Thames Estuary 2100 project, the Environment Agency has considered how tidal flood risk is increasing in the Thames estuary due to ageing flood defence structures, climate change and sea level rise, as well as more people living and working within the floodplain. The resulting plan describes the strategic direction for managing flood risk across the estuary until 2100.

The project carried out over 300 studies which found that, subject to continued investment and monitoring, the current flood defences will provide the required standard of protection until 2070.