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 invest in infrastructure to support the re-use, repair and re-manufacturing of e-waste products according to the waste hierarchy.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
The Waste Prevention Programme for England: Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste (copy attached) commits the Government to prioritise measures to support the waste hierarchy in relation to electrical equipment. This includes consideration of ways to provide consumers and businesses with information on the environmental performance of electrical and electronic products, focussing on material resource efficiency aspects such as durability, reparability and recyclability. The Government has also introduced new eco-design requirements for a range of industrial appliances, white goods, electronic displays and lighting products, to increase their reparability. We have also published a consultation and call for evidence on potential reforms to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013. The review includes measures to ensure more WEEE is properly collected for reuse and recycling, considers new metrics to evaluate the performance of the WEEE system and wider proposals that would support the circular economy. We are currently analysing the responses to this consultation and call for evidence and will publish a summary in due course.
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 scale of e-waste; and what steps they are taking to address this.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
Defra is committed to delivering a more sustainable future for the UK and world. Supporting this it recently announced the world’s first United Nations-backed International Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Resource Management in the Circular Economy. In partnership with national and international partners the centre will deliver environmentally sustainable primary extraction of Critical Minerals and map the flow of these critical and priority minerals across their complete life cycle, from extraction to reuse, recovery to disposal.
Defra also published a consultation and a call for evidence on reforms to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013 with a view to improving levels of collection for re-use and recycling, improving treatment standards and critical mineral recovery from WEEE and wider measures in support of the circular economy. The consultation and call for evidence closed on 7 March. Defra is currently analysing the responses and will publish a summary of responses in due course.
The current regulations require producers to finance the collection and proper treatment of WEEE which has stimulated investment in WEEE treatment infrastructure.
Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 obligated producers are required to obtain Packaging Waste Recycling Notes (PRNs), as evidence that a certain tonnage of packaging waste that has been recycled. The sale of PRNs generates millions of pounds of revenue a year for reprocessors and exporters of packaging waste (circa £490m in 2022), which should be re-invested to support development of the necessary recycling and reprocessing infrastructure.
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 improve data collection, mapping, and tracking of critical minerals and other material streams within electrical and electronic equipment.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
Defra has recently announced the world’s first United Nations-backed International Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Resource Management in the Circular Economy. In partnership with national and international partners the centre will deliver environmentally sustainable primary extraction of Critical Minerals and map the flow of these critical and priority minerals across there complete life cycle, from extraction to reuse, recovery to disposal. In addition, Defra also published a consultation and call for evidence on reforms to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013. This sought evidence in support of future policy measures intended to improve treatment standards and critical mineral recovery from WEEE. Defra is currently analysing and will publish a summary in due course.
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 how many marine mammals were caught by vessels fishing in UK waters in 2023.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
Marine mammal bycatch is required to be reported under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. According to the Marine Management Organisation six marine mammals were reported by fishing vessels as bycatch injury or mortality in 2023.
There are various sources for marine mammal bycatch data in the UK.
The UK Bycatch Monitoring Programme provides bycatch estimates for the UK; however, these have not yet been produced for 2023.
The UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme diagnosed 16 cases of bycaught marine mammals in 2023 (covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland and which all occurred in England).
In Scotland, the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme reports on incidents of marine mammal bycatch in Scottish waters.
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 consideration they have given to extending the place of destination (PoD) scheme to allow inspection of horticulture imports at a registered PoD until border control posts are fully functional for the purpose of plant and tree imports.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
Defra is confident that existing and new Border Control Posts infrastructure will have sufficient capacity and capability to handle the volume of expected checks outlined in the Border Target Operating Model, with robust, dynamic, and effective operational measures ready to call upon if needed.
Looking ahead, we are piloting an ambitious programme of trusted trader assurance schemes for sanitary and phytosanitary goods. The pilots will explore how businesses can provide assurance through data, technology and trusted relationships and take increased responsibility for controls.
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 border control posts ahead of the introduction of the common user charge on 30 April; and what assessment they have made of the likely impact of the common user charge on the UK’s environmental horticulture industry.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
Defra is confident that existing and new BCP infrastructure will have sufficient capacity and capability to handle the volume of expected checks outlined in the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), with robust, dynamic, and effective operational measures ready to call upon if needed.
Defra will continue to work with existing BCP operators to ensure they are prepared, and the Government has built new infrastructure at critical locations.
Operators have not expressed concerns regarding under-capacity, we are therefore not anticipating queues but will continue working closely with operators to address any concerns they may have.
The common user charge for BCP operating costs applies only to UK government-run BCPs. Commercial operators will independently set BCP charges for their own facilities.
The impact of the Common User Charge (CUC) on businesses of all sizes will be kept under monthly and quarterly reviews, with rates reviewed and updated annually.
Full details of the CUC can be found on GOV.UK.
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 when they will publish their response to the consultation on remote electronic fishing vessels, which ran from 17 July to 9 October 2023.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
We will be publishing responses soon and they will be available on GOV.UK.
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 recycling reforms on local authority finances.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
We published an impact assessment alongside the 2021 consultation on Consistency in recycling England, which can be found attached to this answer. The final impact assessment is due to be published in line with the laying of the secondary legislation for Simpler Recycling.
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 how much meat has been seized at the UK border by officials in each of the last six months; and whether they expect to completely eradicate the import of illicit produce under their Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
The data we have relates to seizures of “products of animal origin, contaminated goods and packaging” (not necessarily just meat) reported to Defra by English PHAs only. Any seizures made by other officials or seizures not reported to Defra are not included here. The data below relates to all EU and Rest of World imports.
Year | Number of seizures of products of animal origin reported to Defra by English Port Health Authorities | Total weight (kilogrammes) |
2022 (w/c 22 October 2022-w/c 31 December 2022 inclusive) | 42 | 4,123 |
2023 (w/c 7 January 2023 to 30 December 2023 inclusive) | 622 | 53,879 |
2024 (w/c 6 January 2024 to w/c 27 January 2024 inclusive) | 45 | 7,572 |
Total | 709 | 65,574 |
There are rules for bringing food or animal products into Great Britain (GB) for personal use, depending on the country that the traveller is coming from. There are restrictions on meat, dairy and other products.
African swine fever (ASF) cases in Europe in 2022 represented new “jumps” in disease distribution towards the United Kingdom. While we consider that the overall risk of entry of ASF virus into the UK from all combined pathways remains at medium, the particular pathway of human-mediated transport of non-commercial, infected products from the EU is considered to be high risk. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) conducts outbreak risk assessments on ASF in the EU, published here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/african-swine-fever-in-pigs-and-boars-in-europe and attached to this answer.
As a result, we announced controls restricting the movement of pork and pork products into GB to help safeguard Britain's pigs. Travellers are no longer allowed to bring pork or pork products weighing over two kilograms into GB, unless they are produced to the EU’s commercial standards. The controls, which came into force in September 2022, strengthen the standards for bringing pork and pork products into GB from the EU and EFTA states. This measure helps limit possibly infected pig meat being brought into GB through various means, such as in passengers’ luggage or in vehicles.
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 expand the types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) regulated under environmental permitting, and whether they will consider tightening the limits on the amount of PFAS that can be in effluent.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
The Environment Agency is developing options to increase the number of PFAS that are controlled through environmental permits issued under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. This is focused on those with the strongest evidence of harm, such as PFAS listed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and may include new statutory and non-statutory standards for water quality which can be used to set permit limits for discharges to rivers.
More widely, the Government is working with the Environment Agency to assess levels of PFAS occurring in the environment, their sources, and potential risks to inform policy and regulatory approaches. Action has already been taken to ban or highly restrict specific PFAS both domestically and internationally, including perfluoro-octane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as well as perfluorohexanesulphonic acid (PFHxS), a persistent organic pollutant, the use and production of which was prohibited in 2023.
In the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023, the Government also committed to consult on improvements to the regulatory framework for industrial emissions to better reflect our environmental priorities. This will include assessing whether any changes are required to ensure that industrial emissions of persistent chemicals such as PFAS are effectively controlled.