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.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any enforcement action has been commenced by (1) DEFRA, (2) the Environment Agency, or (3) other authorities responsible for waste shipping in the UK, in relation to the export of 'end of life' tyres to India to ensure that the waste is treated in an environmentally sound manner.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
(1) The four UK regulators, the Environment Agency in England, Natural Resources Wales, The Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency enforce legislation on shipments of waste.
(2) The Environment Agency is currently undertaking an internal review into its regulation of waste tyres and their export, particularly to India. This review will be finalised by the end of June and the outcomes made publicly available. The Environment Agency is not able to provide details of ongoing enforcement investigations.
(3) The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has stopped the export of eight containers of waste tyres since January 2024. Six of these were destined for India.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of 'end of life' tyres exported to India in the past 12 months have been exported with a T8 waste exemption.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This information is not available as T8 exemption holders are not currently obligated to provide this information under the conditions of the exemption.
Exporters of waste tyres to India are also not currently required to provide information of their exports routinely.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what checks are carried out by DEFRA or the Environment Agency in relation to 'end of life' tyres exported to India to ascertain whether operators involved in the shipment of tyres have taken all necessary steps to ensure waste is managed in an environmentally sound manner.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To assess if ‘end of life tyres’ will be managed in an environmentally sound manner, the Environment Agency operates on a risk-based basis to carry out checks on destination sites, to ensure that they operate to broadly equivalent UK standards.
Checks may include internet based open-source data, requesting the GPS co-ordinates of the site location, verification from the overseas competent authority responsible for issuing the environmental permit, the contractual details of the shipment and a copy of the permit from the exporter.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 20 February (HL4788), whether they will publish the referenced independent studies exploring the sustainability of biomass electricity generation.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The referenced independent studies refer to work exploring the sustainability of biomass, including electricity generation. Several reports commissioned on behalf of the public sector are already in the public domain, including:
Publicly funded research will continue to be published in line with the Research Concordat.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks of Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 3 December 2024 (col 1089) and his Written Answer on 6 February (HL4363), whether they have commissioned any independent research into the long-term sustainability of biomass electricity generation.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
The Government works closely with a range of stakeholders including academia and independent experts to assist policy development around sustainability of biomass, ensuring that evidence informs long-term decision making. This has included commissioning several independent studies exploring the sustainability of biomass.
It has also included working with Ofgem and independent experts, alongside research gathered from engagement with industry and academia, to support development of strengthened assurance around the compliance of generators with sustainability criteria.