Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what information they have gathered on the reported decline of grey squirrels in areas with pine marten populations.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Forestry Commission is involved in the Vincent Wildlife Trust’s pine marten recovery project in mid and north Wales. The Forestry Commission in England is supporting a project in the Forest of Dean with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Forest Research and others to pursue a pine marten restoration project. This project includes studies into impacts of pine martens including on trees and other wildlife. Natural England is also working with the Trust to restore viable populations of pine martens to northern England.
The Forestry Commission is also working closely with one of the authors of the paper that identified the decline in grey squirrel populations in the Irish midlands, which may be associated with the abundance of pine martens. The work with the author and others will further explore the relationship between red squirrels, grey squirrels and pine martens in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (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 potential for the reintroduction of pine martens into areas of the UK that are infested with grey squirrels.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Forestry Commission is involved in the Vincent Wildlife Trust’s pine marten recovery project in mid and north Wales. The Forestry Commission in England is supporting a project in the Forest of Dean with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Forest Research and others to pursue a pine marten restoration project. This project includes studies into impacts of pine martens including on trees and other wildlife. Natural England is also working with the Trust to restore viable populations of pine martens to northern England.
The Forestry Commission is also working closely with one of the authors of the paper that identified the decline in grey squirrel populations in the Irish midlands, which may be associated with the abundance of pine martens. The work with the author and others will further explore the relationship between red squirrels, grey squirrels and pine martens in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current level of financial support they provide to the Woodland Trust and its tree planting programme, and whether they have any plans to increase that support over the next four years.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
In the last financial year, the Government provided £55,338.12 to the Woodland Trust, to plant 35,400 trees with state primary schools across England in spring 2016. This support will increase over the next four years, as we expand the programme to fund the Woodland Trust to provide an additional 400,000 trees for schools for schoolchildren to plant in school grounds and local communities.
The Woodland Trust can apply for grants under the Countryside Stewardship scheme, as part of the Rural Development Programme, in the same way as any other land owner or manager and it receives grants from previous support mechanisms.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assistance they plan to give to the Clean For The Queen campaign, which aims to conduct a nationwide litter cleaning campaign next year to celebrate Her Majesty's 90th birthday.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government is delighted to support and endorse this excellent initiative. Litter and fly-tipping blight communities and pose a risk to human health, which is why tackling them is a priority for the Government. The Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs gave his backing to the campaign when it was launched, and we will continue to promote it, to help reach as many people as possible.
Our experience with the first Community Clear-Up Day in March demonstrated the enthusiasm and willingness of people across England to give some of their time to improve their local environment. The Clean for The Queen campaign provides a great opportunity for people to come together and clean up our local streets and parks.
We hope the campaign will help lead to a lasting legacy of a cleaner, tidier Britain
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to set up a commission or expert committee to consider all aspects of the re-wilding of parts of the United Kingdom with former indigenous species.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
There are no plans to set up an expert body or group to look specifically at the re-introduction of former native species in England.
Natural England considers individual applications for licences to reintroduce formerly native species in England. Such matters in the rest of the UK are for the devolved authorities to consider.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the RSPCA, as a private organisation, is able to bring prosecutions but is not subject to independent inspection or Freedom of Information requests.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
The RSPCA is able to bring prosecutions under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 because that particular piece of legislation allows anyone to do so, even private individuals, if they have the necessary evidence to do so. The RSPCA is not a public authority and so is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to make representations at European Union level in respect of the use of the word "chocolate" to describe products containing less than 20 per cent chocolate.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
There are currently no plans to make representations at European Level on the use of the word chocolate.
The Cocoa and Chocolate Products (England) Regulations 2003 set out the composition and standards for chocolate including definitions. Chocolate shall not contain less than 35 per cent total dry cocoa solids and milk chocolate or family milk chocolate not less than 20 per cent total dry cocoa solids.
There are rules in place under the Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulations EU No 1169/2011 to ensure the consumer is not misled. Quantitative ingredient declarations (QUID) apply to all pre packed foods. This means that where chocolate is a characterising ingredient e.g. a chocolate cake, the percentage of the chocolate has to be declared in the ingredients list.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which government or local government department is responsible for the welfare of horses on (1) an official Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs registered holding, (2) racecourses for the purposes of racing, (3) private land used for training horses, (4) private land used for stabling or holding horses on behalf of others who own them, and (5) moorland or common land.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
My department is responsible for government policy on the welfare of horses in England. The devolved administrations are responsible for animal welfare policy in their respective jurisdictions. The owner of a horse is legally responsible for the welfare of their horse wherever it is situated.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (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 World Wide Fund for Nature <i>Living Planet Report 2014</i>; what proposals they have to halt the destruction of species; and what they consider to be implications of the findings of that report for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
The Government considers the Living Planet Report an interesting contribution to increasing our understanding of the scale of the challenge facing species internationally but has made no formal assessment of its findings.
Internationally, we frame our work on biodiversity under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets. A comprehensive assessment, the Fourth Global Biodiversity Outlook, was published at the recent 12th Conference of the Parties to the CBD. This reported significant progress towards meeting some components of the majority of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. However, in most cases, additional action will be required to meet the targets by 2020. The Parties agreed to take comprehensive and urgent measures to ensure the full implementation of the Strategic Plan, including through the development and implementation of their national biodiversity strategies and action plans.
The Government helps achieve these global targets internationally through elements of Overseas Development Aid (particularly forest protection through the International Climate Fund and contributions to the Global Environment Facility) and through direct and financial support for various international agreements including the CBD, the Convention on Migratory Species and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The Darwin Initiative provides up to £6 million bi-lateral funding annually for developing countries to help meet their obligations under these international agreements, improve biodiversity and natural environment management and reduce poverty; and up to £2 million annually from the Darwin Plus fund for projects in the UK’s Overseas Territories.
The UK Government is also taking a leading role in global efforts to end the illegal wildlife trade. In December 2013, we announced a £10 million funding package to support efforts in developing countries to tackle the illegal trade in wildlife products. In February 2014 we hosted a high-level international conference for leaders from over 40 nations. This resulted in the London Conference Declaration, containing 25 commitments to action on enforcement and criminal justice, demand reduction and sustainable livelihoods.
Domestically, the Government set out its response to the CBD’s Strategic Plan in “Biodiversity 2020: A strategy for England’s wildlife and ecosystem services”, which aims to halt overall biodiversity loss by 2020. The strategy includes a commitment to achieve an overall improvement in the status of our wildlife and to prevent further human-induced extinctions of known threatened species.
It will be for Parties to CITES to decide how that Convention should respond to the Living Planet Report and other information about the status of species, which may be reflected in future proposals to list endangered species under the Convention.