Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

CommonsSelectest. 16 Jul 2001Email ↗● Actively Monitored
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Sessions analysed42
Commitments165
Positions160
Recommendations130

Latest Signals

15 Sept 2026Adaptation plan 4 will be more ambitiousPosition
“[Speaker: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter] We are clear that in adaptation 4 we will set stronger objectives. We will improve the preparedness for climate change, to which many of you have alluded to and spoken of today and previously. The objectives will be developed to prepare for a minimum of 2% warming by 2050 in line with the advice from the Climate Change Committee. Yes, it is a focus. We are going bolder with meeting those objectives in adaptation 4.”
15 Sept 2026Government says wildfire risk now requires a new approachPosition
15 Sept 20262025 peat-burning regulations remain the key controlLegislative
15 Sept 2026National risk register is out of date for wildfiresConcern
15 Sept 2026Pushback over whether wildfire controls are too restrictiveDisagreement
15 Sept 2026Planning policy should incorporate wildfire riskPosition
15 Sept 2026England still lacks a settled national wildfire strategyPosition
15 Sept 2026Emergency alert caused repeated notifications in rural areasConcern

Recent Sessions

View all (42)
15 Sept 2026Wildfire adaptation, resilience and response
5 commit4 pos5 concern1 disag1 leg
10 Sept 2026Uplands: ELM, common land and Natural England
1 pos7 concern2 rec2 disag
07 Jul 2026DEFRA: water reform, farming and SPS reset
11 commit8 pos1 concern2 rec1 leg
30 Jun 2026VMD: medicines access, AMR and vaccine supply
3 commit7 pos6 concern1 rec1 disag2 leg
23 Jun 2026Climate adaptation: UK wildfire risk and response
3 pos6 concern12 rec1 disag
19 May 2026Food supply chain resilience: fairness, shocks and reform
1 commit3 pos4 concern7 rec1 disag

Recent Commitments

View all (165)

Recent Recommendations

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Frequent Witnesses

DEFRA9× · 138 insights
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs5× · 72 insights
Environment Agency2× · 50 insights
Thames Water2× · 24 insights
Ofwat2× · 19 insights
South East Water2× · 11 insights

About this committee

The Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee scrutinises the work of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and related public bodies on environmental protection, food security, rural development and land management. The Committee takes oral evidence from ministers, officials and external witnesses as part of its investigative work. It operates as a permanent select committee with the power to examine policy and hold the executive to account across its remit. Recent inquiries have examined water sector reform following South East Water outages and the resilience of England's water infrastructure. The Committee has also investigated fairness in food supply chains through scrutiny of the Groceries Code Adjudicator and Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator frameworks. Additional focus areas have included the future shape of the veterinary profession, nature recovery and economic growth, and waste management alongside circular economy and land use policy under the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.