Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 11 April 2011 to Question HL14975, what the timeframe is for his Department to conclude its consideration of the UNICEF report entitled Healthy Air for Healthy Children; whether he plans to publish a response to that report; and what steps he is taking to ensure that personal air quality (a) monitors and (b) messaging systems will be made available to inform the public.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Department is aware of the Healthy Air for Healthy Children report. There are no plans to formally review the methodology and conclusions nor publish a response to the report.
Through the Air Quality Grant more than £3 million of government funding has been awarded to 28 innovative projects to improve air quality across local authorities in England. This includes funding to trial new technology to test the effectiveness of low-cost sensors to better understand the air quality data they produce.
Air Quality forecasts and information are already published on the Defra UKAIR website. We are undertaking further work to understand the range of different audiences for air quality information, the differing requirements of those audiences, and how air quality information needs to be tailored to meet those different audiences’ needs.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans to introduce a nationwide diesel scrappage scheme; and what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect on air quality resulting from the introduction of any such scheme.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
No, the previous national car scrappage scheme was undertaken to support the car industry and for any nationwide scrappage schemes there are concerns over deliverability and value for money. However, we have not restricted the types of measures eligible local authorities could bid for funding for from the Clean Air Fund.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 effect on animal welfare of it not being a mandatory requirement for a local authority to have an animal welfare inspector with responsibility for enforcement of Animal Welfare Act 2006; and what representations his Department has received in the last 12 months from (a) the Home Office and (b) police forces on the costs of taking steps to protect animal welfare where a local authority animal welfare inspector is not in place.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Anyone is able to take out a prosecution under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and it is on this basis that the RSPCA investigate calls and prosecute hundreds of people each year for offences under the Act. Local authorities also have enabling powers under the Act and make decisions on their approach to the Act based on local needs and resource priorities and the arrangements that work best for them, working as necessary in partnership with others where helpful. Defra is in regular discussion with the police and Home Office on animal welfare issues and we have received no specific representations from them in the last 12 months on the costs to them of protecting animal welfare where a local authority animal welfare inspector is not in place.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 effect on climate change of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants; and what plans he has to improve arrangements for the (a) management, (b) recycling and (c) disposal of such refrigerants.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government estimates that hydrofluorocarbon emissions from refrigeration and air conditioning made up around 2.5% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2017, when gases are compared using their global warming potentials (GWPs). The UK greenhouse gas inventory uses the GWPs for individual hydrofluorocarbons from table 2.14 of Volume One (the Physical Science Basis) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report 4, as agreed by decision 9/CP.2 of the Conference of Parties.
The UK was one of the earliest countries to ratify the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol relating to hydrofluorocarbons and regulations are already in place regarding the phase down of their usage as well as controls on their management, disposal and recycling. A review is expected in 2022.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 21 January 2019 to Question 209299 on Lead: Ammunition, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his polices of the European Chemicals Agency report on regulation of the use of lead ammunition; and whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to restrict or ban the use of lead ammunition.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government is aware of the European Chemicals Agency report on the regulation of the use of lead ammunition. The European Union Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & Restriction of Chemicals (EU REACH) committee is considering this report and will shortly make recommendations to the European Commission about the current regulation on the use of lead in gunshot over wetlands.
We will review our position once we have seen proposals from EU REACH.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for the proposed new Environmental Land Management Schemes after 2022.
Answered by George Eustice
The Secretary of State and I have regular meetings with the Chancellor on a wide range of issues. Funding of all government business after 2022 will be determined as part of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 role of public advice in the effective delivery of the proposed new Environmental Land Management Schemes.
Answered by George Eustice
We will be introducing a new Environmental Land Management (ELM) system that will pay land managers for delivering environmental public goods.
The government will work with farmers and land managers who wish to improve the environment by entering into multi-annual ELM contracts in which land managers commit to take certain actions to deliver environmental goods and benefits in return for funding.
We believe that those managing the land are best placed to decide how to deliver the environmental benefits they have signed up to provide. We propose that land managers should have access to the information and advice they need to enable them to develop holistic management plans for their land.
Evidence from previous agri-environment schemes suggests that the effectiveness of measures and the quality of environmental benefits can depend on the quality and extent of advice from trusted advisers. We propose that an approved specialist adviser should be readily available to help the land manager to deliver desirable environmental outcomes. We want land managers to establish trusted relationships with their adviser. We are therefore exploring the role that third party advisers could play. For example, an adviser could be an agronomist who a farmer has worked with in the past and trusts, or an adviser from a local organisation who can advise on local conditions. We expect that these advisers would need to be approved to demonstrate their level of capability and to ensure sufficient protection for the spending of public money. The appetite for existing advisers training to deliver advice within ELM, and the market for delivering this training, is being tested through a combination of policy development, Testing and Trials and social science involvement, with an intelligence assessment in development.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the European Commission on the timing of the publication of the updated controllers of trade in endangered species regulations on wildlife trade; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure sentencing guidelines for wildlife trade offences are put in place.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The updated and consolidated Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations (COTES) that the Department is taking forward concern the domestic implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species controls. As such we have not discussed the timing of their publication with the European Commission.
As part of the review of COTES legislation Defra has held discussions on guidelines for prosecutors with the Crown Prosecution Service, and sentencing guidelines with the Sentencing Council.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what representations she has made to the International Whaling Commission on Japan's resumption of whaling in the South Atlantic.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK Government raises its opposition to Japan’s continued whaling at every appropriate opportunity, including at meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Most recently, I raised the issue with the Japanese Fisheries Minister during an official visit to Japan.
We will continue to work closely with countries opposing Japan’s programme of whaling in the build-up to the next IWC meeting in October this year, and will ensure that the UK’s strong opposition is reiterated. Parliamentary business permitting, the UK will again be represented at the Ministerial level, as has been the case at previous IWC meetings.
Asked by: Heidi Allen (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 plans to take at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Slovenia in October 2016 related to Japan's resumption of its whaling programme in the South Atlantic.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK Government raises its opposition to Japan’s continued whaling at every appropriate opportunity, including at meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Most recently, I raised the issue with the Japanese Fisheries Minister during an official visit to Japan.
We will continue to work closely with countries opposing Japan’s programme of whaling in the build-up to the next IWC meeting in October this year, and will ensure that the UK’s strong opposition is reiterated. Parliamentary business permitting, the UK will again be represented at the Ministerial level, as has been the case at previous IWC meetings.