Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of negotiating a waiver to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora regulations for UK musicians looking to (a) tour and (b) work temporarily in EU countries.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) places obligations on Parties to ensure international trade in wildlife is legal and sustainable.
Defra has worked closely with industry since leaving the EU to understand trade volumes and value, and to look at ways to minimise burdens and friction without reducing our high standards of environmental protection.
One option if travelling with a musical instrument for performance purposes is to apply for a CITES Musical Instrument Certificate (MIC). This is a streamlined process, specifically for musicians, which facilitates repeat movements over the course of three years. MICs are currently free of charge.
Defra will continue to work collaboratively with industry and other stakeholders to understand their needs, balance them against our duty to protect wildlife under the Convention, and identify priorities, as we prepare for the next meeting of the CITES Conference of Parties in 2025.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
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 potential impact of the requirement for musicians to ensure that their instruments comply with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora regulations when travelling to EU countries on the revenue generated by musicians.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) places obligations on Parties to ensure international trade in wildlife is legal and sustainable.
Defra has worked closely with industry since leaving the EU to understand trade volumes and value, and to look at ways to minimise burdens and friction without reducing our high standards of environmental protection.
One option if travelling with a musical instrument for performance purposes is to apply for a CITES Musical Instrument Certificate (MIC). This is a streamlined process, specifically for musicians, which facilitates repeat movements over the course of three years. MICs are currently free of charge.
Defra will continue to work collaboratively with industry and other stakeholders to understand their needs, balance them against our duty to protect wildlife under the Convention, and identify priorities, as we prepare for the next meeting of the CITES Conference of Parties in 2025.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to reduce the impact of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora regulations on UK musicians seeking to (a) work and (b) tour in the EU.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) places obligations on Parties to ensure international trade in wildlife is legal and sustainable.
Defra has worked closely with industry since leaving the EU to understand trade volumes and value, and to look at ways to minimise burdens and friction without reducing our high standards of environmental protection.
One option if travelling with a musical instrument for performance purposes is to apply for a CITES Musical Instrument Certificate (MIC). This is a streamlined process, specifically for musicians, which facilitates repeat movements over the course of three years. MICs are currently free of charge.
Defra will continue to work collaboratively with industry and other stakeholders to understand their needs, balance them against our duty to protect wildlife under the Convention, and identify priorities, as we prepare for the next meeting of the CITES Conference of Parties in 2025.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
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 reduce the use of polystyrene chips in packaging.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our Resources and Waste Strategy sets out our plans to reduce plastic pollution and move towards a more circular economy. This builds on the commitment in the 25 Year Environment Plan to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste. For the most problematic plastics we are working faster, which is why we committed to work towards all plastic packaging placed on the market being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
Generally, we prefer to help people make more sustainable choices, only resorting to a charge or a ban where we think this is necessary. We have recently undertaken a second consultation on introducing extended producer responsibility for packaging. This would see producers required to pay the costs of managing the packaging they place on the market including when it becomes waste. This will incentivise producers to question whether the packaging they use is necessary, could be reduced, or not used at all.
The consultation also proposed that producers' fees will be varied to help achieve intended outcomes of the scheme, such as increased recycling of packaging waste. Under this approach producers who use unrecyclable or difficult to recycle packaging such as polystyrene would be required to pay higher fees. This will further incentivise them to use recyclable or reusable packaging instead. We are now analysing the responses that were received and will publish our response in due course.
Industry is also taking action. The UK Plastics Pact, which accounts for over 85% of plastic packaging placed on the market, has committed to eliminating all polystyrene packaging by 2025.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
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 introduce regulations to allow the importation of grapes from third countries, including the EU, for British wine production after the transition period.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark on 19 June 2020, PQ UIN 58716.
The Government will keep the rules on the production and marketing of wine under review.
The restrictions identified in my previous response apply to wine produced from fresh grapes, as defined under the customs nomenclature (CN) code 2204. The product ‘British’ wine is classified under CN 2206 (other fermented beverage). It will still be possible to produce British wine from imported grape juice.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
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) reduce the number of sports utility vehicles and (b) incentivise people to switch to more environmentally-friendly vehicles to improve air quality in (a) London and (b) other cities.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
(a) New regulations came into effect on 1 January 2020. These tighten the existing target significantly for the average CO2 emissions a car manufacturer’s fleet can emit, down from 130g/km to 95g/km. If manufacturers do not meet this target then they face fines. As this is a fleet average target, manufacturers can make vehicles with emissions above the new 95g/km target providing they balance this out across their fleet with those that are lower than 95g/km. These targets reduce further in 2025 and 2030.
(b) To incentivise people to switch to more environmentally friendly vehicles to improve air quality, the Government is investing nearly £1.5 billion? between April 2015 and March 2021 to support the transition to zero emission motoring and has put in place a range of grant schemes. We have put in place various grant funding schemes to assist with the up-front cost of purchasing eligible electric vehicles. Motorists who choose to make the switch to electric also benefit from lower Vehicle Excise Duty and, from April 2020, lower company car tax rates.
On 4 February, the Prime Minister announced that we are consulting on bringing forward the end to the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars and vans to 2035, or earlier if a faster transition appears feasible.
In London, the Mayor is responsible for air quality in the capital.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
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 deaths each year attributable to air pollution in the London Borough of Southwark.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) estimates that the mortality burden of the air pollution mixture (based on both PM2.5 and NO2) in the UK is equivalent to 28,000 to 36,000 deaths per year. Mortality burden is a statistical way of assessing the impact of diseases and pollution. The equivalent figures at a more localised level are not available.
Public Health England has, however, estimated the fraction of adult mortality attributable to long-term exposure to particulate air pollution at local authority level in the Public Health Outcomes Framework, available to view and search online at: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/public-health-outcomes-framework.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
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 improve air quality in the London Borough of Southwark.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our Clean Air Strategy (CAS) sets out an ambitious programme of action to reduce air pollutant emissions from a wide range of sources. The World Health Organization has recognised the CAS as an example for the rest of the world to follow. We have also put in place a £3.5 billion plan to tackle roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations and are working closely with 61 English local authorities, and have placed legal duties on them, to tackle their NO2 exceedances as soon as possible. Our Environment Bill was reintroduced to Parliament on 30 January 2020 and makes a clear commitment to set an ambitious target for fine particulate matter, the pollutant of most concern for human health. It also ensures that local authorities have a clear framework and simple to use powers to tackle air pollution in their areas, and will provide the Government with new powers to enforce environmental standards for vehicles. All of this action will improve air quality across the UK.
In London, air quality is the responsibility of the Mayor of London.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many trees have been planted in England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Forestry Commission routinely publishes statistics on planting rates in England as part of its Key Performance Indicators.
The reporting of new planting in terms of numbers of trees, reproduced in the table below, is based on the area of grant claims approved for payment under the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), and from 2017-18 all other recorded forms of Government support. Together this accounts for nearly all new planting of woodland in England.
Year (ending 31 March) | Area (Hectares) | Tree Numbers |
2014-15 | 1,782 | 1,960,000 |
2015-16 | 546 | 642,000 |
2016-17 | 558 | 860,000 |
2017-18 | 1,045 | 1,579,000 |
2018-19 | 1,273 | 2,060,000 |
The Government’s support for this woodland creation has predominantly been from the Countryside Stewardship scheme (under the RDPE). Further Government support has been through Forestry England, the Woodland Carbon Fund, the High Speed 2 Woodland Fund, the Environment Agency, the National Forest Company, and in the Northern Forest.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural affairs, whether he plans to take steps to meet the World Health Organisation Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region 2018.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
We are working across Government to consider the guidelines and their relevance to future guidance and policy. An officials group is assessing the evidence base as well as other relevant recent research carried out in the UK and abroad, to inform our thinking on this.