Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what targets they have for the planting of trees to support reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050; and what assessment they have made of their progress against any such targets.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Net Zero challenges all sectors to decarbonise and reduce emissions as fast as they can. Our woodlands and forests are an important carbon sink – currently capturing 4% of the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. To increase their potential to capture carbon, we must increase planting rates immediately.
The Government has committed to increasing planting rates across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025, in line with the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation. Our Nature for Climate fund will support increased planting in England, and we will work with the Devolved Administrations to increase planting across the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to revise their proposed no-deal tariff schedule to include eggs and egg products.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) size of the population of, and (2) the threat of extinction faced by, hen harriers in England; and whether they intend to introduce a licencing system for grouse moors to protect hen harriers.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Natural England confirms that the breeding population of hen harriers in England in 2018 was 14 pairs and is assessed as extremely vulnerable, although there has been a trend for more breeding pairs in the last few years. The birds in England are part of a population that spans England, Scotland and Wales, which is not under immediate threat of extinction.
The Government does not have plans to regulate grouse shooting.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to (1) encourage the use of recycled and recyclable packaging, and (2) discourage the use plastic packaging that is difficult to recycle.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has committed in its Resources and Waste Strategy to reform the current packaging producer responsibility system, including measures to incentivise producers to make better, more sustainable decisions at the design stage and point of manufacture.
At the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced a new tax on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content. Subject to consultation, this will be introduced in 2022.
Together, reform of the packaging producer responsibility system and the new tax on plastic packaging will encourage greater recyclability and increased use of recycled materials.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to encourage more consistent waste collection policies across local authorities.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government set out its commitment to accelerating the move to consistency in materials collected for recycling in the 25 Year Environment Plan which was published in January 2018. Our resources and waste strategy ‘Our Waste, Our Resources: A Strategy for England’ was published in December 2018 and contains details on how we plan to do this. Subject to consultation we will legislate to allow Government to specify a core set of materials to be collected by all local authorities and waste operators. We will consult on which materials should comprise this core set, and which collection systems would be most effective at preserving material quality.
The Government is committed to making recycling easier for everyone. Consistency in recycling will mean that householders in England will be less confused about what can be recycled and therefore have more confidence in recycling. As a result, both the quality and quantity of recycling will increase.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend seafood products from Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands to be exempt from physical checks at UK borders following Brexit.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has consistently made clear that we want to preserve continuity in trade with our European neighbours, including non-EU member states such as Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The means by which we deliver this will be the subject of negotiations between the UK and those countries.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that eggs imported from non-EU countries will be subject to the UK’s high hen welfare standards post-Brexit.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government is proud of this country’s high standards of food safety and animal welfare, including for farm animals.
Our current high standards, including import requirements, will apply when we leave the EU. As part of our commitment to being a world leader in animal welfare we will use our independent seat in international fora such as the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to push for stronger global standards.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether food imports from Least Developed Countries will have the same food safety and animal welfare checks after Brexit as they currently do.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
When we leave the European Union (EU), we will maintain our current standards. We will keep our existing UK legislation, and the EU Withdrawal Act will transfer onto the UK statue book all EU food safety and animal welfare standards. Our current high standards, including import requirements, will apply when we leave the EU.
At the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in December 2017, the Government announced new support to help developing countries trade effectively, including funding for the WTO’s Standards and Trade Development Facility, which supports least developed countries to comply with sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards for trade in agricultural and animal-related products.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the annual cost to the English economy from (1) animal diseases, (2) bee diseases, (3) fish diseases, (4) invasive non-native species, (5) plant diseases, and (6) tree diseases.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Data on all these matters are not held centrally. Collation of this information would involve analysts across different organisations (Defra, APHA, Environment Agency, Fera and the Forestry Commission) analysing and collating data stored in different formats for a wide range of pests and diseases. As a result, we are not able to provide the information within the given timeframe.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they spent in the 2016–17 financial year on biosecurity measures relating to fish diseases and pests, broken down by (1) policy functions, (2) inspectorate functions, (3) technical support functions (for example, risk assessments and diagnostics), (4) response functions (including control activities), (5) research, and (6) total budget.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Data on government spending cannot be broken down against these categories for biosecurity measures relating to fish diseases and pests. However, the spend on aquatic animal health in the financial year 2016–17, which includes disease controls and biosecurity measures for fish and other aquatic animals in England and Wales, is as follows:
Policy functions – £147,765, this includes salary rates and variable and fixed overheads.
Inspectorate functions, diagnostics and response functions - £2,080,917.
Technical support functions (e.g. epidemiology, risk assessments, test exercise) - £142,858.
Response function – these is included in (2) inspectorate functions.
Research - £730,768.
Total - £3,102,308.
Aquatic animal health is a devolved policy. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate aquatic animal health budgets which are not covered in the figures above.