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Written Question
National Landscapes: Planning Permission
Wednesday 20th December 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether, when considering whether an area should be designated or retained as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, they take into account whether they wish more housing to be built there, or whether it is designated purely on environmental, nature and beauty considerations.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

To designate an Area of Natural Beauty, Natural England must issue an order under section 82 of the CROW Act for the purpose of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of that area. The area must meet a set of natural beauty criterion. Based upon the legislation, the designation process includes technical assessment against designation criteria and assessment of the desirability of designating the area. The desirability tests recognise that a designation may have an impact beyond the immediate statutory purpose. As such, consideration is also given to government policy which will influence how AONBs operate in relation to wider policy areas, such as housing, the economy and planning.


Written Question
National Landscapes: Surrey
Friday 15th December 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government why the Surrey Hills has lost its Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty status.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Natural England, the responsible body for designating Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) in England, confirms that the Surrey Hills remain an AONB. There are no plans for it to be de-designated and, in fact, Natural England are currently considering potential extensions to the Surrey Hills AONB boundary. As part of a national rebranding of AONBs to ‘National Landscapes’, the Surrey Hills AONB is now referred to as the Surrey Hills National Landscape but, legally, it remains an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.


Written Question
National Landscapes: Public Bodies
Friday 15th December 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government which body designates areas with Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty status.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Natural England is responsible for the designation of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.


Written Question
Animal Welfare: Slaughterhouses
Tuesday 21st March 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to use the next stages of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway to ensure that the highest standards of animal welfare are applied in all abattoirs.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Animal Health and Welfare Pathway maps out how farmers and the Government will work together to continually improve the health and welfare of our farmed animals, supported by the best science and evidence. It involves three mutually reinforcing pillars in making this change: financial incentives to help farmers deliver on-farm improvements; stimulating market demand through labelling and mandatory public disclosure to improve the accessibility, availability and affordability of higher welfare products; and, where needed, strengthening regulation to ensure the changes made endure. Following the post-implementation review of our welfare at killing legislation, and as part of our Action Plan for Animal Welfare, we are looking at a wide range of welfare at slaughter improvements that could be made to strengthen the regulatory baseline in slaughterhouses. Welfare at slaughter is a devolved matter, and the Government remains committed to working closely with the devolved administrations on our shared aims for animal welfare.


Written Question
Meat: Labelling
Tuesday 21st March 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce mandatory labelling for (1) domestic, and (2) imported, meat, indicating (a) the method of production, and (b) when stunning of animals has not occurred prior to slaughter.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

In 2021, Defra ran a call for evidence to gather data on the potential impacts of different types of labelling reform for animal welfare, including considerations around imports, production systems and method of slaughter. We received over 1,600 responses and a summary of these responses is available on GOV.UK.

Based on the evidence provided, Defra committed in the Government’s Food Strategy to consult on improving and expanding mandatory animal welfare labelling, covering both domestic and imported products, in 2023.


Written Question
Slaughterhouses: Animal Welfare
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing Regulations, including those that go further than EU requirements covering the protections for reptiles and amphibians, invertebrate animals and poultry, rabbits or hares killed elsewhere than in a slaughterhouse by their owner for the owner’s private domestic consumption, are preserved in the context of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Defra is committed to maintaining our high standards in areas such as the welfare of animals at the time of killing. The Department is in the process of analysing and assessing its retained EU law stock to determine what should be preserved as part of domestic law, and what should be repealed, or amended. This work will determine how we use the powers in the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, including in relation to the welfare of animals at the time of killing legislation.


Written Question
Slaughterhouses: Animal Welfare
Tuesday 28th February 2023

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing Regulations, including Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 and connected domestic secondary legislation including the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 and its devolved equivalents, constitute EU-derived subordinate legislation in the context of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Retained Regulation 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing is retained direct EU legislation. The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 is EU-derived subordinate legislation.

Animal welfare at the time of killing is a devolved matter, and the Department is continuing to engage closely with devolved administrations on the progress of the Bill and the corresponding reviews into Retained EU law.


Written Question
Package Holidays: Animal Welfare
Thursday 23rd June 2022

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to prevent the sale in the UK of international holidays which steer tourists towards visiting attractions involving animals that have been treated cruelly.

Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park

This Government takes the welfare of all animals seriously and as set out in the Government's Action Plan for Animal Welfare, we are committed to promoting high animal welfare standards both at home and abroad.

Tourists, here, are being offered holiday packages overseas involving unacceptably low-welfare animal activities, attractions, and experiences. Animals that are part of tourist attractions with high levels of human interaction are often subjected to cruel and brutal training practices to ensure their compliance. Reputable and responsible tour operators should not be offering activities that create animal welfare issues. The Association of British Travel Agents has published guidelines and lists activities which have been classified as unacceptable. Holidaymakers should be encouraged to do research and be informed to make the right choices that benefit wildlife.

We support measures which ensure that money from tourists from this country is not channelled towards animal experiences abroad that involve the unacceptable treatment of animals.


Written Question
Pets: Animal Welfare
Wednesday 23rd March 2022

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to seek to progress legislation to make provision about the welfare of certain kept animals that are in, imported into, or exported from Great Britain, in (1) the current, and (2) the next, parliamentary session.

Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park

In May 2021 we published the Action Plan for Animal Welfare, which sets out the Government's ambitious programme of legislative and non-legislative measures to further improve our high standards of animal welfare. As a key part of delivering this plan, we introduced the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill in June 2021. The Bill provides enhanced protections for pet, farmed and kept wild animals in Great Britain.

The Bill completed Commons Committee Stage in November. Since introduction, the Government has added a new pet abduction offence to the bill and extended the primates measure to Wales. We have also consulted on the use of powers in the Bill to tackle puppy smuggling. The Government is committed to this Bill and it will progress in its current form as soon as Parliamentary time allows.


Written Question
Pest Control
Thursday 3rd February 2022

Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make illegal the baiting of electric fences with honey and other substances designed to attract wildlife.

Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park

In England, wildlife is protected by law through legislation such as the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.

Section 11 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 prohibits certain methods of killing or taking wild animals. Under subsection 2(c), a person will be guilty of an offence if they set in position any electrical device for killing or stunning, calculated to cause bodily injury to any wild animal included in Schedule 6 of that Act, such as badgers and hedgehogs. It is also an offence under regulation 45 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 to use electrical and electronic devices capable of killing or stunning, for the purpose of capturing or killing a European protected species, or for any of the protected species listed on Schedule 4 of those Regulations.

The Government has no current plans to introduce further legislation to prohibit conduct involving the 'baiting' of electric fences with honey and other substances designed to attract wildlife.