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 his planned timetable is for meetings between the European Commission and the supervisory bodies of the United Kingdom as required by Article 395 of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement; and how these bodies will be defined.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Article 395 of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) states that the European Commission and supervisory bodies of the UK shall meet regularly. The date of the first meeting is to be agreed with the European Commission.
The Article concerns cooperation on the effective monitoring and enforcement of environment and climate laws, and therefore meetings may include a range of public bodies in the UK that have this remit including the UK Government, the Devolved Governments and the Office for Environmental Protection and its equivalents across the UK. The UK is committed to effective implementation of the TCA and to implementing our world-leading environmental protection laws.
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 Answer of 10 July 2023 to Question 191768 on Pesticides, what his revised timetable is for publishing the updated National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We will publish the National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides shortly. It will set out Defra’s ambition to minimise the risks and impacts of pesticides to human health and the environment, including how we intend to increase the uptake of Integrated Pest Management across all sectors.
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 assessment he has made of the environmental impact of the end of cross-compliance regulations for rural payments on (a) hedgerows, (b) soil cover and (c) watercourse buffer strips.
Answered by Mark Spencer
An assessment of the environmental and economic impacts of the removal of direct payments and cross compliance was published in September 2018, during the passage of the Agriculture Bill.
We will seek to regulate to maintain hedgerow protections when parliamentary time allows. The gaps between cross compliance rules and regulatory requirements in regard to water buffer strips and soil cover are either mitigated by regulation such as through generalised provisions in Farming Rules for Water and the Water Resources Act, guidance like the Code of Practice of the use of Plant Protection Products, and standards in the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.
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 plans to replace the cross-compliance regulations for rural payments which ceased to have effect on 31 December 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Farm standards following the end of cross compliance are being maintained through existing and ongoing domestic regulations that protect the environment, public, animal and plant health and animal welfare. These regulations cover most of the cross-compliance rules. Almost all of the rules that are not in underlying legislation have cover through existing and forthcoming guidance, regulation or incentives. We will seek to regulate to maintain hedgerow protections when parliamentary time allows.
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 Sale of horticultural peat to be banned in move to protect England’s precious peatlands, published on 17 August 2022, on what date the commitment to ban the sale of peat for use in the amateur gardening sector will come into effect.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
In August 2022 we announced that we would ban the sale of peat for use in amateur gardening; we remain committed to this and plan to legislate when Parliamentary time allows. It remains our policy that we intend to legislate to restrict, and ultimately ban, the sale of peat and peat containing products. We have seen a significant reduction in peat use, due to the demand for peat-free growing media from an increasingly environmentally aware public.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2023 to Question 3178, for what reason he has not been able to provide a date for when his Department plans to publish the summary of the business case for the Office for Environmental Protection.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Defra intends to publish the Office for Environment Protection summary business case by end of 2023.
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 Answer of 12 June 2023 to Question 188424 on Animal Welfare, what criteria he is using to determine whether the time is right to consult on the use of (a) crates for farrowing pigs and (b) cages for laying hens.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We want our farming sectors to continue to be viable and competitive. There are several economic challenges currently being faced by the pig and poultry sectors, not least costs of feed and energy and the continued threat of avian influenza for laying hens, which is why we took the decision that the time is not right to consult on phasing out cage systems.
The market is already driving the move away from using cages for laying hens with over 60% of eggs coming from free range production. The UK also has a significant outdoor pig sector with 40% of the national sow breeding herd farrowing freely on outdoor units with no option for confinement.
We are firmly committed to maintaining our strong track record on animal welfare and continue to work with the farming industry to maintain and enhance our high standards. The Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, part of our new domestic agricultural policy, supports farmers to produce healthier, higher welfare animals. The Government’s welfare priorities for the Pathway include supporting producers to transition away from confinement systems.
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 recent discussions with counterparts in (a) Finland and (b) other EU countries on collective action to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases on fur farms.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government is continuing to build its evidence base on the fur sector, which will be used to inform any future action on the fur trade. We have not had any conversations with Finland or EU countries on zoonotic diseases arising from fur farms.
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, for what reason he plans that the public consultation on the definition of irreplaceable habitats and principles for compensation for use in the Biodiversity Net Gain system due to come into force from January 2024 will be launched in the second half of 2024.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Biodiversity net gain will become mandatory for most major new development from January 2024, for small sites from April 2024 and for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects from 2025. When mandatory biodiversity net gain comes into force, the list of irreplaceable habitat for biodiversity net gain purposes will broadly mirror the existing list within planning policy.
The consultation will launch in the second half of 2024 to allow stakeholders time to adapt to the new mandatory requirement and evidence to be gathered from the early phase of implementation, as well as to allow Defra time to consider the impact of any new list or definition on wider planning policy.
We have published the draft secondary regulations on irreplaceable habitat.
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 guidance on cross compliance updated on 14 February 2023, which (a) cross compliance standards and (b) rules for participants in the Basic Payments Scheme or Countryside Stewardship will cease to have effect in 2024 and are not otherwise provided for in their entirety in English law as of 23 November 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) cross compliance rules 1, 4, 5 and 7a are not fully replicated in existing domestic legislation as follows.
GAEC 1, which requires the maintenance of green cover, non-cultivation of land and spraying of pesticides within two metres of a water course. Domestic legislation, the Farming Rules for Water, however, provides rules preventing the application of manure and fertiliser close to a water course. It also prescribes that farmers must take all reasonable precautions to prevent pollution from cultivation practices, such as spraying pesticides. The use of pesticides is also set out in the Code of Practice for using Plant Protection Products.
GAEC 4 and GAEC 5, which require a minimum soil cover and measures to minimise soil erosion. Again, the Farming Rules for Water sets out generalised soil cover and erosion measures where it may prevent agricultural diffuse pollution. There is no reference to mitigation of wind erosion in the Farming Rules for Water. GAEC rules 4 and 5 are not covered elsewhere in domestic legislation.
GAEC 7a, which requires the maintenance of green cover within two metres of the centre of a hedge and the prohibition of cutting a hedge between 1 March and 31 August. Also, the removal of stone walls, earth and stone banks. Defra has recently consulted on new legislation to replace the cross compliance hedgerow protections. As set out in January 2023 Defra plans to pay, as part of Environmental Land Management schemes, for new actions to maintain drystone walls, stone and earth banks in good condition.