Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
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 amend restrictions on entry to the UK by animals to enable competition horses from Iraq to compete in the UK.
Answered by George Eustice
Imports of equidae (horses, donkeys etc.) from third countries into the UK are governed by Council Directive 2009/156/EC. This lays down the animal health conditions concerning the movement and import from third countries. Commission Decision 2004/211/EC (as amended) establishes a list of third countries from which imports of equidae are authorised as satisfying these conditions.
Iraq is not on the list of authorised third countries. In order for it to be included, Iraq would need to demonstrate to the European Commission that it can satisfy the conditions contained in the Directive.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
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 make it her policy to implement a replacement programme to introduce LED lighting throughout her Department's buildings and sites; if she will estimate the proportion of lighting in her Department which is LED; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
LED lighting is considered as part of all building refurbishment projects and installed where investment over the projected life time of the building demonstrates value for money.
In 2011, Core Defra’s HQ building, Nobel House, was refurbished and LED lighting installed, with Passive Infra-Red (PIR) daylight and motion sensors.
Core Defra’s properties at York and Alnwick were refurbished in 2009 with energy efficient T5 fluorescent tube lighting with PIR daylight and motion sensors. LED lighting for office spaces was not considered value for money at that time. Future projects at these properties would consider upgrades to LED lighting.
The Core Defra estate has an estimated 40% LED lighting.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate she has made of the proportion of the UK's food demand met by food grown in the UK; and what that figure was in (a) 1984, (b) 1994 and (c) 2004.
Answered by George Eustice
The proportion of UK food consumption that was produced in the UK was 63% in 1994 and 53% in 2004. The detailed trade data used in this calculation is not available before 1988.
The latest available figures for 2013 give the proportion as 53%.
A full time series from 1988 to 2013 is available in Chapter 14 (table 14.5) of the publication ‘Agriculture in the United Kingdom’ at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/agriculture-in-the-united-kingdom.
An alternative and frequently used measure is the UK production to supply ratio for indigenous type food. This compares total national production with production excluding exports and including imports. It is not directly comparable with the domestic food consumption proportion above because it includes food that the UK exported which could have been consumed domestically. The UK production to supply ratio for indigenous type food for 2013 was 73%. ‘Indigenous type food’ refers to types which can be produced in the UK on a commercially viable basis.
A time series of the production to supply ratio is also available in table 14.1 and chart 14.5 in 'Agriculture in the United Kingdom’.