Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what meetings her Department has had with Durham County Council on preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement.
Answered by George Eustice
We have communicated on a range of topics with local authorities, including in a conference call on 13 August along with other Government departments. Each local Authority has established a Brexit lead officer to liaise with Government.
Defra has identified areas where our exit preparations impact local authorities. For instance Environmental Health Officers are responsible for issuing Export Health Certificates on fish and we have discussed capacity and the requirements with them.
We regularly contribute to a cross-government working group which coordinates engagement with local authorities.
Information on leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement relevant to a particular local authority can then be accessed by the local authority via shared channels, such as:
Information on a range of Defra’s exit projects if we leave the EU without a withdrawal agreement has been made available to local authorities through these channels. This includes information on:
Local authorities have been invited to attend various meetings, including workshops, training events and roadshows on topics including:
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to his oral contribution of 9 May 2019, Official Report Column 653, when and by how much the budget for peatland restoration will be increased.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government will take any future decisions on funding for peatland restoration as part of the 2019 Spending Review.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
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 assessed the economic effect on farmers of articles 40 to 46 and 92 to 97 of the Government's EU withdrawal agreement.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government is undertaking a wide range of continuing analysis in support of our negotiations and preparations for leaving the EU. We will ensure that Parliament is presented with appropriate analysis ahead of the vote on the final deal, and in Impact Assessments accompanying legislation, where appropriate.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to the letter of 21 February 2018 from the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland on the time taken to process the Basic Payment Scheme application of a constituent.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra received the letter on 9 March 2018 and a reply was sent on 18 April 2018.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What steps he has taken to reduce delays in processing applications for the basic payment scheme.
Answered by George Eustice
Since the introduction of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in 2015, the Rural Payments Agency has made improvements in the processing of applications including the introduction of online applications, online land and entitlement transfers, reducing the time to process transactions, and further support and guidance to help farmers successfully submit their applications. This has led to improvements in the BPS payment performance with over 90% of eligible farmers being paid by the end of December for the 2016 and 2017 scheme years.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
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 publish his plans for peat restoration.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government will set out plans for peat restoration in the 25 Year Environment Plan and an England Peat Strategy.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funds are provided for the maintenance of national trails for each year to 2021; and what sum has been allocated to maintain the Pennine Way.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Natural England has provided funding of £1.8 million for the maintenance of national trails in England in 2017/18. This figure includes funding of £199,253 for the Pennine Way. Local authority funding will bring the total amount available for the Pennine Way to a minimum of £265,671.
Natural England has not finalised its annual funding for national trails for each year to 2021. Natural England expect to complete its plans for the funding of national trails for 2018/19 by December 2017.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding and other support the Government provides for research into the conservation of turtles.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The UK Government has provided funding of around £550,000 to protect turtles.
The Darwin Initiative has funded projects seeking to protect turtles in developing countries and in the UK Overseas Territories. A current Darwin project is promoting the conservation and sustainable use of marine turtles in Southwest Madagascar. Another, led by the University of Exeter, is working in Peru to find a solution to the thousands of endangered turtles who die as a result of gillnet fisheries around the world by employing the use of light emitting diodes (LEDs).
Through the Overseas Territories Environment and Climate fund, also known as Darwin Plus, Defra has funded a project in the Cayman Islands assessing how best to reduce threats to wild marine turtles.
The Flagship Species Fund, a partnership between Defra and Fauna and Flora International (FFI), has supported all six of the world’s hard-shelled marine turtle species and most recently funded a project supporting sea turtle conservation through applied research in Anguilla.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding the Government has provided to projects seeking to protect turtles.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The UK Government has provided funding of around £550,000 to protect turtles.
The Darwin Initiative has funded projects seeking to protect turtles in developing countries and in the UK Overseas Territories. A current Darwin project is promoting the conservation and sustainable use of marine turtles in Southwest Madagascar. Another, led by the University of Exeter, is working in Peru to find a solution to the thousands of endangered turtles who die as a result of gillnet fisheries around the world by employing the use of light emitting diodes (LEDs).
Through the Overseas Territories Environment and Climate fund, also known as Darwin Plus, Defra has funded a project in the Cayman Islands assessing how best to reduce threats to wild marine turtles.
The Flagship Species Fund, a partnership between Defra and Fauna and Flora International (FFI), has supported all six of the world’s hard-shelled marine turtle species and most recently funded a project supporting sea turtle conservation through applied research in Anguilla.
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
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 her international counterparts on ensuring that legislation introduced to protect turtles and their habitat is being enforced.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The UK is a signatory to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Conservation and Management of Marine Turtles and their Habitats of the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia and discusses implementation of the MoU with other signatory states at its triennial meetings. At the last meeting in September 2014, which the UK attended, signatory states discussed a number of turtle enforcement issues.