Asked by: Lord Walney (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 professional development courses are made available to staff of his Department; and what the cost to the public purse is of each such course.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
This information is not held centrally and to gather it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Walney (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, on what occasions each Minister within his Department has taken domestic flights on official business since May 2010.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Details of all Ministerial overseas travel is published on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Lord Walney (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 senior civil servants appointed to positions in his Department since 2010 were previously (a) political appointees within that Department and (b) employed by a political party.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
We do not collate this information centrally and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Walney (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 support he is providing for local authorities to address issues caused by high gull populations.
Answered by George Eustice
Local authorities in England may lethally control gulls or disrupt their nests or eggs, in accordance with licences issued by Natural England for certain purposes. Without a licence, they can also take action to manage gulls by controlling the availability of food by efficiently managing waste (including introducing byelaws to stop intentional feeding of gulls, should they wish) and preventing gulls from landing, roosting or nesting on buildings. Defra does not provide specific support for such measures but Natural England offers free advice to those experiencing problems with gulls.