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Written Question
Inland Border Facilities: Ashford
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce safeguards to ensure that, under their Border Target Operating Model, there can be no interference with consignments which enter the UK via the Port of Dover prior to inspections being carried out at the Sevington inland border facility.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Goods selected for inspection will not be legally cleared for sale or use within the UK until they have attended and been cleared at the BCP. Where the BCP has concerns, either due to non-attendance or evidence of non-compliance, there are existing provisions, including requiring return or destruction of the goods, or for the goods to be referred for inland controls by the local authority.

Any vehicles suspected to be carrying illegal imports (e.g. those for which customs declarations and pre-notification have not been made or suspected to have been made in bad faith) will continue to be stopped and dealt with by Border Force at the point of entry to the UK, not sent to Sevington.


Written Question
Food: Waste Disposal
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of requiring weekly food waste collections on rural councils.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Financial burdens introduced through new statutory duties on local authorities will be assessed in accordance with the new burdens doctrine and reasonable net costs will be covered by the government in line with the new burdens doctrine. We have brought forward up to £295 million in capital funding to roll out weekly food waste collections across England. This will cover the cost of additional bins and vehicles. Defra developed the funding formula in collaboration with the Waste and Resources Action Programme. The formula took into account rurality and underwent an extensive assurance process with local authority networks. We are still calculating resource funding allocations.


Written Question
Recycling: Reform
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of funding to local authorities to implement the simpler recycling reforms that were announced in October 2023.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Financial burdens introduced through new statutory duties on local authorities will be assessed in accordance with the new burdens doctrine and reasonable net costs will be covered by the Government in line with the new burdens doctrine. We have brought forward up to £295 million in capital funding to roll out weekly food waste collections across England. This will cover the cost of additional bins and vehicles. Defra developed the funding formula in collaboration with the Waste and Resources Action Programme and underwent an extensive assurance process with local authority networks. Requests by local authorities to reconsider funding allocations, based on new evidence, are currently being considered. We are still calculating resource funding allocations.

Extended Producer Responsibility payments will be provided to local authorities for the costs of collecting and managing household packaging waste through efficient and effective services. This includes the collection of additional packaging materials for recycling such as plastic films and flexibles. Initial estimates are that local authorities in the UK will collectively receive payments in the region of £1.2 billion per annum for managing household packaging waste. Payments modelling is currently underway to refine this estimate ready for packaging Extended Producer Responsibility implementation.


Written Question
Pesticides: Urban Areas
Wednesday 20th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to introduce a phase-out of pesticides in public, urban spaces under local authority control, as has been done in countries such as Luxembourg.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

It is for each Local Authority to decide the best way of delivering effective and cost-effective weed control in its operations without harming people or the environment. There is a legal requirement to minimise the use of pesticides in areas used by the public.

Further, it is vital that everyone who uses pesticides professionally is appropriately trained and utilises the highest standards of practice possible to protect the public and the environment from the risks associated with pesticide use.

This includes fully engaging with effective Integrated Pest Management (IPM). We are working with stakeholders in the sector to ensure pesticide users fully utilise IPM and reduce their reliance on chemical pesticides and increase their standards.


Written Question
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership: Pesticides
Tuesday 19th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (1) does not weaken domestic pesticide standards in terms of active substance approvals or maximum residue levels, and (2) does not undermine the precautionary principle with regards to pesticides.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The UK has not lowered its standards in order to accede to CPTPP. All food and drink products imported into the UK, irrespective of the purpose for which they will be used, must comply with our import requirements and regulatory standards for food safety. This includes pesticide active substance approvals and maximum residue levels (MRLs).

The UK Government supports the precautionary principle. This is expressly a part of our plant protection product regime and is also incorporated into the Environment Act through the Environmental Principles that the Government must consider when making new policy.


Written Question
Animals (Low-welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their timetable for consulting on activity regulations under the Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023 provides a framework for the introduction of future bans on the advertising and offering for sale, in England and Northern Ireland, of low-welfare animal activities abroad.

Future decisions on which specific animal activities will fall in scope of the advertising ban will be evidence-based and subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. Sufficient, compelling evidence will be required to demonstrate why any specific advertising ban is needed.

This Government continues to make animal welfare a priority and we are currently exploring a number of options to ensure progress as soon as is practicable.


Written Question
Chemicals
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the chemicals strategy.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is committed to protecting human health and the environment and we will set out our priorities for addressing risks from chemicals in due course.


Written Question
Aluminium: Recycling
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the metals recycling industry regarding the impact of introducing a fixed-rate deposit return scheme on the recycling rates of aluminium.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

DEFRA engage stakeholders across industry, including material manufacturers and the metals sector.

Regarding the issue of deposit levels, the deposit return scheme will have a central body to manage its operation; this role is to be undertaken by a new industry not-for-profit body, the Deposit Management Organisation (DMO). The DMO will be responsible for setting the deposit level within parameters set out in the regulations. The DMO will be required to consult all those with an interest in the scheme in setting the deposit level(s). The DMO will have the ability to set either a fixed rate or variable rate deposit (which could vary by drinks container size, format or material type).


Written Question
Recycling
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure high recycling rates under the Simpler Recycling policy; and how such rates will be assessed to give consumers confidence.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Simpler Recycling will aim to make recycling clearer and more consistent across England. All household and non-household premises (such as businesses, schools and hospitals) across England will be able to recycle the same materials in the following core groups: metal; glass; plastic; paper and card; food waste; garden waste (household only). Furthermore, packaging producers will be required to label packaging as ‘Recycle’ or ‘Do Not Recycle’ adopting a single label format which incorporates the Recycle Now symbol.


Written Question
Recycling
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have assessed the effectiveness of introducing statutory guidance on Simpler Recycling which mandates the sorting of materials in order to be recycled by Material Recovery Facilities.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We recently consulted on the content of the statutory guidance for Simpler Recycling. We will publish our final statutory guidance once the regulations relating to Simpler Recycling have been made.