Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to protect (a) fish and (b) other wildlife from being (i) injured and (ii) killed in the waterways surrounding Hinkley Point C.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra relies on its Arms-Length Bodies to advise on the impact of major infrastructure projects such as Hinkley C. Mitigations for potential harms to fish and wildlife are agreed as part of the Development Consent Order process.
In line with this, potential impacts upon fish species and other wildlife in the surrounding waterways were assessed prior to the power station being granted a Development Consent Order and associated Environmental Permits. Mitigations agreed include the management and monitoring of impacts associated with noise, visual and light disturbance to wildlife; entrapment of fish from the cooling water system; and water discharge activity.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 compatibility of investment zones with (a) habitat and biodiversity legislation (b) his Department's biodiversity obligations under the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are working closely together on Investment Zone policy to support our growth objectives and maintain HM Government's strong position on the environment. We are not weakening our environmental ambition either at home or abroad and remain committed to delivering on the Environment Act, including setting a new legally binding target to halt the decline of species abundance in England by 2030.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 is taking to ensure the Jewish community's supply of kosher meat is uninterrupted.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government is committed to protecting the rights of the Jewish community to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs. This is a fundamental issue of religious freedom and belief, which the Government upholds. As the global economy has rebounded from the pandemic, we have seen pressures placed on supply chains across sectors and across countries. The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges and we have been taking decisive action to ease these pressures where immediate interventions have been required, including making available temporary visas in some sectors such as HGV drivers and the poultry sector. We have well-established ways of working with the food industry to address potential food supply chain disruptions and that hasn’t changed. As such we are confident the supply of kosher meat will continue uninterrupted.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 is taking to ensure the Jewish community is able to continue performing Shechita.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to protecting the rights of Jews to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs. This includes slaughtering animals by the shechita method. This is a fundamental issue of religious freedom and belief, which the Government upholds.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many grievance complaints by staff of the Environment Agency against team leaders and managers in the Environment Agency have been received since January 2012.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
55 grievance complaints were made by staff of the Environment Agency against team leaders and managers since January 2013.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many grievances against Environment Agency team leaders and managers have been upheld since January 2012.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Five grievances against Environment Agency team leaders and managers have been upheld in their entirety since January 2013. A further six grievances have been partially upheld.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what provisions are in place in the Environment Agency to protect employees working in the field of criminal investigation from the baseless use of disciplinary proceedings by managers.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The way in which the Environment Agency operates provides adequate provision against the “baseless use of disciplinary proceedings”. The Environment Agency takes seriously all concerns raised about misconduct. It investigates in accordance with a standard procedure with professional specialist HR oversight and support. A disciplinary hearing will only be conducted if there is a case to answer once the facts of the case have been established.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 14 October 2015 to Question 11026, whether the Inter-Ministerial Group on International Animal Welfare has met; when that group's next meeting will be; and who will be chairing that group.
Answered by George Eustice
The IMG has yet to formally reconvene and therefor membership of the group is yet to be finalised. However, I have had discussions with Ministerial colleagues about reconvening the group.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which Ministers and staff of her Department will be attending the Hanoi Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade in November 2016; and what the projected cost of that attendance will be in (a) staff salaries, (b) travel and (c) other costs.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The UK remains committed to its global leadership role in helping to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. During his visit to Vietnam in July 2015, the Prime Minister confirmed that the UK would provide £200,000 to support Vietnam in hosting a third high level international conference on the illegal wildlife trade. The Conference, to be held on 24-25 November 2016, will build on the successful London and Kasane Conferences of 2014 and 2015. Decisions about who will represent the UK at the Vietnam Conference have not yet been made.