Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 potential impact of the proposal to ban disposable vapes on the illicit vape market.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 29 January, a ban on the supply and sale of disposable vapes was announced as part of the Government’s response to its consultation on smoking and vaping that was launched in October last year. A ban on the supply and sale of these throwaway items will help to protect our environment, as well as future generations, from the harmful effects of disposable vapes. We will be working with the appropriate bodies to ensure that the ban, when introduced, is enforceable to minimise illicit vapes entering the market.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 a comparative assessment of the wider economic benefits on alternative uses of moorland where grouse shooting (a) does and (b) does not take place.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Moorland soils and habitats provide a range of public goods. These include carbon storage, water storage, biodiversity, and heritage.
We introduced the introductory level of the Sustainable Farming Incentive moorland standard in 2022. This focuses on assessing moorland to identify which of these benefits the moorland already provides, and opportunities to maintain or enhance these benefits. ELM is currently developing additional options for moorland that build on the moorland assessment that we launched last year as part of SFI22.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 a comparative assessment of the survival of heather on moorland where grouse shooting (a) does and (b) does not take place.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government is not currently considering conducting any such assessment
The land management of heather dominated habitats has been extensively studied. We do not believe there is a need for further Government funded research at this stage.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential effect of the proposed promotion restrictions on foods high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) on reformulation work being undertaken by food and drink manufacturers.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Regular discussions take place between officials and Ministers at Defra and the Department of Health and Social Care on the obesity strategy, including the impact of restrictions for promoting products high in fat, sugar and salt on reformulation efforts. We welcome the achievements food and drink manufacturers have made in reformulating products, and want to support industry to go even further to help meet our shared ambition of tackling obesity.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 potential effect of restrictions proposed by the Government on the promotion of foods that are high in fat, sugar or salt on (a) all and (b) SME manufacturers of those foods.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
As a nation we are consuming too much sugar and too many calories. We are therefore encouraging industry to shift the balance of promotions and advertising to healthier options. The Government's response to the consultation on restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar and salt and the accompanying impact assessments was published on 28 December 2020. The Government's response to the consultation on advertising restrictions for products high in fat, salt and sugar and accompanying impact assessment will be published shortly. Defra has not undertaken its own modelling or impact assessments to support the development of the obesity strategy policies, but we work closely with DHSC to ensure their evidence is robust.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has provided modelling on recent trends in food consumption to support the development of (a) the Government’s obesity strategy and (b) plans for the restriction of the advertising and promotion of foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
As a nation we are consuming too much sugar and too many calories. We are therefore encouraging industry to shift the balance of promotions and advertising to healthier options. The Government's response to the consultation on restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar and salt and the accompanying impact assessments was published on 28 December 2020. The Government's response to the consultation on advertising restrictions for products high in fat, salt and sugar and accompanying impact assessment will be published shortly. Defra has not undertaken its own modelling or impact assessments to support the development of the obesity strategy policies, but we work closely with DHSC to ensure their evidence is robust.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 potential effect of the build back better Flood Re scheme on insurers' ability to make more homes resilient to future flooding.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are considering the implications of all the proposals made by Flood Re as part of their July 2019 Quinquennial Review report. This includes the proposal that Flood Re be permitted to pay insurers over and above the cost of flood damage for a property to allow insurers to make it more resilient to future flooding (Build Back Better). We will respond formally to the report in due course.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether claimants of flood resilience grants can reapply if the measures installed by that grant are damaged in a subsequent flood.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Flooding has a devastating impact on people’s lives which is why we launched the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) grant in November 2019 and again in February this year.
The Defra PFR grants are intended as one-off payments to assist home or business owners in making their properties resilient to future floods as a part of the repair process. They are not intended as compensation or relief funding. To provide good value for public money, if a property has already been made more resilient through a previous PFR scheme, there should be no need for a further grant.
Home insurance policies generally put properties back to the state they were in before the flood. This should mean that those people who adapted their properties should be able to secure repairs from their home insurer. Similarly, some items may be covered by product guarantees.
The grant is therefore not available to repair damage caused to previous resilience measures.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department has taken with the Department for Communities and Local Government to ensure that local authorities take account of flooding issues when producing their local development plans.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Departments work together closely to ensure flood risk is an important consideration in the planning system. Local planning authorities must have regard to the National Planning Policy Framework when preparing Local Plans. The Framework sets out strict tests to protect people and property from flooding which all local planning authorities are expected to follow. The Framework is clear that Local Plans should be supported by a Strategic Flood Risk Assessment and take account of flooding advice from the Environment Agency and Lead Local Flood Authorities.
Local Plans are examined by a planning inspector who will assess whether a plan is sound, including whether it is consistent with national planning policy. A local authority can only adopt a Local Plan that has been found sound.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the feasibility of bringing forward legislative proposals to reduce the practice by large food retailers of destroying or disposing of unsold food.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government favours a voluntary approach to the prevention of food waste, including the redistribution of surplus food to feed people. A law focused on the redistribution of surplus food from supermarkets would not resolve the barriers to redistribution. Research published by the Waste and Resources Action Programme in May 2016 indicates that supermarkets only produce around 200,000 tonnes of the 10 million tonnes of food waste which arise each year in the UK. Our approach is to work with the whole supply chain through the voluntary Courtauld 2025 agreement.