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 she has made a comparative assessment of the attractiveness of foreign investment in glass manufacturing in (a) the UK, (b) France and (c) Germany following the introduction of the Extended Producer Responsibility.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
My department has not undertaken an assessment of this specific topic, but has engaged extensively with other countries that operate extended producer responsibility schemes across the EU and across the world. Extended producer responsibility is an internationally recognised model to reduce packaging waste and improve recycling levels. The UK’s largest waste management companies have pledged a £10 billion investment in the UK’s reprocessing capacity, creating around 25,000 jobs on the back of the packaging reforms.
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 his Department has made of the potential impact of the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme on trends in the level of (a) economic output and (b) employment in the glass manufacturing sector in the next five years.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In autumn last year my department published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) scheme on packaging producers as a whole including impact on CPI inflation and impact on consumers weekly expenditure, when the regulations were laid in parliament. This does not include an assessment of the impact on specific materials or sectors. However, my department has engaged extensively with the glass manufacturing sector to understand the impacts on them. This engagement will continue.
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 his Department has made of the potential impact of the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme on the level of (a) food and (b) retail consumer inflation in each of the next five years.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In autumn last year my department published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) scheme on packaging producers as a whole including impact on CPI inflation and impact on consumers weekly expenditure, when the regulations were laid in parliament.
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
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
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
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.