Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the levels of donations to foodbanks between 2022 and 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government does not have any role in the operation of foodbanks. Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations which bring people in local communities together to support one another. This is a great example of the generosity of spirit of communities across the country.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking increase support for food banks in winter 2023-24.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government does not have any role in the operation of foodbanks. Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations which bring people in local communities together to support one another. This is a great example of the generosity of spirit of communities across the country.
The Government is providing over £100 million of support for charities and community organisations in England to support the impacts of the increase in cost of living. This funding is supporting charities and community organisations right now through the £76 million Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund. This fund has closed for applications and is awarding funding to frontline organisations supporting vulnerable households, including those which deliver food. The second strand of the package, the £25.5 million VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme, will provide investment in energy efficiency measures, with more details to be announced in due course.
Taken together, total support over 2022/23-2024/25 to help households with the high cost of living amounts to £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per UK household.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the (a) fines and (b) other penalties for dog owners whose dogs (i) attack and (ii) kill other people.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The maximum penalty for any owner who allows their dog to be dangerously out of control is 14 years’ imprisonment where the death of a person is involved, five years’ imprisonment where a person is injured, six months’ imprisonment where no injury is caused to a person, and three years’ imprisonment for an aggravated attack on an assistance dog. All of the above offences carry the possibility of an unlimited fine. We are currently working in partnership with the police, local authorities and animal welfare organisations to ensure that the full range of existing dog control powers are effectively applied to encourage responsible dog ownership and reduce the risk of dog attacks.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to help reduce the risk of wildfires breaking out on moorland.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Defra is a key stakeholder in the Wildfire Framework for England. The Department’s responsibilities are laid out in the framework, with the aim of mitigating the impacts of wildfire across England, including on moorlands.
Defra also fund a training programme designed to consolidate knowledge, skills and understanding of vegetation fires including wildfire incidents and prescribed fire operations. Since its development in 2021, more than 1,000 Lantra accredited training modules have been completed by both public and private land managers.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of funding innovative recycling ideas.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra supports the funding of innovative recycling projects across the country. To support our ambitious goals to recycle plastic film, Defra alongside the Flexible Plastic Fund, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Zero Waste Scotland, is funding a multi-million-pound pilot project on flexible plastic kerbside collections. This is part of Defra’s funding of the £60 million UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) programme and will support the nationwide introduction of plastic film collections from households and businesses from 31 March 2027. Through the SSPP, Defra has also supported a project to develop food-grade recycled polypropylene in the UK, the first of its kind.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the fisheries management plans updated on 2 October 2023 on UK (a) fishermen and (b) fishing communities.
Answered by Mark Spencer
In July, Defra published impact assessments on the draft Fisheries Management Plans. Further assessment of impacts will be conducted as appropriate during implementation.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure access to skilled labour in the dairy farming sector.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We appreciate the importance of skilled labour to our domestic food producers, including the dairy sector. To help support the issue of labour shortages, the Government commissioned John Shropshire to carry out an independent review which considered how automation, domestic labour and migrant labour can contribute to tackling labour shortages in the food supply chain. The report was published in June 2023.
The Government Response will consider all ten of the recommendations made in John Shropshire’s Review, covering the four themes of Recruitment & Retention, Skills, Data, and Automation. The Government Response will be published shortly.
The Skilled Worker visa route is open to all nationals who wish to come to the UK for the purpose of working in a skilled job they have been offered. The Government have broadened the skill and salary thresholds to include medium skilled jobs and the route now covers 60% of jobs in the economy. This strikes an appropriate balance between allowing employers access to the skills our economy needs and encouraging investment in the resident workforce.
Defra will continue to work closely with our dairy and other agricultural sectors and across government, to make sure that the workforce requirements for food and farming are understood.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle food inflation.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Tackling inflation is this Government’s number one priority, with a plan to more than halve inflation this year, and we are monitoring all key agricultural commodities so that we can work with the food industry to address the challenges they face.
The Government monitors consumer food prices using the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). October 2023 CPI food price inflation reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) was 10.1%, down from 12.1% in September 2023 and the lowest figure since June 2022. Overall CPI inflation dropped to 4.6% in October from 6.7% in September 2023. This is now under half the overall rate recorded by ONS at the start of the year.
Consumer food prices depend on a range of factors including agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, and Sterling exchange rates. Some of these factors are influenced by our trading arrangements with other countries.
Through regular engagement, Defra will continue to work with food retailers and producers to explore the range of measures they can take to ensure the availability of affordable food. For example, by maintaining value ranges, price matching and price freezing measures. Some retailers have also introduced incentives for customers, such as new reward cards offering discounts on products or ‘cashback’ on future purchases, and a number of stores are also offering meal deals either in store or within their cafes to help vulnerable groups.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will introduce legislation to require water companies to report annually on the number of animals killed as a result of raw sewage discharges.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
We do not have plans to introduce legislation that will require this of water companies. However, this Government is clear that the volume of sewage being discharged into our waters is unacceptable. That is why our Plan for Water sets out more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement to tackle pollution and clean up our water.
Alongside this, our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan sets clear and specific targets for water companies, regulators and the Government, to work towards the long-term ambition of eliminating ecological harm from storm overflows. This will protect biodiversity at both a local and national scale.
We have also set a world-leading, legally binding target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. This target will drive wide-ranging actions to deliver nature recovery.
We know that to meet our targets we will need large-scale habitat restoration, creation and improved connectivity; to tackle pressures on species including pollution, unsustainable use of resources and climate change; and targeted action to recover specific species.
Action to restore or create freshwater habitats will support species in our indicator that live in and rely on lakes and rivers such as kingfishers, silver bream, perch, and minnow.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve conviction rates for pet theft.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Local Authorities have a statutory responsibility under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to inspect their areas from ‘time to time’ to identify and require the remediation of any land.
The Government recognises that in particularly severe or complex cases Landfill Tax can act as a prohibitive financial barrier to the remediation and redevelopment of contaminated land. My Department held a Call for Evidence on this issue and published a Government response in March this year. As a result of this evidence, we are currently developing a grant scheme to fund costs of Landfill Tax to public bodies in England, where such costs are acting as a determinative barrier to the remediation and redevelopment of contaminated land.