Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 launching a public awareness campaign on the health impacts and causes of air pollution.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is currently conducting a holistic review of the way we communicate air quality information to the public. This will ensure the public is provided with timely and relevant information about air pollution, the actions people can take to limit their personal exposure, the impacts of air pollution on their health, and their own influence on air quality. A steering group comprised of external experts have been appointed to advise on the scope and nature of the review.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that local authorities adopt targets on air quality in line with the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local Authorities have powers to tackle pollutant emissions from a number of local sources, including domestic burning, environmental permitting and through the planning system. We are considering how Local Authorities can contribute to meeting our national PM2.5 objectives, including targets set under the Environment Act 2021. We will consult on further guidance for local authorities in our forthcoming draft Air Quality Strategy, which we are currently reviewing.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 support and empower local authorities to meet World Health Organisation guidelines on air quality.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
HM Government provides a range of resources and tools to local authorities to enable them to manage air quality in their area. This includes the Air Quality Grant programme, which has provided over £80 million in funding since 1997, new Local Air Quality Management policy and technical guidance, and a strengthened framework including better enforcement of smoke control areas.
We are reviewing our Air Quality Strategy, which supports local authorities to deliver improvements in air quality, and will publish a draft for consultation soon.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 improve the (a) monitoring and (b) reporting of air pollution.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2021/22 we invested £1 million to expand our fine particulate matter (PM2.5) monitoring network, and will have at least doubled the size of the current network by the end of 2025. We are also investing £1.5 million during 2022/23 to establish two new multi-instrument particulate matter (PM) composition measurement sites to monitor PM2.5 mass, particle speciation, particle counting, black carbon and ammonia. While expert advice is that PM2.5 mass is the most effective metric for measuring harm to health from PM, these monitors will provide new data on the composition of PM, helping us to better understand how composition changes across the country and how composition relates to health impacts, which remain a scientific challenge.
Defra, the UK Health Security Agency and the Department of Health and Social Care are also conducting a holistic review of the way we communicate air quality information and advice to the public. The outcomes will ensure the public is provided with timely and relevant information about air pollution: the actions people can take to limit their personal exposure; the impacts of air pollution on their health; and their own influence on air quality. Alongside this review a major overhaul of the UK-Air website and other Air Quality Web services is underway. This will deliver a simplified holistic service for all users. The department’s aim is to complete the whole web system review and have a clear vision for future web service provision by March 2025, with improvements being made in the interim.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 role of improved air quality in achieving net zero goals.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Climate change and air pollution have many of the same emission sources. Driving innovative solutions to improve air quality across a range of sectors will have some co-benefits for delivering net zero. We are working closely with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Transport to assess the impact on greenhouse gas emissions of air quality driven policies, as published in our impact assessments. We are also reviewing the greenhouse gas impact of our policy proposals to meet our legal commitments to reduce air pollution.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of facilities in the UK that safely recycle disposable electronic cigarettes.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
77 Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities (AATFs) are approved under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations for the treatment of Small Mixed WEEE which would include electronic cigarettes. It is a matter for the operator to decide what specific categories of equipment they choose to treat under the terms of their approval.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 estimate of the proportion of disposable electronic cigarettes that are properly recycled in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Neither Defra nor the Environment Agency collect data on the proportion of disposable electronic cigarettes that are recycled.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 support village halls.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Village halls are at the heart of our rural communities, so I am delighted that we have announced our Platinum Jubilee Village Hall Improvement Grant Fund. We will be spending £3 million to support the modernisation and improvement of village halls across England – to ensure that they are fit for the future and our children and grandchildren can continue to enjoy them.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 exempting certain organisations, subject to full compliance with vaccine and testing requirements, from the current temporary suspension of commercial imports of dogs and cats where they originate from or have been dispatched from Belarus, Poland, Romania or Ukraine.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments have temporarily suspended the commercial import of dogs, cats and ferrets into Great Britain if they originate from or have been dispatched from Belarus, Poland, Romania or Ukraine, until 9 July 2022.
We appreciate the impact that the temporary suspension will have on rescue organisations that operate in these countries. However, this measure is important to protect our biosecurity and the health of pets in this country.
This decision has been taken because of the serious health risk to humans and animals in Great Britain from commercial cats, dogs and ferrets from Belarus, Poland, Romania or Ukraine that do not comply with UK health and documentation requirements.
We understand the fluid situation at present due to the crisis and are aware that Romania, Belarus and Poland are currently experiencing high volumes of animal movements from Ukraine. Movements from these countries into Great Britain therefore present a higher risk at the current time due to the flow of animals from Ukraine.
In particular, there is evidence to suggest that commercial consignments of pet animals from Ukraine are being moved into Poland, Romania and Belarus, including strays, rescue and abandoned animals.
Unlike non-commercial pets accompanying Ukrainian refugees, these animals often have unknown history and disease status which increases the risk of disease spread.
Our standards of biosecurity are among the highest in the world. The Government takes the importation of pets seriously and is committed to preserving our high standards of biosecurity. The movement of commercial pets from Belarus, Poland, Romania and Ukraine represents a clear and serious enough biosecurity risk at the current time that we therefore consider the suspension of these movements necessary to protect the health of people and pets in Great Britain.
This risk has been exacerbated further by serious cases of non-compliance. There is a history of non-compliant movements of rescue animals into Great Britain from this region, which further increases the biosecurity risk.
The Government appreciates the work of genuine rescue and rehoming organisations who work to ensure that unwanted and abandoned animals are given the opportunity to find a forever home while importantly complying with our animal health and welfare legislation. It is important to note that this is a temporary measure which will be reviewed in due course. We would encourage organisations which are temporarily unable to import rescue dogs, cats, and ferrets into Great Britain to provide help and assistance to animals in situ.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 urgently review the temporary suspension of the commercial import of (a) rescue animals and (b) other dogs and cats, if they (i) have been dispatched from Belarus, Poland, Romania or Ukraine and (ii) can demonstrate that they will be fully vaccinated and blood tested by a registered charity.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments have temporarily suspended the commercial import of dogs, cats and ferrets into Great Britain if they originate from or have been dispatched from Belarus, Poland, Romania or Ukraine, until 9 July 2022.
We appreciate the impact that the temporary suspension will have on rescue organisations that operate in these countries. However, this measure is important to protect our biosecurity and the health of pets in this country.
This decision has been taken because of the serious health risk to humans and animals in Great Britain from commercial cats, dogs and ferrets from Belarus, Poland, Romania or Ukraine that do not comply with UK health and documentation requirements.
We understand the fluid situation at present due to the crisis and are aware that Romania, Belarus and Poland are currently experiencing high volumes of animal movements from Ukraine. Movements from these countries into Great Britain therefore present a higher risk at the current time due to the flow of animals from Ukraine.
In particular, there is evidence to suggest that commercial consignments of pet animals from Ukraine are being moved into Poland, Romania and Belarus, including strays, rescue and abandoned animals.
Unlike non-commercial pets accompanying Ukrainian refugees, these animals often have unknown history and disease status which increases the risk of disease spread.
Our standards of biosecurity are among the highest in the world. The Government takes the importation of pets seriously and is committed to preserving our high standards of biosecurity. The movement of commercial pets from Belarus, Poland, Romania and Ukraine represents a clear and serious enough biosecurity risk at the current time that we therefore consider the suspension of these movements necessary to protect the health of people and pets in Great Britain.
This risk has been exacerbated further by serious cases of non-compliance. There is a history of non-compliant movements of rescue animals into Great Britain from this region, which further increases the biosecurity risk.
The Government appreciates the work of genuine rescue and rehoming organisations who work to ensure that unwanted and abandoned animals are given the opportunity to find a forever home while importantly complying with our animal health and welfare legislation. It is important to note that this is a temporary measure which will be reviewed in due course. We would encourage organisations which are temporarily unable to import rescue dogs, cats, and ferrets into Great Britain to provide help and assistance to animals in situ.