Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to improve the management of fly tipping in Hertfordshire.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The role of central Government in tackling fly-tipping is to support local action. Across two rounds of our fly-tipping grant scheme, we have now awarded nearly £1.2m to help more than 30 councils purchase equipment to tackle fly-tipping at known hot-spots; recipients include Stevenage Borough Council who received just over £26,000 to install mobile CCTV and signage to deter perpetrators.
The Prime Minister’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan sets out how we will support councils to take tougher action against those who fly-tip. This includes a commitment to significantly raise the upper limit on fixed penalty notices this year, to £1,000 for fly-tipping and £600 for people who give their waste to an unauthorised carrier.
Defra chairs the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, through which we work with a wide range of interested parties, including the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership, to promote and disseminate good practice with regards to preventing fly-tipping.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the speed of processing covid-19 vaccine damage payments; and if his Department will publish its target timeframes for the processing these claims.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department continues to work with the NHS Business Services Authority to increase the speed of processing all claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS). We have increased administrative and medical assessment capacity and the NHS Business Services Authority has also implemented Subject Access Requests to encourage the timely return of medical records required to carry out medical assessments.
The average claim takes approximately six months to investigate and process from the date a claimant’s medical records are requested. There are no target timeframes as this can vary from case to case, depending on how quickly medical records are received.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to (a) preserve, (b) extend the sunset date to 2026, (c) revoke or (d) replace the majority of retained EU law relating to the regulation of chemicals.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
HM Government is in the process of analysing all retained EU law. This analysis will enable us to determine what should be preserved as part of domestic law and what should be repealed or amended.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in context of the UK Health Security Agency participation in the Partnership for the Risk Assessment of Chemicals, what planned activities the agency has as a participating organisation; and whether the agency plans to conduct human biomonitoring to monitor exposure within the UK population to harmful chemicals, including hormone disrupting chemicals.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
The UK Health Security Agency and United Kingdom participants are involved in all aspects of the Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals, including the assessment of human exposures to environmental pollutants and environmental monitoring of chemicals of concern. The Partnership is currently determining its priorities which will be published online in due course.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
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 ensure a cross government approach on chemicals management which involves a commitment to (a) reducing exposure in the general population and (a) acknowledging the links between chemical exposure in the population and increased cancer risk.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Our goal is to protect human health and the environment while enabling economic growth through managing the production, use and disposal of chemicals. We already have robust systems to identify the impact of chemicals, and to regulate them. We are currently developing our approach further to build on the commitment in the 25 Year Environment Plan to set out our strategy to tackling chemicals of concern and to significantly reduce the levels of harmful chemicals entering the environment. Defra continues to work closely with other government departments, arms-length bodies, and the Devolved Administrations to ensure a joined-up and UK-wide approach.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) plays a key role in protecting against and reducing exposure to chemical and environmental hazards thereby preventing cancer from exposure to chemicals. The primary focus of UKHSA’s work is on hazard characterisation and risk assessment including:
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
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 take steps to introduce hazard-based protection measures for reducing exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals; and if he will amend the classification, labelling and packaging regulations to introduce new hazard classes on endocrine disruptors and suspected endocrine disruptors.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The issue of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which have been linked to numerous human health and wildlife impacts, is scientifically complex. There is uncertainty surrounding the effects of EDC exposure from both an environmental and human health perspective, and we are contributing to international efforts to address the evidence gaps. We are considering the evidence available and drawing on a range of expertise with the aim of improving testing and identification of EDCs and assessing measures to further understand and manage the risks they pose.
The identification of intrinsic chemical hazards is a principal requirement of the classification, labelling and packaging regulation (CLP). The hazard classes in CLP cover physical, human health and environmental hazards. Endocrine disrupting properties are not captured by a specific CLP hazard class because they are a result of a mode of action rather than an intrinsic hazardous property. However, chemicals with human health endocrine disrupting properties are effectively covered in CLP by the closely related CMR (carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic to reproduction) hazard classes.
The hazard classification of a chemical is often used as a starting point for specific controls or protective measures and is the basis for many regulatory and legislative provisions in the risk management of chemicals. Endocrine disrupting properties are specifically taken into account by the regulatory regimes covering the use of pesticides and biocides, where identification of such properties prompts specific control measures.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether UK authorities routinely monitor all scientific literature for studies that show deleterious effects of hazardous chemicals.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Environment Agency (EA) has developed a Prioritisation and Early Warning System (PEWS) for chemicals of emerging concern to ensure consideration of the potential risks of emerging chemicals including to surface waters (both freshwater and saline waters), groundwater and soils. The EA routinely monitors a sub-set of the scientific literature for determining which chemicals of emerging concern we should focus on as part of this work. The system allows the EA to sift and to screen any chemical substance nominated using, where available, hazard data and environmental monitoring data to prioritise whether a substance may be a possible chemical of concern in England.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether UK REACH will seek to maintain alignment with EU Chemicals Regulations (EU REACH) beyond 31 December 2023.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
UK REACH retains the fundamental approach and key principles of EU REACH, ensuring a high level of protection of human health and the environment. Having our own independent regulatory framework for chemicals allows us to identify the most pressing priorities which best reflect the specific circumstances in GB. The decisions we take are based on the best available evidence, including looking at approaches taken by chemical regimes across the world, including the EU.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government is planning to take steps to support schools in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency with their energy bills over the coming winter.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
Significant cash increases to school funding will help schools to manage these higher costs. Overall, core schools funding (including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs) is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 compared to the previous year.
Schools in Hitchin and Harpenden are attracting £81.6 million in total this year, a 4% cash increase. This reflects 3% more per pupil in their pupil-led funding compared to 2021/22. Schools’ actual allocations in 2022/23 will be based on local authorities’ local funding formulae.
On top of this funding through the National Funding Formula, schools in Hitchin and Harpenden are seeing £2.4 million through the Schools Supplementary Grant.
Schools will also benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which will run until at least the 31 March 2023. This will reduce how much schools need to spend on their energy, and give schools greater certainty over their budgets over the winter months.
Any school which has signed a fixed energy contract since April 2022 will be eligible for support if, at the time they signed their contact, wholesale prices for the next 6 months were expected to be higher than the Government supported price of £211/MWh for electricity, and £75/MWh for gas.
For example, a school which uses 10 MWh of electricity and 22 MWh of gas a month and signed a fixed contract giving them a current monthly energy bill of about £10,000, would receive support based on the difference between expected wholesale prices when they signed their contract and the Government supported price. For a contract signed in July 2022, this could be worth £240/MWh for electricity and £70/MWh for gas, meaning the school receives a discount of £4,000 per month, reducing their original bill by 40%.
Support will also be available to schools on variable, deemed and other contracts.
There will be a review in 3 months time to determine how the scheme should best be targeted beyond this period to focus support on vulnerable sectors.
The details of the scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers.
More broadly, the Department allocates annual capital funding to improve the condition of school buildings, including through improving energy efficiency. The Department has allocated over £13 billion in condition funding since 2015, including £1.8 billion this financial year. In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme will transform 500 schools over the next decade, with all new buildings delivered through the programme designed to be net zero carbon in operation. Schools can also access funding specifically for carbon reduction and energy efficiency measures through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund.
Every school’s circumstances are different, and where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support (a) farmers and (b) food producers in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency with extreme temperatures.
Answered by Mark Spencer
For some farmers, the hot, dry weather has had an impact on crop growth, yield and quality and has been of concern to growers in the arable and horticulture sectors. The main impacts appear to be on non-irrigated horticulture crops dependent on rainfall and the availability of grass for both grazing and conservation as winter animal feed.
The impacts will vary by region, crop and soil type among other factors. It is still too soon to say with certainty the final impact of the hot and dry conditions on crops.
To support farmers in the immediate term we have instructed the Environment Agency to take a flexible regulatory approach to its water abstraction decisions. Additionally, on 17 August we announced easements on Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship rules allowing farmers to cut or graze areas of land set aside in their agreements. These measures will last until the end of 2022, making it easier for farmers to provide food for livestock.
We continue to keep the situation under close review and have increased engagement with industry to supplement Government analysis with real-time intelligence. This provides the Government with the best possible intelligence on how the sector is coping.