Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 25
First Report - Soil health
Published 5 Dec 2023
Paragraph 92
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Soil Health All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Soil contamination is a well-known yet not well-understood problem. There has been a longstanding and unacceptable failure to remediate historical soil contamination that acts as a barrier to nature recovery. As for contamination through agricultural inputs, the Government should also improve controls and protocols—both for their production and application—to give the sector more confidence to use these more freely. It is particularly disappointing that regulatory updates for sewage sludge have not yet happened. However, the most effective measure to tackle soil contamination is to prevent it in the first place.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, First Report - Soil health (HC 245), paragraph 92, 5 December 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 21 March 2024 (deadline 5 February 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it welcomes the Committee's recommendations and is "carefully considering them alongside our existing initiatives", while setting out its own timings and positions on individual recommendations.
- On soil data, national soil monitoring is under way within the tNCEA programme, with the soil health baseline due "by 2028, subject to further capital funding". Defra will publish a progress report on the soil health indicator by June 2024.
- On statutory soil targets, the government sees target-setting as "an iterative process" and will "keep our targets framework under review". The next Environmental Improvement Plan review is due in 2028.
- On annual reporting for ELM schemes, it is reviewing how best to meet its Agriculture Act 2020 reporting commitment and says it is "unlikely" that it can report annually on soil health impacts.
- On soil remediation and reuse, it intends to pilot a Soil Reuse and Depot scheme by December 2026 and expects revised construction guidance by summer 2024. It will assess voluntary approaches "before considering any regulatory models, or the need for a specific taskforce".