Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their target for the number of badgers to be vaccinated against bovine tuberculosis in England in 2024.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is no specific target number for badger vaccination in 2024. In 2023, just over 3,000 badgers were vaccinated in England. This was the highest annual number vaccinated since the vaccine was authorised in 2010. Whilst we expect numbers to increase this year, the absolute number vaccinated will depend on which areas are targeted and factors such as weather and annual changes in badger populations.
Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of badgers that will be killed in (1) Oxfordshire, and (2) England, in 2024 as part of the bovine tuberculosis control programme.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No estimate has been made on the number of badgers to be removed in Oxfordshire and England in 2024, as part of our bovine tuberculosis eradication strategy. The minimum and maximum numbers for each licensed cull area will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in light of the sustainability objective in section 2(b) of the Fisheries Act 2020, what steps they will take in order to determine whether current fleet capacity matches available fishing opportunities.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK produces an annual fleet capacity report which assesses how effectively the fleet is operating.
The Government is committed to engage with stakeholders to address sustainability and fleet management issues through Fisheries Management Plans.
The current management system of licences and quota restrictions ensure that the sustainability objectives in the Fisheries Act are addressed, with licence conditions amended where necessary to match demand against fishing opportunities.
Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what new financial support they will allocate to support building a (1) sustainable, (2) low carbon, fishing industry.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The £100 million UK Seafood Fund has been carefully crafted to support projects that will support the long-term viability of the sector. This is being done through all four elements, infrastructure, science and innovation, skills and training, and exports.
Additionally, one of the UK Seafood Fund’s overarching objectives is to increase environmental sustainability. It is one of the mandatory criteria that applicants must cover if applying under the Infrastructure pillar.
Funding is also available to enable each of the devolved administrations to deliver their own grant funding schemes. The scheme for England – the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme – has driven meaningful change to increase sustainability, provide world-class fisheries management and support a thriving marine environment.
The Marine Management Organisation is looking to relaunch the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme this month. The new iteration of the scheme will continue to deliver investment to safeguard the long-term sustainability, resilience and prosperity of the seafood sector across England. It will include support for projects that limit carbon emissions, reduce the environmental impact of fishing, enable the collection of marine litter, and deliver professional advice for seafood businesses on environmental sustainability.
Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park on 22 March (HL13985), what plans they have to reduce air pollution from diesel (1) engines, and (2) generators, on canal boats moored in residential areas.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government is working to address emissions from canal boats as part of our wider commitment to improve air quality. Recent efforts have focussed on reducing pollution from solid fuel burning but government is actively exploring what options are available in the longer term to eliminate harmful emissions from the small diesel engines used on watercraft including the inland waterways sector.
Analysis undertaken by the Department for Transport has identified that alternative fuels and power sources will be needed in order to achieve substantial long-term reductions in air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions from the inland and UK domestic fleets. In response to this the Government has recently launched the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, a £20m fund aimed at supporting innovation in the wider maritime sector and accelerating the commercial availability of low and zero emissions technology for vessels in the UK. While primarily focused on maritime activity it is expected that this fund will also benefit related sectors including inland fleet, particularly in areas like engine technology and alternative fuels.
Additionally, the maritime elements of the Government’s forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP) will consider the wider opportunities to reduce pollutant emissions arising from our transition to net zero in 2050 and will consult upon appropriate policy responses to support this outcome. The TDP is planned for publication in late Spring.
Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce smoke and diesel pollution from canal boats moored in residential areas; and what assessment they have made of the case for removing the exemption for such vessels from the Clean Air Act 1954.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Domestic solid fuel burning is a major contributor to fine particulate matter emissions, and in line with our Clean Air Strategy, we are taking action to tackle this issue including from moored canal boats.
Through the Environment Bill we are amending the Clean Air Act 1993 to make it easier for local authorities to reduce smoke emissions from domestic burning in smoke control areas (SCAs). This includes enabling local authorities to bring moored inland waterway vessels such as canal boats into scope of SCAs should they have a specific issue in their area. In such cases, chimney smoke from boats could be liable to a financial penalty. The use of this power will be subject to public consultation by local authorities.
In addition, we recently introduced new legislation to restrict the sale of the most polluting solid fuels used in domestic burning, including on canal boats used for permanent habitation. The aim of this legislation is to drive a transition to cleaner fuels: from wet wood to dry wood (which can reduce emissions by 50%), and from traditional house coal to smokeless coal and low sulphur manufactured solid fuels. We will also be ensuring that only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022.
My department will continue to review emissions from these sources and will monitor the impact of the new legislation, considering in due course any additional legislative measures that may be needed to reduce emission levels further.
Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their strategy for reducing quotas if fish stocks fall below their maximum sustainable yield.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Scientific advice indicating that fish stocks have fallen below their maximum sustainable yield will inform the UK’s positions in annual negotiations to determine the total allowable catches (TACs). In addition, a key part of our approach to rebuilding the health of depleted stocks is improving selectivity in mixed fisheries. The on-going development of Fisheries Management Plans will also assist in addressing such issues and inform the TAC-setting process moving forward. Fisheries Management Plans require assessments of the health of fish stocks and policies to restore and/or maintain stocks at levels capable of supporting sustainable harvesting. Where appropriate, they will set out actions to improve data collection and ways to establish sustainable harvest rates.
Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the quantity of "blue" carbon released from English waters as a result of bottom trawling.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government understands that marine carbon stores in sediments can be released due to human activities such as bottom trawling. However, the magnitude and direction of change in these carbon stores following trawling impacts remains uncertain, and it is difficult to quantify accurately based on current knowledge.
We are therefore continuing to gather evidence to improve assessments of impacts to marine carbon stores and fluxes. This builds upon the £10.5 million, six-year Shelf Seas Biogeochemistry research programme (2011-17), jointly funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and Defra.
Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to establish a shadow environmental watchdog to come into effect on 30 March 2019 in the event of a no-deal Brexit; and if so, (1) how the membership of that shadow watchdog will be determined, (2) what powers the shadow watchdog will have, (3) what the shadow watchdog’s budget will be, and (4) whether they will set a date by which the shadow watchdog will be replaced by a permanent body.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has committed to the implementation of a new environment body to hold the Government to account regarding compliance with its environmental legislation.
We will work to ensure that this body is in place as soon as possible after leaving the EU if no deal has been secured with the necessary powers to review and, if necessary, take enforcement action.
Any interim measures that may be necessary under a no deal scenario before the new body is formally established will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Lord Krebs (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they will take to reduce the poisoning of humans and animals through ingesting lead ammunition deposited by public bodies or third parties acting under contract or licence from public bodies.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Through the Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (England) Regulations 1999, the use of lead shot ammunition is restricted to protect waterfowl from lead poisoning. Its use is banned on all foreshores, certain Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and for the shooting of all ducks and geese, coot and moorhen. The supply of lead weights for fishing is also prohibited.
Natural England is fully compliant with these regulations on the land which it manages. The Forestry Commission voluntarily decided to use non-lead alternatives on the public forest estate for the control of deer and wild boar. From November 2016 onwards all the venison processed through Forest Enterprise England (FEE) larders will have been culled with non-lead ammunition.