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, with reference to page seven of her Department's policy brief, How increased Connectivity is Boosting Prospects of Rural Areas, published in December 2014, what assessment she has made of the effect of Visit England's marketing campaigns on tourism to rural areas to date.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Tourism is one of the most important sectors of the rural economy. In recognition of this, the Government launched the Rural Tourism package aimed at growing the visitor economy in rural areas. Under that package, Visit England estimates that its promotional activity to attract visitors to the countryside has so far delivered an extra 1,851 full-time equivalent jobs and £100 million in visitor spend.
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, with reference to page seven of her Department's policy brief, How increased Connectivity is Boosting Prospects of Rural Areas, published in December 2014, what assessment she has made of the effect of the Skills and Knowledge Transfer Programme on business people in rural areas to date.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
To date, the Rural Development Programme Skills and Knowledge Transfer Programme has provided training across England for 215,000 (non-unique) participants who have completed 220,000 training days. Delivery is still underway and an evaluation will be carried out.
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, with reference to page seven of her Department's policy brief, How increased Connectivity is Boosting Prospects of Rural Areas, published in December 2014, what assessment she has made of the effect of UK RuralSkills on farmers' management and business skills to date.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Management and Business Skills forms one of a number of contracts awarded under the Rural Development Programme for England skills framework. The contract was awarded to Traineast, which works with its UK Rural Skills partners to provide coverage across England. To date, under the Management and Business Skills contract, 3,973 training days have been completed with 2,444 (non-unique) participants taking part in training. Evaluation completed by trainees following training indicates that 99.96% will put the skills gained into practice. Delivery under the skills framework is ongoing and an evaluation will be carried out.
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, with reference to page seven of her Department's policy brief, How increased Connectivity is Boosting Prospects of Rural Areas, published in December 2014, what assessment she has made of the effect of the International Food and Drink Action Plan on the level of (a) food and (b) drink exports to date.
Answered by George Eustice
Since the publication of the UK Food and Drink - International Action Plan in October 2013 we have supported 2,500 companies (1,500 more than we had pledged), opened over 100 markets for animal and animal products, implemented a faster export health certification system two months ahead of schedule and continued to champion British food and drink here and overseas at major trade shows and events. Full details of the progress made can be found in the One Year On report published on the Open to Exports website at http://opentoexport.com/article/uk-food-and-drink-international-action-plan-one-year-on-2/.
The agri-food and drink sector is worth over £100bn and includes the largest manufacturing sector worth over £26bn. Food and drink exports in 2013 were £18.9bn up £700m compared to 2012 and 39% above those in 2010.
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, with reference to page six of her Department's policy brief, How increased Connectivity is Boosting Prospects of Rural Areas, published in December 2014, what estimate she has made of the proportion of areas which will not be covered by superfast broadband by 2017 that are (a) rural and (b) coastal.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Government is investing £780 million to give access to superfast broadband to 95% of UK premises by 2017. This will be achieved through two delivery phases. Until Phase 2 is complete, it is not possible to estimate precisely how many rural and coastal areas will not be covered by superfast broadband by 2017. Approximately 1.4 million premises are expected to fall within the remaining 5% hard to reach areas across the UK. We are currently exploring how to extend superfast broadband into these final areas.
Asked by: Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page six of his Department's policy brief, How increased Connectivity is Boosting Prospects of Rural Areas, published in December 2014, how much of the £15 billion investment in road infrastructure will be used to promote rural connectivity.
Answered by John Hayes
In total we are investing £15.2 billion in England over 100 major schemes to enhance, renew and increase the connectivity of the Strategic Road Network between 2015/16 and 2020/21. This investment will be used to complete current road schemes, begin construction of previously announced road schemes and also start construction of 69 new road schemes by 2020/21.
This includes investments to key routes in rural areas and the periphery of the country – including the A1 north of Newcastle, an investment package worth around £290 million, the A47 in Norfolk, (over £300 million) and on the A30 in Cornwall (£100-250m).
Also included is a £2 billion commitment to turn the A303 into a new strategic corridor to the South West.
The strategic road network does not work in isolation, so that is why this government is also investing in roads managed by local authorities as part of the planned £12 billion ‘Growth Deals’.
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, if she will meet the Chairman and Board of First Milk to discuss the effect of that body's recent announcements on milk prices, delays in payments and increased capital levy contributions on the viability of farmers who supply it.
Answered by George Eustice
The Secretary of State and I have spoken to the Chairman of First Milk to discuss the recent announcement on milk prices and the impact this will have on farmers. We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with milk industry experts to consider if any further action is appropriate.
I will continue to work closely with the dairy industry as a whole to manage price volatility. Most recently I met the Chairman of First Milk on Monday evening.
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 changes there have been in the number of herds under TB restrictions (a) in each area of the UK, (b) in the Gloucestershire pilot cull area and (c) in the Somerset pilot cull area in each month since January 2010.
Answered by George Eustice
The latest statistics for herds under bovine TB restrictions can be found online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/incidence-of-tuberculosis-tb-in-cattle-in-great-britain
Statistics below county level are not available. For Gloucestershire and Somerset as a whole, the number of herds not officially TB free due to a bovine TB incident as at the end of January in each year since 2010, plus the latest published figures for September 2014, are shown below.
Gloucestershire | Somerset | |
January 2010 | 220 | 146 |
January 2011 | 228 | 220 |
January 2012 | 222 | 227 |
January 2013 | 230 | 254 |
January 2014 | 230 | 269 |
September 2014 | 185 | 194 |
Asked by: Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour - Ogmore)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations he has received from (a) consumer organisations and (b) individuals on the effectiveness of Trustmark and NAPIT in protecting consumers from rogue traders.
Answered by Jo Swinson
TrustMark (2005) Ltd (TrustMark) operate the TrustMark Scheme. TrustMark aims to marginalise unscrupulous traders by identifying to consumers traders who have been inspected for both trade competence and good trading practice.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) receives a small volume of correspondence from individuals each year relating to TrustMark. These communications are passed to the TrustMark Board to investigate the actions of their Scheme Operators which would include NAPIT should the case arise. The Department does not hold records of communications about specific Scheme Operators as these are audited and monitored by TrustMark and not BIS.
In 2011 a consumer body provided views about the scheme to the Department; those views were fed into a review of the scheme which the TrustMark Board undertook in 2013.
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.