Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast 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 potential merits of banning the shooting of hares in their breeding season.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government considers the need for a close season for hares is justified more by animal welfare concerns than biodiversity and species conservation. In short, a close season should reduce the number of adult hares being shot in the breeding season, which runs from February to October, meaning that fewer leverets (infant hares) are left motherless and vulnerable to starvation and predation. A close season is also consistent with Natural England's advice on wildlife management that controlling species in their peak breeding season should be avoided unless genuinely essential and unavoidable. Defra Ministers therefore support the ambition to introduce a close season for hares in England and are considering how this can be brought forward.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast 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 adequacy of the availability of veterinary medicine to treat botulism in cattle in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to taking steps to support the availability of veterinary medicines to Northern Ireland after the end of 2025.
Regarding the botulism vaccines, the situation will not change. Veterinary surgeons can continue to access the vaccines after 31 December; in the same way they do now.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
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 strengthen the provisions of the Hunting Act 2004.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans in a generation to improve animal welfare and that is exactly what we will do. The Hunting Act 2004 makes it an offence to hunt a wild mammal with dogs, except where it is carried out in accordance with the exemptions in the Act and completely bans hare coursing. Those found guilty under the Act are subject to the full force of the law. The Government has committed to a ban on trail hunting. Work to determine the best approach for doing so is ongoing and further announcements will be made in due course.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether obligated packaging producers will be required to pay Extended Producer Responsibility fees for packaging data submitted to his Department for 2024.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Yes. If the company is still a producer at the start of the 2025 assessment year then 2024 tonnage data will be used to calculate their obligation in 2025. This is in line with the current producer packaging recycling obligations that have been in place since 1997.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
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 plans to charge Extended Producer Responsibility fees retrospectively for obligated packaging producers.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No. The amounts of the fees are calculated by reference to producers’ activities in the previous year, they are not fees payable in arrears for that previous year.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of pausing the implementation of the Extender Producer Responsibility scheme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) as a vital first step to cracking down on waste as we move towards a circular economy. It will create 21,000 jobs, stimulate more than £10 billion investment in the recycling sector over the next decade, and see packaging producers, rather than the taxpayer, cover the costs of managing waste. Delay to the implementation of the scheme would defer these environmental and economic benefits.
We will continue to work closely with businesses on the implementation of this programme and provide them with the clarity they need to prepare.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
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 made an assessment of the potential merits of banning the importation of dogs with cropped ears.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The practice of non-exempted mutilations such as cropping dogs' ears is abhorrent and has rightly been banned in the UK for over 10 years.
In August 2021, we consulted on proposed changes to the commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into Great Britain including the importation of dogs with cropped ears.
We are carefully reviewing the feedback from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, and a summary will be published in due course.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast 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 dwellings have secured home insurance through the Flood Re scheme in Belfast East constituency in each year since that scheme's commencement in 2016.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Flood Re’s statistics run from October 2017 and are reported twice a year, with the most recent confirmed data in April 2021. The data shows a steady increase in the number of properties ceded to the Flood Re scheme within Belfast East.
Country | Constituency | Q4 2017 | Q2 2018 | Q4 2018 | Q2 2019 | Q4 2019 | Q2 2020 | Q4 2020 | Q2 2021 |
Northern Ireland | Belfast East | 392 | 364 | 395 | 479 | 550 | 550 | 583 | 635 |
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
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 ensure that the Agriculture Bill is carried over into the next session of Parliament.
Answered by George Eustice
If agreement is not reached on carry-over the Government will look to reintroduce Bills in the next session, and details on this will be set out in the Queen’s Speech.
Introducing a new Agriculture Bill in the next session is an opportunity to reflect on the scrutiny of the House of Commons and improve the legislation that will underpin our new domestic agriculture policy.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his Department's policy is on making the environmental principle of avoiding trans-boundary environmental damage applicable in both England and Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Transboundary environmental damage is covered by the environmental principle of prevention, which requires action to be taken to avert environmental damage rather than to simply tolerate or rectify it after it occurs.
Environmental policy is a devolved matter, subject to a small number of areas that are reserved. We have been working with officials in Northern Ireland to ensure that environmental protection and governance in Northern Ireland can be safeguarded after our departure from the EU.