Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether Wales will receive any consequential funding through the Barnett formula as a result of UK Government actions on the bluetongue virus in England.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Barnett formula is applied in the usual way, as set out in the Statement of Funding policy, to all changes to Defra’s budget. It is applied when departmental budgets change - not when departments announce how they are spending their budgets.
Barnett consequentials provided to the Welsh Government are not ringfenced for a specific policy area. It is for the Welsh Government to allocate their funding in devolved areas, including agriculture, as they see fit. The Welsh Government can therefore take its own decisions on managing and investing available resources, reflecting its own priorities and local circumstances, and it is accountable to the Senedd for these decisions.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of imposing an all-England restricted zone from 1 July 2025 in response to the bluetongue virus on (a) livestock markets and (b) other businesses (i) in Wales and (ii) along the Wales-England border.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
From 1 July 2025 the restricted zone for bluetongue will be extended to cover all of England. This change is being made because the area of England where disease has been found is now too large for movement restrictions to remain an effective and proportionate way of controlling the disease.
Disease control is a devolved matter, and it is for the devolved administrations to assess their disease risks and respond accordingly. However, Defra and the Devolved Governments work closely together with the aim to provide, where possible, a consistent and coordinated response across the UK. A key forum for this is the Animal Disease Policy Group, which is a UK-wide policy decision making group. Defra and Devolved Governments also engage closely with industry to inform policy development and implementation through the Livestock Core Group.
The Government recognises that keepers and businesses can also be affected not only by the impacts of bluetongue disease on animals, but also by disease control measures. That is why Government seeks to minimise these burdens where safe to do so using exemptions under licenses, whilst maintaining the integrity and efficacy of measures intended to mitigate the risk of disease spread.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the spread of bluetongue virus on food security in (a) Wales and (b) other parts of the UK.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Bluetongue does not impact human health or food safety, and the current outbreak of bluetongue serotype 3 affecting England has not had an impact on food security in the UK.
Disease control is a devolved matter, and it is for the devolved administrations to assess their disease risks and respond accordingly. However, Defra and the Devolved Governments work closely together with the aim to provide, where possible, a consistent and coordinated response across the UK. A key forum for this is the Animal Disease Policy Group, which is a UK-wide policy decision making group.
Defra’s disease control measures aim to limit the spread of infection, seeking to contain the number of animals that need to be culled, either for disease control purposes or to safeguard animal welfare, whilst balancing the burdens of controls against the benefits of eradication of bluetongue.
Our approach aims to reduce adverse impacts on the rural and wider economy, the public, rural communities and the environment (including impact on wildlife), whilst safeguarding the health and safety of those involved in controlling the outbreak and minimising the overall cost of any outbreak.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of potential merits of establishing a compensation scheme for farmers affected by the imposition of restricted zones in response to the bluetongue virus.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that keepers and businesses can be affected not only by the impacts of bluetongue disease on animals, but also by disease control measures. That is why Defra seeks to minimise these burdens where safe to do so by using exemptions under licenses, whilst maintaining the integrity and efficacy of measures intended to mitigate the risk of disease spread.
Compensation is available for keepers whose animals are required to be culled for disease control purposes by the Government. However, we would not expect to cull large numbers of animals due to bluetongue since culling becomes ineffective once disease is established within the biting midge population. There are no plans to introduce a wider compensation scheme in relation to bluetongue. As set out in The Animal Health Act 1981 compensation is not paid for consequential losses or business interruption including those caused by measures in force in disease control zones.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s capacity to effectively tackle the spread of bluetongue virus.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) leads Government action on animal disease control and has outbreak response plans, supported by the bluetongue virus (BTV) national reference laboratory at The Pirbright Institute. Response times are kept under regular review between Defra, Welsh Government, Scottish Government and APHA and appropriate action initiated where additional operational support is required.
Defra’s disease control measures aim to limit the spread of BTV infection through proportionate and evidence-based control measures, whilst balancing the burdens of controls against the benefits of eradication of bluetongue and minimising the cost of any outbreak both to government and farmers.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the Welsh Government on limiting the spread of bluetongue virus.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the honourable member to the answer given on 4 June 2025 to question UIN 57569.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
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 impact of not extending the Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme on producers in England and Wales.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme is an EU legacy scheme and, in England, legislation is in place to close the scheme to English Producer Organisations on 31 December 2025. The Government has committed to championing British farming, whilst protecting the environment, and is currently considering the best way to support our farming sectors in the future, including horticulture.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
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 it his policy to extend the Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme beyond 31 December 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme is an EU legacy scheme and, in England, legislation is in place to close the scheme to English Producer Organisations on 31 December 2025. The Government has committed to championing British farming, whilst protecting the environment, and is currently considering the best way to support our farming sectors in the future, including horticulture.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to support farm-to-fork initiatives on publicly-owned land.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recently announced a series of reforms for delivering on the Government’s New Deal for Farmers including backing British produce by monitoring food currently bought in the public sector and where it is bought from this will make it easier for British farmers to win a share of the £5 billion spent each year on public sector catering contracts.
The Government also announced how it would boost profitability through fair competition across the supply chain. New rules for the pig sector will come this spring, ensuring contracts clearly set out expectations and changes can only be made if agreed by all parties. Similar regulations for eggs and fresh produce sectors will follow with the Government ready to intervene with other sectors if needed.