Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 take steps with the European Commission to allow the Northern Ireland Executive to allocate state aid to fisheries projects in the same manner as other UK nations.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A key aim for this administration is to reset the UK government’s relationship with devolved governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and EU and therefore look forward to discussions on a range of issues relating to the Windsor Framework, including State aid.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of instances of fly tipping in the last six months.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents and enforcement actions to Defra, which are published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/env24-fly-tipping-incidents-and-actions-taken-in-england. This excludes the majority of private-land incidents.
Data for the 2023/24 reporting year will be published later this year.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been allocated to each of the devolved institutions to help tackle flooding in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Flood defence spending is a devolved matter so questions about flood management spending and policy should be addressed directly to the devolved administrations. Defra does not have information on devolved administration spending.
The Barnett formula is applied in the normal way to any new funding provided to UK Government departments when the funding is allocated to those departments’ budgets. ‘Barnett’ funding to Devolved Administrations is not ring fenced.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 make an assessment of the adequacy of the number of male incontinence bins in public toilets.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I fully recognise the importance of ensuring that all men have access to the facilities they need so that they can dispose of their sanitary waste in a safe and dignified way. The Government encourages local authorities to consider such provision in public toilets to support those who may need them. Officials are discussing the provision of sanitary bins in public toilets with other relevant departments to ensure we are doing all we can to support this to happen.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has provided financial assistance to farmers to repair flood damage.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Farming Recovery Fund has been opened to provide farmers support to recover from uninsurable damage with grants of between £500 and £25,000 to return their land to the condition it was before exceptional flooding of Storm Henk. The fund was initially opened in nine English local authority areas where the Flood Recovery Framework has already been activated to help farms which have experienced the highest levels of flooding, and the eligibility for the Fund remains under review.
This forms part of a package of support available to farmers through the Flood Recovery Framework, including a grant of up to £2,500 through the Business Recovery Grant Scheme.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of levels of bovine tuberculosis.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Bovine TB is a devolved policy matter.
The latest bovine TB statistics published on GOV.UK, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bovine-tb, continue to show a gradually improving picture in most headline indicators for England overall and particularly in the High Risk Area and the Edge Area. In 2023 the lowest annual incidence of TB in cattle herds in England was recorded since 2007. In the Low Risk Area, the incidence and prevalence of TB in cattle herds remain very low and stable.
During the 2023 calendar year, just over 20,000 cattle were slaughtered for TB-related reasons in England, having peaked at 34,500 in 2018.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 had recent discussions with his counterpart in Northern Ireland on the number of skilled workers employed in the Northern Irish fisheries industry.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government believes that every role in the fishing industry in Northern Ireland requires a wide variety of skills. The most recent statistics from the Marine Management Organisation’s Sea Fisheries Statistics 2022 show that the fishing industry in Northern Ireland employed 799 people, all of whom are skilled.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many cases of avian flu have been detected in the UK in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mark Spencer
As of 21st February 2024, there have been 41 cases of avian influenza confirmed in the UK within the last 12 months (22/02/23-21/02/24). The latest case figures and information on the disease and location of the cases, are available online: Bird flu (avian influenza): latest situation in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the bumble bee population in the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
There are 24 bumblebee species in the UK. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust runs the Great Britain (GB) BeeWalk survey, which involves volunteers walking the same fixed route at least once a month between March and October (inclusive). The abundance of each bumblebee species seen is recorded in a 4m x 4m x 2m recording box to standardise between habitats and observers. The data for 2010-2019 shows that for the 20 species with enough observation data to assess trends, 8 species had positive population trends and 12 had declining trends in GB.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of flood defences at Windsor Park; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allocating funding to strengthen those defences.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency manages a defence known as Spitalfield Reservoir on the Bourne Ditch within Windsor Great Park, on Crown Estate land. Funding is allocated for the ongoing maintenance of the reservoir. The Environment Agency maintains the embankments and penstocks within the concrete structure to manage impoundment of water and the downstream flow.
Under Section 12 of the Reservoir Act 1975, an annual inspection is required to be undertaken by a qualified Supervising Engineer. The last inspection of the Spitalfield Reservoir, in September 2023, identified a number of minor maintenance actions that will be carried out by the Environment Agency over the coming months. The Supervising Engineer did not identify issues that would reduce the standard of protection the reservoir offers to protect properties downstream.
If Measures in the Interest of Safety were found during any inspection, where the resilience of the reservoir was below its current design standard of protection, funding would be sought for works required.