Asked by: Iain McKenzie (Labour - Inverclyde)
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 make an assessment of the benefits and costs of a nationwide badger cull; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government is committed to our strategy to make England free of bovine TB, of which culling badgers in areas where the disease is rife is a key element. The outcome of this year’s cull in Somerset indicates that industry-led culling can, in the right circumstances, deliver the level of effectiveness required to be confident of achieving disease control benefits.
The results for Gloucestershire show that continued progress is needed taking into account the additional challenges of interference and harassment by activists. The cost of the badger cull pilots in 2013 was £6.3 million. The estimated cost of England failing to tackle bovine TB is estimated to be £1 billion in the next decade.
Asked by: Iain McKenzie (Labour - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the environmental effects of the development of onshore wind power.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Wind power will make a significant contribution to the UK meeting its renewable energy and climate change targets. However, development has to be in the right place. Government planning guidance therefore makes it clear that the need for renewable energy should not automatically override concerns about local impacts. When applications for wind turbines are determined, the impacts on matters such as ecology, noise, landscape, heritage and amenity are considered.
Asked by: Iain McKenzie (Labour - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to review the allocation of Common Agriculture Policy funds between Scotland, England and Northern Ireland; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by George Eustice
The review of allocations of Common Agricultural Policy funds between UK administrations will take place in 2016/17. Defra will first work with the devolved administrations to decide on the data needed to facilitate a comparison of payments across the UK. One area that will be examined in the review is a comparison of land types and payment areas; this will be easier when all UK administrations have begun the transition to area based payments.
Asked by: Iain McKenzie (Labour - Inverclyde)
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 following the International Court of Justice's ruling that Japan's Antarctic whaling activity was not conducted for the purpose of scientific research.
Answered by George Eustice
We will continue to make it clear at every appropriate opportunity that we see no justification for lethal scientific research on whales.We are now working within the EU and with other key parties to try to ensure that the findings of the International Court of Justice are reflected in the working practices of the International Whaling Commission, as the competent body for the conservation of whales.