Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of marine mammals that have been caught by fishing vessels in UK waters in 2023 and 2024.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Bycatch Monitoring Programme is currently producing the 2024 report on marine mammal bycatch estimates and is expected to be published by the end of the year.
According to the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme there were twenty cases of cetacean bycatch and entanglement in 2023 and fifteen in 2024. This data is taken from necropsy data only and does not include data collected on beaches/at sea by volunteer schemes from non-necropsied animals.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many reports of marine mammal bycatch were made in 2023 and 2024.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2023 there were 17 reports of marine mammal bycatch, six incidents of which resulted in injury or death. In 2024 there were 12 incidents reported, and none resulted in injury or death.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they made to the government of the United States as part of their application for a comparability finding under the Marine Mammal Protection Act import provisions.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2021 the Government worked with the Devolved Administrations, Marine Management Organisation, Joint Nature and Conversation Committee and academia, to submit a suite of evidence to support the UK’s application for a comparability finding in respect of the US Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The MMPA Import Provisions require that harvesting nations maintain a regulatory programme to address the intentional and incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals in their export fisheries that is comparable in effectiveness to the U.S. regulatory programme. In August 2025, having reviewed this this evidence, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States found the United Kingdom’s regulatory programme to be comparable to the US, meaning trade in fisheries products can continue as before.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of warm days on school pupil performance.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In June 2025, we published a summary of our initial assessment of the three climate risks (flooding, overheating, and water scarcity), in response to the adaptation committee’s independent assessment of UK climate risk. This was to raise awareness in the education system of how the predicted rise in temperatures could impact education. The publication is attached and can also be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/impact-of-uk-climate-change-risk-on-the-delivery-of-education.
Findings show the extent to which rising temperatures, from subtle general increases to extreme heat events (heatwaves), could affect students’ ability to learn.
From our initial assessment, we understand that even when temperatures are less extreme, persistent increases in temperature can affect the ability to learn. That is why the government is supporting responsible bodies to take steps to manage the impact of rising temperatures in school and college environments. It is important to recognise that these findings are based on emerging evidence, giving only an indication at this stage.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many student learning days were lost to flooding during each of the past five academic years.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not held centrally.