Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 27 of January to Question 108554 on Floods: Insurance, with reference to his Department's commissioned insurance industry data, what proportion of the samples of policies for determining the number of policies impacted by flood exclusions were from (a) Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency and (b) other rural communities.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Association of British Insurers and British Insurance Brokers’ Association commissioned data from their members. The data samples provided by industry are not broken down; therefore, we do not hold details on the proportion of exclusions by constituency or in rural communities.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of excluding cats and kittens from the proposed new protections to prevent pet smuggling as outlined in the Commercial and Non-Commercial Movements of Pets into Great Britain consultation.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was introduced in Parliament on 8 June and completed committee on 18 November 2021. The Bill allows us to protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation.
In August 2021, the Government launched an 8-week consultation on our proposed restrictions to the commercial and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain. The consultation proposed to maintain the existing requirements for cats. This is because there is currently limited evidence that there is a significant illegal trade in cats or significant numbers of low welfare movements. Overall, the number of movements of cats into GB is much lower than for dogs.
The consultation sought views on whether this was the right approach. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation and will publish a summary in due course. This will allow us to take on board the views of the public and interested groups in order to shape our future policy.
We will continue to work closely with stakeholders prior to the introduction of the legislation, to ensure that our final measures are well considered and led by the latest evidence.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will take steps with Natural England to ensure duplication of submitted evidence and material is not required by applicants for licenses to breed and sell captive bred birds in line with Natural England's Framework Document 2017.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England's licensing system, including for captive birds, is designed to avoid duplication where possible. Where an applicant is asked to provide information that is similar or largely the same as previous applications this will be because circumstances or underlying evidence may have changed.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 Government response to the independent review of flood insurance in Doncaster, what assessment his Department has made alongside the Association of British Insurers of the scale of flooding exclusions; and what discussions officials in his Department have had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the regulatory framework for flood exclusions.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following the independent review of flood insurance in Doncaster, Defra commissioned industry to gather data from insurers on the number of policies sold with flood exclusions. The data samples from the Association of British Insurers and British Insurance Broker’s Association currently suggests less than 0.5% of policies sold have flood exclusions.
Defra are also conducting further research into the affordability and availability of flood insurance which will also seek to understand the scale of flood exclusions. The study will conclude in summer 2022. Defra officials have met the Financial Conduct Authority to discuss flood exclusions. However, the evidence base for supporting the need for a regulatory change is inconclusive at this stage.
We continue to work closely with the British Insurance Brokers’ Association, the Association of British Insurers and Flood Re to agree a new signposting service and Code of Practice. The Code of Practice will set out the role of insurers and brokers to ensure customers are appropriately informed of their available options, including eligibility for the Flood Re scheme. When launched, participating insurers and brokers will be asked to signpost customers to the new specialist directory of providers if they are unable to provide flood insurance cover. The interventions will be embedded throughout industry by summer 2022.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 (a) reduce household plastic waste and (b) prevent plastic waste from being shipped overseas.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A) Our 25 Year Environment Plan set out the Government’s ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042. In 2018, we published the Resources and Waste Strategy, which sets out how we want to achieve this. For the most problematic plastics we are going faster - which is why we are working towards all plastic packaging being recyclable or reusable by 2025.
Our Environment Bill will enable us to take forward a number of key proposals including Extended Producer Responsibility, a Deposit Return Scheme, greater consistency in the recycling system, better control of the export of plastic waste and powers to set new charges for single-use plastic items. We have already introduced measures to restrict the supply of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds. We will consult shortly on banning a range of other single-use plastic items, including plates, cutlery and polystyrene cups. The single use carrier bag charge, which has led to a 95% reduction in their use at main supermarkets, has been doubled to 10p, and extended to all retailers. Going further still, from April 2022, plastic packaging without at least 30% recycled content will be taxed at £200/tonne. Taken together, these amount to one of the most comprehensive programmes of any major economy in tackling this issue.
B) The Government recognises the difficulties some importing countries have in dealing with plastic waste and that is why we have committed to banning the export of plastic waste to countries that are not members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); we plan to consult before the end of 2022 on options to deliver the ban.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent analysis his Department has undertaken on the long term impacts of historical pesticide usage on (a) bee and (b) wild pollinator numbers.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Linking pesticide usage directly to changes in pollinator numbers remains challenging because of the range of pressures which affect pollinators. In 2019, alongside leading academics, we published evidence statements on what is known, and not known, about the status and responses to pressures and management of pollinators, including in relation to pesticide use. We are currently funding research looking at how we could develop our monitoring to better understand the effects of pesticides on pollinators, as well as routes of exposure.
Defra is developing a Pesticide Load Indicator which takes account of both the chemical properties of pesticides used and the weight applied. This uses pesticide usage data, ecotoxicity and environmental data to better understand how the pressure from pesticides on the environment, including bees, has changed over time. Much of this research will be published in 2022.
We also publish an indicator of the status of pollinating insects, which measures how widespread each of almost 400 species is in each year since 1980. It shows long-term decline, but little change over the short term. Although not yet definitive, there are encouraging signs of improvement, for example the average distribution of wild bees has shown some stability over recent years. We are keeping these trends under review.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 support the agricultural industry to minimise food waste.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
The Government funds the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to administer the Courtauld Commitment 2030 voluntary agreement, including the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap (FWRR), which aims to reduce food waste from farm to fork through collaboration with businesses.
Included in the FWRR is a practical model for how farmers and growers can be supported to measure on-farm food surplus and waste and take action to reduce it. WRAP estimates that around 50 farm businesses have undertaken measurements to date, with most of those in the last two years. The aim is to provide support for another 30 farmers and growers.
We are also supporting WRAP’s and the Institute of Grocery Distribution’s Whole Chain Food Waste Reduction Plans (WCP). A toolkit is available to help businesses across the supply chain work together to understand waste hotspots for a food product and to identify ways to reduce these. The Roadmap has a target of at least 50 active WCPs in place by 2022.
WRAP has also supported farmer-led pilots to understand how food waste measurement and reduction can be best implemented in primary production as well as resources for farm advisers to deliver similar projects with their clients.
Since 2017, Defra has provided around £12 million of grants to the redistribution sector to increase the diversion of surplus food for human consumption from waste destinations. Some of these grants were used to harvest and collect surplus from farms, minimising food waste.
Furthermore, the Government’s Food Strategy White Paper will cover the entire food system from farm to fork, building on work already underway in the Agriculture Act, Fisheries Act, and Environment Bill as well as docking into wider Government priorities, including Net Zero, the 25 Year Environment Plan, and Build Back Greener. As part of this, Defra is exploring options to reduce carbon emissions from food production including food waste, as well as to incentivise land use change to sequester more carbon and restore nature, and preserve natural resources.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of extending the delay on EU trade import controls beyond October 2021 on the level of risk posed to the (a) biosecurity and (b) health and hygiene reputation for future UK trade; and whether he has plans to publish any such assessment.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Risk posed to Biosecurity
The Government has set out a new timetable for introducing full import controls for Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) goods being imported from the EU to the UK. The new timetable considers the challenges businesses have faced due to the global pandemic, as well as its impact on supply chains across the UK and Europe.
These temporary practical arrangements recognise the need to ensure biosecurity across the UK whilst balancing the need to remove barriers to trade. We already have SPS controls in place on high-risk goods, such as live animals and high-priority plants and plant products, and checks on these goods will continue to be carried out at destination.
Pre-notification is also being introduced from January 2022 and increases our biosecurity status. It allows the Food Standards Agency to know what high-risk food and feed is crossing our borders, as well as trace products back to the established premises, helping us to manage any food incidents that may occur.
The Government continually assesses risks to biosecurity and has a range of measures it can take should the need arise.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
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 Natural England on steps taken in response to the High Court judgement of 13 November 2015, in R (McMorn) v Natural England and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2015] EWHC 3297, on standardising licensing processes when licences are issued in relation to raptor species.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Raptor species, along with all other wild birds, are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and it is illegal to kill them without a licence. Natural England, in its role as a wildlife licensing authority, can issue licences to control birds under certain circumstances.
Following the McMorn case, Natural England developed internal guidance covering licence applications for predatory species for the purpose of preventing serious damage and for the purpose of conserving species. These were designed to establish standard criteria for assessing such applications and have been agreed with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of allowing the usage of simplified procedures as applicable under the Cites Resolutions for the trade in captive bred raptors.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Following our departure from the EU we have begun a review of our domestic CITES legislation and procedures which implement our obligations under CITES. As part of this review, which is at an early stage, we have been seeking views from industry groups and other interested organisations, including those involved in the trade of captive-bred raptors.