Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Office for Environmental Protection’s annual progress report published 18th January 2024, if he will bring the ambient air quality standards in the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010 in line with World Health Organisation guidelines.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The World Health Organisation Air Quality Guidelines are intended to inform the setting of air quality standards and are not ready-made targets for adoption. We will continue to keep our targets under review and consider in line with the best available evidence, specific to our national circumstances.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Office for Environmental Protection’s annual progress report published on 18 January 2024, what steps his Department is taking to (a) safeguard vulnerable groups from the impact of air pollution and (b) encourage long-term behaviour change to reduce polluting activity.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Through the Environment Act 2021 we introduced two new targets for fine particulate matter, the pollutant most damaging to human health, setting a maximum annual mean concentration target and a population exposure reduction target. This dual-target approach will improve public health for all by tackling the highest concentrations and ensuring all areas benefit from continuous improvement. Government recognises there is more to do to protect all people in our society and the environment from the effects of air pollution. This is why we are taking the significant and wide-ranging action to drive improvements to air quality as set out in our Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.
Government is undertaking a comprehensive review of how we communicate air quality information to ensure members of the public, and vulnerable groups in particular, have what they need protect themselves and understand how their behaviour impacts on air quality. This review is being undertaken by the Air Quality Information Systems steering group with the aim of publishing the recommendations this summer.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Leader of the House on the timetable for laying the necessary motion to bring into force the draft Animal Welfare (Electronic Collars) (England) Regulations 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government remains committed to introducing a ban on the use of e-collars. We will pursue new regulations to deliver this commitment on a revised timeline. Decisions will take place in the usual manner.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which policies under each arms length body reporting to their Department fall within the scope of the Environmental principles policy statement, published on 31 January 2023.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The duty does not require us to maintain a comprehensive list of policies within scope of the duty. The duty applies to all policies made from 1 November 2023, whether developed by a central department or an arm’s length body, which are:
The environmental principles policy statement provides further information on what is considered policy in scope of the duty. Examples include strategies and frameworks.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press release entitled Nature recovery to be accelerated as the government delivers on measures to protect land and sea, published 31 January 2024, if he will publish a consultation on restrictions on bottom-towed fishing gear in the remainder of England’s offshore Marine Protected Areas.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We have completed the first two stages of our programme to manage damaging fishing activity in England’s offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). For the remaining MPAs, the Marine Management Organisation has issued calls for evidence to seek stakeholder views and build the evidence base to inform the development of any byelaws needed to allow MPA conservation objectives to be achieved. As before, any necessary byelaws will be subject to public consultation.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many compliance inspections his Department made to ensure that the conditions of the emergency authorisation of Thiamethoxam were met in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023; and what proportion of inspections found non-compliance with those conditions.
Answered by Mark Spencer
There is no specific programme of enforcement/compliance visits exclusively focused on Cruiser SB use, or for any other Emergency Authorisation. All pesticide use in the UK is regulated through HSE’s overarching programme of enforcement and compliance. This includes intelligence-led monitoring and enforcement activities to ensure that the supply and use of pesticides complies with legal requirements.
In line with the terms of the Emergency Authorisation granted for this year, if Cruiser SB is used on sugar beet seeds, growers are required to participate in a stewardship scheme, which includes requirements for the correct use of treated seed. All sugar beet growers are supported through the season by weekly monitoring and advice provided by the British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO). This provides a robust support mechanism to drive effective stewardship. As part of the stewardship scheme, the applicant must monitor soils and plants following use of the treated seed at key indicator sites and report back to the Health and Safety Executive at the end of the season of use.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 issue a condition on all fishing licences to prevent vessels from using bottom-towed gear to fish within marine protected areas.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The designation and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is a devolved competency and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
Nearly 60% of the 181 English MPAs are already protected from damaging fishing activity by byelaws including those announced on 31 January this year. Byelaws are preferred rather than licence conditions in MPAs because they can be introduced on a site-by-site basis to ensure that measures can be tailored to meet the conservation objectives of each site and without unnecessarily restricting fishing activity. Providing the fishing industry and other stakeholders with the opportunity to work closely with management authorities to shape these byelaws is crucial to their long-term success.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 monitor the environmental impact of the use of the product Cruiser SB on sugar beet crops.
Answered by Mark Spencer
If Cruiser SB is used on the 2024 sugar beet crop, the sugar beet industry will be required to carry out a range of environmental monitoring activities as a condition of the emergency authorisation. This will be supplemented by several government-funded monitoring projects.
The overall programme will include the monitoring of residues of thiamethoxam (the active ingredient in Cruiser SB) and its metabolite, clothianidin, in the environment, to gain a better understanding of potential exposure to non-target organisms. This will include monitoring the soil of treated fields; the soil, vegetation, and pollen from field margins; and rivers in sugar beet catchments. Detail of similar monitoring programmes carried out after an emergency authorisation for Cruiser SB was granted in 2023 can be found within the HSE’s emergency registration report on Cruiser SB, published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he considered the prevention principle when making his decision on the emergency authorisation of Cruiser SB on sugar beet crops in 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The environmental principles policy statement requires the government to apply the prevention principle in the development of policy. It is not applied when decisions are taken under existing policy/legal frameworks, as was the case for the consideration of the emergency authorisation for Cruiser SB.
A full statement of reasons for the decision on the application for emergency authorisation for the use of Cruiser SB on sugar beet crops in 2024 can be found here.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to emergency authorisation of Cruiser SB on sugar beet crops in 2024, what discussions his Department has had with British Sugar on support for farmers who choose not to use Cruiser SB on their crops, including about (a) processing and (b) marketing of neonicotinoid-free sugar.
Answered by Mark Spencer
On 1st November 2023, Defra hosted a roundtable with members of the British sugar industry and environmental NGOs to discuss British Sugar’s action plan, the Virus Yellows Pathway to find alternative methods to neonicotinoids in controlling Virus Yellows in the British sugar crop. The roundtable allowed British Sugar to present their work to date, as well as allowing the opportunity for Defra and our external partners to encourage further work in this area.
Of particular emphasis was the need for British Sugar to encourage peer-to-peer learning between sugar beet farmers. This would allow farmers who opt not to use neonicotinoids to share knowledge and help expedite the transition to neonicotinoid free farming, which I encourage British Sugar to take forward at pace.