Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many seizures of imported (1) products of animal origin, and (2) pig meat, have been made in the last three years.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Border Force holds the data on seizures of imported products of animal origin, including meat. Data on seizures of pig meat specifically is unavailable.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current risk level of African swine fever for the UK.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Managing the threat of African swine fever remains a key UK priority. Whilst we have never had an outbreak in the UK, we continue to prepare for the eventuality of one. Given the deteriorating epidemiological situation in Europe, Defra has commissioned an update to the 2018 risk assessment which looked at the risk of African swine fever entering Great Britain from the European Union via movement of humans, animals or animal products.
The risk assessment has concluded that the overall level of risk to Great Britain has remained the same as in 2018. However, the risk of entry of contaminated goods into Great Britain via personal luggage or couriers has become high. The department is looking at a range of mitigations, including targeted interventions to prevent high-risk pork from coming into Great Britain from Europe.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many times African swine fever has been identified in imported products in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
ASF virus can be present in the meat and bone marrow of contaminated products from infected animals. We have regionalisation in place for ASF for some countries, and there are rules in place for products from an ASF disease restriction zone or an ASF endemic country to be exported. Therefore, a non-processed product from an ASF disease restriction zone or an ASF endemic country is usually considered to be a non-compliant import and should be destroyed.
Defra does not routinely test for ASF virus in imported commodities.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, what assessment they have made of the current level of water supply given the heatwave in parts of the UK; and what plans they have to deal with any shortage of supply.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Water companies are reporting that water storage levels are adequate for supply this summer. Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of wholesome water at all times. They are legally required to have robust plans in place to maintain the supply of water in a range of hazards, including heatwaves.
Water companies use a range of measures to manage higher water demand expected during heatwaves and respond to any disruption. These measures include ensuring their networks are prepared, customer communications to help manage demand, rerouting of water via their networks, and the provision of alternative water supplies, for example via tanker deliveries. In the event of disruptions, water companies also maintain priority access registers, which vulnerable customers can register with for provision of bottled water.
The Government is communicating frequently with water companies to monitor their performance and reiterate the importance of maintaining supplies to customers.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the shortage of seasonal workers in the first six months of this year, and (2) the extent of the impact to crops of fruit and vegetables; and what plans they have to address this in 2023.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Horticulture has long relied on seasonal workers to bring home the harvest. After a series of annual pilots the government announced last December that the Seasonal Worker visa route has been extended to 2024 to allow overseas workers to come to the UK for up to six months to harvest both edible and ornamental crops. An initial allocation of 30,000 visas was made available for 2022, which will be increased to 40,000 (including 2000 for the poultry sector). Defra continues to monitor the supply of labour to UK horticulture throughout the year, working with operators and sector growers to ensure there is sufficient labour for harvesting the UK's fruit and vegetable crops.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of the 570 Defra items listed on the Retained EU law dashboard, published on 22 June, relate to (1) phytosanitary, (2) plant, or (3) animal health, welfare and hygiene, measures.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Currently, of the 570 Defra Items listed on the Retained EU law dashboard 174 of these relate to phytosanitary, plant or animal health, welfare, and hygiene measures. The breakdown across each of these areas is displayed in the table below. This information is available on the Retained EU law dashboard at the link provided here: Retained EU law dashboard - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Defra will continue to review retained EU law to ensure it has an accurate record of it. The dashboard will be updated every quarter with any additional retained law added.
| Total REUL |
Phytosanitary | 6 |
Plant (excluding Phytosanitary) | 65 |
Animal Health | 88 |
Animal Welfare | 15 |
Animal Hygiene | 0 |
Total | 174 |
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the value of imported products made from rabbit fur to the UK economy, and (2) the cost of a ban on the importation of such products would have on the UK economy.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data for 2019 indicates approximate values of £52,911,000 gross imports to the UK for raw furskins, tanned or dressed furskins, and articles of apparel, clothing accessories and other furskin articles. HMRC does not collect data on specific fur-bearing species.
Under existing domestic legislation it is an offence to keep animals solely or primarily for slaughter for the value of their fur. However, we do permit the import and sale of such products. The Government is committed to exploring potential action in this area in the Action Plan for Animal Welfare. If any action were to be taken on fur, a full assessment of the impact on UK businesses would be conducted.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the EU's request in September 2021 for consolidated versions of Sanitary and Phytosanitary legislation integrating recent amendments to be made available as soon as possible, when they intend to make these versions available to the relevant Trade Specialised Committee.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have informed the EU that consolidated versions of legislation are publicly accessible on www.legislation.gov.uk, and are made available as soon as possible.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the difficulties in exporting farm animals for breeding purposes to the EU because of a lack of facilities to take them; and what steps they will take to ease the export of such animals.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The construction and management of live animal Border Control Posts (BCPs) in the EU are commercial activities, and it falls on EU countries and competent authorities to approve the designation and operation of such facilities. As such, Defra is supporting National Farmers' Union and other industry bodies' efforts to push for the construction and designation of an appropriate BCP for livestock; specifically, through data collection and sharing to support the commercial case for such a facility, and through diplomatic channels to support the designation and approval process.
Asked by: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what decisions they have taken following the recent discussions with the (1) United Nations, and (2) the EU, on the movement of perishable goods between the UK and the EU under the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are not aware of any discussions with the UN on this specific issue.
We continue to engage with the EU on a range of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues through the TCA framework. The TCA established the Trade Specialised Committee on SPS measures, including certification requirements and border clearance processes, and their application, in order to facilitate trade between the Parties. The Committee last met in September 2021 and the minutes can be found here.