Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of the office space owned or leased by her Department is not in regular use; what the total (a) rental and (b) retail value is of all such office space; and if she will place in the Library a copy of her most recent departmental real estate valuation.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra offices are assessed as either being required to deliver departmental functions (forming the core estate) or surplus to this requirement (non-core).
Defra's priority for surplus holdings is to reduce property costs by exiting leasehold agreements, selling freeholds or by sub-letting to external tenants. The proportion of Defra office property vacant, held by the Defra property holding centre, as at 29th June is 5.76%.
The actual rental depends on how long the office space would be vacant, making it difficult to calculate, with no rental values held for the freehold office estate.
The Government Property Unit (GPU) has created a portal - Find Me Some Government Space (https://www.gov.uk/find-government-property) - for more efficient marketing of surplus land and buildings. This is searchable by developers, community groups and the general public.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which buildings occupied by her Department are owned or part-owned privately; what the total value is of the rent paid to private landlords for the use of such buildings for official duties; and to whom such rent is paid.
Answered by George Eustice
The requested data is set out in two documents which are attached.
The total of annual rents payable for each of the leasehold sites listed in the documents on the Defra estate, as at 22 June 2015, is £16,160,890.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of badgers exterminated through culling in (a) Gloucestershire and (b) Somerset were found to carry bovine tuberculosis in all instances in which tests were carried out in the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
Badgers culled under licence in Somerset and Gloucestershire in 2013 and 2014 were not routinely tested for tuberculosis (TB), since this research had already been carried out under the Random Badger Cull Trial (RBCT).
However, testing of badgers between 1998 and 2005 via the Randomised Badger Culling Trial and Road Traffic Accident surveys provided evidence of the typical prevalence of TB in badgers in areas of high incidence of TB in cattle. TB was found in around one third of all badgers in these areas.
During the culls, four badger carcasses were tested on occasion at the specific request of landowners. The tests were carried out by independent veterinary surgeons. Of the four carcasses, one carcass was confirmed to be infected with Bovine TB.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
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 has taken to ensure that planning decisions take into full consideration the UK's air quality obligations under EU law.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Planning policy is a matter for the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. The National Planning Policy Framework was developed by CLG in conjunction with Defra and other relevant parties and sets out how air quality needs to be taken into account in planning decisions. We advise local authorities in local air quality management guidance to carry out planning and air quality functions in close cooperation to control the impacts developments might have on air quality.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
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 bring forward proposals to require local authorities whose planning decisions may have contributed to poor air quality standards to pay fines imposed by the EU on the UK in respect of those standards.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Commission has started infraction proceedings against the UK for not achieving European limit values for NO2. This case is ongoing. We are working in partnership with local authorities to ensure resources are invested in improving air quality to protect public health and the environment and to avoid any prospect of fines. We are fully committed to complying with EU air quality standards and are revising our plans to achieve compliance with the NO2 limits in the shortest possible time.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues responsible for the planning system on the UK's air quality obligations under EU law.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Secretary of State has had discussions on a range of matters with Ministers in other departments, including the Department for Communities and Local Government. These discussions provide an opportunity for a range of issues, including air quality, to be raised.
The Government is committed to improving air quality and reducing pollution to protect public health and the environment.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the information required to be collected under Condition 6 of the schedule to the Welfare of Racing Greyhounds Regulations 2010 is available publicly.
Answered by George Eustice
Condition 6 of Part 1 of the Schedule to the Welfare of Racing Greyhounds Regulations 2010 requires the operator of a greyhound racing track to keep records for 10 years of details of any injuries sustained by greyhounds during a race, trial or sales trial. The records must be completed by the attending veterinary surgeon but there is no requirement on tracks to make this information available publicly. However, we would expect the injury records to be reviewed by the veterinary surgeon and track manager on a regular basis to determine if injury rates are changing. How these records are being used will be one of the issues looked at during the five-year review of the Regulations.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
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 she has made of the effectiveness of the Greyhound Regulations 2010; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by George Eustice
No assessment of the Welfare of Racing Greyhounds Regulations 2010 has yet been made. They are due for review five years after they came into force, which will be April 2015.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Government's policy position was on each of the three main priorities agreed at the European Environment and Health Ministerial Board in Vilnius, Lithuania on 1 July 2014.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The membership of the European Environment and Health Ministerial Board (EHMB) comprises four environment Ministers, four health Ministers and four international institutions, appointed by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. The UK is not a member.
The Government's policy position towards the eventual elimination of asbestos-related diseases is well established. The UK has a high rate of asbestos-related disease because of our past use of very high levels of asbestos. Consequently, our regulatory system for controlling occupational asbestos exposure is now one of the strictest in the EU. For example, we license and closely regulate contractors carrying out the highest-risk work with asbestos and we require more proactive management of asbestos in buildings and structures. Within Europe, the Government is focused on the need for active compliance with agreed EU measures and for any proposed new measures to be risk based, realistically achievable and the result of proper impact assessment. We remain determined to continue to reduce present exposures to minimise any future death toll.
The Government signed the Minamata Convention in October last year. We expect that the UK will be in a position to ratify it by 2018 when EU and probable consequent UK legislation is in place to provide for full implementation. A legislative proposal is expected from the European Commission early next year, which will then be considered by the UK along with other Member States.
We recognise the importance of action to address air pollution and will consider carefully the initiative for a resolution at the World Health Assembly next year.
The Government is committed to securing an ambitious, legally binding, global agreement with mitigation commitments for all by the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21) in Paris, to come into force by 2020. We recognise the important link between tackling climate change and health, and welcome EHMB’s priority to support COP 21.