Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many homes she estimates will benefit from Flood Re in (a) the North West, (b) Lancashire and (c) Pendle.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Flood Re is on target to start operating on 4 April. The Scheme will help owners of property at high risk of flooding by ensuring that, for the first time, they can access affordable flood insurance regardless of where they live.
We expect Flood Re to cover up to 350,000 properties across the country and insurers are free to decide which properties to pass to Flood Re. The number of properties passed to Flood Re in particular areas will become evident once the scheme is in operation. There is no limit to the number of properties that can be ceded to Flood Re.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs were destroyed following violent behaviour in each of the last three years.
Answered by George Eustice
The numbers of dogs destroyed as a result of being dangerously out of control (section 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991) are not held centrally. Such records would be held by each police force.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs on the restricted breed list were destroyed in each of the last three years.
Answered by George Eustice
Numbers of dogs destroyed as a result of being a dog of a specified type (section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991) are not held centrally. Such records would be held by each police force.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
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 adequacy of flood defences in Earby.
Answered by Rory Stewart
May I pay tribute to the community of Earby and their fortitude following the terrible floods this Christmas.
We have been working closely with the local community and partners in Earby to investigate options for reducing the risk from all sources of flooding.
We have allocated £50,000 to this study.
The study will also update the flood map for Earby, improve flood warning and improve planning decisions.
In addition to this, the Environment Agency is carrying out £500k of work to repair and reduce the risk of blockage of the Victoria Clough culvert.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding her Department has made available for the maintenance of waterways in (a) Pendle, (b) the North West and (c) England in 2015-16.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Government provides grant-in-aid funding to the two largest navigation authorities in England and Wales: the Canal & River Trust (CRT) and the Environment Agency.
Under the terms of the grant agreement, for 2015-16, the CRT will receive a total of £49.546m for the navigations it owns in England and Wales. The distribution of maintenance funding across CRT’s waterways is a matter for CRT.
The Environment Agency does not own or manage any navigations in Pendle or the North West.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many advertisements that failed to meet the minimum standards for online pet advertising were removed from pet-related internet sites in each month since January 2014.
Answered by George Eustice
Figures from the Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG) show that in 2014, at least 130,000 adverts were removed from those websites which had adopted PAAG’s minimum standards. These figures do not include any adverts that may have been removed or blocked because they breached the websites’ own posting rules. Statistics for 2014 are not available for each month and there are no figures available for 2015.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her strategy is for tackling urban diffuse water pollution.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Government’s role in tackling water pollution from the urban environment is centred on improving our understanding of the problem and the possible solutions, and then, in line with the evidence, both facilitating action by others and taking action ourselves where appropriate.
In line with this approach we are committing £2m grant funding in the next financial year for local projects that tackle urban diffuse water pollution.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she expects to publish the strategy to tackle urban diffuse water pollution referred to in her Department's Summary of responses to the consultation on Tackling water pollution from the urban environment.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The responses we received through our consultation on proposals for tackling diffuse water pollution from urban sources were extremely positive. Over 90% of respondents agreed with our strategic aims. We are using this information to develop an action plan for publication later in 2015.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
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 efforts to reintroduce the short-haired bumblebee Bombus subterraneus to the UK.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The reintroduction of Bombus subterraneus (the short-haired bumblebee) to the UK has been underway since 2012 through a partnership between Natural England, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, the RSPB and Hymettus. There have been annual releases of queen bees from Sweden in the Dungeness and Romney Marsh area of Kent. A number of landowners in the area are supporting the reintroduction by restoring the habitat that the species depends on using agri-environment schemes. The partnership project officer and a team of volunteers have been monitoring this habitat every summer and in 2013 and 2014 worker short-haired bumblebees were seen in the area. This provides direct evidence that at least some of the released queens have successfully formed colonies. Queen releases and monitoring of habitat will continue through to 2016 at which point it is hoped that there will be evidence that a self-sustaining population is becoming established.
Asked by: Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
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 is taking to encourage the use of green waste as compost.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Government supports recycling of green waste, including work to develop markets for quality compost. For example, the Government has supported the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) to facilitate the development of the British Standard Institution’s Publicly Available Standard 100 (BSI PAS 100), working with industry to deliver a robust specification which provides national standards for quality of compost. In addition, the Environment Agency has revised its Quality Protocol for compost, which sets out when compost is no longer treated as “waste”. These standards provide confidence in composted materials for end users and help producers ensure their products are safe, reliable and perform well.
The Government is also helping fund a four year research project undertaking large scale field trials and demonstration projects into the use of quality anaerobic digestate (biofertiliser) and compost in agriculture. This includes an extensive knowledge exchange programme to support the use of green waste as compost.