Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to (a) ban burning of peatland and (b) tackle accidental peat fires.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has always been clear of the need to phase out burning of protected blanket bog to conserve these vulnerable habitats. We are currently looking at how legislation could achieve this and considering next steps. Real progress is being made in promoting sustainable alternatives. We have urged landowners to adopt these and continue to work with them constructively.
We are working across Government with a wide range of stakeholders including land managers, conservation bodies and wildfire management groups to ensure that we promote better planning for wildfire locally and take measures to mitigate against the risk of wildfire. We undertook a review of the impact of wildfire and upland environments in 2019 and will publish the findings in due course.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
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 bring forward legislative proposals to ban the burning of peatland in protected areas.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has always been clear of the need to phase out burning of protected blanket bog to conserve these vulnerable habitats. We are currently looking at how legislation could achieve this and considering next steps. Real progress is being made in promoting sustainable alternatives. We have urged landowners to adopt these and continue to work with them constructively.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
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 tackle the laying of illegal poison baits.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Biocidal products, including rodenticides and insecticides, have to be authorised under the Biocidal Products Regulation. The use of biocides must comply with specific terms and conditions, including on the placing of baits. Where the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has enforcement responsibility, it seeks to ensure that high standards of compliance with biocides are achieved and maintained. The Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS), operated by HSE on behalf of Defra, investigates the deaths, not just of wildlife, but also of livestock and some pets, where there is evidence that biocide poisoning may be involved. Where poison baits are used illegally to harm wildlife, such as raptors, responsibility for enforcement lies with the police.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by Natural England’s SSSI monitoring programme in each calendar year from 2009.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information is only available for financial years rather than calendar years.
Year | FTE |
2010/11 | 33.2 |
2011/12 | 24.3 |
2012/13 | 22.8 |
2013/14 | 16.0 |
2014/15 | 14.0 |
2015/16 | 11.0 |
2016/17 | 15.0 |
2017/18 | 11.0 |
2018/19 | 12.5 |
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost to the public purse was of Natural England’s programme of monitoring of SSSIs in each calendar year since 2009.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England (NE) expenditure on monitoring sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) is set out in the following table.
Year | Expenditure |
2010/11 | £1,570,755 |
2011/12 | £1,517,691 |
2012/13 | £1,797,287 |
2013/14 | £1,420,892 |
2014/15 | £1,381,580 |
2015/16 | £900,633 |
2016/17 | £1,028,533 |
2017/18 | £700,452 |
2018/19 | £700,000 |
This includes NE staff time and the costs of specialist surveys.
This year NE is prioritising actions to address particular issues on SSSIs, especially those affecting upland SSSIs. NE continues to support and encourage partners in the work they do themselves to undertake SSSI monitoring.
NE is also developing an approach to the monitoring of SSSIs which will make better use of new technologies, such as remote sensing and greater partnership involvement. This is intended to improve efficiency of SSSI monitoring.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of SSSI units were monitored (a) by number of units and (b) by area, in hectares as part of Natural England’s SSSI monitoring programme in each calendar year from 2009.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The numbers of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) units monitored and the area of units monitored in each calendar year from 2009 to 2019 are given below. The proportions of SSSI units and SSSI area have been expressed against a single common figure, reflecting the current SSSI extent, rather than the extent in each year. This is because the area and number of SSSI units have changed within the individual years from 2009 to 2019.
Year | Area monitored (ha) | Number of units monitored | Proportion of SSSI units (based on current number of SSSI monitoring units) | Proportion of SSSI area (based on current area of SSSI monitoring units) |
2009 | 204,465 | 3,655 | 17% | 19% |
2010 | 339,441 | 5,009 | 23% | 31% |
2011 | 79,753 | 2,349 | 11% | 7% |
2012 | 108,615 | 2,689 | 12% | 10% |
2013 | 91,471 | 1,993 | 9% | 8% |
2014 | 67,274 | 1,437 | 7% | 6% |
2015 | 72,115 | 1,599 | 7% | 7% |
2016 | 61,983 | 1,097 | 5% | 6% |
2017 | 36,187 | 769 | 4% | 3% |
2018 | 38,987 | 968 | 4% | 4% |
2019 | 75,619 | 1,275 | 6% | 7% |
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with Oldham Council on the potential effect on hill farmers in Oldham of the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement.
Answered by George Eustice
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
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 report entitled, the Status of UK SPAs in the 2000s: the Third Network Review, published by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee in 2016, what recommendations have been received by his Department on completing the network of Special Protection Areas for dunlin and golden plover.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
I am awaiting advice from Natural England.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of seals killed off the coast of the UK in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Seal conservation is a devolved issue so I can only respond with respect to England.
No licences to cull seals have been issued in England since 2010.
This means that no permission has been granted for any common or grey seals to be taken or killed out of season. All common seals and the majority of grey seals are protected all year-round through a conservation order in the East of England.
The government has not, however, made an assessment of the number of seals which may have been killed off the English coast, notwithstanding the licensing and conservation order protections.