The 25 Year Environment Plan and Abstraction Plan set out the Government’s commitment and actions to protect our water environment and the Environment Bill aims to strengthen this.

Abstraction licence changes made by the Environment Agency since 2008 are returning 16 billion litres of water back to chalk streams per year and removed the risk of further 14.9 billion litres being abstracted a year. Further abstraction reductions are planned in the next few years. Additionally, through the Environment Bill the government is taking action to address abstraction that is causing, or is at risk of causing, environmental damage and to remove unused headroom on an abstraction licence where there is no justifiable reason for having it.

A programme of habitat restoration is underway in England, including 11 chalk river Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Since 2011 over 70 kilometres of the chalk stream priority habitat has been improved through 60 projects costing £4.3 million including £1.6m partner contributions.

Since 2006, Catchment Sensitive Farming has provided grants and advice to help reduce pollution from farms within 68 priority catchments, including chalk streams.

We know that the horticulture sector requires a high proportion of seasonal workers. The Government introduced a new pilot for 2019 and 2020 enabling up to 2,500 non-European Economic Area migrant workers to come to the UK to undertake seasonal employment in the edible horticultural sector. As of June 2019, pilot operators had recruited all 2,500 workers who continued to arrive in the following months for the harvesting of winter vegetables. This pilot is not designed to meet the full labour needs of the horticultural sector. Rather we are seeking to evaluate the immigration pilot’s ability to assist in alleviating labour shortages during peak production periods.

Defra and the Home Office continue to monitor the impact of the seasonal workers pilot and the workforce pressures faced by farmers as we look at how best to support the longer-term needs of industry outside the EU.

EU citizens can continue to come to the UK for work in 2019 and 2020 regardless of whether the UK reaches a deal with the EU. This includes for seasonal work on farms. EU citizens arriving after we leave the EU, in a no deal scenario, will need to apply for European Temporary Leave to Remain, granting a further 36 months in the UK if they want to stay after 31 December 2020, which is the deadline for applying to the scheme.

The Environment Agency is advising HS2 Ltd and their contractors on mitigating the potential impacts of their works on water level and quality of chalk streams. This includes water usage for tunnelling in the Chilterns. The Environment Agency will review any application for increased abstraction in the Colne catchment in line with the current Colne Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy to ensure that there is no detrimental impact on the environment.