Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle fly-tipping.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are seeking powers in the Home Office’s Crime and Policing Bill to provide statutory enforcement guidance to help councils make full and proper use of their fly-tipping enforcement powers. These include fixed penalty notices of up to £1000, vehicle seizure and prosecution action which can lead to a significant fine or even imprisonment.
We have committed to forcing fly-tippers and vandals to clean up the mess they have created as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour. We will provide further details on this commitment in due course.
Defra officials chair the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group through which we work with a wide range of stakeholders, including officials from the Department for Transport, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and devolved governments, to promote good practice on preventing fly-tipping. Various practical tools are available from their webpage which can be found at: https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/national-fly-tipping-prevention-group.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to change pesticide maximum residue level regulations in Great Britain to align with the EU regime still in place in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
GB operates a pesticides regime based on assimilated EU law and continues to base decisions on the use of pesticides on careful scientific assessment. This includes maximum residue levels, which are set below, and usually well below, the level considered to be safe for people to eat.
Defra keeps the GB pesticides regulatory framework under continued review so that the regime is efficient and effective in ensuring pesticides will not harm human health or pose unacceptable risks to the environment.