Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people working for her Department or its executive agencies on a (a) directly employed, (b) agency or (c) outsourced basis are paid less than the living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation; and how many of those people are employed on zero-hours contracts.
Answered by George Eustice
There are no direct employees paid less than the Living Wage in core-Defra, Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Rural Payments Agency (RPA) and Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD).
There are 2 direct employees currently paid less than the Living Wage in the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), none of which are employed on zero-hours contracts. One is an apprentice and the other is about to have their salary increased to the Living Wage rate.
There are no employment agency staff paid less than the Living Wage in core-Defra, APHA, and VMD.
There are 95 employment agency staff paid less than the Living Wage in RPA. None are employed on zero-hours contracts. All are paid at least the National Living Wage as defined by the Government.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a national deposit return scheme as part of the Government's litter strategy.
Answered by Rory Stewart
As part of its Litter Strategy, published in 2014, the Scottish Government announced that it had commissioned a feasibility study and a call for evidence investigating the implementation of a deposit return system for single use drink containers in Scotland. This valuable work, published last year, highlighted significant uncertainties regarding the impacts and benefits that a deposit return system would have, notably regarding costs, environmental quality and littering, and existing waste collection systems. The Scottish Government is doing further work on the topic and we will consider any new evidence arising from this in the course of developing our own National Litter Strategy for England.
Defra analysed the costs and benefits of implementing a deposit return system for single use drink containers as part of the 2011 Review of Waste Policy in England, and to seek views in the 2012 consultation on higher packaging recycling targets. This work showed that introducing a deposit return system may increase recycling and reduce litter, but might impose additional costs on businesses, consumers and local authorities (which would lose revenue from recycling). However, we are lacking evidence to appropriately quantify these benefits and costs. The current approach has driven a significant increase in packaging waste recycling rates, from less than 47% in 2003 to nearly 65% in 2013.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will include the Food Insecurity Experience Scale survey in the next Family Food survey in order to assess households' vulnerability to hunger.
Answered by George Eustice
We do not intend to measure household food insecurity because there is no single definition of food insecurity. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) is one method, but the factors that impact on household food security are complex. There are multiple indicators such as quality, variety and desirability of diet as well as total intake, not all of which are measured consistently. It is therefore very difficult and potentially misleading to develop a single classification of food insecurity.
The OECD ‘Society at a Glance 2014’ report published figures showing that the proportion of those who say they are finding it difficult to afford food in the UK declined over the past 5 years 2007 - 2012: from 9.8% to 8.1%. This was based on Gallup World Poll data which actually used one of the questions which form part of the FIES.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government uses the Food Insecurity Experience Scale survey to monitor UK households' vulnerability to hunger.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra does not use the Food Insecurity Experience Scale survey to monitor UK households’ vulnerability to hunger.
There is no single definition of food insecurity and Defra does not estimate numbers of households experiencing food insecurity. The factors that impact on household food security are complex. There are multiple indicators such as quality, variety and desirability of diet as well as total intake, not all of which are measured consistently. It is therefore very difficult and potentially misleading to develop a single classification of food insecurity.
However Defra does publish statistics annually to show the proportion of household income spent on food by (a) all households and (b) the lowest income 20% of households. The most recent statistics are in the food statistics pocketbook 2015 on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) direct employees, (b) agency staff and (c) outsourced staff working for her Department and its subsidiary agencies are paid less than the living wage.
Answered by George Eustice
For the core department and its executive agencies, the number of people currently employed on less than the living wage is as follows:
(a) As at 1 April 2015, all permanent staff are paid above the living wage. There are 7 apprentices paid below the Living Wage.
(b) 66 agency (temporary) staff are paid below the Living Wage;
(c) As at December 2014, 253 outsourced staff, employed by contractors with the central Department to provide office and building services in the central Department and its agencies, were paid below the Living Wage.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the number of low-income families not covered by the WaterSure scheme; and if she will extend eligibility to low-income households containing one parent and two children.
Answered by Rory Stewart
WaterSure is the national mandated tariff that all water companies provide to support metered customers on low incomes that have unavoidably high water use. It is not the purpose of WaterSure to support all vulnerable customers. The Government has no plans to amend the eligibility criteria.
The Government recognises that some customers face affordability pressures and that this varies greatly by region. Consequently, the water companies are best placed to discuss these issues with their customers and to agree on the design of any support schemes (e.g. social tariffs). This will help ensure that they take account of local circumstances and the needs of customers.
To assist the water companies the Government has published guidance on the introduction of social tariffs. Using this guidance, the water companies have been able to introduce social tariffs since April 2013. Alongside this the water companies also offer customer assistance funds, support tariffs, debt advice and support with water efficiency.
From April there are now 14 water companies offering social tariffs to their customers and we anticipate the remaining four companies to introduce them within the next two years. Ofwat’s 2014 Price Review predicts that water companies will be helping around 1.8 million customers by 2020, which is more than double the 760,000 customers that currently receive assistance.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will implement the recommendations contained in the recent report by the Dogs Trust entitled The Puppy Smuggling Scandal.
Answered by George Eustice
We are taking action to tackle the illegal puppy trade focused on three areas.
The Dogs Trust’s report highlights that responsibility for stopping the illegal movement of puppies begins in the country where they are born. The UK Chief Veterinary Officer wrote to the authorities in the countries highlighted in the report and follow up action has been taken. We will continue to alert the authorities in any Member State where we become aware of issues in relation to the operation of the pet travel scheme.
“Secondly, we will maintain effective border controls. Every pet entering Great Britain is checked for compliance with the EU pet travel scheme and in 2014 checks were carried out on over 170,000 dogs, cats and ferrets. Stringent penalties are in place where people are found to be breaking the rules.”
Thirdly, the illegal trade is driven by demand for cheap, pedigree puppies and we have published guidance on the steps pet owners can take to avoid buying an illegally imported pet: https://www.gov.uk/buying-a-cat-or-dog. We are also working with the Pet Advertising Advisory Group who have developed minimum standards for on-line pet advertisers which have led to the removal of over 130,000 problematic adverts in the last year.
The Dogs Trust has been invited to meet with the Minister for animal welfare to discuss their report ‘The Puppy Smuggling Scandal’.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the proportion of dairy production which involves intensive indoor methods.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra does not collect information on systems of production. It is difficult to categorise dairy farms in terms of intensity as it can be measured in many different ways and levels of intensity change gradually rather than at specific predetermined points.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to prevent non-stun slaughter of animals.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government has no plans to ban non-stun religious slaughter. The Government would prefer that all animals are stunned before slaughter, but it recognises the importance which Jewish and Muslim communities attach to the right to slaughter animals for food in accordance with their beliefs.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what consideration she has given to requiring the mandatory installation of CCTV cameras in animal slaughterhouses.
Answered by George Eustice
On 3rd January 2014, I received an independent expert report on CCTV in slaughterhouses produced by the Farm Animal Welfare Committee. I am considering that report and its recommendations.
A copy of the report is available at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fawc-opinion-on-cctv-in-slaughterhouses, I have also put a copy in the Library of both Houses.