Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they intend to engage with industry in relation to the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 as part of the development of illustrative base fees; and what plans they have to publish the methodology used to develop the most recent illustrative fees.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the new Government, Defra has engaged with industry to ensure that the calculation of local authority costs to manage household packaging waste is as accurate as possible. This engagement continues and underpins further development of illustrative Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) base fees to ensure robust quality assurance of the modelling.
We included a summary of the methodology to calculate pEPR fees as part of the two publications of pEPR illustrative base fees, in August and September 2024. As part of our current engagement with industry we are sharing further details on our methodology and will continue ensuring that the information is shared more widely.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to mitigate against the impact of material switching as a result of the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Once the Scheme Administrator has been established it will look at what measures may be needed to mitigate against material switching, where switching may produce perverse environmental outcomes. As pEPR places the cost of disposing of packaging back on those who place packaging on the market, the system contains intrinsic incentives against producers switching to materials which are more expensive to reprocess in the waste stream.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the communique for the Inter-Ministerial Group for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs held on 18 November will be published on GOV.UK, given their commitment to publish communiques within two weeks of the Inter-Ministerial Group taking place.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The four Governments have committed to jointly agreeing a communique for the Inter-Ministerial Group for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs within two weeks of the meeting taking place. Each government will then take the necessary steps to arrange for publication on respective websites as soon as possible. Some governments published the communique on their relevant websites earlier this month and it has now been published on GOV.UK (attached).
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing a deposit return scheme on plastic bottles and cans in England.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 19 November 2024, the Government published a policy update reaffirming its commitment to deliver a Deposit Return Scheme in October 2027. The materials included in the scheme are single use (PET) plastic, steel, and aluminium drink containers. UK Government will work closely with the Scottish Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland to launch the scheme across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
We laid the regulations for England and Northern Ireland before Parliament on 25th November 2024. This is a significant milestone. We plan for the regulations to come into force in late January (assuming parliamentary time allows). The application process for the deposit management organisation (DMO) for the deposit return scheme is now live and appointment of the DMO(s) for England, Northern Ireland and
Scotland is planned for April 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on developing a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the European Union.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following their meeting in Brussels on 2 October, the President of the European Commission and the Prime Minister have agreed to strengthen the relationship between the EU and UK, putting it on a more solid, stable footing. We have already said we will seek to negotiate a UK-EU veterinary/SPS agreement to help boost trade and deliver benefits to businesses and consumers in the UK and the EU. The UK and EU are like-minded partners with similarly high standards. We recognise that delivering new agreements will take time, but we are ambitious, have clear priorities and want to move forward at pace.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to review the inflationary impact of the Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra continues to monitor and review the impacts of new controls introduced under the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM). We will work closely with industry, trade partners and enforcement agencies to minimise costs to trade and disruption, while continuing to protect our biosecurity.
The Government’s modelling of the inflationary impact of the BTOM uses a peer-reviewed econometric model, including the impacts of non-tariff measures related to checks such as the cost of Export Health Certificates and port fees, and upstream impacts such as administrative processing time, training, certificates of origin and security deposits or guarantees when moving agricultural goods under licence.
Analysis has indicated the BTOM policies would lead to an approximate increase in consumer food price inflation of less than 0.2 percentage points over a three-year period
An outbreak of a major disease could have a much more significant impact. The 2001 outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease cost £12.8 billion in 2022 prices, £4.8 billion of which was cost to Government and £8 billion cost to the private sector.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to introduce forest risk due diligence regulations under Schedule 17 to the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We recognise the need to take action to ensure that UK consumption of forest risk commodities is not driving deforestation, and we will set out our approach to addressing this in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the UK's state of readiness for the implementation of (1) safety and security declarations for imports, (2) import checks on medium-risk fruits and vegetables, and (3) checks on EU goods arriving from the Republic of Ireland to west coast ports, in relation to the Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of local food partnerships; and what steps they are taking to support their development.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Food Security is national security which is relevant to all five Government Missions and central to our primary Mission to grow the economy. Boosting Britain’s food security is one of the core priorities of this Government.
We need a resilient and healthy food system that works with nature and supports British Farmers. We will do this by listening to farmers and others with a stake in our food system, countryside, and nature.
The Government recognises the valuable role Local Food Partnerships can play in this regard and welcomes their knowledge and expertise as we develop our plans to support our farmers and food and drink businesses, boost food security, and deliver growth.
The Government will explore how to build on existing place-based initiatives and how to create the best environment for sustainable growth, working in partnership with local leaders.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Local Food Partnerships and the impact that they can have on young people’s access to food in their community.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Food Security is national security which is relevant to all five Government Missions and central to our primary Mission to grow the economy. Boosting Britain’s food security is one of the core priorities of this Government.
We need a resilient and healthy food system, that works with nature and supports British Farmers. We will do this by listening to farmers and others with a stake in our food system, countryside, and nature.
The Government will be considering the role of place-based initiatives, including Local Food Partnerships, as we develop our plans to support our farmers and food and drink businesses, boost food security, invest in rural communities, deliver growth, manage waste more effectively across the supply chain, improve resilience to climate change and tackle biodiversity loss.