Asked by: Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour - Ogmore)
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 has taken to ensure that statistics which record mis-stunning of animals are accurate; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by George Eustice
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer given to UIN 209694.
Asked by: Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour - Ogmore)
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 3 September 2014 to Question 193828, what steps she has taken to ensure the accuracy of data collected by the Food Standards Agency on mis-stunning of animals for slaughter.
Answered by George Eustice
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is due to complete a review into its monitoring and reporting of breaches of welfare legislation by the end of October.
Previously, only major and critical breaches were recorded, along with the actions taken to correct these. The FSA review is now also looking to strengthen recording of minor breaches. These minor breaches include where back-up stunning equipment is used or a second stun is carried out without the intervention of the Official Veterinarian and where there has been no injury, avoidable pain, distress or suffering to an animal. As with major and critical breaches, information on minor breaches would be collated centrally and reported to Defra, Welsh and Scottish Government on a monthly basis.
Asked by: Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour - Ogmore)
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 1 September 2014 to Question 206013, what the reasons are for the delay in publication of the study commissioned by her Department.
Answered by George Eustice
The study to determine whether cage-based breeding can meet the needs of game birds (AW1303) has not been published because it is still being peer reviewed.
Asked by: Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff were dedicated to food authenticity in (a) the Food Standards Agency and (b) her Department in each year from 2008 to date; and how much those bodies spent on food authenticity in those years.
Answered by George Eustice
In 2010, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) had 12 full time staff working in its Food Standards and Authenticity branch, which included food composition and standards as well as authenticity.
In the years 2008-2010, the FSA had between 3.5 and 4 staff members working solely on its Food Authenticity Research Programme, although other areas of authenticity-related policy work were carried out across the Standards branch.
The FSA has estimated that authenticity work associated with the food authenticity research programme had an annual research budget of around:
2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 |
£800,000 | £700,000 | £600,000 |
In 2010 22.6 full time equivalents (FTEs) were transferred to Defra under the Machinery of Government Changes.
Thirteen of these officials work wholly or partly on aspects of food authenticity. This includes work on food composition and standards, food labelling and related science, including developing methodologies for detecting food authenticity.
Three members of staff are dedicated to the Food Authenticity Research Programme in Defra, with additional support from an experienced external programme advisor.
The budget allocation for the Food Authenticity Research Programme transferred to Defra for 2011/12 onwards was £500,000 per year. This budget has been protected through re-prioritisation within Defra’s overall food science programme and actual spend on food authenticity in each of the last two years has been above this level, rising to £660,000 in 2013/14.
Defra works closely with the FSA which has responsibility for surveillance and enforcement. The FSA also makes available funds to Local Authorities as part of the National Co-ordinated Sampling Plan. These funds are not exclusively used for authenticity work, but a significant proportion funds authenticity testing. The funds allocated to the National Co-ordinated Sampling Plan were as follows:
2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 |
£900,000 | £900,000 | £900,000 | £1.6 Million | £1.6 Million | £2.2 Million |
Asked by: Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether (a) she and (b) her predecessor had discussions with representatives of the agricultural and horticultural sectors on the potential effect on skills and recruitment into those sectors of the proposals to remove OCR environmental and land-based science from the curriculum; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), the independent regulator of qualifications in England, consulted recently on proposals for completing the reforms of GCSEs and A levels (http://comment.ofqual.gov.uk/completing-gcse-as-and-a-level-reform/), including principles to guide the subjects that may be offered in the future. The consultation closed on 30 July 2014 and Ofqual have not yet announced the outcome. These proposals do not remove specific subjects from the curriculum; however, they may have implications for the range of subjects available as GCSE or A level qualifications provided by awarding organisations. The removal of some qualifications may be as a result of low take up of specific qualifications or significant overlap of content. As Ofqual is independent of Ministers, and is accountable directly to Parliament, neither the Secretary of State nor her predecessor have therefore discussed the proposals with agriculture and horticulture representatives, although they were able to respond to the consultation directly. I have asked Ofqual’s Chief Regulator, Glenys Stacey, to write to the Hon. Member. A copy of her letter will be placed in the House of Commons Library.