Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on the legality of glue traps in capturing animals; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has had no such discussions or recent consultations.
However, this Government remains committed to high standards of animal welfare. We are in the process of developing a range of important animal welfare and animal-related measures to strengthen our position as a world leader in this field. This includes delivering our manifesto commitments to introduce new laws on animal sentience, to ban live exports, restrict the imports of trophies from endangered species and ban keeping primates as pets.
We are currently considering the best legislative vehicle to bring forward these reforms in the near future. We will be engaging with stakeholders and other Government departments as necessary.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent consultations he has had with stakeholders on the use of animal glue traps; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has had no such discussions or recent consultations.
However, this Government remains committed to high standards of animal welfare. We are in the process of developing a range of important animal welfare and animal-related measures to strengthen our position as a world leader in this field. This includes delivering our manifesto commitments to introduce new laws on animal sentience, to ban live exports, restrict the imports of trophies from endangered species and ban keeping primates as pets.
We are currently considering the best legislative vehicle to bring forward these reforms in the near future. We will be engaging with stakeholders and other Government departments as necessary.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of making microchipping of domestic cats compulsory; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport on 29 October 2020, PQ UIN 107106.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
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 effect of fireworks on air pollution levels; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
An assessment of the effect of celebrations surrounding Bonfire Night (5th of November) on air quality is made annually as part of the Air Pollution in the UK report. The assessment is based on measurements from the national monitoring network which monitors concentrations of air pollutants in near real-time on the UK-AIR website. The latest report (for 2019) can be accessed at the following URL: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/annualreport/index. In the latest report, the effects of Bonfire Night celebrations are dealt with under section 6.1.3 Localised Particulate Pollution Episodes (pages 106 – 108).
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
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 establishing a food standards commission to ensure that the standard of international food imports is equivalent to existing UK food standards.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Our manifesto is clear that in all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards. The EU Withdrawal Act will transfer all existing EU food safety provisions, including existing import requirements, onto the UK statute book.
We are already engaging with the agricultural sector as part of our trade discussions. We have not ruled out additional groups, and there is clear scope to review, re-task and reinforce what we have.
The Secretary of State regularly discusses a wide range of issues with Cabinet colleagues, and the Government will continue to work closely with the National Farmers’ Union and other relevant stakeholders across the food chain to understand the concerns about the impact of new trade deals. The Government has in place a range of stakeholder groups to feed into our policy development on trade. These include the Strategic Trade Advisory Group, the Agri-Food Expert Trade Advisory Group and various supply chain groups.
Defra has developed the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group, which allows officials in Defra and the Devolved Administrations to monitor UK agricultural markets, to share the latest stakeholder information and to provide warning of atypical market movements. It will help prepare the evidence base for the cause and possible range of interventions that may be needed in specific markets.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on maintaining the current standards of food imports.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Our manifesto is clear that in all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards. The EU Withdrawal Act will transfer all existing EU food safety provisions, including existing import requirements, onto the UK statute book.
We are already engaging with the agricultural sector as part of our trade discussions. We have not ruled out additional groups, and there is clear scope to review, re-task and reinforce what we have.
The Secretary of State regularly discusses a wide range of issues with Cabinet colleagues, and the Government will continue to work closely with the National Farmers’ Union and other relevant stakeholders across the food chain to understand the concerns about the impact of new trade deals. The Government has in place a range of stakeholder groups to feed into our policy development on trade. These include the Strategic Trade Advisory Group, the Agri-Food Expert Trade Advisory Group and various supply chain groups.
Defra has developed the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group, which allows officials in Defra and the Devolved Administrations to monitor UK agricultural markets, to share the latest stakeholder information and to provide warning of atypical market movements. It will help prepare the evidence base for the cause and possible range of interventions that may be needed in specific markets.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
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 that British farmers are not financially affected by food imports produced to lower food safety standards than those required in the UK.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Our manifesto is clear that in all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards. The EU Withdrawal Act will transfer all existing EU food safety provisions, including existing import requirements, onto the UK statute book.
We are already engaging with the agricultural sector as part of our trade discussions. We have not ruled out additional groups, and there is clear scope to review, re-task and reinforce what we have.
The Secretary of State regularly discusses a wide range of issues with Cabinet colleagues, and the Government will continue to work closely with the National Farmers’ Union and other relevant stakeholders across the food chain to understand the concerns about the impact of new trade deals. The Government has in place a range of stakeholder groups to feed into our policy development on trade. These include the Strategic Trade Advisory Group, the Agri-Food Expert Trade Advisory Group and various supply chain groups.
Defra has developed the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group, which allows officials in Defra and the Devolved Administrations to monitor UK agricultural markets, to share the latest stakeholder information and to provide warning of atypical market movements. It will help prepare the evidence base for the cause and possible range of interventions that may be needed in specific markets.