Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
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 identify (a) cocoa, (b) coffee, (c) soy and (d) other forest-based commodities in secondary legislation under the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The UK plays a leading role in supporting global efforts to protect and restore forest landscapes, driving international action to tackle deforestation and ensure forests are sustainably managed. This effort is underpinned by a commitment of £1.5 billion to international forests between 2021-26.
This package of work includes new due diligence legislation through the Environment Act 2021 to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. We ran a consultation to seek views on how we should implement Environment Act provisions, including which commodities we should regulate through the first round of secondary legislation, and published a summary of responses in June 2022, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-illegal-deforestation-in-uk-supply-chains.
While a wide number of commodities have played and continue to play a role in driving global deforestation, we identified seven key commodities in our 2021-22 consultation that are responsible between them for driving the majority of recent and ongoing deforestation. These commodities include: cattle (beef and leather), cocoa, coffee, maize, rubber, palm oil, and soy. The consultation also sought evidence on other commodities driving deforestation.
We will take into account consultation responses in decisions around which commodities to regulate and will publish the UK Government’s approach to secondary legislation in due course.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether statutory provisions are in place to prohibit legal deforestation where commodities have been produced legally in the country of origin but have caused significant damage to the environment; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The UK plays a leading role in supporting global efforts to protect and restore forest landscapes, driving international action to tackle deforestation and ensure forests are sustainably managed. This effort is underpinned by a commitment of £1.5 billion to international forests between 2021 and 2026.
This package of work includes new due diligence legislation through the Environment Act 2021 to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. Our law will make it illegal for larger businesses operating in the UK to use key forest risk commodities produced on land illegally occupied or used. Businesses in scope will also be required to undertake a due diligence exercise on their supply chains, and to report on this exercise annually.
We cannot shift to sustainable supply chains alone – it must be a collective effort between consumers and producers globally. This issue is central to the UK’s commitment to tackling the twin challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. Our approach to due diligence is based on compliance with the relevant local laws of producer countries. Our aim is to work with producer countries and support their efforts to uphold their laws and strengthen environmental protection. We believe this approach – which supports the efforts of government in the countries where these products are grown - provides the best path to long-term sustainability.
We also continue to work with consumer and producer country partners in forums such as the Forest, Agriculture, and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue, which the UK and Indonesia launched together as co-chairs in 2021. The FACT Dialogue convenes 28 major producers and consumers of internationally traded agricultural commodities to agree principles for collaboration and developed a Roadmap of actions which was launched at COP26, to protect forests and other ecosystems while promoting sustainable trade and development, in a way that respects all countries’ interests.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of providing regulatory protection to wooded land.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Forestry is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only. All trees in England are currently protected by the Forestry Act which requires that anyone wishing to fell trees, except where exemptions apply, must obtain a licence before doing so. When carrying out felling landowners must comply with the terms of their felling licence including any restocking conditions. Failure to do so is an offence. The Government strengthened the penalties for illegal felling in the Environment Act 2021.
Individual trees and groups of trees can also be protected by Tree Protection Orders which require written consent from the local authority to be sought prior to the tree being felled, damaged or destroyed. Where deforestation is planned, the landowner may be required to undertake a deforestation Environmental Impact Assessment and gain consent from the Forestry Commission prior to any works being carried out.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of UK's contribution to illegal deforestation through the importation (a) cocoa, (b) coffee, (c) soy and (d) other forest-based commodities produced on land illegally occupied or used.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The UK plays a leading role in supporting global efforts to protect and restore forest landscapes, driving international action to tackle deforestation and ensure forests are sustainably managed. This effort is underpinned by a commitment of £1.5 billion to international forests between 2021-26.
The UK Government works with businesses and smallholder farmers to support the development of sustainable agriculture and forest management models through the Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use programme, providing jobs and livelihoods while protecting and restoring forests. The UK is also a co-funder of the Tropical Forest Alliance, a public-private initiative hosted by the World Economic Forum which mobilises over 170 companies, governments, and NGOs to tackle commodity-driven deforestation. The UK Government is working with developing countries to help them strengthen regulation and governance of forests to curb illegal logging through the long-standing Forest Governance Markets and Climate programme.
This package of work also includes new due diligence legislation through the Environment Act 2021 to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. While a wide number of commodities have played and continue to play a role in driving global deforestation, we identified seven key commodities in our 2021-22 consultation that are responsible between them for driving the majority of recent and ongoing deforestation. These commodities include: cattle (beef and leather), cocoa, coffee, maize, rubber, palm oil, and soy. The consultation also sought evidence on other commodities driving deforestation. We published an impact assessment alongside consultation, available here: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/international-biodiversity-and-climate/implementing-due-diligence-forest-risk-commodities/consult_view/
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to introduce secondary legislation to implement the due diligence provisions for illegal deforestation of the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The UK Government has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to help tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains.
We ran a consultation from 3 December 2021 to 11 March 2022 to seek views on the details of regulations that will implement the Environment Act provisions, to ensure that these are designed effectively. The Government published a summary of responses to this consultation on 1 June 2022 and is committed to implementing due diligence provisions at the earliest opportunity through secondary legislation.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the rise in the cost of living on food producers.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The turbulence of the market in light of the invasion of Ukraine, and the global spike in oil and gas prices, has brought into focus again the importance of a resilient global supply chain and the importance to our national resilience of having strong domestic food production.
Farmers are facing increased input costs including for fertiliser, feed and fuel. We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. We have also increased our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real time intelligence. We have recognised that increasing input costs, particularly fertiliser, feed, fuel and energy, are creating short term pressures on cash flow for farmers.
The Government has taken a number of actions to support farmers. These include changes to statutory guidance to the Environment Agency on how they should implement the "Farming Rules for Water" to provide clarity to farmers on how they can use slurry and other manures during autumn and winter to meet agronomic needs; increased grants funding to help farmers and growers boost research and development; and a delay to changes to the use of urea by at least a year. When the urea restrictions are introduced, they will be related to the use of ammonia inhibitors rather than a complete ban. The Government has also announced that Direct Payments in England will be paid in two instalments each year for the remainder of the agricultural transition period, to help farmers with their cashflow.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken with Cabinet colleagues to expedite a resumption of pork exports from UK pig processing plants, whose export licenses to China were voluntarily surrendered due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra is working closely with the Department for International Trade (DIT) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) at every level to utilise opportunities to press the General Administration of Customs China (GACC) for the re-listing of the three affected UK pork processing plants. As part of this Defra has taken a number of steps, including those summarised below.
Defra, in collaboration with DIT and FCDO, continues to monitor the situation and to do all it can to resolve this issue. However, re-listing these establishments is ultimately in the gift of the GACC.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
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's legislative proposals to ban the import and export of shark fins will include a ban on the import and export of shark fin products.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
As set out in the recently published Action Plan for Animal Welfare we will be bringing in legislation to ban the import and export of detached shark fins.
We are making good progress with developing this legislation including consideration of the scope needed to ensure our measures are as effective as possible at delivering shark conservation benefits globally. These measures will demonstrate our continuing leadership on shark conservation issues and signal our strong opposition to any ongoing finning practices.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to review the restrictions placed on pigeon racing implemented by his Department due to the perceived transmission risk of bird flu by racing pigeons.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
From 21 April 2021, low risk pigeon racing can take place from locations not on mainland Europe, provided organisers notify the Animal and Plant Health Agency at least seven days before the event and that they meet the requirements of the General Licence. For a full list of what is permitted see the guidance for bird gatherings on gov.uk. Definitive requirements are set out in the published General Licence for the relevant administration (England, Wales and Scotland)
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
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 publish the (a) selection criteria and (b) scoring mechanism for that criteria used by his Department when selecting which operators to licence to supply seasonal agricultural labour from abroad as part of the seasonal agricultural workers scheme.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Selecting the additional operators for the extended Seasonal Workers Pilot is a two-stage process. Defra conducted the first stage, which was the Request for Information (RFI) exercise inviting responses by 29 January 2021. Information on the selection criteria and scoring mechanisms is published online here:
Defra has now completed the RFI exercise and in doing so proposed two additional operators to the Home Office, who are now conducting the second-stage of approval and licensing.