Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff in his Department have permission to work remotely outside the UK; and in which countries those staff are based.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Information on civil servants employed by Defra based overseas is publicly available.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many queen honeybees have been imported into Great Britain via Northern Ireland since 2021.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All consignments of honey bee queens imported into Northern Ireland (NI) must be accompanied by health certificates confirming that the area the bees originated from is free of certain pests and diseases. The health certificate must be issued no more than 24 hours prior to dispatch and the certifying officer must also confirm that a pre-export inspection took place. When the imports arrive in NI they are cleared by NI officials. Great Britain (GB) officials do not have access to the systems used by NI so we do not have figures for how many queen honeybees have been imported into NI. Once the imports have been cleared by NI officials, the bees can be moved to GB without any further controls so information about the number of queen honeybees moved from NI to GB is not collected.
NI officials have shared intelligence that since 2021 they have received increased numbers of queen honey bee imports into NI while the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Bee Unit has recorded fewer imports of queen honey bees into GB.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce a mandatory registration scheme for all marine vessels to combat the problem of abandoned boats on rivers, estuaries and the shoreline.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is leading an action under the second OSPAR Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter to improve the management of end-of-life recreational vessels. The Government commissioned the environmental consultancy Resource Futures to undertake research on the number of vessels reaching end-of-life and the policy options to reduce the issue of marine litter from abandoned vessels. This research will inform further OSPAR action, including the development of best practice guidance.
Asked by: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that queen honeybees imported into Great Britain via Northern Ireland are free from pests and diseases, in particular the small hive beetle.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All consignments of honey bee queens imported into Northern Ireland (NI) must be accompanied by health certificates confirming that the area the bees originated from is free of certain pests, including small hive beetle, and diseases. The health certificate must be issued no more than 24 hours prior to dispatch and the certifying officer must also confirm that a pre-export inspection took place. Imports into NI are cleared by NI officials.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when funding allocations will be confirmed for outstanding Darwin Plus applications.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is now working with Darwin Plus applicants to confirm and award new project grants under the programme. Applicants have been advised to expect updates over the summer. Updates will also be made available on the Darwin Plus website.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Epping Forest)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Equidae recorded as transiting across Great Britain were declared as being exported from (a) Harwich, (b) Dover, (c) Killingholme, (d) Holyhead, (e) Birkenhead and (f) other ports in (i) 2023, (ii) 2024 and (iii) 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This data is available on Export Health Certificates (Live Animals and Animal Product Origins) Issued between Great Britain and European Union by APHA - data.gov.uk
This dataset contains information on the number of Export Health Certificates issued for exports from GB to the European Union in respect of Live Animals and Products of Animal Origin. It does not show the number of exports for each port but shows the number of Export Health Certificates issued per commodity group by the Animal and Plant Health Agency in a calendar month.
Asked by: Baroness Young of Old Scone (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in implementing the recommendations of the report of the Tree Council Protecting trees of high social, cultural and environmental value published in April, and in developing an action plan for and improving the legal protection of important trees.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are carefully considering expert recommendations laid out in the Tree Council and Forest Research report. It will be important to balance our approach with existing priorities and our statutory obligations.
We recognise the value of our most important trees and consider all ancient and veteran trees to be irreplaceable habitats. The Sycamore Gap sentencing demonstrates that our judicial system takes illegal tree felling seriously.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Epping Forest)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Equidae (a) were recorded as transiting across Great Britain and (b) had been declared on their paperwork as having been imported via (i) Harwich, (ii) Dover, (iii) Killingholme, (iv) Cairnryan, (v) Holyhead, (vi) Birkenhead (vii) other ports in (A) 2023, (B) 2024 and (C) 2025 to-date.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
From 2023 to date, a total of 8346 Equidae were recorded as transiting across Great Britain and had been declared on their paperwork as having been imported by a UK port.
The attached table shows the number of Equidae by year and port.
This information is drawn from external systems not directly controlled by the department.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Epping Forest)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Equidae were declared as transiting across Great Britain on an intra-EU certificate in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025; and how many of those were declared as originating from (i) Northern Ireland, (ii) the Republic of Ireland and (iii) other EU countries in each year.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The attached table shows the number of Equidae which were declared as originating from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and other EU countries.
This information is drawn from external systems not directly controlled by the department.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Norwich (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to deliver climate finance to communities in the UK most impacted by climate change.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is working hard to both understand the impacts of climate change and deliver the support needed to communities in the UK most impacted. For example, delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change, this Government is investing record levels of flood protection. We are investing a record £2.65 billion over two years (2024/25 and 2025/26) for the construction of new flood schemes, and the maintenance and repair of existing ones. With this fresh funding, 1,000 flood schemes have been or will continue to be supported, better protecting 52,000 properties by March 2026.
In addition, the Government is strengthening the capability of local authorities to protect businesses and communities from the impacts of climate change through the Local Authority Climate Services (LACS). Developed through the collaborative efforts of Defra and the Met Office, the LACS provides local authorities with targeted data on climate change impacts to their local areas to help guide the decisions made in response to climate risks and support climate adaptation planning. The UK Government Emergency alerts are also in place to warn businesses and communities of dangerous weather conditions which may impact on their affairs.
The Flood Re scheme also supports local communities. Flood Re is a joint Government and industry scheme that provides reinsurance in such a way as to promote affordability and availability of insurance for UK households at high flood risk. Flood Re does not deal directly with homeowners but instead allows insurance companies to pass the flood risk element of home insurance policies over to Flood Re for a set premium based on council tax bands.