Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to introduce a mandatory requirement for remote electronic monitoring systems to be installed on all pelagic trawl vessels over 24 metres in length operating in English waters.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra is taking a phased approach to implementing remote electronic monitoring, working first with volunteers to design and test systems before moving to mandatory implementation.

We are currently evaluating the progress of the project. Once implementation issues have been appropriately addressed, we will issue notification that mandatory requirements will be coming in, with a minimum of 24 months lead in time before mandatory requirements were introduced.

This is to ensure the fishing industry has time to adapt to the change.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 13 May (HL6754), and following their announcement at the United Nations Ocean Conference in June of the UK's "impending ratification" of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2012 Cape Town Agreement for the safety of fishing vessels, whether it is their intention to finalise the ratification process before the 34th session of the IMO Assembly in November.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

The UK Government is committed to supporting the Cape Town Agreement. It is the first global agreement on fishing safety, to ensure mandatory minimum standards to safeguard fishers working at sea and deter vessels engaged in Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing from operating by making poor working conditions subject to detention and inspection globally.

The Explanatory Memorandum on the Cape Town Agreement will be laid as a Command Paper before Parliament upon their return from recess on 1 September for 21 sitting days. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will be asked to commence accession procedures once Parliament has resolved it is content to accede.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have had of the approach by European nations, in particular France, to solving the issue of abandoned and derelict boats in rivers and estuaries.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

End of life recreational vessels are recognised as a source of litter and pollution when abandoned. The UK is leading an action under the second OSPAR Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter, to improve the management of end-of-life recreational vessels.

The Government commissioned research on the number of vessels reaching end-of-life and the policy options to reduce the issue of marine litter from abandoned vessels. This work reviewed existing good practices, including the extended producer responsibility scheme in place in France. OSPAR Contracting Parties have agreed to produce best practice guidance to inform regional and national action, based on the research commissioned. This guidance is currently under development.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that queen honeybees imported into Great Britain via Northern Ireland are free from pests and diseases, in particular the small hive beetle.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

All consignments of honey bee queens imported into Northern Ireland (NI) must be accompanied by health certificates confirming that the area the bees originated from is free of certain pests, including small hive beetle, and diseases. The health certificate must be issued no more than 24 hours prior to dispatch and the certifying officer must also confirm that a pre-export inspection took place. Imports into NI are cleared by NI officials.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many queen honeybees have been imported into Great Britain via Northern Ireland since 2021.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

All consignments of honey bee queens imported into Northern Ireland (NI) must be accompanied by health certificates confirming that the area the bees originated from is free of certain pests and diseases. The health certificate must be issued no more than 24 hours prior to dispatch and the certifying officer must also confirm that a pre-export inspection took place. When the imports arrive in NI they are cleared by NI officials. Great Britain (GB) officials do not have access to the systems used by NI so we do not have figures for how many queen honeybees have been imported into NI. Once the imports have been cleared by NI officials, the bees can be moved to GB without any further controls so information about the number of queen honeybees moved from NI to GB is not collected.

NI officials have shared intelligence that since 2021 they have received increased numbers of queen honey bee imports into NI while the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Bee Unit has recorded fewer imports of queen honey bees into GB.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce a mandatory registration scheme for all marine vessels to combat the problem of abandoned boats on rivers, estuaries and the shoreline.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The UK is leading an action under the second OSPAR Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter to improve the management of end-of-life recreational vessels. The Government commissioned the environmental consultancy Resource Futures to undertake research on the number of vessels reaching end-of-life and the policy options to reduce the issue of marine litter from abandoned vessels. This research will inform further OSPAR action, including the development of best practice guidance.

Found: : Baroness Taylor of Bolton (The Chair); Lord Best; Viscount Chandos; Lord Gilbert of Panteg; Lord Teverson

Found: Lord Teverson: Excellent; that sounds like good news to me.

Found: Viscount Chandos; Lord Gilbert of Panteg; Baroness Harding of Winscombe; Baroness Nichols of Selby; Lord Teverson

Found: Viscount Chandos; Lord Gilbert of Panteg; Baroness Harding of Winscombe; Baroness Nichols of Selby; Lord Teverson

Found: LORD TEVERSON _ After Clause 52, insert the following new clause— “Planning procedures and GDPR obligations

Found: Clause 28 LORD TEVERSON BARONESS BOYCOTT 87_ Clause 28, page 39, line 23, at end insert— “(1A) For

Found: Clause 28 LORD TEVERSON BARONESS BOYCOTT 87_ Clause 28, page 39, line 23, at end insert— “(1A) For

Found: LORD TEVERSON ★_ After Clause 51, insert the following new Clause— “Enforcement of planning decisions

Found: Planning and Infrastructure Bill 30 Clause 28 LORD TEVERSON ★_ Clause 28, page 39, line 23, at end