Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
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 bringing forward legislative proposals on (a) cat and (b) other pet theft.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 14 November 2023 to the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby, PQ 599.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of a ban on trail hunting on land owned by her Department.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since the introduction of the Act, many hunt organisations across the country have worked hard to adapt their activities towards trail hunting, which is intended to retain important traditions as part of the fabric of rural life without harming wildlife. The Government takes wildlife crime seriously. In 2022, Defra more than doubled its funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit from a total of £495,000 over the three previous years to £1.2 million for the three-year period of 2022-25. The Government will not amend the Hunting Act.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made a recent assessment of the impact of the Hunting Act 2004 on levels of fox hunting.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not hold this data. The Hunting Act 2004 makes it an offence to hunt a wild mammal with dogs except where it is carried out in accordance with the exemptions in the Act. Enforcement of the Hunting Act is an operational matter for the police. Those found guilty under the Act are subject to the full force of the law.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he Department has had recent discussions with the Competition and Markets Authority on the adequacy of consumer protection in the private veterinary industry in cases of misdiagnosis.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has not had discussions with the Competition and Markets Authority concerning consumer protection in cases of misdiagnosis. Any complaints about the conduct and fitness to practice of individual veterinary surgeons should be directed to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the statutory regulator of the veterinary profession in the United Kingdom. The Competition and Markets Authority investigation into the veterinary services market is ongoing and closes by the end of October 2023.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of costs in the private veterinary industry.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department has made no specific assessment of the implications on Defra policies of trends in costs in the private veterinary industry. However, policies are impact assessed in line with the Better Regulation Framework and such assessments consider costs in relation to relevant sectors, which may include the private veterinary sector.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of impact of plastic waste in the environment on the food chain.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No specific assessment has been made on the impact of plastic waste on the food chain. However, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is monitoring and assessing emerging information concerning microplastics in food and beverages. The Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products, and the Environment concluded in 2021 that, based on current data, "it is not yet possible to perform a complete assessment for the potential risks from exposure to micro and nanoplastics via the oral and inhalation routes”. The FSA considers it is unlikely that the presence of these particles in food or drink would cause harm to consumers, based on current information; however, this will be kept under review as new evidence becomes available.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made a recent estimate of the amount of plastic waste in the UK environment.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No recent assessment has been made of the amount of plastic waste in the UK environment.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to reduce the amount of existing plastic waste in the environment.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
One way plastic enters the environment is through littering. Local authorities have a statutory duty to keep their public land clear of litter and refuse.
We have been proud to support and endorse national clean-up initiatives such as the Great British Spring Clean, and the Great British Beach Clean, and we will continue to use our influence to encourage as many people and businesses as possible to participate in these types of events again.
Community Payback also plays a key role in clearing up communities, working in partnership with Local Authorities and the voluntary sector. The Government has pledged to inject up to a further £93 million of additional investment into Community Payback, to ensure criminals sentenced to probation-supervised community sentences across England and Wales complete up to eight million hours of unpaid Community Payback per year. This will involve picking litter, clearing wastelands, and extending offenders’ involvement in Keep Britain Tidy’s projects.
The UK Government is also proud to have supported the proposal by Rwanda and Peru that led to the ambitious resolution to start negotiating an international legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, being agreed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022. The process to negotiate a new agreement is now underway, and the UK has taken an ambitious stance, including calling for provisions in the instrument to remediate and remove existing plastic pollution from the environment.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of recent rises in the price of potatoes on the viability of fish and chip shops.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is aware that the prolonged period of hot dry weather last summer had an impact on yield, growth and quality of horticultural crops, including potatoes, in many parts of the country. We continue to keep the weather situation and any impact on our agri-food sectors under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group (UKAMMG), which was set up by Defra and the Devolved Administrations to monitor the UK market situation across all key agricultural commodities.
Increased food prices are the result of many different factors, including agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, as well as Sterling exchange rates.
The Government has taken action to support businesses with rising input costs such as energy.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
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 set targets to end the use of hazardous pesticides and protect pollinators.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Pollinators are a priority for this Government. The National Pollinator Strategy Action Plan was published in May 2022, which sets out how we are restoring and creating habitat to help pollinators thrive, and addressing pressures on their populations. Our Healthy Bees Plan 2030 outlines our work to improve honeybee health, and we are supporting monitoring and research through the Pollinator Monitoring Scheme.
A pesticide may only be placed on the market in Great Britain if the product has been authorised by our expert regulator, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), following a thorough scientific risk assessment, that concludes all safety standards are met. Pesticides that pose unacceptable risks are not authorised.
We are assessing the potential role of targets to support our policy ambitions, and further details will be outlined in our National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP), to be published in the first half of this year.