First elected: 5th May 2005
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
Repeal the current Dangerous Dogs Act and replace with new framework
Gov Responded - 24 Jan 2023 Debated on - 27 Nov 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsWe want the Government to repeal the Dangerous Dogs Act and replace it with legislation that focuses on early intervention to prevent dog bites and tackle dog-related issues regardless of breed or type, based solely on their behaviour.
Bad owners are to blame not the breed - don't ban the XL bully
Sign this petition Gov Responded - 23 Nov 2023 Debated on - 27 Nov 2023 View 's petition debate contributions
I believe that the XL bully is a kind, beautiful natured breed that loves children and people in general, and are very loyal and loving pets.
End reviews of PIP and ESA awards for people with lifelong illnesses
Gov Responded - 10 Sep 2021 Debated on - 4 Sep 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsPeople with a lifelong illness should not be subject to regular reviews for eligibility for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). People suffering lifelong conditions should not have to prove they are still ill every couple of years.
End assessments and consider disability benefit claims on medical advice alone
Gov Responded - 21 Dec 2022 Debated on - 4 Sep 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsThe Government should remove the requirement for people claiming disability benefits, such as the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), to have to go through an assessment process. Claims should be based solely on evidence from medical professionals, such as a letter from a GP or consultant.
Full review of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) application process
Gov Responded - 1 Nov 2022 Debated on - 4 Sep 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsWe want the Government to conduct a full review of the PIP process. This should look at DWP policy and the performance of ATOS and Capita, which conduct the health assessments for applicants. We believe the current process is inherently unethical and biased, and needs a complete overhaul.
Make swift bricks compulsory in new housing to help red-listed birds
Gov Responded - 1 Dec 2022 Debated on - 10 Jul 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsSwifts have declined by over 50% in the UK. Adult swifts, known for site-fidelity, return to the same nests. We want swift bricks to be required in all new housing, to provide homes for these birds. Surveys show these are used by red-listed swifts, house martins, starlings and house sparrows.
Update the Equality Act to make clear the characteristic “sex” is biological sex
Gov Responded - 26 Jan 2023 Debated on - 12 Jun 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsThe Government must exercise its power under s.23 of the Gender Recognition Act to modify the operation of the Equality Act 2010 by specifying the terms sex, male, female, man & woman, in the operation of that law, mean biological sex and not "sex as modified by a Gender Recognition Certificate"
Commit to not amending the Equality Act's definition of sex
Gov Responded - 25 Jan 2023 Debated on - 12 Jun 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsIt has been reported that the Government may amend the Equality Act to "make it clear that sex means biological sex rather than gender." The Government has previously committed to not remove legal protections for trans people, an already marginalised group, but this change would do so.
Create statutory legal duty of care for students in Higher Education
Gov Responded - 20 Jan 2023 Debated on - 5 Jun 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsNo general statutory duty of care exists in HE. Yet, a duty of care is owed to students, and the Government should legislate for this. HE providers should know what their duty is. Students must know what they can expect. Parents expect their children to be safe at university.
Make suicide prevention a compulsory part of the school curriculum.
Gov Responded - 21 Oct 2022 Debated on - 13 Mar 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsWe want suicide spoken about in schools in a safe and age-appropriate way. Speaking about suicide saves lives
The Dept for Education are conducting a review of the RSHE curriculum; this petition calls on the DfE to include suicide prevention within the statutory guidelines of the new curriculum.
Limit the shooting season of Woodcock
Gov Responded - 11 Oct 2022 Debated on - 27 Feb 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsMark Avery , Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay (Wild Justice) want the opening of the Woodcock shooting season to be pushed back to 1 December. 160,000 Woodcock are shot for fun across the UK whilst their population is declining. The Defra Secretary of State has powers to vary the shooting season.
Create an emergency fund for ASD (autism) & ADHD assessments
Gov Responded - 14 Dec 2021 Debated on - 6 Feb 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsThe Government should create an emergency fund to deal with the massive waiting lists for autism & ADHD assessments for children AND adults. This would provide resources for local health services deal with current waiting lists and new patients.
Review management of ADHD assessments and increase funding
Gov Responded - 21 Apr 2022 Debated on - 6 Feb 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsThe Government should commission a review of how Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessments are managed by the NHS, including through Shared Care Agreements, and increase funding to reduce waiting times.
Ban commercial breeding for laboratories. Implement reform to approve & use NAMs
Gov Responded - 27 May 2022 Debated on - 16 Jan 2023 View 's petition debate contributionsRevoke all licences (PEL) for commercial breeders of laboratory animals. Require all Project Licences (PPLs) applications be reviewed by an independent Non Animal Methods (NAMs) specialist committee. Revise s24 ASPA 1986 to allow review. Urge International Regulators to accept & promote NAMs.
Automatically suspend PR rights of parent guilty of murdering the other parent.
Gov Responded - 16 Jun 2022 Debated on - 7 Nov 2022 View 's petition debate contributionsProvide a mechanism within existing legislation whereupon a person with parental responsibility (PR) is found guilty of murdering the other parent with PR, has PR automatically suspended throughout the duration of the term of imprisonment of the aforesaid person convicted.
Suspend trade agreement with Faroe Islands until all whale & dolphin hunts end
Gov Responded - 26 Oct 2021 Debated on - 11 Jul 2022 View 's petition debate contributionsIn 2019 UK Government finalised a free trade agreement (FTA) with Faroe Islands which allows for £100 million of exports of wild caught and farmed fish to Britain per annum (20% of the Faroe Islands global trade). This FTA should be suspended until all whale & dolphin hunts on Faroe Islands end
VALERIE'S LAW Compulsory Training for Agencies Supporting Black DV Victims
Gov Responded - 6 Jul 2021 Debated on - 28 Mar 2022 View 's petition debate contributionsMake specialist training mandatory for all police and other government agencies that support black women and girls affected by domestic abuse. Police and agencies should have culturally appropriate training to better understand the cultural needs of black women affected by domestic abuse.
Tougher sentences for hit and run drivers who cause death
Gov Responded - 28 Aug 2020 Debated on - 15 Nov 2021 View 's petition debate contributionsThe maximum penalty for failure to stop after an incident is points and a 6-month custodial sentence. Causing death by careless/dangerous driving is between 5-14 yrs. The sentence for failing to stop after a fatal collision must be increased.
Ryan's Law: Widen definition of 'death by dangerous driving'
Gov Responded - 24 Mar 2021 Debated on - 15 Nov 2021 View 's petition debate contributionsThe offence of causing 'death by dangerous driving' should be widened to include: failure to stop, call 999 and render aid on scene until further help arrives.
Ban Water Companies discharging raw sewage into water courses.
Gov Responded - 5 May 2021 Debated on - 15 Nov 2021 View 's petition debate contributionsEnsure Water companies treat the sewage they are responsible for. Not discharge it into rivers and water courses. After all what goes into the ocean comes back as the fish we eat.
Ban Driven Grouse Shooting
Wilful blindness is no longer an option
Chris Packham, Ruth Tingay and Mark Avery (Wild Justice) believe that intensive grouse shooting is bad for people, the environment and wildlife. People; grouse shooting is economically insignificant when contrasted with other real and potential uses of the UK’s uplands.
Do not restrict our rights to peaceful protest.
Gov Responded - 6 Apr 2021 Debated on - 26 Apr 2021 View 's petition debate contributionsThe right to peaceful assembly and protest are fundamental principles of any democracy and the proposed part of this bill that gives the police new powers to tackle disruptive peaceful protests should be removed from The Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.
Recognise animal sentience & require that animal welfare has full regard in law
Gov Responded - 13 Mar 2019 Debated on - 16 Mar 2020 View 's petition debate contributionsEU law recognises animals as sentient beings, aware of their feelings and emotions. Animals are at risk of losing these vital legal protections, post-Brexit. We want a BetterDealForAnimals: a law that creates a duty for all Ministers in the UK to fully regard animal welfare in policy making.
End the Cage Age: ban cages for all farmed animals.
Gov Responded - 22 Mar 2019 Debated on - 16 Mar 2020 View 's petition debate contributionsAcross the UK, millions of farmed animals are kept in cages, unable to express their natural behaviours. This causes huge suffering.
We call on the UK government to end this inhumane practice by banning all cages for farmed animals. Cages are cruel.
These initiatives were driven by Kerry McCarthy, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Kerry McCarthy has not been granted any Urgent Questions
Kerry McCarthy has not been granted any Adjournment Debates
A Bill to regulate supported housing; to make provision about local authority oversight and the enforcement of standards of accommodation and support in supported housing; to prohibit the placing of children in care in unregulated accommodation; and for connected purposes.
The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session. This means the Bill will make no further progress. A Bill to impose a duty on public bodies in relation to the welfare needs of animals as sentient beings.
A Bill to require the Secretary of State to make provision for a scheme to establish incentives to implement and encourage observance of the food waste reduction hierarchy; to encourage individuals, businesses and public bodies to reduce the amount of food they waste; to require large supermarkets, manufacturers and distributors to reduce their food waste by no less than 30 per cent by 2025 and to enter into formal agreements with food redistribution organisations; to require large supermarkets and food manufacturers to disclose levels of food waste in their supply chain; and for connected purposes.
The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session. This means the Bill will make no further progress. A Bill to require large food retailers and large food manufacturers to take steps to reduce food waste and donate surplus food to charities for redistribution and, where food is unfit for human consumption, to make it available for livestock feed in preference over disposal; to encourage and incentivise all other businesses and public bodies which generate food waste to donate a greater proportion of their surplus for redistribution; to protect from civil and criminal liability food donors and recipient agencies where food has been donated in good faith; and for connected purposes.
The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session. This means the Bill will make no further progress. A Bill to require the Secretary of State to make provision to extend the system of parental responsibility agreements to enable a kinship carer to obtain parental responsibility for a child they are raising without having to bring a case to court; and for connected purposes
Co-operatives (Permanent Shares) Bill 2022-23
Sponsor - Gareth Thomas (LAB)
Marine Protected Areas (Bottom Trawling) Bill 2021-22
Sponsor - Chris Grayling (Con)
Fur Trade (Prohibition) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Taiwo Owatemi (Lab)
Pig Husbandry (Farrowing) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - David Amess (Con)
Children (Access to Treatment) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Bambos Charalambous (Ind)
Clean Air (No. 3) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Geraint Davies (Ind)
Dockless Bicycles (Regulation) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Daniel Zeichner (Lab)
Tibet (Reciprocal Access) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Tim Loughton (Con)
Plastic Pollution (No. 2) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Alistair Carmichael (LD)
Sky Lanterns (Prohibition) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Ruth George (Lab)
Plastic Pollution Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Alistair Carmichael (LD)
Packaging (Extended Producer Responsibility) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Anna McMorrin (Lab)
Food Insecurity Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Emma Lewell-Buck (Lab)
Planning (Agent of Change) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - John Spellar (Lab)
Food Advertising (Protection of Children from Targeting) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Kirstene Hair (Con)
Short and Holiday-Let Accommodation (Notification of Local Authorities) Bill 2016-17
Sponsor - Karen Buck (Lab)
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill is a Private Member’s Bill. As the Bill is now in the Other Place, scheduling is a matter for the Lords Chief Whip. My officials and I are in regular contact with the Lords and Commons Whips offices in relation to this Bill.
The Government will respond to the recommendations in the report ‘A positive approach to parenting; Part 2 of the Independent Family Review’ in due course.
Since COP26, there have been 16 NDC submissions. This represents progress but the Government continues to work closely with partner countries and organisations to drive climate ambition, and to urge all countries to revisit and strengthen their NDCs by the end of 2022 to close the ambition gap and keep 1.5C within reach.
The COP President regularly discusses the climate commitments made by the US and others with his counterpart US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC), John Kerry , and has done so since the beginning of the UK’s COP26 Presidency.
Most recently, the COP President met with SPEC Kerry on Saturday 9 July to discuss a range of climate change issues, including the recent ruling of the US Supreme Court in relation to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Making practical progress on averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage this year is a priority for the UK. We are working closely with Egypt, as well as other key partners, to achieve this. At COP26, parties agreed to set up the Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage, which aims to discuss the arrangements for the funding of activities to enhance action to address loss and damage, concluding in 2024.
Alongside the dialogue, we are also working with Egypt and other countries and institutions to press forward the final operationalisation of the Santiago Network on loss and damage, and secure offers of funding for this operation and the technical assistance the Network provides.
The Presidency has prioritised the issue of debt sustainability in the lead up to and since COP26. The UK has championed the IMF’s $650 billion allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to help boost global liquidity and we are supporting the IMF in establishing a Resilience and Sustainability Trust that will provide a long-term financing offer for vulnerable countries facing structural challenges including climate change.
To support low-income countries to tackle their debt vulnerabilities, in November 2020 the UK, alongside our G20 and Paris Club partners, agreed a new Common Framework for Debt Treatment beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative. This brings together G20 and Paris Club creditors to coordinate debt treatments following a request from any of the 73 eligible low-income countries. Private sector creditors will be expected to implement debt treatments on at least as favourable terms as those agreed by official creditors. The UK-led G7 Private Sector Working Group is also exploring Climate Resilient Debt Instruments (CRDIs), which will crucially suspend any debt service repayments in the event of a natural disaster in climate vulnerable countries.
The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity represents a historic opportunity to secure an agreement to ambitious global action over the next decade. The UK is committed to playing a leading role in developing an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework to be adopted at COP15. The COP is due to take place in Kunming, China, later this year; though, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we expect a delay to the planned dates of 25 April to 8 May. Minister Goldsmith will head the UK delegation.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the lead department for the Convention on Biological Diversity, working closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Cabinet Office. A core team is in place in DEFRA, drawing on expertise across DEFRA, its specialist arms-length bodies, working with other Government departments, civil society organisations and society at large. This includes working with the FCDO and our Posts across the diplomatic network, through which we are engaging host governments to support the delivery of our objectives. Nature is one of the key priorities in the UK’s COP26 Presidency, and so the Cabinet Office COP26 Unit is also supporting preparations for COP15 to ensure successful delivery of our COP26 objectives.
At the end of 2020 the total value of the Church Commissioners’ assets, less the estimated value of future pensions obligations, was £7,573m.
The Commissioners have additional and ongoing statutory funding obligations over and above pension liabilities, including support for the work of bishops and cathedrals. The Commissioners also make grants to support the work of the Church across the country, with a focus on supporting the poorest communities.
The Commissioners plan their spending in three year cycles and estimated expenditure in 2020-22 is £930m including £383m for pensions.
Further information is available in the most recent annual report of the Church Commissioners: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/leadership-and-governance/church-commissioners-england/how-we-are-governed/publications
The year end balances for Dioceses in 2019 (the most recent information available) were £1,692m in investments (the majority restricted for particular purposes) and £184m in cash. For cathedrals this was £524m in investments and £50m in cash. The majority of investment assets are in property investments, which are less liquid than stock market investments. Typically around two-thirds of diocesan incomes come from parish share, the majority of which is funded by individuals’ donations to Parochial Church Councils. This funding stream has been impacted by the pandemic and resulted in a significant draw on diocesan reserves.
Dioceses, parochial church councils and cathedrals:
Government (DCMS) figures for grants equal to the value of VAT for works to listed places of worship over the past five years are below. These are grants to the value of VAT, not rebates. The Church Commissioners do not hold these figures broken down by Church of England diocese, parochial church council or cathedral:
2016 £20,689,034.00
2017 £23,839,469.00
2018 £24,773,038.00
2019 £24,522,362.00
2020 £24,665,225.00
This website, maintained by DCMS, contains details of the Listed Places of Worship Scheme and recent total disbursement: http://www.lpwscheme.org.uk/
Like all bodies that have charitable status, Gift Aid on donations can be claimed by parochial church councils, dioceses and cathedrals. The funding model of the Church of England means that the vast majority of donations from worshippers, visitors and other supporters are made to parochial church councils and to cathedral chapters. The Church Commissioners do not keep a record of Gift Aid receipts by dioceses, but the amount claimed will be modest.
Parochial Church Council Gift Aid receipts for the past five years are:
2016 £91.9m
2017 £94.5m
2018 £94.3m
2019 £96.4m
2020 £91.3m*
*The figure for 2020 is provisional and yet to be fully reviewed.
See also Parish Finance Statistics 2019, page 12: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/Parish%20Finance%20Statistics%202019.pdf
In 2018, the most recent year for which statistics are readily available, Church of England cathedrals reported in their accounts a total of £1.3m of Gift Aid from donations.
Church Commissioners:
The Church Commissioners have not received any Gift Aid on donations made by individuals.
Churches Conservation Trust:
The Churches Conservation Trust is an independent charity reporting to both Parliament and the General Synod. It receives income from donations from individuals, trusts and foundations, and core funding from Government (DCMS) and the General Synod of the Church of England via the Church Commissioners.
2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | |
Tax Rebates / LPWGS* | £550,556 | £239,520 | £318,174 | £289,460 | £834,592 |
Gift Aid | £16,063 | £22,756 | £28,787 | £19,824 | £27,524 |
*figure includes grants from the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme
The Annual Report and Accounts of the Trust are laid before Parliament and are available at https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/annual-report-accounts.html*figure includes grants from the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme
Dioceses, parochial church councils and cathedrals:
The Church Commissioners do not hold figures broken down by Church of England diocese, parochial church council or cathedral, for National Lottery Heritage Fund or Government grants.
Grants from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to Church of England churches and cathedrals over the past five years are as follows. Brackets indicate the number of grants awarded:
2016 £ 49,292,200 (166)
2017 £ 25,264,900 (184)
2018 £12,458,450 (144)
2019 £11,652,300 (57)
2020 £3,376,200 (67)
Government (DCMS) figures for grants equal to the value of VAT for works to listed Church of England places of worship over the past five years are:
2016 £20,689,034
2017 £23,839,469
2018 £24,773,038
2019 £24,522,362
2020 £24,665,225
This website, maintained by DCMS, contains details of the Listed Places of Worship Scheme and recent total disbursement: http://www.lpwscheme.org.uk/
Grants to Church of England listed places of worship under the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund in 2020-21 totalled £54,387,240, broken down as follows:
Building type | Number of grants | Total amount of funding |
Cathedral | 107 | £29,424,529 |
Major Parish Church | 154 | £14,903,597 |
Parish Church | 484 | £9,889,114 |
Church Commissioners:
The Church Commissioners do not receive funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund or Government grants.
Churches Conservation Trust:
The Churches Conservation Trust is an independent charity reporting to both Parliament and the General Synod. It receives income from donations from individuals, trusts and foundations, and core funding from Government (DCMS) and the General Synod of the Church of England via the Church Commissioners. Funding for the last five years is as follows:
| 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 |
Lottery Grants | £1,325,882 | £683,053 | £537,795 | £1,394,687 | £2,193,611 |
Government Grant Funding | £2,749,000 | £2,738,001 | £2,604,000 | £2,608,000 | £4,533,451 of which £2,788,000 grant in aid |
Church Grant Funding | £1,355,000 | £1,355,000 | £1,655,000 | £1,430,000 | £1,430,000 |
The Annual Report and Accounts of the Trust are laid before Parliament and are available at https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/annual-report-accounts.html
The National Churches Trust October 2020 report ‘The House of Good’, found that the total economic and social value that church buildings generate in the UK amounted to at least £12.4 billion per year, an average of around £300,000 per church. The report can be viewed here: https://www.houseofgood.nationalchurchestrust.org/
We are committed to working in partnership with Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to keep 1.5 alive and deliver the Paris Agreement goals.
To better support those already experiencing climate impacts, the UK has committed to doubling our climate finance. We are calling on others to follow our lead.
We are amplifying the voices of SIDS and continue to drive action on their priorities - including through our hosting of the Climate & Development Ministerial, co-chairing of the NDC Partnership, and leadership of the Adaptation Action Coalition.
Over 60% of the tenancies within the Church Commissioners’ rural portfolio are Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 (AHA) tenancies. AHA tenancies granted prior to 11 July 1984 provide for rights of succession. Forecasting the rate and date of tenancy succession with any accuracy is challenging. This is because AHA tenancies can only be succeeded upon the death or retirement of an incumbent tenant and these dates are typically not known.
Specific criteria need to be met by a prospective successor to allow succession to take place. The criteria are reviewed on a case-by-case basis in the context of the tenant and their proposed successor’s situation at the time a succession is proposed. Currently, 17% of the Church Commissioners’ AHA tenants have no rights to succession, 62% have rights to one succession and 21% two remaining successions. As such, we anticipate potentially eligible successors to 83% of the Commissioners’ existing AHA tenancies may apply to succeed the tenancy.
As a responsible landowner, the Church Commissioners comply with the requirements of the Land Registration Act 2002, and the Church Commissioners are only responsible for the land which they hold, not all Church of England land.
The Church Commissioner’s land has, to a large extent, been registered with the Land Registry, all such information is publicly available via the Land Registry. The 2002 Act does not provide for the Land Registry and the Church Commissioners to collaborate to undertake land surveys, nor does it require the Commissioners to have a policy on digital maps of their landholding.
As a responsible landowner, the Church Commissioners comply with the requirements of the Land Registration Act 2002, and the Church Commissioners are only responsible for the land which they hold, not all Church of England land.
The Church Commissioner’s land has, to a large extent, been registered with the Land Registry, all such information is publicly available via the Land Registry. The 2002 Act does not provide for the Land Registry and the Church Commissioners to collaborate to undertake land surveys, nor does it require the Commissioners to have a policy on digital maps of their landholding.
The Houses, acting as Parliament, have their own Environmental Policy Statement and set a target to reduce absolute carbon emissions from energy use by 34% by the end of 2020/21, against an independently validated 2008/09 base year. As at the end of October Parliament was on track to meet this commitment with a 51.3% reduction in absolute carbon emissions, equivalent to a reduction of over 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the last full year compared to our baseline year.
The House currently only measures and reports on scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, and is working to produce a system to measure our scope 3 impacts such as those from our supply chain, travel and waste.
I am committed to ensuring rape and sexual assault cases are conducted effectively – in fact, I recently successfully referred a point of law to the Court of Appeal to ensure that the law is clear in cases of sexual assault.
I have also engaged closely on CPS rape work, including meeting with CPS South East in December 2020 to discuss how their RASSO unit approaches these complex cases. The CPS and police also published their Joint National Action Plan on rape in January 2021 which shows their commitment to improvement.
The Central Digital and Data Office have advised that it is for each department to make decisions individually.
The Cabinet Office, like all Government departments and employers, needs to provide modern equipment to its staff to ensure that they can work efficiently, effectively and securely.
As laptops/computers age they will become slower, due to upgrades to the operating systems (e.g. Microsoft Windows) and more complex software, which will reduce the efficiency of those using them. The operating systems will also eventually become out of date and the vendors will not supply security patches, thereby making them obsolete (due to being insecure). There are no fixed timelines to these changes. We therefore have to assess on a regular basis to determine whether change is needed.
Data on the total number of solar panels and wind turbines across the government estate, and how they are distributed, is not held centrally. However, the government is committed to driving forward the renewable energy agenda, both on its own estate and beyond. As set out in the Net Zero Strategy, the government aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037. To support this, £2.5 billion is being invested through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme over the financial years 2020/21 to 2024/25 to provide grants for public sector bodies in England to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures, including renewable electricity generation.
The Office of Government Property has published the Net Zero Estate Playbook providing guidance to support government property organisations to decarbonise their estate. This includes recommendations of how to reduce operational energy use, such as through improving renewable energy generation where appropriate through multiple channels.
8.23% of the government estate (Central Government & Arm's-length bodies) electricity volume is on a renewable or renewable blend tariff.
52.2% of the government estate (Central Government & Arm's-length bodies) electricity volume is being supplied from a zero carbon (nuclear) tariff.
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is developing a route to market to contract directly with generators of renewable power and source an increasing amount of renewable power for the estate demand. The current timetable will see the agreement in place by the end of 2023.
In June 2021, the Government published Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/21 - Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts - requiring suppliers bidding for contracts above £5 million per annum to commit to the Government’s 2050 Net Zero target and publish a Carbon Reduction Plan.
Suppliers who fail to make such a commitment and publish their Carbon Reduction Plan risk being excluded from the procurement process.
In FY 2020/21, 5% (578) of all procurements awarded were above £5m per annum. These accounted for over 90% of the total value of procurements in the same period. Over 2,500 suppliers have submitted compliant Carbon Reduction Plans in response to PPN 06/21, and 40 bids have been rejected for failing to provide a compliant Carbon Reduction Plan since the policy was launched. We do not hold centrally the number of contracts terminated as a result of failure to comply with PPN 06/21.
Individual departments are responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of Carbon Reduction Plans submitted by suppliers as part of their commercial activity. We do not hold this data centrally.
In June 2021, the Government published Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/21 - Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts - requiring suppliers bidding for contracts above £5 million per annum to commit to the Government’s 2050 Net Zero target and publish a Carbon Reduction Plan.
Suppliers who fail to make such a commitment and publish their Carbon Reduction Plan risk being excluded from the procurement process.
In FY 2020/21, 5% (578) of all procurements awarded were above £5m per annum. These accounted for over 90% of the total value of procurements in the same period. Over 2,500 suppliers have submitted compliant Carbon Reduction Plans in response to PPN 06/21, and 40 bids have been rejected for failing to provide a compliant Carbon Reduction Plan since the policy was launched. We do not hold centrally the number of contracts terminated as a result of failure to comply with PPN 06/21.
Individual departments are responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of Carbon Reduction Plans submitted by suppliers as part of their commercial activity. We do not hold this data centrally.
In June 2021, the Government published Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/21 - Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts - requiring suppliers bidding for contracts above £5 million per annum to commit to the Government’s 2050 Net Zero target and publish a Carbon Reduction Plan.
Suppliers who fail to make such a commitment and publish their Carbon Reduction Plan risk being excluded from the procurement process.
In FY 2020/21, 5% (578) of all procurements awarded were above £5m per annum. These accounted for over 90% of the total value of procurements in the same period. Over 2,500 suppliers have submitted compliant Carbon Reduction Plans in response to PPN 06/21, and 40 bids have been rejected for failing to provide a compliant Carbon Reduction Plan since the policy was launched. We do not hold centrally the number of contracts terminated as a result of failure to comply with PPN 06/21.
Individual departments are responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of Carbon Reduction Plans submitted by suppliers as part of their commercial activity. We do not hold this data centrally.
GOV.UK is updated regularly with the list of Cabinet Committees, their terms of reference, membership and who chairs each Committee.
My Rt Hon. Friend the COP26 President is working closely with Egypt in the run up to COP27. The composition of the UK Government's delegation will be announced in due course.
The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity represents an historic opportunity to secure an agreement to ambitious global action over the next decade. The UK is committed to playing a leading role in developing an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework to be adopted at COP15. The COP is due to take place in Kunming, China, later this year; though, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we expect a delay to the planned dates of 25 April to 8 May. Minister Lord Goldsmith will head the UK delegation.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the lead department for the Convention on Biological Diversity, working closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Cabinet Office. A core team is in place in DEFRA, drawing on expertise across DEFRA, its specialist arms-length bodies, working with other Government departments, civil society organisations and society at large. This includes working with the FCDO and our Posts across the diplomatic network, through which we are engaging host governments to support the delivery of our objectives. Nature is one of the key priorities in the UK’s COP26 Presidency, and so the Cabinet Office COP26 Unit is also supporting preparations for COP15 to ensure successful delivery of our COP26 objectives.
Government Ministers responsible for the supply chain ecosystem are working collectively, and in close partnership with industry, to drive the development and delivery of plans to strengthen supply chain resilience, supporting economic recovery and levelling up.
The Cabinet Office uses vehicles from the Government Car Service, alongside other providers.
The Government Car Service is already electrifying its vehicles, with nearly 50% of their fleet either full battery electric or plug-in hybrid.
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Statement published on 11 March. (https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-03-11/hcws841).
The Reasonable Worst Case Scenario planning assumptions published on 23 September related specifically to the potential for disruption to freight travelling at the end of the Transition Period. The Government is using a broad range of approaches to planning and preparing for the next phases of border controls.
Freight levels have increased since the beginning of the year, and volumes are now at the equivalent 2020 levels. The Border Operations Centre in the Cabinet Office is monitoring border flow.
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Statement published on 11 March. (https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-03-11/hcws841).
The Reasonable Worst Case Scenario planning assumptions published on 23 September related specifically to the potential for disruption to freight travelling at the end of the Transition Period. The Government is using a broad range of approaches to planning and preparing for the next phases of border controls.
Freight levels have increased since the beginning of the year, and volumes are now at the equivalent 2020 levels. The Border Operations Centre in the Cabinet Office is monitoring border flow.
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Statement published on 11 March. (https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-03-11/hcws841).
The Reasonable Worst Case Scenario planning assumptions published on 23 September related specifically to the potential for disruption to freight travelling at the end of the Transition Period. The Government is using a broad range of approaches to planning and preparing for the next phases of border controls.
Freight levels have increased since the beginning of the year, and volumes are now at the equivalent 2020 levels. The Border Operations Centre in the Cabinet Office is monitoring border flow.
I refer the hon. Member to the letter from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to the Chair of the Future Relationship with the European Union select committee dated 7 October 2020 and published on the committee website.
Smart Freight will enable a driver or haulier to check and confirm that goods they are carrying are accompanied by customs and import/export documentation and are thus ready to cross the border.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 39669 on 4 May 2020.
The Department for Business and Trade works with the construction sector to support decarbonisation and achieving Government’s net zero targets.
This support includes increased delivery of energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation, the use of lower carbon materials and products such as cement and concrete, and tools to help the sector manage carbon and understand whole life carbon considerations of infrastructure and the built environment.
The approach on what materials and products, including lower carbon materials, could be used in construction projects is agnostic, and will be dependent on the type of infrastructure or built environment structure being constructed.
Since July 2022, we have seen Tata Group announce an investment of over £4bn in a UK gigafactory. JLR have also announced plans to accelerate their shift to electric vehicles and have committed to a £15bn investment in their industrial footprint, vehicle programmes, autonomous, AI and digital technologies and people skills. In addition, in the wider electric vehicle manufacturing supply chain, we have seen Johnson Matthey announce an investment of over £60m in Hertfordshire to develop hydrogen technologies, Pensana announce an investment of £145m in a rare Earth metal refinery, and Ford announce a further £150m investment in Halewood to manufacture Electric Drive Units, in addition to their £227m investment announced in October 2021.
Details of our support to companies will be published in due course as part of our regular transparency data.
The Department for Business and Trade has regular contact with the metals recycling sector and they have raised electrification of sites and access to hydrogen networks as potential barriers. The Government’s Electricity Networks Strategic Framework sets out a vision for the transformation of the electricity network, and the Government aims to respond to its consultation on hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure later this year.
To support decarbonisation, the sector can apply to the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, the Programme of Research and Innovation for the UK Steel and Metals sector, and the SUSTAIN Future Manufacturing Research Hub.
Metals recycling will play an important role in helping the domestic aluminium and steel sectors deliver net zero production, through the delivery of reduced residual scrap as a key feedstock.
There is no deep-sea mining currently happening in areas beyond national jurisdictions, there are no exploitation licences for deep-sea mining, and no exploitation regulations have yet been agreed.
In addition, the UK has committed not to sponsor or support the issuing of any exploitation licences for deep-sea mining projects unless and until there is sufficient scientific evidence about the potential impact on deep-sea ecosystems and strong and enforceable environmental regulations and standards have been developed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and are in place.
The Government commissioned this independent review from the British Geological Survey, the National Oceanography Centre and Heriot-Watt University to provide a comprehensive description of current research related to deep-sea mining.
Informed by evidence, we continue to contribute to discussions on deep-seabed mining at the International Seabed Authority (ISA), pressing for the highest environmental standards in relation to existing exploration activity, and potential future commercial exploitation should that be approved by the ISA.
My Rt hon Friends the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State will attend COP28, as well as Ministers from the following departments: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, HM Treasury, Department for Transport, and Department for Health and Social Care.
The Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys to Bangladesh and Japan are attending COP28 as part of the UK’s wider delegation of Climate Parliamentarians.
The UK is fully supportive of rapid national and global action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, including methane, as part of its commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The Government put methane towards the top of the agenda at COP26, where the Global Methane Pledge was launched and the UK was one of the first countries to sign up. The Government welcomes the focus of COP28 on delivering action to reduce global methane emissions and will ensure the UK is represented at these discussions wherever possible, demonstrating its leadership and strong domestic track record.
The Government is currently commissioning an independent peer review of the model, and following this, the Government plans to publish the model as soon as practicable.
The Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, published in March, sets out the proposals and policies that enable carbon budgets 4, 5 and 6 to be met.
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State keeps under review the UK's progress towards net zero. The Government has exceeded every carbon budget to date and is confident in its ability to meet its targets and net zero by 2050.
There is regulation in place to promote awareness of the Priority Services Register (PSR). For example, condition 26 of Ofgem’s gas and electricity supply licence requires suppliers to take all reasonable steps to promote the existence of the PSR and identify consumers who are eligible for the PSR. Furthermore, Government supports the provision of information to consumers through Citizens Advice, who have a statutory duty to provide energy advice to consumers.
During the UK's COP26 Presidency, the Government launched the Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT). The TPT was tasked with developing guidance for good practice transition plans. Their disclosure framework was published in October, and they will consult on detailed sector guidance in November.
As part of implementing the Green Finance Strategy, the Government is planning to consult in due course on how the UK’s largest companies can effectively disclose their transition plans, if they have one.
Additionally, the Net Zero Council, which brings together CEOs from leading companies including Co-op, HSBC, Siemens and Cemex, has developed a framework to help businesses to create tailored sector decarbonisation roadmaps.
The Government takes scheme design into careful consideration. All schemes are designed with reference to the Green Book. The Government takes its Public Sector Equality Duty requirements extremely seriously and has a range of grant schemes that support decarbonisation efforts for citizens across the country. This includes the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, and the £10m Community Energy Fund, which will enable both rural and urban communities across England to access grant funding to develop local renewable energy projects for investment.
Industrial carbon capture and storage use will play a crucial role in deep decarbonisation of heavy industries that would otherwise have no alternative to decarbonise, including in the construction sector. CCUS is the only viable solution for addressing process emissions, such as from cement production.
The Hanson Padeswood Cement Works and Buxton Lime Net Zero projects were selected as two of the eight projects to move to negotiations as part of our Track-1 Project Negotiation List.
The Department for Business and Trade is working with the construction sector through the Construction Leadership Council, with a key priority being net zero and biodiversity, to support decarbonisation in the sector.
The Government has committed an additional £6 billion of funding for energy efficiency and clean heat from 2025 to 2028. This provides long-term funding certainty, supports the growth of supply chains, and ensures delivery can scale up over time.
Where there have been insufficient bids for funding allocated to current schemes, the remaining amounts have been reallocated to support wider energy security policy.
The UK ETS Authority stated its intention to align the cap with net zero at scheme launch in 2021, and has consulted extensively since. The “Developing the UK ETS” consultation in 2022 included a range of trajectories for a cap consistent with the UK's climate targets. It received over 114 responses from market participants and relevant stakeholders, and also sought the Climate Change Committee's advice, who published their views within their 2022 Progress Report.
In July the Government published reforms to the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to ensure it supports the delivery of net zero by 2050. These include a 30% reduction of the UK ETS cap, limiting the volume of greenhouse gases covered sectors can emit. As part of the UK ETS Authority, it is not appropriate for the Government to comment on UK ETS prices.
Maintaining international competitiveness for UK businesses is a key objective of the UK ETS and the impacts of UK ETS policy on trade with the EU are monitored closely.
The Department commissioned a research project[1] to improve the completeness and accuracy of greenhouse gas emissions estimates, including methane, from key processes associated with the exploration and production of oil and gas in the UK. The project concluded in 2022 and resulted in significant improvements to the UK’s estimates of these emissions which are now reflected in the UK’s annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory[2].
£1.366 billion was spent on energy efficiency and clean heat in buildings in 2021-22. Figures for 2022-23 have not yet been finalised.
£1.247 billion has been allocated in 2023/24 and £1.469 billion for 2024/25 for energy efficiency and clean heat in buildings.
The Government does not hold this data. North Sea Transition Authority analysis shows that domestically produced gas releases around one quarter the carbon dioxide during the process of extraction, treatment and transportation, when compared to imported liquefied natural gas.
The transition to net zero will provide opportunities to grow the economy and support hundreds of thousands of green, high skilled jobs.
The North Sea Transition Deal is a global exemplar of how government can work with the energy sector to achieve a managed energy transition.
To understand and address workforce demands across the economy, the Green Jobs Delivery Group is focused on creating a Net Zero and Nature Workforce Action Plan, which will be informed by several sectoral assessments on workforce needs. As part of this, skills passporting arrangements for the power and networks sectors is being explored.
The Department does not hold data on the number of green jobs created since July 2023. Over 80,000 green jobs are being supported or are in the pipeline across the UK economy as a result of new government policies and spending since November 2020. Government policy and ambitions will support up to 480,000 jobs in 2030.
In Powering Up Britain, the Government set out additional support for clean technology manufacturing, including:
These interventions have helped secure opportunities for UK manufacturers. For example, through the Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme Government supported SeAH Wind’s investment of over £400m to build a world leading monopile foundation manufacturing facility in Teesside, creating up to 800 jobs by 2030.
The Government is working with Ofgem and network companies to release network capacity and improve the connections process, which will reduce timescales for all types of connections, including metal recycling yards. Building on this work, the Government and Ofgem will publish a connections action plan in the summer.
Ofgem have also decided that electricity demand customers, such as metal recycling yards, submitting a connection application after 1 April 2023 will no longer be charged for any distribution network reinforcement costs to accommodate their connection, reducing the cost of connecting.
The metals recycling sector can bid into a number of government-funded decarbonisation schemes, including the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, the Programme of Research and Innovation for the UK Steel and Metals sector (PRISM) run by the Materials Processing Institute, and the SUSTAIN Future Manufacturing Research Hub headed by Swansea University.
Businesses can also benefit from exemptions on business rates for investments in green technologies. The Government has announced a new Business Energy Advice Service that will specifically target SMEs. Working with the Energy Efficiency Taskforce, the Government is reviewing what additional support could help businesses to save energy.
The Government recognises that eliminating routine flaring and venting is a priority.
The upstream oil and gas sector contributes approximately 1.6% of UK methane emissions, compared to 30% from waste and 49% from agriculture.
Through the ambitious North Sea Transition Deal, industry has committed to accelerate compliance with the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring 2030 Initiative. Good progress is being made - the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) reported a 50% reduction in flaring since 2018 and a 13% drop last year.
Furthermore, the NSTA expects all new developments to be planned and developed with zero routine flaring and venting.
Methane emissions for each of the last 5 years is set out in the published UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/final-uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-national-statistics-1990-to-2021] which shows that in 2021 UK methane emissions were 57.0Mt CO2-equivalent, 62% below 1990 levels. The latest projections of UK emissions, provided in the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, do not include year-by-year estimates to 2030. The approach to methane reduction set out here and in the UK’s Methane Memorandum is consistent with the Government's commitment under the Global Methane Pledge. The global methane pledge is a global reduction target to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 relative to 2020 levels.
Methane emissions for each of the last 5 years is set out in the published UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/final-uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-national-statistics-1990-to-2021] which shows that in 2021 UK methane emissions were 57.0Mt CO2-equivalent, 62% below 1990 levels. The latest projections of UK emissions, provided in the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, do not include year-by-year estimates to 2030. The approach to methane reduction set out here and in the UK’s Methane Memorandum is consistent with the Government's commitment under the Global Methane Pledge. The global methane pledge is a global reduction target to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 relative to 2020 levels.
The Domestic and Economic Affairs (Energy, Climate and Net Zero) Cabinet Committee and supporting governance structures provide forums to discuss how different sectors, including agriculture, contribute to our carbon budgets. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero is the deputy chair of this Committee, which my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs attends as do I.
A call for evidence on methane suppressing feed products closed in November 2022. The Government will publish further details in the summary of responses later this year.
The Department’s HQ building at 1 Victoria Street, London is supplied by EDF's 'Zero Carbon for Business 100%' tariff. This energy tariff uses a 100% nuclear mix and produces zero carbon emissions.
The Department has 31 solar panels on the roof of its HQ building at 1 Victoria Street, London.
The Department does not have any wind turbines on the building.
The Department contracts with the Government Car Service, which is a division within the Department for Transport, for the provision of two cars.
The vehicle fuel type varies depending on which car has been allocated to cover on a given day. Generally, the cars are electric or hybrid.
The Department uses gas boilers as its primary means of heating for its current HQ building in 1 Victoria Street, London.
The Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery projects which were awarded through Phase 1A and Phase 1B grants have been completed by way of a managed closedown of the projects. All project delivery for Phases 1A and 1B was completed by the end of September 2022.
A three-month extension to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 1 Funding Period was made available to all Local Authorities, allowing grant spend to be incurred until the end of June 2023, if required, to maximise the outcomes of the scheme by allowing continued delivery of energy efficiency measures to tenants.
For work carried out under Government schemes, installers are required to be TrustMark registered, as well as PAS certified for energy efficiency measures and MCS certified for low carbon heating measures. According to the data held by TrustMark, the number of registered installers eligible to participate on the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme increased from around 455 when the scheme was first announced in summer 2020 to around 1496 by May 2021. In April 2023, there were 1915 TrustMark businesses across the UK which were certified to PAS or MCS standards.
Wave 1 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund will upgrade up to 20,000 social housing properties currently below Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C rating. The latest official statistics published on gov.uk show that, at the end of March, 3,246 homes had been upgraded. There have been delays in lodging and reporting measure installations, which Department officials are working with grant recipients to address.
Wave 1 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund awarded around £179m of grant funding. Project delivery is progressing well with grant funding expected to be used by 30 June 2023. Grant spend will be confirmed as data becomes available from June onwards as Wave 1 projects complete.
The main delivery challenges that required some Phase 1A delivery and funding to be moved to Phase 1B included the impact of the Covid pandemic on access to tenant properties and the supply chain. Other challenges included shortages of labour and material and price increases.
£131.9 million (65.1%) was spent out of a total of £202.7 million awarded under Phase One of the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme.
As of May 2023, there were no outstanding households awaiting completion of projects under the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme.
The tenure of the current Climate Change Committee Chair, Lord Deben, will end on the 10 June. The Government has worked with devolved administrations to agree the appointment of an interim Chair who will then take on the role while the appointment of the new permanent Chair is finalised. The timing for the appointment is dependent on the appointment process.
The Chair role is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, and both the interim Chair appointment and the recruitment process for a permanent Chair are being conducted in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments.
The Chair role is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments and the recruitment process is being conducted in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments. The Code prescribes ministers as the appointing authority and says that they should be assisted in their decision-making by an Advisory Assessment Panel. Ministers have not met candidates or potential applicants for this role but, in line with the Code, they have been engaged in the planning process for the appointment and will be a given an opportunity to meet candidates at an appropriate point in the process.
The advertisement for the new Chair of the Climate Change Committee has now closed. The Department received 64 applications.
The role is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments and the role was advertised in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments.
The Department’s target for the proportion of waste recycled is 70%, as set out in the Greening Government Commitments. There is no specific target for the proportion of waste to be reused.
The Chair of the Climate Change Committee plays a critical role in steering and developing the overall work of the Committee. Therefore, the quality and diversity of the applications to this role is critical. Close to the application deadline, the Department made the decision to extend the deadline to ensure the highest quality field of applicants.
The role is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, and this approach is in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments.
The Domestic and Economic Affairs (Energy, Climate and Net Zero) Cabinet Committee and supporting governance structures provide forums to discuss how different sectors, including waste, contribute to our carbon budgets. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero is the deputy chair of this Committee, which my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs attends.
The Carbon Budgets Delivery Plan sets out expected emissions savings, including from Defra’s commitment to explore policies to achieve the near elimination of biodegradable municipal waste to landfill from 2028, including consistent collections of recycling. Government’s response to the consultation on this will be published shortly.
The Domestic and Economic Affairs (Energy, Climate and Net Zero) Cabinet Committee and supporting governance structures ensure that there are multiple forums empowered to identify and address the system-wide interdependencies within net zero, and between net zero and other priorities, to keep us on track to meet Carbon Budgets. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero is the deputy chair of this Committee which my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and I also attend.
Appendix D of the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan published in March this year sets out sectoral summaries of delivery confidence, looking at carbon reduction policies across different sectors of the economy, including Natural Resources (which includes agriculture and land use).
As part of the Powering Up Britain: The Net Zero Growth plan publication, the Government committed to publishing a joint government-industry Net Zero and Nature Workforce Action Plan in the first half of 2024, representing the culmination of several sectoral assessments in the coming 12 months.
Additionally, the Green Jobs Delivery Group co-Chairs will begin publishing biannual progress updates on its work, starting later this year.
The Green Jobs Delivery Group will deliver the recently announced joint government-industry Net Zero and Nature Workforce Action Plan, to be published in 2024. In support, time-limited task and finish groups are being established on themes such as 'nature' and 'local'.
The pilot Power and Networks Working Group published initial actions in the Net Zero Growth Plan, to be followed by a further update in summer 2023, including a sectoral assessment of workforce needs which will serve as a template for other sectors.
The Net Zero and Nature Workforce Action Plan will represent the culmination of these sectoral assessments.
Appendix D of the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan published in March this year sets out sectoral summaries of delivery confidence, looking at carbon reduction policies across different sectors of the economy, including Natural Resources (which includes agriculture and land use).
The Government recently published the Powering Up Britain plans that detail how we are encouraging businesses to reduce their energy demand. The Government plans to launch a digital energy advice service for small businesses to provide impartial, trusted advice on improving non-domestic energy efficiency. The Government will also be piloting a new audit and grant scheme this year.
Existing initiatives include exemptions on business rates for green technology, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme providing small businesses grants, and offering industry £500m for energy efficiency and low carbon technologies.
The Green Jobs Delivery Group has met three times. It’s the central forum for continued action on green jobs and skills and is a key component in responding to the skills challenge and transition.
As a result of the current economic context, the group is looking at emerging workforce issues relating to the delivery of net zero and the UK’s environment goals and has formed three ask and finish groups on Power and Networks, Nature Skills, and Local capacity.
The Construction Industry Training Board report estimated that 12,000 workers would need to be trained each year to 2025 to improve the fabric energy efficiency of every building in the country. We are investing in retrofit skills through our £9.2m home decarbonisation skills competition.
At present we do not intend to publish a plan for building retrofit skills. However an area of focus for the new Energy Efficiency Taskforce (EETF) will be to stimulate the supply chain to address and increase investment, reduce skills gaps and accelerate pathways to accreditation. The first meeting of the EETF will be held in March.
The Terms of Reference for the EETF can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-efficiency-taskforce-terms-of-reference/energy-efficiency-taskforce-terms-of-reference.
The Government announced the appointment of Alison Rose DBE as Co-Chair of the Energy Efficiency Taskforce (EETF) on Monday 20 February. Details of the appointment and terms of reference can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/alison-rose-appointed-to-help-accelerate-energy-efficiency.
The first meeting of the EETF will be held in March. The membership of the EETF steering group will be announced in due course.
Funding has been available since 2010 for businesses developing novel solutions across the agrifood sector. Projects supported include novel crop production systems, plant proteins, meat alternative plant-based foods, and agroceuticals. Through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, approximately £90m has been committed since 2018 to support 'Transforming Food Production' projects.
Innovate UK has delivered support to grow the sustainable protein industry as part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme. This supports the creation of new sources of resource-efficient, low-emission proteins, including innovative plant-based solutions. Competitions currently open include the ‘Novel Low Emission Food Production Systems’ competition worth £16m jointly committed by Innovate UK and Biotechnology and Biotech Sciences Research Council, and Innovate UK’s £20m ‘Better Food for All’ competition
As of 1 December, energy suppliers had issued 4,044,554 vouchers to customers with traditional prepayment meters, of which 2,659,344 had been redeemed. The latest data is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support-scheme-payments-made-by-electricity-suppliers-to-customers
Data to end December will be published shortly. Figures for January will be published next month.
Suppliers have an obligation and must evidence that they have attempted to make a minimum of three attempts by at least two different methods to contact customers who have not redeemed their voucher. Replacement vouchers can be issued but must be redeemed by the 30 June 2023.
As of 1 December, energy suppliers had issued 4,044,554 vouchers to customers with traditional prepayment meters, of which 2,659,344 had been redeemed. The latest data is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support-scheme-payments-made-by-electricity-suppliers-to-customers
Data to end December will be published shortly. Figures for January will be published next month.
Suppliers have an obligation and must evidence that they have attempted to make a minimum of three attempts by at least two different methods to contact customers who have not redeemed their voucher. Replacement vouchers can be issued but must be redeemed by the 30 June 2023.
The Autumn Statement announced a new national ambition to reduce the UK’s final energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15% by 2030 against 2021 levels. To support the delivery of this target, a new Energy Efficiency Taskforce will be established. More details on the scope and membership of the Taskforce will be announced in due course.
We are working with the construction sector to reduce its emission contributions to help meet our net zero target, with a focus on construction processes including transport and the plant and machinery it uses, and in the built environment. We are working closely with the construction sector to reduce embodied carbon and are looking at a range of means for doing so.
The Government does not estimate or hold this information. Electricity network companies are required to provide connection offers within timescales set and monitored by Ofgem.
The Government has committed to carrying out a review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme by the end of the year to inform decisions on future support after March 2023, with any future support for those deemed eligible commencing on 1st April 2023 without a gap. The findings of the review will be published by the end of the year.
The Government has doubled support to £200 for alternatively fuelled households, in recognition of the pressures caused by rising fuel costs. The Government is committed to delivering this payment to households as soon as possible this Winter. The Government will announce further information on the delivery and timing of these payments in due course.
Through the Forest Agriculture and Commodities Trade Dialogue, (co-chaired by the UK and Indonesia), the UK is working with 28 partner countries to deliver a roadmap for action on sustainable trade while protecting forests. This includes commitments to improve and enhance global Traceability and Transparency T&T) systems that provide the basis for certification schemes and assurance of origin of forest risk commodities. Through this policy discussion FACT governments have collectively agreed, as a first step, to commission research to identify data gaps in T&T systems. This will enable the Government to consider how to support countries and stakeholders to identify and access funding, technical assistance and capacity building to strengthen T&T systems.
The UK Government is tackling unsustainable legal deforestation through two key initiatives:
The UK and US are convening 13 of the world’s largest agri-commodity trader companies who have committed to developing a roadmap for COP27. This roadmap focuses on accelerated supply chain action, to reduce emissions from land use change, and working with key stakeholders to address the root causes of deforestation.
Around £100m from the BEIS International Climate Finance budget in 2022-23 has been identified to be handed back to HM Treasury.
Around £100m from the BEIS International Climate Finance budget in 2022-23 has been identified to be handed back to HM Treasury.
The Government is continuing to review the latest available evidence to ensure that its target remains aligned with the Paris temperature goal and exploring other ways to strengthen its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
The Government will publish any updates to the NDC ahead of the UN synthesis report deadline on 23 September and urges other parties to do the same.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 15th March 2022 to Question 135440.
The UK’s Overseas Territories of the Cayman Islands, Falklands and Gibraltar do not have individual targets under the Doha Amendment, but are included in the UK’s target, which the UK is on track to meet.
For reference, territorial greenhouse gas emissions in the base year (1990) and most recent year (2020) for the 3 territories listed are as follows (million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent):
UK Overseas Territory | 1990 | 2020 |
Cayman Islands | 0.5 | 1.1 |
Falkland Islands | 0.4 | 0.4 |
Gibraltar | 0.2 | 0.2 |
Note that final estimates of emissions reductions under the Doha Amendment would differ slightly from these figures, as the UK has chosen to use 1995 as the base year for fluorinated gases emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. The UK will account for emissions from the land use, land use change and forestry sector in accordance with Kyoto Protocol guidelines. Final figures will be available following the ‘true-up’ process, in which final assessment of compliance with targets under the Doha amendment will take place, likely to be 2023 at the earliest.
The UK ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been extended to the Overseas Territories of Bermuda, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and the Falkland Islands.
The UK ratification of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol has been extended to Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and the Falkland Islands.
As of March 2022, the Paris Agreement has not been extended to any of the Overseas Territories. The Government will continue to engage on extension of the UK ratification of the Paris Agreement with those Overseas Territories that are eligible and that formally request it.
BEIS publish National Statistics on UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions annually: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/final-uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-national-statistics-1990-to-2020. The latest statistics cover emissions from 1990 to 2020 and include estimates of territorial emissions from UK Overseas Territories who are not party to the Paris Agreement but are party to the UNFCCC.
The UK ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been extended to the Overseas Territories of Bermuda, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and the Falkland Islands.
The UK ratification of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol has been extended to Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and the Falkland Islands.
As of March 2022, the Paris Agreement has not been extended to any of the Overseas Territories. The Government will continue to engage on extension of the UK ratification of the Paris Agreement with those Overseas Territories that are eligible and that formally request it.
BEIS publish National Statistics on UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions annually: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/final-uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-national-statistics-1990-to-2020. The latest statistics cover emissions from 1990 to 2020 and include estimates of territorial emissions from UK Overseas Territories who are not party to the Paris Agreement but are party to the UNFCCC.
The UK ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been extended to the Overseas Territories of Bermuda, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and the Falkland Islands.
The UK ratification of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol has been extended to Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and the Falkland Islands.
As of March 2022, the Paris Agreement has not been extended to any of the Overseas Territories. The Government will continue to engage on extension of the UK ratification of the Paris Agreement with those Overseas Territories that are eligible and that formally request it.
BEIS publish National Statistics on UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions annually: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/final-uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-national-statistics-1990-to-2020. The latest statistics cover emissions from 1990 to 2020 and include estimates of territorial emissions from UK Overseas Territories who are not party to the Paris Agreement but are party to the UNFCCC.
Nauru has notified the International Seabed Authority of its intention to apply for approval of a plan of work for deep sea mining exploitation under the terms of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). We continue to press for the very highest environmental standards to be agreed and activated by the International Seabed Authority. Until there is sufficient scientific evidence about the potential impacts on deep sea ecosystems and strong and enforceable environmental regulations in place, the UK has committed not to sponsor or support the issuing of any exploitation licences for deep sea mining projects.
BEIS currently has contracts with the Government Car Service, which is a division within the Department for Transport, for the provision of two cars. The vehicles supplied to BEIS by the Government Car Service are owned and operated by the Department for Transport and are leased by BEIS.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-car-service.
The vehicle fuel type can vary depending on which car has been allocated to cover on that day. Generally, the cars are electric or hybrid.
At Step 4 of the roadmap, which will be no earlier than 21 June, the Government aims to remove limits on weddings, civil partnership ceremonies, receptions and celebrations. This will be subject to the outcome of the Social Distancing Review and the Events Research Programme.
There have been no recent discussions. The two licences issued to UK Seabed Resources in 2012 and 2013 are for exploration, and not exploitation (mining) activity. The licences are granted subject to periodic review, and so would not be extended beyond 10 years without a review by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State, which is in line with the relevant legislation.
Exploitation is not currently permitted to be conducted, and the International Seabed Authority is still working towards exploitation regulations that would need to be in place. A full Environmental Impact Assessment – subject to public consultation – would be required before any mining could be conducted by UK Seabed Resources or any other operator.
Critical materials, and particularly certain types of minerals and metals, will be vital to delivering the green transition and safeguarding our future economic resilience. Technology-critical minerals and metals are important, and often irreplaceable, in electric vehicle batteries, offshore wind turbines, and other technologies. The World Bank estimates that three billion tonnes of metals and minerals will be needed to decarbonise the global energy system by 2050. The Government will therefore continue to consider possible mechanisms that could support this green transition, including the possible role of deep sea mining.
The UK is a global leader in protecting the seas, the ocean and our marine life - and works with stakeholders in the UK and partners overseas to help achieve these aims. The UK will be an ambitious participant in the Super Year 2021. We continue to nurture and grow the Blue Belt Programme of large marine protected areas around the British Overseas Territories, which amount now to a protected area larger than India. We are about to launch our new £500 million Blue Planet fund to support a broad range of activities to protect and restore precious marine ecosystems. And we have been leading the Global Ocean Alliance of countries committed to protecting at least 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030.
As a part of our belief in strong multilateral action on the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean, we will continue to support the requirement for the highest possible environmental standards for the regulation of any deep sea mining which happens in future in areas beyond national jurisdictions.
The licences issued to UK Seabed Resources Ltd include significant conditions in relation to environmental considerations, including sections on protection of the environment and environmental monitoring & reporting. In addition, the licences are issued in line with prevailing legislation which provides further environmental safeguards.
We can confirm that applicants into the Faraday Battery Challenge’s fourth competition of collaborative research and development funding will be notified by Friday 30th April 2021. The announcement of the successful projects will follow.
Batteries for electric vehicles are an important part of the Government’s plans for green growth, levelling up across our country and driving emissions to net zero by 2050. The Government is investing £320 million through the Faraday Battery Challenge to put the UK at the global forefront of the design, development, manufacturing, and recycling of electric batteries. This fourth round of innovation funding will continue to support exciting UK businesses in the development of these technologies, generating further jobs and investment in this critical area.
We have commissioned an independent review of the existing literature in relation to deep sea mining, which will seek to include elements such as environmental, economic and societal considerations, and to identify key outstanding questions and evidence gaps.
The terms of reference and a summary of the evidence review will be published in due course.
The names of the external experts who were approached and appointed to participate in the review will be published in due course.
The UK plays a leading role in the development of measures driving emissions reduction in the international aviation and shipping sectors at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) while UK aviation and shipping emissions are covered by our domestic legislation. We are considering all of the CCC’s recommendations, including on International Aviation and Shipping, carefully ahead of setting the sixth carbon budget.
The UK plays a leading role in the development of measures driving emissions reduction in the international aviation and shipping sectors at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) while UK aviation and shipping emissions are covered by our domestic legislation. We are considering all of the CCC’s recommendations, including on International Aviation and Shipping, carefully ahead of setting the sixth carbon budget.
In order to support students that have been most impacted, UKRI has made over £62 million of financial support available, and it is estimated that this funding is available for up to 12,000 students.
UKRI have recently provided an update by UKRI CEO Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser on its decision-making in providing support for the research system. In this, they note that in making these difficult decisions, they have tried to balance the immediate needs of all current students against those of early career researchers, technicians and Principal Investigators, as well as students’ future needs. You can read the full update here.
We are grateful for the steps students have already taken in adapting their projects to continue their research in these circumstances. I meet regularly with Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, to monitor how the pandemic is affecting UKRI-funded PhD students and the wider research system. We will continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 and UKRI continues to listen and respond carefully as the situation evolves.
The Government does not hold any data on the proportion of bicycles sold in the UK, which are manufactured in the UK.
In June 2020, the Advanced Propulsion Centre published a report showing there could be up to £12 billion of market opportunities for battery technology by 2025 for UK players:
https://www.apcuk.co.uk/app/uploads/2020/06/APC-Passenger-car-electrification-report-online-v1.pdf.
The Faraday Institution (FI) commissioned a study which showed that by 2040, demand for UK made batteries for the automotive sector will reach 140GWh, or seven 20GWh ‘Gigafactories’. The study can be found here at: https://faraday.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2040_Gigafactory_Report_FINAL.pdf.
The Government has responded to the FI study by launching the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF). The ATF will provide up to £1 billion to support innovative research and development projects to scale up manufacturing of the latest technology in batteries, motors, electronics and fuel cells. As part of the ATF, the Government is also calling upon industry to put forward investment proposals for the UK’s first Gigafactory. The programme will provide a focus for investment, promote the UK opportunity and support investors with site selection.
The deadline for implementing the EU Copyright Directive is 7 June 2021. The United Kingdom will leave the European Union on 31 January 2020 and the Brexit transition period will end on 31 December 2020. Therefore, the United Kingdom will not be required to implement the Directive, and the Government has no plans to do so.
Any future changes to the UK copyright framework will be considered as part of the usual domestic policy process.
The deadline for implementing the EU Copyright Directive is 7 June 2021. The United Kingdom will leave the European Union on 31 January 2020 and the Brexit transition period will end on 31 December 2020. Therefore, the United Kingdom will not be required to implement the Directive, and the Government has no plans to do so.
Any future changes to the UK copyright framework will be considered as part of the usual domestic policy process.
The deadline for implementing the EU Copyright Directive is 7 June 2021. The United Kingdom will leave the European Union on 31 January 2020 and the Brexit transition period will end on 31 December 2020. Therefore, the United Kingdom will not be required to implement the Directive, and the Government has no plans to do so.
Any future changes to the UK copyright framework will be considered as part of the usual domestic policy process.
The Corporate Transparency and Register Reform Consultation was launched on the 5th May 2019 and closed on the 5th August 2019. It received a significant number of responses. I plan to publish a response shortly.
Government is committed to supporting our grassroots music venues, which are the lifeblood and research and development centres of our world-leading music sector.
DCMS is in regular discussions with all parts of the music industry, including live venues at every level. We work with industry and across Government to improve the sector's economic resilience to future economic shocks, as we did through the pandemic, and we continue to engage with the sector on the impact of current pressures. We are also supporting the sector through the Energy Bills Support Scheme and will continue to do so through the Energy Bills Discount Scheme until Spring 2024.
We will shortly be publishing a Creative Industries Sector Vision that will set out this Government’s ambitions, shared with industry, to support all parts of the creative sector to 2030. We look forward to working with the music industry to deliver on these objectives.
The BBC is responsible for the collection and enforcement of the licence fee, not the government. The Government is therefore not involved in TV Licensing operations. HM Courts & Tribunals Service is responsible for collecting and enforcing financial penalties imposed by the courts which includes fines imposed for the non-payment of a TV licence.
In 2021, 49,126 people were proceeded against by HM Courts & Tribunals Service for non-payment of the licence fee, and 44,364 were fined. The BBC has recently confirmed that no enforcement or prosecution action has been taken against over-75s who previously held a free licence and therefore no over-75s have been fined. The Department does not hold data on the amount collected from TV licensing fines and will engage with relevant departments to follow up with this information.
The Government is independent from the BBC, and any decision to suspend enforcement action by TV Licensing, or assessment of the impact of this decision, would be a matter for the BBC. Given the BBC’s independence it would not be appropriate for the government to seek to intervene in operational decisions on enforcement action. Nonetheless, the government expects the BBC to collect the licence fee in an efficient and proportionate manner, and to treat all vulnerable people with sensitivity in doing so.
Museums and galleries in the UK operate independently of the government. Decisions relating to their collections are a matter for the trustees of each museum.
National museums are prevented by law from “deaccessioning” objects in their collections unless, broadly, they are duplicates or unfit for retention. The two exceptions to this are when the objects are human remains that are less than 1000 years old, and objects that were spoliated during the Nazi-era.
The Government recognises the importance of touring to the creative and cultural sectors, and is committed to helping them navigate the new rules under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
The DCMS-led working group on creative and cultural touring, which involves sector representatives and other key government departments, is looking at the issues and options to help the sectors resume touring with ease as soon as it is safe to do so.
Membership of the Working Group includes a range of sector representative bodies, including: Association of Independent Music, the Music Managers’ Forum, Musicians’ Union, UK Music, BPI, LIVE, the Association of British Orchestras, UK Theatre, One Dance UK, the Incorporated Society of Musicians, the Creative Industries Federation, the Featured Artists Coalition, National Museum Directors’ Council, ACE, the British Fashion Council, the Production Services Association, Creative Scotland, Arts Councils for each of the nations, Logistics UK, the Road Haulage Association, #WeMakeEvents and the Council of Music Makers.
Sector representatives are encouraged to reach out to others to ensure the working group hears and understands the views and concerns of organisations and individuals right across the cultural and creative sectors.
Following the Secretary of State-chaired roundtable with the sector on 20 January, the Working Group has met four times. There have been a number of additional meetings across government and with the sectors affected to discuss in more detail the issues that have been raised during those meetings.
The Government recognises the importance of touring to the creative and cultural sectors, and is committed to helping them navigate the new rules under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
The DCMS-led working group on creative and cultural touring, which involves sector representatives and other key government departments, is looking at the issues and options to help the sectors resume touring with ease as soon as it is safe to do so.
Membership of the Working Group includes a range of sector representative bodies, including: Association of Independent Music, the Music Managers’ Forum, Musicians’ Union, UK Music, BPI, LIVE, the Association of British Orchestras, UK Theatre, One Dance UK, the Incorporated Society of Musicians, the Creative Industries Federation, the Featured Artists Coalition, National Museum Directors’ Council, ACE, the British Fashion Council, the Production Services Association, Creative Scotland, Arts Councils for each of the nations, Logistics UK, the Road Haulage Association, #WeMakeEvents and the Council of Music Makers.
Sector representatives are encouraged to reach out to others to ensure the working group hears and understands the views and concerns of organisations and individuals right across the cultural and creative sectors.
Following the Secretary of State-chaired roundtable with the sector on 20 January, the Working Group has met four times. There have been a number of additional meetings across government and with the sectors affected to discuss in more detail the issues that have been raised during those meetings.
Government recognises the significant impact of Covid-19 on young people, particularly the most vulnerable, and on the youth services that support them. A £16.5m Youth Covid-19 Support Fund has been announced which will protect the immediate future of grassroots and national youth organisations across the country.
The funding will be allocated from the Government’s unprecedented £750 million package of support which is benefiting tens of thousands of frontline charities, so they can continue their vital work. More than £60 million of this package has already been provided to organisations working with vulnerable children and young people.
The Youth Investment Fund remains a manifesto commitment for transformative levelling up across the country over the course of the parliament. In the recent announced Spending Review £30m of this was committed as capital investment for 2021-22. This will provide a transformational investment in new and refurbished safe spaces for young people, so they can access support youth workers, and positive activities out of school, including sport and culture. Further details of the timetable for allocation will be announced in due course.
We are in regular contact with colleagues across Government regarding the impact of Covid-19 on the business events industry.
Events businesses can continue to make use of the broader support package available to them. This includes the Bounce Back Loans scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
We recognise that the events industry and its supply chain has been severely impacted by Covid-19. We continue to meet with the stakeholders, including through the Visitor Economy Working Group and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Advisory Panel, to discuss the specific issues facing the industry.
This is an independent piece of work requested by the Prime Minister of my hon. Friend, the Member for Devizes (Danny Kruger). Mr Kruger and his office led the consultation process and I understand he met with a wide range of stakeholders to inform his recommendations. The Minister for Civil Society met with Mr Kruger bi-weekly to provide feedback on areas relating to the Department’s remit. The report will be published in due course.
This is an independent piece of work requested by the Prime Minister of my hon. Friend, the Member for Devizes (Danny Kruger). Mr Kruger and his office led the consultation process and I understand he met with a wide range of stakeholders to inform his recommendations. The Minister for Civil Society met with Mr Kruger bi-weekly to provide feedback on areas relating to the Department’s remit. The report will be published in due course.
This is an independent piece of work requested by the Prime Minister of my hon. Friend, the Member for Devizes (Danny Kruger). Mr Kruger and his office led the consultation process and I understand he met with a wide range of stakeholders to inform his recommendations. The Minister for Civil Society met with Mr Kruger bi-weekly to provide feedback on areas relating to the Department’s remit. The report will be published in due course.
On Sunday 5 July 2020, the Secretary of State announced a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of cultural and creative sectors.
We are working closely with DCMS’ Arm’s Length Bodies to develop detailed guidance indicating who can apply for the different elements of this funding. We will publish this guidance as soon as possible in July.
We appreciate that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to the night time industries. On Sunday 5 July 2020, the Secretary of State announced a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This funding will provide targeted support to organisations across a range of cultural and creative sectors including some businesses operating in the night time economy. We will publish detailed guidance on eligibility as soon as possible in July.
Whilst the Cultural Package is extensive, it cannot support every organisation. There are a number of financial packages available to support nightclubs, including business rates relief, grants, and the Bounceback Loan Scheme. Furthermore, on rent liabilities, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced on 19 June 2020 the introduction of a new code of practice for commercial property, and an extension to temporary tenant protections until 30 September 2020.
Sports and physical activity facilities play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active. As announced on 9 July, from 25 July indoor gyms, leisure centres (including tennis courts) and swimming pools in England should be able to reopen. These facilities will be able to offer on-site services to customers, provided they are COVID-secure and follow Government guidance.
The updated guidance can be found at the GOV.UK website and includes advice for providers of pool, gym and leisure facilities on cleaning, social distancing, and protection for staff to help venues get back up and running safely.
No such assessment has been made. However, we appreciate that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to many of DCMS’ sectors including the Creative Industries which is why the government has announced unprecedented support for business and workers to protect them against the current economic emergency.
To ensure we are assisting the sectors as effectively as possible, regular ministerially-chaired roundtables are held with business representative organisations as well as trade associations from across the Creative Industries. In addition, officials are in regular contact with stakeholders from these sectors, and we continue to speak with HM Treasury colleagues to ensure that the full spectrum of government support reaches the UK's world-leading media and Creative Industries.
No such estimate has been made. However, we appreciate that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to many of DCMS’ sectors including the Creative Industries which is why the government has announced unprecedented support for business and workers to protect them against the current economic emergency. This includes new discretionary business grants worth £600m, in addition to any surplus from previous grants that councils have left over, which councils can allocate to businesses that may not have been able to qualify for the initial round of grants.
To ensure we are assisting the sectors as effectively as possible, regular ministerially-chaired roundtables are held with business representative organisations as well as trade associations from across the Creative Industries. In addition, officials are in regular contact with stakeholders from these sectors, and we continue to speak with HM Treasury colleagues to ensure that the full spectrum of government support reaches the UK's world-leading media and Creative Industries.
Following our formal response to the Select Committee report on ‘Fake News’ and Disinformation in May 2019, we continue to reflect on the Committee’s recommendations in our ongoing work to counter disinformation in all its forms. Disinformation is one of the harms which was proposed to be in scope of the new regulatory framework announced in the Online Harms White Paper. We are currently analysing the responses to the White Paper’s public consultation, and considering the issues raised.
Obesity is a complex problem caused by many factors. The Department of Health and Social Care launched ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ in July 2020. The strategy demonstrates an overarching campaign to reduce obesity and takes forward actions from previous chapters of the childhood obesity plan, including the ambition to halve the number of children living with obesity by 2030.
The Department for Education (the Department) wants pupils to be healthy and well nourished and encourages a healthy balanced diet and healthy life choices through school funding, legislation, and guidance. The Standards for school food are set out in The Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014. They are designed to ensure that schools provide pupils with healthy food and drink options, and to ensure that pupils get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day.
The Department has committed to support schools to improve their sustainable practices on food. Schools can voluntarily follow the Department’s buying standards, which include advice about sustainable sourcing. The Department also recognises the importance of plant based foods from a health and environmental point of view. The School Food Standards already allow schools the freedom to provide plant based meals as needed.
The School Food Standards ensure the right foods are available for pupils every day. Schools are required to provide one or more portions of vegetables or salad as an accompaniment. One or more portions of fruit must be provided every day and at least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week. My right hon. Friends, the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, have not met on this matter.
The Department believes that the current standards provide a robust yet flexible framework to ensure that pupils in England continue to receive high quality and nutritious food, that builds healthy eating habits for life. The Department is keeping the standards under review.
Obesity is a complex problem caused by many factors. The Department of Health and Social Care launched ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ in July 2020. The strategy demonstrates an overarching campaign to reduce obesity and takes forward actions from previous chapters of the childhood obesity plan, including the ambition to halve the number of children living with obesity by 2030.
The Department for Education (the Department) wants pupils to be healthy and well nourished and encourages a healthy balanced diet and healthy life choices through school funding, legislation, and guidance. The Standards for school food are set out in The Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014. They are designed to ensure that schools provide pupils with healthy food and drink options, and to ensure that pupils get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day.
The Department has committed to support schools to improve their sustainable practices on food. Schools can voluntarily follow the Department’s buying standards, which include advice about sustainable sourcing. The Department also recognises the importance of plant based foods from a health and environmental point of view. The School Food Standards already allow schools the freedom to provide plant based meals as needed.
The School Food Standards ensure the right foods are available for pupils every day. Schools are required to provide one or more portions of vegetables or salad as an accompaniment. One or more portions of fruit must be provided every day and at least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week. My right hon. Friends, the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, have not met on this matter.
The Department believes that the current standards provide a robust yet flexible framework to ensure that pupils in England continue to receive high quality and nutritious food, that builds healthy eating habits for life. The Department is keeping the standards under review.
The Department is focusing on recovering from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic through an ambitious multi year programme and has made almost £5 billion available for recovery. This funding in education recovery includes £400 million for teacher training opportunities and up to £1.5 billion for tutoring. It also includes nearly £2 billion of direct funding for schools to deliver evidence based interventions based on pupil needs, and over £800 million for additional hours in 16-19 education.
This support is focused on helping the most disadvantaged, vulnerable, or those with least time left in education, wherever they live.
Head teachers are best placed to determine the workforce required to meet the needs of their pupils. In the case of staff absence, in the first instance schools should follow their usual process for covering absences so that they can continue to deliver face to face, high quality education to all pupils.
Some Local Authorities and multi academy trusts operate supply teacher pools, while other schools have found greater efficiency in working with private employment agencies.
Where schools choose to engage private agencies, the Department recommends they use the Agency Supply Framework, which is a commercial deal that supports schools with getting value for money when hiring agency supply teachers and other temporary staff. Further details are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/deal-for-schools-hiring-supply-teachers-and-agency-workers.
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) is one of the largest and most comprehensive data collection programmes in the UK’s public sector. It collected data on the building condition of government funded schools in England. It provides a robust evidence base to enable the Department to target capital funding for maintaining and rebuilding school buildings.
The key, high level findings of the CDC programme were published in May 2021 in the ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey: Key Findings’ report. This is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
Individual CDC reports have been shared with every school and their responsible body to use alongside their existing condition surveys to plan maintenance schedules and investment plans. The Department plans to publish detailed school level CDC data. The data is being prepared and will be published as soon as possible.
Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Our funding is directed both to maintaining the condition of the school estate and rebuilding schools. The Department has allocated over £13 billion for improving the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this financial year.
The ten year School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) is condition led. 400 of the 500 available places on the programme have been provisionally allocated. A list of these schools and the methodology used to select them is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme-schools-in-the-programme.
The following table shows the constituencies specified that have schools or colleges selected for the SRP:
Parliamentary constituency | Schools selected for SRP |
Feltham and Heston | Rivers Academy West London, announced July 2022 St Mark's Catholic School, announced December 2022 |
The 239 schools announced in December 2022 will enter delivery at a rate of approximately 50 per year, over a five year period from 2023. The Department is currently undertaking due diligence on these schools prior to scheduling them, with schools prioritised according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed, and efficiency of delivery. The scope and funding for each project will be confirmed following detailed feasibility studies and condition surveys of buildings.
Where a school identifies significant safety issues with a building, that cannot be managed within local resources, the Department considers additional support on a case-by-case basis. This includes applications for Urgent Capital Support (UCS) from eligible institutions. Schools eligible for Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) can apply for UCS where there are urgent health and safety issues that threaten school closure and cannot wait until the next CIF bidding round.
In the past three months we have published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, and the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care published its final report.
The SEND and AP Green Paper aims to ensure the right support is delivered in the right setting at the right time for children and young people with SEND. Our proposals include the introduction of national standards for how needs are assessed, identified and met across education, health and care in order to drive greater national consistency
The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has also now published its final report, making a number of recommendations on the support that disabled children and their families should receive. To respond to this Review we will publish a detailed and ambitious implementation strategy later this year. We are committed to aligning this with the SEND and AP reforms so that we build a coherent system with the best interest of all vulnerable children at its heart.
Local authorities have access to £54.1 billion core spending power in the 2022/23 financial year to deliver their services, including for children and young people, this is £3.7 billion more than in the 2021/22 financial year.
As part of this, the government has boosted the social care grant, increasing it by £636 million, and so bringing it to a total of around £2.35 billion in the 2022/23 financial year. Local authorities will have access to a one-off Services Grant in the 2022/23 financial year, which is worth over £800 million and can be used for all services, including children’s social care.
The department is also making better respite care available for those who care for children with special educational needs and disabilities, with councils invited to bid for an extra £30 million for the next three years to set up more than 10,000 additional short break and respite placements for vulnerable children.
We will publish proposals to improve support for young people with disabilities and their families.
We recognise the impact that a parent going to prison can have on a child’s learning, behaviour, mental health, and wellbeing. This is why statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children is clear that anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to local authority children’s social care.
The local authority and its social workers have specific roles and responsibilities to lead statutory assessments. Every assessment should reflect children’s needs within their family and community context, including taking account of a parent being in prison. These children’s circumstances vary considerably and therefore local agencies are best placed to determine what support is needed – whether early help, statutory social care services, or support for other needs such as mental health.
Statutory guidance for schools (Keeping Children Safe in Education) is clear that staff should consider the additional needs of children with a family member in prison or who are affected by parental offending. The guidance highlights the risk of poor outcomes including poverty, stigma, isolation, and poor mental health. It signposts staff to the National Information Centre on Children of Offenders website which provides specialist staff advice and resources to support professionals working with offenders’ children and their families, to help mitigate negative consequences for those children.
The School Food Standards provide the legislative framework to ensure schools provide children with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day. The School Food Standards are in line with current government advice on red and processed meat, encouraging schools to serve it in moderation as a good source of nutrients, including iron, zinc and vitamin B12.
Work to update the standards was paused during the COVID-19 outbreak. We do however keep this position under review, and are working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to carefully consider the National Food Strategy’s recommendations and will respond in full with a White Paper in due course.
The School Food Standards provide the legislative framework to ensure schools provide children with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day. The School Food Standards are in line with current government advice on red and processed meat, encouraging schools to serve it in moderation as a good source of nutrients, including iron, zinc and vitamin B12.
Work to update the standards was paused during the COVID-19 outbreak. We do however keep this position under review, and are working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to carefully consider the National Food Strategy’s recommendations and will respond in full with a White Paper in due course.
The School Food Standards provide the legislative framework to ensure schools provide children with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day. The School Food Standards are in line with current government advice on red and processed meat, encouraging schools to serve it in moderation as a good source of nutrients, including iron, zinc and vitamin B12.
Work to update the standards was paused during the COVID-19 outbreak. We do however keep this position under review, and are working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to carefully consider the National Food Strategy’s recommendations and will respond in full with a White Paper in due course.
On 7 May and 6 November 2019 we brought together an advisory group comprising of key stakeholders in the food, nutrition and health sectors who hold a wide breadth of knowledge and expertise in relation to school food. This was to discuss the proposed updates to the standards.
Due to the priority of responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and the pressures on schools this presents, and considering the robustness of the existing standards, the government have paused taking further action during the course of the COVID-19 outbreak on updating the School Food Standards. I have also discussed this with the Chief Nutritionist who confirmed that the top priority should be to ensure that schools comply with the current standards fully. Ministers have been clear throughout that schools should continue to ensure that the existing school food standards are fully adhered to across the school day. On 24 March 2021 I wrote to all schools to remind them of their obligations under the standards and encouraging the provision of hot meals where possible.
The guidance entitled ‘Local restriction tiers: what you need to know’ sets out the local restriction tier system in place from Wednesday 2 December and includes what can and cannot be done in each tier.
There are exemptions that apply to all tiers, including for places of worship, that allow childcare, education, or training (meaning education and training provided as part of a formal curriculum) and supervised activities provided for children to operate. This includes wraparound care (before and after-school childcare), groups and activities for under 18s, and children’s playgroups.
Further information on this guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-restriction-tiers-what-you-need-to-know and https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-restriction-tiers-what-you-need-to-know#exemptions.
The land holdings owned by the Church Commissioners have to a large extent been registered with the Land Registry, and information on those holdings is publicly available via the Land Registry.
To compile and publish a digitised map of all land holdings in the manner requested would incur a disproportionate cost to the Church Commissioners.
On Saturday 31 October, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced New National Restrictions from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December to control the spread of COVID-19. On Wednesday 4 November, the Department published guidance for education and childcare settings on the impact of these restrictions. The guidance can be found here: www.gov.uk/guidance/education-and-childcare-settings-new-national-restrictions-from-5-november-2020.
Where educational provision is taking place outside of school, this should only operate where it is reasonably necessary to enable parents to work, search for work, attend education or training, or where the provision is used for the purposes of respite care, including for vulnerable children. This includes provision by supplementary schools offering music or performing arts activities for children on a part-time basis.
Out-of-school activities that are primarily used by home educating parents as part of their arrangements for their child to receive a full-time education (which can include supplementary schools, tuition centres, or private tutors) may also continue to operate.
All other out of school activities, not being primarily used by parents for these purposes, should close for face to face provision, but can offer remote education for the duration of the New National Restrictions.
We already have very robust school food standards set in legislation, which require school caterers to serve healthy and nutritious food and drinks, to ensure children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day. We are working closely with schools to ensure these are consistently followed.
As schools and their kitchens are now open, healthy and nutritious meals are available for all pupils. We have asked schools to work with their existing suppliers to provide meals or food parcels to pupils eligible for benefits-related free school meals where they are self-isolating. LACA and Public Health England have published advice to schools to help them prepare healthy food parcels, which is available here:
https://laca.co.uk/laca-view/free-school-meals-guidance-producing-food-parcels.
Due to the priority of responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, and considering the robustness of the existing standards, the government has no further plans to update the School Food Standards.
It is vital that children and school staff only get a test if they develop symptoms of COVID-19, with the exception of those who have specifically been asked to do so by a clinician. The test is most effective for those who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. The latest clinical advice is that testing of individuals without symptoms should be used where clinically appropriate, predominantly for outbreak investigation and infection control. This risk based approach is essential to ensure testing is targeted where it is most effective.
Testing capacity is the highest it has ever been, but there is currently a significant demand for tests. The NHS Test and Trace system must stay focused on testing those with true symptoms of COVID-19.? Anyone who is self isolating as a result of being a close contact of a confirmed case but does not have symptoms should not request a test. This includes if that case was identified in a school or college. All children who are attending an education or childcare setting have access to a test if they display symptoms of COVID-19 and are encouraged to get tested.
In the event that a parent or guardian insisted on a child being at a childcare provider, providers can take the decision to refuse the child if in their reasonable judgement it is necessary to protect their children and staff from infection with COVID-19. Any decision would need to be carefully considered in light of all the circumstances and the public health advice. Children and staff should not attend the setting if they have COVID-19 symptoms or have tested positive in the last 10 days.
We have issued guidance on formal childcare which can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures.
Informal childcare can be provided where the person undertaking the childcare lives as part of the same household as the parents or carers, in line with the government's guidance on staying alert and safe (social distancing) for COVID-19:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing/staying-alert-and-safe-social-distancing.
The following government guidance on shielding and protecting extremely vulnerable persons should also be taken into consideration:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19.
Frequently asked questions have also been published on what people can and cannot do during COVID-19:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-do/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-do.
The School Food Standards provide the legislative framework to ensure schools provide children with healthy food and drink options and to make sure that children receive the energy and nutrition they need across the school day. Compliance with the School Food Standards is mandatory for all maintained schools. We also expect all academies and free schools to comply with the standards and, since 2014, we have made this an explicit requirement in their funding agreements.
Beyond this, we believe that headteachers, school governors and caterers are best placed to make decisions about their school food policies, taking into account local circumstances and the needs of their pupils. In doing so, we expect schools to make reasonable adjustments for pupils with particular requirements (for example, to reflect dietary and cultural needs).
As part of our last update to the School Food Standards, we ran a public consultation on the new regulations between 6 March and 16 April 2014. The new standards were tested by 31 schools and 24 caterers from across England, overseen with positive outcomes by a group of school catering experts and nutritionists. These outcomes were fed into the proposed version of the standards that went out for public consultation in March 2014.
We are currently working with Public Health England to update the School Food Standards again in light of refreshed government dietary recommendations. We have an advisory group in place to support us with this work. It is comprised of key stakeholders in the food, nutrition and health sectors who have a high level of knowledge and expertise on school food.
The government encourages all schools to promote healthy eating and to provide tasty and nutritious food and drink. Compliance with the School Food Standards (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1603/contents/made) is mandatory for all maintained schools. We also expect all academies and free schools to comply with the standards and, since 2014, we have made this an explicit requirement in their funding agreements.
The School Food Standards came in to force from January 2015 and have been widely welcomed. As new advice on nutrition and sugar consumption has since been published, the Department for Education, supported by Public Health England, will update the School Food Standards. The update, which will be comprehensive on reducing sugar consumption, will be coupled with detailed guidance to caterers and schools so they are well prepared to adapt to the changes.
Healthy eating is also covered in health education that all schools will have to teach from this year, with voluntary teaching starting from last year. By the end of primary school, pupils should know what constitutes a healthy diet (including understanding calories and other nutritional content) and the principles of planning and preparing a range of healthy meals. They should also know the characteristics of a poor diet and risks associated with unhealthy eating (including, for example, obesity and tooth decay) and other eating or drinking habits (for example, the impact of alcohol on diet or health). By the end of secondary school, pupils should know how to maintain healthy eating and the links between a poor diet and health risks.
We have developed a national scheme to provide supermarket vouchers for children eligible for free school meals who are not attending school. Schools who chose to participate will not have to pay for these vouchers as the costs for this scheme will be picked up centrally by the Department for Education. Schools will have received an email as of Tuesday 31 March which will allow them to access the portal.
Schools are able to order a voucher to the value of £15 each week for every child eligible for benefits related free school meals who is not attending school. This is more generous than the weekly amount provided to schools for provision of free school meals, recognising that families will not buy in bulk and will therefore not be able to achieve the same economies of scale.
Alongside our national approach to supporting free school meal pupils, we are committed to supporting schools and children who also benefit from our breakfast club programme. Our suppliers, Family Action along with Magic Breakfast, are in contact with schools on the programme and, where possible, are working closely with them to reach children who would normally receive a healthy breakfast at school.
Full guidance on the national voucher scheme is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.
The Government remains committed to tackling food waste. Following further engagement with stakeholders the Secretary of State has decided to re-examine how best to secure the benefits of food waste reporting, including mandatory measures. We now intend to gather further evidence and re-consider all options on improving food waste reporting for large businesses using the latest available data.
In reaching the decisions in question, the Secretary of State obtained advice from experts in DEFRA and other relevant bodies. In certain cases, it received site-specific information about highly relevant factors including species abundance, roost and pen locations, and release site locations. Ultimately, the relevant decision makers were satisfied – taking into account the totality of advice they received - that there were cogent reasons justifying a departure from Natural England’s advice.
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with the Leader of the House on a range of issues. We are determined to deliver our manifesto commitment on live exports. We will bring forward the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill in due course.
With reference to the Answer of 23 October 2023 to Question 202935 on Game Birds, Natural England recommended approving 69 of those licence applications.
Please find below a breakdown of applications received by Defra to release gamebirds within a Special Protection Area or within 500 metres of such an area:
Applications received | 130 |
Applications approved | 106 |
Applications where advice from Natural England considered | 130 |
In May 2023, UK Government published a position statement setting out that interoperability of schemes across the UK is critical to avoiding unnecessary barriers to trade. Since then we have been working with Scottish Government, Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland on interoperability across the UK.
We are considering what changes are required to the draft legislation in each nation in order to implement interoperability of schemes across the UK. This will need to be completed before we can finalise the drafting and proceed through the legislative process. As this requires additional time to complete, it impacts our original SI timeline.
The next phase of DRS implementation will be finalising the legislation. We intend for this to come into force in summer 2024, and thereafter we will have the powers to appoint the scheme administrator (the Deposit Management Organisation, DMO).
In January 2023, UK Government, Welsh Government, and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland published the Government’s response to the 2021 consultation, setting out policy decisions and next steps for introducing the scheme.
We are currently drafting the legislation to enable delivery of DRS, reflecting the positions set out in the consultation response published in January 2023. The legislation then needs to go through the necessary clearances before it can be laid in UK Parliament and the Welsh Senedd. We are aiming to have the regulations in place by summer 2024.
We are considering the implications of issues that have arisen during the course of our review of the consultation responses, not least ensuring the response reflects the current cost of living pressures. Officials are continuing to work on updating the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services in line with the government’s goal of transitioning to a healthier, more sustainable food system.
In light of this we now plan to publish the Government Response, Summary of Responses, updated policy and supporting guidance later this year.
In 2021, Defra ran a call for evidence to gather data on the potential impacts of different types of labelling reform for animal welfare. We received over 1,600 responses and a summary of these responses is available on GOV.UK. The evidence provided suggested that there is public appetite for improved welfare labelling, however we do not consider the time is right to consult on proposals to reform labelling for animal welfare.
We will continue to work with stakeholders to explore how we can harness the market to improve food information for consumers and raise animal welfare standards.
The Government is aware of nutrient mitigation schemes other than the Natural England-led Nutrient Mitigation Scheme. However, the Government recognises that these schemes have not developed rapidly enough in all of the catchments subject to nutrient neutrality advice to unlock much needed new homes. That is why the Government has tabled amendments to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, alongside a wider environmental package, which will reform the retained EU law which gave rise to this barrier. This will ensure that the small amount of new nutrient outflow from housing is offset, while doing more to recover the condition of protected sites impacted by excess nutrients in water.
DLUHC, Defra, and Natural England will be in touch with local authorities who proposed mitigation schemes for their areas, and Natural England will set out its plans for the new scheme very soon. Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) require sufficient certainty to enable them to grant planning permission for new development relying on nutrient mitigation. The Government recognises that this certainty has not been available in many of the catchments impacted by nutrient neutrality, and this has led to barriers to much needed new homes. This is why we have announced our new approach.
As of 1 September 2023, £10.8 million of the original £30 million intended to pump prime Natural England’s Nutrient Mitigation Scheme has been spent. We also provided £100,000 funding to lead local planning authorities in each of the affected catchments to promote catchment-level working and supporting local responses.
We do not hold data on the level of private funding spent on developing nutrient neutrality. We are doubling the funding available for nutrient reduction schemes to £280m and making clear that we expect contributions from the larger developers. Our plan will ensure that new nutrients from development will still be offset, while shifting our longer-term focus to restoration.
Natural England will now have the funding and certainty to lead this work for the remainder of this decade. We expect them to partner with third parties to deliver nutrient reductions, and associated environmental co-benefits, where this represents good value for money.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Defra and Natural England will be in touch with local authorities who proposed mitigation schemes for their areas, and Natural England will set out its plans for the new scheme very soon.
Nutrient mitigation can provide carbon and biodiversity benefits alongside other wider environmental benefits if the mitigation involves nature-based interventions such as wetlands or other habitat creation. Natural England’s Nutrient Mitigation Scheme will continue to maximise the wider environmental benefits of nutrient mitigation in its new and expanded form; as well as seeking to promote innovative approaches to reducing nutrient pollution.
The impact assessment for water targets under the environment act, published in December 2022, made an assessment of the benefits of reducing external costs to society from a reduction in nutrient pollution.The impact assessment estimated that reducing total nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from agriculture by 40% by 2038 would lead to £4.2bn in reduced external costs to society. This accounted for reduced carbon emissions, improved air quality, recreational benefits and reduced water treatment costs. The IA also estimated that reducing phosphorus loadings from treated wastewater by 80% would lead to a £2.1bn reduction in external costs.
Defra’s crop Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) provide research to develop more productive, sustainable, and resilient crop varieties. These R&D networks have successfully identified genetic traits that have improved crop resilience to climate change, and we are working with breeders to incorporate these into elite crop varieties. The GINs work in partnership with the Met Office, using climate projections to better target crop breeding. Research on crop resilience will accelerate as our Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act unlocks further opportunities.
Through Defra’s £270 million pound Farming Innovation Programme, we recently awarded £11.69m in a ‘climate smart’ farming themed competition to projects investigating novel approaches to growing and managing crops.
We understand the increasing importance of farmers having access to crop varieties that are resistant to climate change and variable weather conditions, to maintain crop quality and yields.
The Precision Breeding Act (2023) is a major step in unlocking growth and innovation in technologies like gene editing and supports Defra’s efforts to reinforce food security in the face of climate change. Through the Act we want to encourage researchers and commercial breeders to be at the forefront of capturing the potential benefits of precision breeding for British farmers and consumers.
Our Genetic Improvement Networks also provide a platform for knowledge exchange for breeders, producers, end users and the research base, and a means for the delivery of scientific knowledge, resources and results to add value to UK crops.
The £270 million Farming Innovation Programme supports industry-led research and development in agriculture and horticulture. All projects support productivity and environmental outcomes that will benefit farmers and growers in England. In our latest ‘climate smart’ farming themed competition, we awarded over £11 million to projects investigating novel approaches to growing and managing crops. Previous competitions have also supported crop-related research.
The Secretary of State has not discussed the Mariana Dam disaster with her Brazilian counterpart.
Following a competitive tender process, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) are conducting the research on behalf of Defra, with a consortium of academics and partner agencies.
Defra has set up a steering group made up of representatives from within Defra and other relevant Government departments. Consumers and business will be inputting into this research, along with existing literature.
The research will build on previous research (Defra (2014), Baseline evaluation of EU Food Information to Consumers - FA0132, Science Search (defra.gov.uk) and Defra (2019), Follow Up Study of EU Food Information to Consumers - FA0169, Science Search (defra.gov.uk)) and investigate to what extent the objectives of the Food Information to Consumers regulations have been achieved, and how key indicators have changed from the baseline and follow up studies. The research will also explore the impacts of recent legislative, societal, and technological changes to food labelling on consumers and industry.
The research is due to be completed by the end of March 2024 and published summer 2024.
The labelling of all food and drink products is governed by the law on the provision of food information to consumers as well as various agricultural marketing standards that apply to the production and marketing of particular primary commodities. These require that food information is accurate and that consumers are not misled ensuring that consumers are able to make fully informed decisions about the food that they consume.
The Food Standards and Information Focus Group is a Trading Standards Officer (TSO) led group providing support to local authorities in the area of food standards and information including labelling. Defra and other organisations are also invited to attend. Responsibility for governance and membership of the Group is for the group itself to determine.
The Government is well aware of the importance for consumers in information that is not misleading and enables them to make fully informed decisions. Defra officials have recently commissioned new research on food information to consumers. Among a range of other things, it will explore consumer understanding of terms used to describe foods marketed as plant based alternatives to dairy products.
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a wide range of issues.
The Government takes a ‘One Health’ approach to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as set out in the UK National Action Plan on AMR. Officials from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Defra and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate meet regularly to consider appropriate actions to address AMR across the human and animal health sectors. This has included discussion on the use of antibiotics to prevent disease in farm animals.
Defra is a co-signatory with DHSC of the UK's AMR five-year National Action Plan (2019-2024) and the UK's 20-year Vision to Contain and Control AMR by 2040. Defra leads on the animal, plant and environment elements of the National Action Plan. A key ambition of these strategies is the appropriate use of antibiotics in humans and animals so that they continue to be an effective tool to treat infections when needed. The Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare. It has been our position for many years that we do not support the routine or predictable use of antibiotics, including where antibiotics are used to compensate for inadequate farming practices.
To date in the UK, collaborative working between the Government, the veterinary profession and the agriculture sectors to focus on these issues has resulted in our national sales of veterinary antibiotics reducing by 55% since 2014, and in 2021 we recorded the lowest antibiotic use to date. The UK is one of the lowest users of veterinary antibiotics across Europe, with only seven other European countries having sold fewer antibiotics in 2021 (Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia). Changes to the law on veterinary medicines represent one tool which can be used to help effect reductions in antibiotic prescribing in animals. The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 are currently under review, and the feedback from the recently closed consultation public consultation will be analysed and considered.
The overall impact of trawling on carbon dioxide release remains uncertain. Defra is actively progressing the evidence base to better understand the resilience and recovery of seabed biodiversity and carbon stores in sediments, in response to human pressures and management interventions.
Defra work with a number of experts on climate change, including the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), to understand the impacts of trawling on the seabed and whether carbon disturbance at the seabed leads to greenhouse gas emissions. We plan to release more research outputs relating to seabed carbon, as work continues to progress in this area, helping to develop a stronger understanding of the impacts of bottom-trawling.
The UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership's Evidence Needs Statement, which Defra contributed to as a partner, was published on World Ocean Day (8th June 2023). It signalled the need for the Blue Carbon community to further the evidence base on the potential impacts of seabed disturbance on carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions (UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership - Evidence Needs Statement (cefas.co.uk)).
The 30by30 target, Target 3 of the Convention on Biological Diversity Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, is a global target to protect 30% of the global ocean and of land by 2030. Nearly 8.3% of the global ocean is now protected. Achieving a global 30by30 target will require an international effort, from all countries and sectors and the UK is leading the way. In England, we have established a comprehensive network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) covering 40% of our waters, and we are now focusing on making sure they are properly protected.
Marine regulators make evidence-based, site by site assessments on the fishing activities that could prevent MPAs from achieving their conservation objectives. Nearly 60% of the 178 English MPAs are already protected from damaging fishing activity. This includes byelaws made last year, which ban bottom towed gear over sensitive features in the first four offshore sites. The Marine Management Organisation consulted earlier this year on similar proposals for a further 13 sites. We are aiming to have all MPAs in English waters protected from damaging fishing activity by 2024.
The baseline data for emissions from domestic flights in the 2017 to 2018 financial year will be published in the Greening Government Commitments (GGCs) annual report for 2021 to 2022, which we will publish this year. 2021-25 targets are set against a new baseline year of 2017 to 2018, which more accurately reflects the current government estate and ensures we build on the considerable progress already achieved. The GGCs reporting requirements sets out the process for baseline setting.
Through the Environment Act 2021 we have set a world-leading, legally binding target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. To deliver these targets we will need large-scale habitat restoration and creation and we will also tackle pressures on biodiversity such as inappropriate grazing (which includes both overgrazing and undergrazing). The Biodiversity Targets Detailed Evidence Report assessed grazing as a pressure on natural and semi-natural habitats.
The Environment Agency is currently reviewing and updating the Working with Natural Processes (WWNP) Evidence Directory. This will include key findings from the Natural Environment Research Council natural flood management (NFM) research programme and learning from the EA’s £15 million NFM pilots programme. This is due to be completed by December 2023. The WWNP Evidence Directory explains the effectiveness of a range of different measures from a flood risk and ecosystem services perspective. Findings in the Directory include how reducing practices such as the intensity of livestock grazing, can lead to less surface run-off and more infiltration. Over-grazing can reduce or remove vegetation, reducing surface roughness which negatively impacts upon the slowing of overland water flows. It can also increase soil compaction reducing infiltration. Both of these can contribute to increased flood risk.
The Greening Government Commitments (GGCs) 2020 to 2021 annual report includes data on how much each department recycles. This report was part of the GGCs 2016 to 2020 framework which included a target to increase the proportion of waste recycled for each department.
The GGCs 2021 to 2025 framework includes a target to increase the proportion of waste recycled to at least 70% of overall waste.
With the exception of greenhouse gas emissions, the GGCs targets are aggregate central government targets and not bespoke minimum performance targets for individual departments. This is to allow flexibility for departments to make appropriate improvements to their estates and operations. Recognising that departments and their arms-length bodies carry out a wide variety of functions.
The Greening Government Commitments 2021 to 2025 framework committed departments to eliminating consumer single use plastics (CSUPs) from the central government office estate by 2025. Prior to this, we do not hold any figures and are not able to estimate.
Figures for the 2021 to 2022 financial year onwards will be published in the Greening Government Commitments annual reports, the first of which is due in 2023.
In the Greening Government Commitments 2021 to 2025 framework, government asked departments to report on the introduction and implementation of reuse schemes for the first time. This will allow us to see how they are being implemented across government and how they fit into the waste landscape.
Defra sends around 18.5% of its waste to landfill. A large proportion of this is end-of-life timber from our forestry and national park land holdings (such as gates and fences). This timber is chemically treated, which vastly extends its life but means it can only be landfilled or incinerated. We are working with the affected bodies to move the waste treatment of these items up the waste hierarchy away from landfill.
0.47% of our department’s waste is reused and 33.4% is incinerated, which includes contaminated waste from our laboratories.
The Greening Government Commitments annual report for the 2021 to 2022 financial year is due to be published in 2023.
Under the climate change mitigation Greening Government Commitment (GGC), Government has a sub-target to reduce the emissions from domestic business flights by at least 30% from a 2017 to 2018 baseline, and report the distance travelled by international business flights, with a view to better understanding and reducing related emissions where possible.
The requested information on how many flights were undertaken for the 2016 to 2017 through to the 2020 to 2021 financial years is published in the GGCs Annual Reports for those years. Departments report on their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and the GHG emissions associated with these flights are included, but not dis-aggregated by source, within this reporting.
The GHG emissions figures associated with domestic flights by departments for the 2021 to 2022 financial year will be published in the GGCs Annual Report for 2021 to 2022, due later this year. The data for the 2022 to 2023 financial year will be published in the Annual Report covering 2022 to 2023.
As set out in Mobilising Green Investment: 2023 Green Finance Strategy, we are committed to monitoring annual private finance flows into nature’s recovery in England against our target.
The government has not produced any official estimate of private investment in nature’s recovery for the last five years, as no reliable measures are yet in place. We have also not produced any forecast for such investment for the current or future years.
My department is developing a methodology for tracking private investment in nature’s recovery, informed by research that we commissioned last year.
Government is committed to an increasingly prosperous horticulture sector and as referenced in the answer to Question HL 3858 published on 30 January, we will not be developing a published strategy for the horticulture sector as originally envisaged in the Government Food Strategy. The sector operates in a complex, ever-evolving commercial and political landscape as such we are prioritising policy work that maximises impact through multiple avenues, this includes establishing the seasonal worker visa route, the labour review, automation, the Farming Innovation Programme and the Farming Investment Fund and working across Government on energy support and planning.
The decision to appoint an industry expert on Controlled Environment Horticulture was made by former Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Member for North East Hampshire (Ranil Jayawardena). After further consideration following a change in government it was decided to adopt a different approach and not continue with the appointment.
The public sector procures approximately £5bn of food and catering services annually, with hospitals, prisons, armed forces and central Government departments required to comply with the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services (GBSF). Defra consulted on updates to the GBSF last year, including proposals to increase the amount of food procured to higher environmental production standards, such as LEAF and organic within the public sector.
We are currently considering how best to update the GBSF to support the transition to a healthier, more sustainable food system. The updated standards will be forward-looking, and we will not be producing a retrospective review of spend over the last 12 months.
We are reviewing the responses received to the public sector food and catering policy consultation. Officials are considering how best to update the current Government buying standards for food and catering services to support the transition to a healthier, more sustainable food system.
We plan to publish the Government Response, Summary of Responses, updated policy and supporting guidance in the summer.
We are reviewing the responses received to the public sector food and catering policy consultation. Officials are considering how best to update the current Government buying standards for food and catering services to support the transition to a healthier, more sustainable food system.
We plan to publish the Government Response, Summary of Responses, updated policy and supporting guidance in the summer.
We consulted on updates to the Government buying standards for food last year and plan to publish the response this summer. The updated standards will continue to encourage the public sector on a journey towards championing healthier, sustainable food, provided by a diverse range of suppliers.
In updating the standards, we must ensure we meet our domestic and international legal obligations, in particular under the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). There is already guidance available to support public sector contracting authorities to set aside contracts for SMEs and by location, for small contracts if they are under the GPA thresholds (thresholds are circa £200K, depending on the specific public sector body).
As per the conditions of the emergency authorisation granted in 2023, the seed treatment is only permitted for use if the predicted virus incidence level is 63% or above, as determined on 1 March 2023 by the Rothamsted YV forecast model. The forecast has been run and predicted a virus incidence of 67.51%. Sugar beet seed may therefore be treated with Cruiser SB and distributed to those growers who ordered it.
Defra commissioned the University of Salford to produce a Procedure for the Assessment of Low Frequency Noise Disturbance. This document, which is available here: https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/493/1/NANR45-procedure_rev1_23_12_2011.pdf is considered the best practice standard for professionals investigating low frequency noise complaints, and we consider that it remains fit for purpose.
Best and Most Versatile Land is defined in the National Planning Policy Framework and Natural England’s guide to assessing development proposals on agricultural land as land in grades 1, 2 and 3a of the Agricultural Land Classification (and therefore not including 3b).
This information is available in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990-2020: Annexes (defra.gov.uk) Table A.3.4.24.
Approximately 100,000 hectares of peatland across the UK have been rewetted to date. Further plans for peatland restoration and responsible management were set out in the England Peat Action Plan (May 2021) and Net Zero Strategy (October 2021).
In 2020 just under 36,000 hectares of British crops consisting of wheat and sugar beet were used for biofuels supplied to the British road transport market. This equates to 0.6% of the total arable area of the United Kingdom. However, HM Government does not have data on the land area of peatland used to produce crops for the biofuel market.
Best and most versatile agricultural land (BMVAL) is defined in the National Planning Policy Framework and Natural England’s guide to assessing development proposals on agricultural land as land in grades 1, 2 and 3a of the Agricultural Land Classification.
Protecting our environment, backing British farmers and delivering long-term energy security with more renewables is at the heart of HM Government’s manifesto.
That’s why we will be looking at the frameworks for regulation, innovation and investment that impact farmers and land managers to make sure that our policies are best placed to boost food production, increase resilience, deliver long-term energy security and protect the environment.
The Forestry Commission publishes a list of Forest Reproductive Material suppliers as required by the Forest Reproductive Material (Great Britain) Regulations 2002. This is available on our GOV.UK site at: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/2195c92a086c4146972848c5190c9647/. This list covers forestry producers and does not represent the whole commercial nursery sector.
Nursery production capacity is commercially sensitive information and for this reason there are no official estimates. However, Confor, a representative body of the timber and forestry industry, has provided estimates for nursery production capacity in 2020. The summary findings of the Confor Nursery Producers Group are available at: https://www.confor.org.uk/media/247662/sftt-ne-nursery-perspective.pdf.
We are analysing the responses received during the recent public sector food and catering policy consultation. We will publish a summary of these responses and the Government response in due course.
The £750 million Nature for Climate Fund will support peat restoration, woodland creation and management until 2025. Nature for Climate Fund deployment in future years is dependent on analysis of previous year’s performance across projects and workstreams.
For 2022/23 alone we have made:
Funding is agreed parliament to parliament via spending review periods, so beyond 2025 when the Nature for Climate Fund draws to a close, funding is yet to be agreed and determined.
The £80 million Green Recovery Challenge Fund is enabling nature recovery across England, from North Northumberland to the tip of Cornwall. Through this funding, we are supporting 159 projects, ranging from new ‘insect pathways’ in our countryside to tree planting projects in deprived urban areas. These projects include woodland creation, peatland restoration and saltmarsh restoration. Round one of the fund ran between 2020-22 and round two is running between 2021-23.
A number of estuarine and coastal habitat restoration initiatives are also underway. The management of the Environment Agency’s Restoring Meadow, Marsh and Reef (ReMeMaRe) initiative, amounting to £90k in 2022-23, is funded through the Water Environment Improvement Fund. ReMeMaRe is working to restore our estuarine and coastal habitats to benefit people and nature.
Natural England is leading a four-year £2.5 million EU-funded LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project running to October 2023, which aims to restore seagrass and maerl habitat in five Special Areas of Conservation.
Finally, we are also working to increase private investment in nature. The £10 million Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund, which runs to March 2024, is also supporting three projects with almost £300,000 of grants, to explore, develop and then test methodologies to measure and verify the carbon storage potential in saltmarsh habitats. This includes a project to develop a Saltmarsh Carbon code from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Review of the Habitats Regulations was proposed in the Nature Recovery Green Paper. That consultation closed on 11 May and we are now in the process of analysing responses. The Government will publish a formal response in due course.
As set out in the Nature Recovery Green Paper, any review of legislation relating to protected sites will be consistent with the UK’s international commitments.
Forestry England operated two forest nurseries until April 2022, when Wykeham Nursery in Yorkshire was closed. Forestry England now operates a single nursery at Delamere in Cheshire.
The table below contains a breakdown of tree production quantities and staff numbers (full time equivalent) for Forestry England nurseries over the past five growing seasons.
Year | Wykeham Nursery Trees (Millions) | Delamere Nursery Trees (Millions) | Staff (FTE) | Agency Staff (FTE) | Total Trees (M) | Total Staff |
17/18 | 6 | 8.1 | 43 | 42 | 14.1 | 86 |
18/19 | 2.8 | 8 | 40 | 38 | 10.8 | 78 |
19/20 | 6 | 5.8 | 43 | 39 | 11.8 | 82 |
20/21 | 2.9 | 8.8 | 43 | 30 | 11.7 | 73 |
21/22 | 3.6 | 8.6 | 45 | 34 | 12.2 | 79 |
The £750 million Nature for Climate Fund (NCF) will support peat restoration, woodland creation and management until 2025. This currently includes supporting the Woodland Creation Partnerships, Urban Tree Challenge Fund, the Local Authority Treescapes Fund, and the flagship grant scheme the England Woodland Creation Offer.
The NCF is working alongside the Environmental Land Management schemes through its design and pilot stage to ensure a smooth transition of all relevant NCF programmes into the schemes post 2025. The majority of new applications for woodland creation payments from 2025 will be made through the Local Nature Recovery scheme. The Local Nature Recovery design and the approach to payment rates for planting trees will largely mirror those offered by the England Woodland Creation Offer.
The England Trees Action Plan sets out our long-term vision for the treescape in England, including how we will treble tree planting rates supporting the Government's manifesto target of planting 30,000 hectares of trees per year by the end of the Parliament. The £750 million Nature for Climate Fund is the main delivery vehicle, focussed on peat restoration, woodland creation and management.
The Fund is already supporting a series of grants for tree planting and management for 2022/23, including:
- The £8 million Woodland Creation Accelerator Fund which will provide financial support to local authorities to bring in specialist skills and capacity to boost tree planting and woodland creation across England.
- £500,000 this year in support of the collaborative Woodlands for Water project which will increase woodland creation along rivers to deliver biodiversity, water quality improvements and flood risk mitigation.
- More than £3.8 million available through the fourth round of the Urban Tree Challenge Fund.
- The Local Authority Treescapes Fund will allocate up to £5.4 million for the planting of up to 650,000 trees in 2022/23.
Additional funding will also shortly be announced for the England Woodland Creation Offer and for Woodland Creation Partnerships. Nature for Climate Fund deployment in future years is dependent on analysis of previous year's performance across projects and workstreams.
The Forestry Commission produces statistics on all new planting of woodland for the UK. These can be found in Forestry Statistics and in Provisional Woodland Statistics: 2021 edition on the Forest Research website. These statistics are reported for each financial year in thousands of hectares. The latest available figures are for 2021-22.
Our plans for the Landscape Recovery pilot have not changed. We have received 51 applications from across England from round one which closed on 24 May.
We will take forward up to 15 pilot projects in this round and we aim to announce the outcome of the selection process later this summer, following assessment of the applications.
We confirmed last week that we will spend up to £50 million from the farming budget on Landscape Recovery projects over the next three years. This intent has not changed. As we transition to our new schemes, we plan to learn as we go and find the best ways to manage the overall farming budget to respond to demand in a way that helps us achieve our intended outcomes. Rather than adopting a fixed and inflexible allocation for funding across our environmental land management schemes, we make sure that we can respond to farmer demand for our schemes while ensuring we remain on track to deliver our policies on food production and protecting nature.
The Government has committed to maintain the farming budget for England at £2.4 billion per year throughout this parliament and this was confirmed again in the recent Spending Review. Future spending allocations beyond the length of this spending review period will be determined at future fiscal events in the usual way.
We published the high-level outcomes expected from the schemes in January 2022. We will keep our aims under review as we develop long-term legally binding targets under the Environment Act and set out the policy pathways to meet them under our update of the Environmental Improvement Plan - due in 2023. As well as updates via the Environmental Improvement Plan, routine monitor and evaluation we have a legal Duty in the Agriculture Act 2020 to publish a backward looking report every years. We intend to use that to provide route updates for parliamentarians, farmers and the wider public on how we are performing. We have a further legal duty to publish evaluations of the effectiveness of our financial assistance schemes.
The UK is currently experiencing the largest outbreak of Avian Influenza (AI) with (as of 9 June 2022) 121 cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) confirmed in poultry & captive birds (100 cases in England, 5 cases in Wales, 10 cases in Scotland, 6 cases in Northern Ireland). All cases have been confirmed as HPAI H5N1. To date 2.6 million birds have been culled and disposed, a small proportion of overall poultry production (c.20m birds a week). Prior to this the largest number of cases was 26 cases in 2020/2021 and 13 cases in 2016/7.
There is a robust programme of surveillance in poultry and wild birds.
As part of the wild bird surveillance scheme which looks at domestic cases and those notified overseas, as of 9 June 2022, there have been 1,094 findings of avian influenza in wild birds, in 295 locations involving 50 bird species in 77 counties.
Defra’s objective in tackling any outbreak of avian influenza is to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible from the UK poultry and captive-bird population and regain UK World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) disease-free status. Defra’s approach is set out in the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain. Swift and humane culling of birds on infected premises coupled with good biosecurity aims to prevent the amplification of avian influenza and subsequent environmental contamination and to reduce the risk of disease spread from infected premises. Current policy is in line with international standards of best practice for disease control. It reflects our experience of responding to past outbreaks of exotic animal disease.
Defra’s disease control measures seek to contain the number of animals that need to be culled, either for disease control purposes or to safeguard animal welfare. We aim to reduce adverse impacts on the rural and wider economy, the public, rural communities and the environment, while protecting public health and minimising the overall cost of any outbreak.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) leads Government action on animal disease control and has outbreak response plans in place. These include measures to contract companies to support eradication and cover such matters as the deployment of non-Government vets and experts in culling and disposal of birds. APHA also works closely with other agencies to provide additional capacity. APHA is also leading on a cross-government, cross-agency review of lessons to be learned. This will identify what went well and areas where improvements can be made to improve the effectiveness of the response to future outbreaks.
Defra’s objective in tackling any outbreak of avian influenza is to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible from the UK poultry and captive-bird population and regain UK World Organisation for Animal Health disease-free status. Defra’s approach is set out in the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain. Swift and humane culling of kept birds on infected premises coupled with good biosecurity aims to prevent the amplification of avian influenza and subsequent environmental contamination and to reduce the risk of disease spread from infected premises to other poultry or to wild birds. Current policy is in line with international standards of best practice for disease control. It reflects our experience of responding to past outbreaks of exotic animal disease.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) carries out year-round avian influenza surveillance of dead wild birds submitted via public reports and warden patrols. During the avian influenza 2021/2022 season wild birds from multiple locations across GB have tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1. Findings of HPAI in wild birds in GB are published weekly by APHA and are available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/avian-influenza-in-wild-birds
Defra works closely with the UK Health Security Agency and non-governmental organisations with interests in wildlife conservation and wetland management and recognises the importance of One Health approaches in the communication and coordination for preparedness and responses. Defra has a robust programme of avian influenza surveillance in both wild and kept birds and actively promotes the importance of biosecurity measures to reduce spillover and spillback risks between poultry and wild birds.
It is not current policy to cull wild birds, although powers exist to do this. The control of avian influenza infection in wild bird populations is not feasible from a logistical, environmental and biodiversity perspective. Culling of wild migratory bird populations is unlikely to be effective in preventing further spread of avian influenza, and their hunting would likely cause the dispersion of the birds. At present, we cannot foresee circumstances that would lead to a change in this policy, although this position will be assessed as any new evidence emerges.
We continue to monitor the current situation both in Europe and globally, as well as the effectiveness of any disease control measures taken. Any future decisions on disease control measures will be based on the latest scientific, ornithological and veterinary advice.
Defra is working with Natural England to develop a comprehensive and ambitious English Seabird Conservation Strategy (ESCS). This strategy will provide an assessment of the vulnerability of seabird species in light of the pressures they are facing and propose a comprehensive set of actions to address them.
A significant amount of work has already been undertaken on development of the ESCS including a sensitivity review for English seabirds at sea, which will become a vital evidence-base for informing understanding of seabird sensitivities. However, largely as a consequence of COVID-19 impacts, we are now planning to consult with stakeholders on draft outputs during a series of engagement sessions starting in the summer and aim to publish a final ESCS in spring 2023.
Defra’s objective in tackling any outbreak of avian influenza is to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible from the UK poultry and captive-bird population and regain UK World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) disease-free status. Defra’s approach is set out in the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain. Swift and humane culling of birds on infected premises coupled with good biosecurity aims to prevent the amplification of avian influenza and subsequent environmental contamination and to reduce the risk of disease spread from infected premises. Current policy is in line with international standards of best practice for disease control. It reflects our experience of responding to past outbreaks of exotic animal disease.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has a robust programme of wild bird surveillance and engages in year-round avian influenza surveillance of dead wild birds submitted via public reports and warden patrols. Between 5 October 2021 and 30 May 2022 over 2,570 wild birds have been tested. Of these, 1,085 have tested positive for H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza. There have been findings in 291 different locations in 50 different species in 77 different counties.
For further details of wild bird findings see the report (updated weekly) of findings of HPAI in wild birds in Great Britain and our outbreak assessments.
Avian influenza experts from APHA conduct testing at our national reference laboratory. All diagnostic testing is conducted in line with WOAH standards as set out for Avian Influenza in the OIE Terrestrial Manual. Initial results can be reported within several hours of samples arriving at the reference laboratory.
Dealing with disturbance issues is very site and species specific. Many of the wild bird populations at risk of avian influenza use sites protected for their bird interest in breeding and/or non-breeding seasons (e.g. as Special Protection Areas). Often these sites will already have site managers and wardens responsible for ensuring that disturbance is not a significant issue for the bird features. The Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds makes some recommendations about disturbance in its January 2022 statement.
Our biosecurity guidance and biosecurity self-assessment checklist contain further details of the measures all bird keepers must continue to take to protect their birds from avian influenza. Even when an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) is not in force, we recommend keepers continue to follow these biosecurity measures to protect their birds. An AIPZ makes it a legal requirement for bird keepers (whether they have pet birds, commercial flocks or just a few birds in a backyard flock) to follow strict biosecurity measures in order to reduce the risk of transmission of avian influenza to poultry and other captive birds from wild birds or any other source.
The UK has robust biosecurity measures in place to prevent avian influenza spreading, and a strong track record of controlling and eliminating outbreaks in the UK. The Government is clear that all operational livestock premises should implement strong biosecurity measures and report suspected disease immediately – and the Government and its delivery agencies continue to work closely with industry to ensure good flock management and husbandry practices are implemented on all farms regardless of size or scale.
We continue to monitor the current situation both in Europe and globally, as well as the effectiveness of any disease control measures taken. Any future decisions on disease control measures will be based upon the latest scientific, ornithological, and veterinary advice.
As part of the Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare, we are currently considering a number of improvements that could be made to the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing and have asked the Animal Welfare Committee to update its 2014 Opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing this year. Their advice is expected this autumn.
No assessment has been made of the differences in regulation regarding the slaughter of fish and other aquatic animals and terrestrial farmed animals.
Regulation 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing requires that farmed fish are spared avoidable pain, distress or suffering during their killing and related operations but does not include any further requirements. The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 makes it an offence for any person engaged in the restraint, stunning or killing of an invertebrate to cause avoidable pain, distress or suffering.
The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 received Royal Assent on 28 April and provides legal recognition that animals with a backbone (vertebrates), decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs are sentient beings. This means the Animal Sentience Committee will be able to consider how individual central government policy decision making takes account of the welfare of these creatures and can publish reports on this.
Port Health Authorities (PHAs) are the independent competent authority responsible for checking the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing documentation for containerised imports of fish, working closely with the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). The MMO has provided the following statistics.
Year | Number verification requests under Article 17(6) of the IUU Fishing Regulation (referred to as “foreign supplier verification checks”) | Number of refusals under article 18 of the IUU Fishing Regulation or Section 7 of the Sea Fishing Sea Fishing (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing) Order 2009 |
2019 | 28 (1) | 5 (0) |
2020 | 129 (0) | 0 |
2021 | 44 (3) | 0 |
2022 (to date) | 32 (1) | 0 |
figures in brackets relate to Chinese IUU fishing document checks |
It must be stressed that there are some limitations to this data. Although unlikely, PHAs are able to refuse consignments without involving the MMO. These numbers therefore reflect the data which is held centrally.
Furthermore, PHAs are not required to report their documentary or physical checks to the MMO with the result that not all the relevant data is held centrally. As a result, it is not possible to provide a complete update on the number of specific documentary and physical checks undertaken.
Port Health Authorities (PHAs) are the independent competent authority responsible for checking the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing documentation for containerised imports of fish, working closely with the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). The MMO has provided the following statistics.
Year | Number verification requests under Article 17(6) of the IUU Fishing Regulation (referred to as “foreign supplier verification checks”) | Number of refusals under article 18 of the IUU Fishing Regulation or Section 7 of the Sea Fishing Sea Fishing (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing) Order 2009 |
2019 | 28 (1) | 5 (0) |
2020 | 129 (0) | 0 |
2021 | 44 (3) | 0 |
2022 (to date) | 32 (1) | 0 |
figures in brackets relate to Chinese IUU fishing document checks |
It must be stressed that there are some limitations to this data. Although unlikely, PHAs are able to refuse consignments without involving the MMO. These numbers therefore reflect the data which is held centrally.
Furthermore, PHAs are not required to report their documentary or physical checks to the MMO with the result that not all the relevant data is held centrally. As a result, it is not possible to provide a complete update on the number of specific documentary and physical checks undertaken.
(a) The Food Strategy White Paper will set out Government's ambition for the food system: to support exceptional British food and drink producers, and to protect and enhance the nation's health and the natural environment for generations to come. We are working closely with other Government Departments to consider the evidence of Henry Dimbleby's independent review, which has made a significant contribution to our work on land use change and land management.
We are working closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the Secretaries of State have regular discussions about a range of issues including land use, planning and food production. Given ongoing wider circumstances we are postponing publication of the Food Strategy until after the pre-election period for the local elections.
b) The Government recognises the importance of food production and has set out a legal obligation to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years, set out in December 2021's first UK Food Security Report. It recognised the contribution made by British farmers to our resilience, and the importance of strong domestic production to our food security. This report will serve as an evidence base for future policy work.
In many parts of England, using land for food and agriculture will not specifically require planning permission. However, our National Planning Policy Framework is clear that food production and farming should be recognised to ensure that sustainable development is achieved, including requiring local authorities to reference the benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land. The Framework is also clear that local authorities should encourage efficient use of land and acknowledges the importance of undeveloped land for food production.
Evidence published by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust suggests that tens of thousands of wildfowl die from lead poisoning each year and many more birds, including scavengers and predators such as birds of prey, suffer and die through secondary poisoning.
Further research from the University of Cambridge, published earlier this year, reaffirms that birds of prey such as red kites which scavenge carcasses or eat injured animals with fragments of toxic lead from gun ammunition embedded in their bodies can become poisoned, suffering slow and painful deaths.
The Government supports the principle of further regulation to address the impact of lead ammunition. That is why in spring 2021 Defra asked the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA) to prepare a UK REACH restriction dossier for lead ammunition. The HSE and the EA are considering the evidence of risk posed by lead in ammunition on human health and the environment and, therefore, the case for introducing a UK REACH restriction on lead in ammunition. This process will take approximately two years (from spring 2021), after which the Secretary of State, with the consent of the Scottish and Welsh Ministers, will make a decision on the basis of this review.
The Data Collection Framework policies place no additional requirements on fisheries administrations for 2022. Further details of the UK’s data collection requirements for fisheries and aquaculture sectors for 2022 can be found in the UK workplan.
The UK does not deploy observers on vessels in UK waters for enforcement purposes. However, fisheries administrations do deploy observers on vessels to collect fisheries dependant data.
As part of our commitment to delivering a world class fisheries management system Defra is developing a set of proposals for expanding the use of Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) in English waters. This will include further consultation to determine how these measures will apply to specific vessels and fleet types.
The forthcoming Food Strategy White Paper is a once in a generation opportunity to create a food system that feeds our nation today and protects it for tomorrow. It will build on existing work across Government and identify new opportunities to make the food system healthier, more sustainable, more resilient, and more accessible for those across the UK. In doing so, it will consider the evidence of Henry Dimbleby’s independent review. Given ongoing wider circumstances we expect to publish the food strategy after the pre-election period for the local elections.
Defra has published a statutory duck welfare code which encourages high standards of husbandry for the keeping and breeding of farmed ducks. We recognise the welfare benefit of providing open water for ducks. However, in a commercial setting the provision of open bathing water for ducks is a difficult issue, as a balance needs to be struck between the welfare needs of the birds and the risks to duck health, hygiene and food safety if ducks are given unlimited access to open bathing water, which can become easily contaminated. Defra's code recommends that ducks should always have easy access to fresh water and that consideration should be given to the provision of water troughs, which are deep enough to allow the ducks to get their heads completely under water.
Local authorities are responsible for enforcement where any non-compliance with the animal welfare in transport rules is found and will take prosecution action when serious welfare issues relating to the transport of live animals are identified. The level of local government undertaking enforcement may vary between areas, based on a locally agreed division of responsibilities between the tiers of local government.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) acts as a national regulator for the welfare of animals in transport rules and is able to take regulatory action following non-compliance by transporters. APHA works closely with its local authority enforcement partners to support enforcement action and prosecution of those involved in breaches of the welfare in transport legislation.
The Welfare at Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 are enforced by Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and local authorities. The FSA has official veterinarians present in slaughterhouses to monitor and enforce animal welfare at slaughter. APHA and local authority inspectors appointed under the regulations are responsible for monitoring and enforcement of requirements outside of a slaughterhouse, such as killing on farm or in a knacker’s yard. The level of local government undertaking enforcement may vary between areas, based on a locally agreed division of responsibilities between the tiers of local government.
Biodiversity loss is a global problem that needs a global solution, and the UK is committed to playing a leading role in developing an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework to be adopted at COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
As part of this framework, the UK will be advocating for ambitious global targets to bend the curve of biodiversity loss by 2030. This includes targets to ensure at least 30% of the land and of the ocean is protected, ecosystems are restored, species population sizes are recovering, and extinctions are halted by 2050. The UK is calling for this ambitious set of targets to be supported by increased finance for nature from all sources (public and private) and at all levels (domestic and international), and for strengthened reporting and review mechanisms to facilitate the achievement of targets and hold Parties to account to their commitments.
We welcome this report and the fact that it recognises the UK’s global leadership in fighting wildlife and forestry crime. We invited the UN to undertake this analysis and we are proud to be the first G7 country to request this assessment.
There is always more we can do to tackle wildlife crime and we will carefully consider all of the UN’s recommendations – including those relating to raptor persecution - to help us build on the positive progress we have already made. Defra sits on the police-led Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group, which takes forward activities to raise awareness and facilitate intelligence and incident reporting, leading to increased prevention and enforcement activity. The group focuses on ‘hotspot’ areas of the country rather than specific species although it is recognised the five listed from a-e in this question are identified as being of particular concern where raptor persecution is concerned.
This Government takes wildlife crime seriously. Significant sanctions are available to judges to hand down to those convicted of wildlife crimes. Most wildlife crimes carry up to an unlimited fine and/or a six-month custodial sentence.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we expect a delay to the planned COP15 dates of 25 April to 8 May. Minister Goldsmith will head the UK delegation, and attendance by other UK Government Ministers will be confirmed when revised dates for COP15 are available.
Defra is the lead department for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), working closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Cabinet Office. The core team dedicated to working on CBD in Defra is comprised of 21 staff. This team works closely with teams across Defra and its specialist arm's-length bodies, other Government departments, civil society organisations, and wider society. This includes the support of hundreds of staff in the Government’s wider diplomatic service.
The Faroe Islands are in no doubt as to the UK position on cetacean hunts, which we raise at every relevant opportunity, including in person. Minister Goldsmith wrote to the then Faroese Fisheries Minister on 23rd September 2021 to express the UK’s opposition on both animal welfare and conservation grounds to the hunt of Atlantic white-sided dolphins that took place on the 12th September and the continued hunting of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands.
In their response, the Faroese government confirmed that they were launching an evaluation of regulations on the catching of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. While the government welcomed this news, we have advocated to the Faroese government that they expand the scope of the evaluation to incorporate all species of cetacean that are hunted and consider the wider benefits of cetaceans to the ecosystem. I recently reiterated to the new Faroese Fisheries Minister, Árni Skaale, that the UK looks forward to seeing the outcomes of the review.
We will continue to call on all whaling nations, including the Faroe Islands, at every relevant opportunity to cease their whaling activities. Instead, we encourage them to consider the many economic and social benefits that responsible cetacean watching can bring to coastal communities. We also continue to encourage the Faroe Islands to engage in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS).
The Faroe Islands are in no doubt as to the UK position on cetacean hunts, which we raise at every relevant opportunity, including in person. Minister Goldsmith wrote to the then Faroese Fisheries Minister on 23rd September 2021 to express the UK’s opposition on both animal welfare and conservation grounds to the hunt of Atlantic white-sided dolphins that took place on the 12th September and the continued hunting of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands.
In their response, the Faroese government confirmed that they were launching an evaluation of regulations on the catching of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. While the government welcomed this news, we have advocated to the Faroese government that they expand the scope of the evaluation to incorporate all species of cetacean that are hunted and consider the wider benefits of cetaceans to the ecosystem. I recently reiterated to the new Faroese Fisheries Minister, Árni Skaale, that the UK looks forward to seeing the outcomes of the review.
We will continue to call on all whaling nations, including the Faroe Islands, at every relevant opportunity to cease their whaling activities. Instead, we encourage them to consider the many economic and social benefits that responsible cetacean watching can bring to coastal communities. We also continue to encourage the Faroe Islands to engage in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS).
The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity represents an historic opportunity to secure agreement to ambitious global action over the next decade. The UK is committed to playing a leading role in developing an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework to be adopted at COP15. The COP is due to take place in Kunming, China, later this year, though due to the coronavirus pandemic, we expect a delay to the planned dates of 25 April to 8 May. Minister Goldsmith will head the UK delegation.
Defra is the lead department for the Convention on Biological Diversity, working closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCDO) and Cabinet Office. A core team is in place in Defra, drawing on expertise across Defra, its specialist arm’s-length bodies, and working with other Government departments, civil society organisations, and society at large. This includes working with the FCDO and our Posts across the diplomatic network, through which we are engaging host governments to support the delivery of our objectives. Nature is one of the key priorities in the UK’s COP26 Presidency, and so the Cabinet Office COP26 Unit is also supporting preparations for COP15 to ensure a successful delivery of our COP26 objectives.
Protein-based crops, such as pulses and legumes, are important to UK farming. They contribute to farm profitability, the food supply chain, and provide sustainable, low carbon, protein in human diets and animal feed. They contribute positively to crop diversification and insect recovery and pollination.
A focus on R&D and innovation, including Defra’s recently launched Farming Innovation Programme will help drive innovation including in pulses, legumes and other crops, to improve productivity and prosperity across sectors - enabling more farmers, growers and agri-food businesses to become involved in and benefit from agricultural research and development. Further R&D funding opportunities in this Programme are due to launch in Spring 2022.
Defra continues to help our food producers and farmers capitalise on the global demand for British food and drink. The Government is expanding our agri-food and drink attaché network to give additional support on the ground, and we are establishing a new Food and Drink Export Council to deliver a dynamic, future-facing strategy for the sector across the whole of the UK. The GREAT campaign has recently undertaken research into the perceptions, awareness and purchase intent of UK food and drink in key international markets - including specific questioning on plant-based foods - to help plan future promotional and export-based activity.
Protein-based crops, such as pulses and legumes, are important to UK farming. They contribute to farm profitability, the food supply chain, and provide sustainable, low carbon, protein in human diets and animal feed. They contribute positively to crop diversification and insect recovery and pollination.
A focus on R&D and innovation, including Defra’s recently launched Farming Innovation Programme will help drive innovation including in pulses, legumes and other crops, to improve productivity and prosperity across sectors - enabling more farmers, growers and agri-food businesses to become involved in and benefit from agricultural research and development. Further R&D funding opportunities in this Programme are due to launch in Spring 2022.
Defra continues to help our food producers and farmers capitalise on the global demand for British food and drink. The Government is expanding our agri-food and drink attaché network to give additional support on the ground, and we are establishing a new Food and Drink Export Council to deliver a dynamic, future-facing strategy for the sector across the whole of the UK. The GREAT campaign has recently undertaken research into the perceptions, awareness and purchase intent of UK food and drink in key international markets - including specific questioning on plant-based foods - to help plan future promotional and export-based activity.
Protein-based crops, such as pulses and legumes, are important to UK farming. They contribute to farm profitability, the food supply chain, and provide sustainable, low carbon, protein in human diets and animal feed. They contribute positively to crop diversification and insect recovery and pollination.
A focus on R&D and innovation, including Defra’s recently launched Farming Innovation Programme will help drive innovation including in pulses, legumes and other crops, to improve productivity and prosperity across sectors - enabling more farmers, growers and agri-food businesses to become involved in and benefit from agricultural research and development. Further R&D funding opportunities in this Programme are due to launch in spring 2022.
Defra continues to help our food producers and farmers capitalise on the global demand for British food and drink. The Government is expanding our agri-food and drink attaché network to give additional support on the ground, and we are establishing a new Food and Drink Export Council to deliver a dynamic, future-facing strategy for the sector across the whole of the UK. The GREAT campaign has recently undertaken research into the perceptions, awareness and purchase intent of UK food and drink in key international markets - including specific questioning on plant-based foods - to help plan future promotional and export-based activity.
The Co-design Steering Group includes representatives of local authorities with council farm estates, new entrant farmers, providers of innovation support for new farmers, cooperative and community land organisations and private landowners.
A full list of membership will be made available to the hon. Member.
Specifically on food, although there are currently no legal requirements to display information stating the carbon emissions of food products, we are keen to work with industry to help reduce environmental impacts across the food system. This includes providing such information clearly to consumers where this is effective, without creating unnecessary burdens, costs or time-lags.
We have worked with The Competition and Markets authority to input into their guidance for businesses when making environmental claims and are liaising with the Environment Agency on their SEEBEYOND project which is looking at the standardisation of metrics in the food and drink sector.
We support the work of WRAP, who convene the Courtauld 2030 voluntary agreement. Courtauld's work includes agreeing a common set of emission factors and reviewing the pathway to robust data for supply chain emissions and governance.
We want to empower consumers with more effective information to help them make healthier, greener, and more sustainable choices in their diet. As part of the Government’s Food Strategy, we are reviewing how food information can be improved so consumers can make more informed decisions whilst maintaining freedom of choice.
Outside of food, within the Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, the government committed to exploring a range of policy options that can increase overall demand for low emissions industrial products, including product labelling.
The Government has committed to developing detailed policy proposals in this area, beginning with a call for evidence, which will be published soon. The call for evidence will investigate a range of issues, including how low emissions products can be defined and the implementation of policy levers such as emissions labelling for industrial products.
The UK Government has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. The new law will make it illegal for larger businesses to use key forest risk commodities produced on land illegally occupied or used in their UK commercial activities. The UK Timber Regulations already prohibit the placing on the market of illegally harvested timber or timber products. To avoid overlapping with this regime, timber and timber products are therefore not in scope of the new provisions.
Secondary legislation is needed to set out key details on how the due diligence provisions will be implemented, including which commodities are regulated. Providing these details in secondary legislation allows us to take a phased approach to the introduction of regulations.
The UK Government will launch a consultation shortly to seek evidence and views to inform how the provisions will be implemented, including which agricultural commodities should be introduced through secondary legislation.
In considering priority substances for inclusion in Annex 14 of UK REACH, the Health and Safety Executive does not take into account socio-economic criteria, but does consider evidence on alternative substitutes.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published their draft recommendation of priority substances to be included in Annex 14 of UK REACH (list of substances subject to Authorisation) in August 2021. In recommending these substances, HSE considered evidence that had been submitted to the European Chemicals Agency in relation to tetraethyllead and identified that whilst work is underway to identify alternative substitutes, none are currently available. HSE set out that it may be appropriate to revisit the regulatory approach to tetraethyllead when technical evaluations of potential alternatives are completed. The process for recommending substances for Annex 14 prioritisation is a regular one, so all substances will be reassessed in future prioritisation rounds.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published its draft recommendation of priority substances to be included in Annex 14 of UK REACH (list of substances subject to Authorisation) in August 2021. HSE, working with the Environment Agency, published a summary of the technical rationale it used in recommending these substances. No companies or external organisations made representations to HSE as part of the assessment of which substances to recommend. The draft recommendation is currently subject to public consultation until 30 November 2021.
The Government is in regular contact with the waste sector and local authorities to ensure we have up to date information about current waste collection vehicle staffing levels.
We are aware of some current impacts that heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver shortages are having on local authority bin collections. We continue to work with the Department for Transport and the other departments involved to consider all the available options.
The Government has already taken action on HGV driver shortages, including ramping up vocational test capacity so 3,000 practical tests are available each week. The Government has also confirmed funding of up to £7,000 per apprenticeship for people undertaking lorry driver training, extended driver hours and temporarily eased restrictions on delivery curfews.
The Government is working with industry and supporting job seekers to take roles in the profession. As part of this, there are increased incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice across the economy as we recover from the pandemic. Employers will receive £3,000 for new apprentices of any age who join their organisation from 1 April to 30 September 2021.
Across Defra there are 753 electric/plug in hybrid cars of which 367 are fully electric. This represents 17.1% of the car fleet (4,414 total cars). Fully electric is 8.3%.
Organisations included are:
Through involvement in Horizon 2020 projects, European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) and the Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC), we are engaging in efforts to better understand human exposure to different chemicals and possible linked health effects. This includes EDCs, with phthalates and bisphenol included as priority substances in the first round of the HBM4EU project.
Work is also being carried out by the Environment Agency to understand the presence, use, emissions and sources of several chemicals groups containing recognised EDCs such as phthlates in the UK environment. This will be used to prioritise further assessment, which would include potential effect on wildlife. Last October the Environment Agency published a study of oestrogenic effects in wild fish (roach) in English rivers comparing contemporary and historical impacts.
The identification of intrinsic chemical hazards is already a principal requirement of the classification, labelling and packaging regulation (CLP). The hazard classes in CLP classify physical, health and environmental hazards. Endocrine disrupting properties are not captured by a specific CLP hazard class, however human health endocrine disrupting properties are closely linked to existing CMR (carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic to reproduction) hazard classes.
The hazard classification of a chemical is often used as a starting point for specific controls or protective measures and is the basis for many regulatory and legislative provisions in the risk management of chemicals. Endocrine disrupting properties are specifically taken into account by the regulatory regimes covering the use of pesticides and biocides, where identification of such properties prompts specific control measures.
We will check with the members of the co-design steering group that they are content to be named publicly and we will publish the names in due course.
The membership of the co-design steering group will be published. The co-design steering group consists of representatives of local authorities with council farm estates, new entrant farmers, providers of business support for new farmers, cooperative and community land organisations, and private landowners.
As set out in the Agricultural Transition Plan this Government will provide funding to create lasting opportunities for new entrants to access land, infrastructure and support to establish successful and innovative businesses. These could include support for local authorities to invest in county farms.
The details and eligibility criteria of the new entrant scheme are being developed through a consultative co-design process with stakeholders.
The co-design steering group includes representatives of local authorities with council farm estates, new entrant farmers, providers of innovation support for young farmers, cooperative and community land organisations and private landowners. We are also engaging a wider range of stakeholders to help us design the scheme. We will report more details of the scheme this summer and aim to launch the scheme in 2022.
We are committed to ending the use of peat in horticulture in England and achieving our net zero target. In early February 2021, we held roundtables for groups of stakeholders to discuss potential measures to end the use of horticultural peat. We intend to publish a formal consultation in 2021 on further measures to end its use.
In 2019, peat extraction accounted for an estimated 2.4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in the UK, or 0.5% of the UK’s total. For England, the figure is 0.2 million tonnes. All peat extraction in England will cease by 2042 at the latest, in advance of the UK’s target to be net zero by 2050.
The Government recognises the serious and increasing threats currently facing the ocean, and the disproportionate impact this has on the world’s poorest. That is why our manifesto committed to a £500 million Blue Planet Fund to help eligible countries reduce poverty and sustainably manage the ocean.
Beyond public investment, the Government recognises the importance of mobilising private finance to help tackle this issue. Though we have no immediate plans to sign up, we welcome the UN Environment Programme’s work to progress this agenda, including through the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles.
Middlesex University’s draft report on measures to reduce dog attacks and promote responsible ownership was submitted to Defra this month (March 2021). The report is currently being peer reviewed and will be finalised in light of peer review comments. Our intention is to publish the final report later this year.
In England funding is available through the Maritime and Fisheries Fund for applications from aquaculture businesses, including those that farm tilapia, looking to make the fisheries and aquaculture sectors more sustainable or to conserve the marine environment, as well as those seeking to adapt their seafood businesses to new trading requirements following EU exit. This funding is delivered by the Marine Management Organisation. Seafood businesses in the rest of the UK should contact their fisheries administrations to see what development support may be available to them.
In addition to this funding, on 9 March the Government opened the Seafood Response Fund which provides a one off grant payment to help businesses cover up to three months of average fixed costs between January and March 2021. This emergency scheme is targeted at catching and shellfish aquaculture businesses. All eligible business will be contacted and invited to apply by the Marine Management Organisation and we expect all payments to be made by 31 March.
We do not have specific organic standards within phase 1 of the Sustainable Farming Incentive Pilot. The Sustainable Farming Incentive is intended to be open and accessible to all farmers, and to reward farmers fairly for environmental goods generated across all land types and farm management systems, including organic farms. Throughout the pilot, which we are launching later this year, we will be working with hundreds of farmers to ensure that it works for all farming systems.
The Seafood Exports Working Group has been established to monitor live issues (across the UK) arising from the end of the transition period and work with industry on required responses to minimise disruption to trade flows of seafood. The Scottish Seafood Exports Taskforce has been established to address medium and longer term export issues faced by Scottish traders of seafood. The primary aim is to increase confidence in the seafood and aquaculture supply chain by ensuring medium and longer-term issues are resolved. The Terms of Reference for the Seafood Exports Working Group and the Scottish Seafood Exports Taskforce are attached.
We have well established ways of working with the food industry and across the Government, including with the Devolved Administrations, on preparedness for and response to potential food supply chain disruptions.
We have identified and regularly monitor Category 1 food products which could be affected by the introduction of import controls and the potential impacts, and worked closely with the industry to support their contingency planning. We will continue to communicate the latest guidance regarding the importing of such products via the Government-led food industry engagement forums to help build understanding of the requirements for regulatory compliance. We are working with industry to help improve representation of food businesses and hauliers for pre-notification fitness testing to support trader readiness. Our assessment of risk is that overall food supply will be maintained.
Consumer food prices depend on a range of factors including agri-food import costs, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, and Sterling exchange rates. Some technical barriers to trade, such as sanitary and phytosanitary checks, will also apply for specific items to businesses trading with the EU. Changes in food prices can result from any of these factors. Most food industry sectors are accustomed to fluctuations in supply chain costs. These do not necessarily translate into price rises.
We have well established ways of working with the food industry and across the Government, including with the Devolved Administrations, on preparedness for and response to potential food supply chain disruptions.
We have identified and regularly monitor Category 1 food products which could be affected by the introduction of import controls and the potential impacts, and worked closely with the industry to support their contingency planning. We will continue to communicate the latest guidance regarding the importing of such products via the Government-led food industry engagement forums to help build understanding of the requirements for regulatory compliance. We are working with industry to help improve representation of food businesses and hauliers for pre-notification fitness testing to support trader readiness. Our assessment of risk is that overall food supply will be maintained.
Consumer food prices depend on a range of factors including agri-food import costs, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, and Sterling exchange rates. Some technical barriers to trade, such as sanitary and phytosanitary checks, will also apply for specific items to businesses trading with the EU. Changes in food prices can result from any of these factors. Most food industry sectors are accustomed to fluctuations in supply chain costs. These do not necessarily translate into price rises.
The Government fully recognises the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the end of the Transition Period on the UK fishing industry and has been taking action to ensure that the industry continues to thrive. This includes announcing a £23 million Seafood Response Fund to support seafood businesses across the UK where they have experienced a verifiable loss due to failures in the EU export processes. And, on 21 February, the expanded Seafood Response Fund for the UK’s fishing and shellfish aquaculture sectors was announced, to target the needs of the whole UK fishing industry. The fund will draw on the existing £23 million but provide cash grants for more fishing businesses. Additionally, we have set up the UK Seafood Exports Working Group which meets twice weekly, inviting the top ten exporters to engage with Defra and HMRC.
The Government is also providing further support to businesses to adapt to new export processes. Defra and HMRC is offering targeted, proactive and hands on support to fisheries exporters to help them successfully meet the new requirements. This includes a new online training package (https://glsr.live/euexportjourney) to guide fish exporters through each step of the export journey and offer tips, lessons learned and advice on what do if difficulties are encountered. We are also offering a series of teach-in workshops providing training on specific steps of the exports journey and related technical areas.
We want to ensure that the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) is located in a place that contributes to the Government’s objectives. Upon considering wider locations, we have decided that Worcester will be an excellent location for the headquarters of the OEP allowing it to have a long term home that will attract the best staff. This is part of the Government's commitment to ensuring that opportunities are spread fairly across the country.
Marine protection is a devolved matter and the information provided relates to England only.
We have made good progress in implementing management measures within our inshore Marine Protected Areas. Following assessments of the impact of fishing activity, vulnerable species and habitats in over 90 Marine Protected Areas are now protected from bottom towed fishing gear.
Until recently, the Common Fisheries Policy had restricted our ability to implement fisheries management measures within offshore Marine Protected Areas. The Fisheries Act 2020 includes a new power to allow the introduction of byelaws for conservation purposes in offshore waters and we will make rapid progress this year in protecting more sites.
In October, the Marine Management Organisation launched a call for evidence to inform the management decisions for four offshore Marine Protected Areas. The evidence provided during this process will help shape and inform options ahead of formal consultation on byelaws early in 2021.
LSE Consulting’s draft report reviewing the evidence for sentience in decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs was submitted to Defra in December 2020. The report is currently being peer reviewed and will be finalised in light of peer review comments. Our intention is to publish the final report later this year.
The changes to requirements and certification for movements of animals, products of animal origin, plants and seeds at the end of the transition period is a matter of frequent discussion in Cabinet committees overseeing the Government’s plans and preparations for the end of the transition period.
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain.
Defra is working closely with officials in the Department for Transport, the Borders and Protocol Delivery Group, and other Government departments on the transport of food products, including considering prioritising movements in the event of disruption.
Across Government we are introducing a number of measures which will ensure the quick and efficient transport of food products between the UK and EU. The Check an HGV is Ready to Cross the Border service (formerly referred to as the Smart Freight service) and Kent Access Permit are designed to ensure smooth flow of freight, including food, to the EU from Kent.
In parallel to the Check an HGV service, Defra is developing contingency plans to prioritise certain goods for exports, which will be deployed if severe and sustained traffic disruption arises in Kent. We have consulted on proposals to allow for the prioritisation of a limited range of goods through Kent. This would include agricultural products based on strict criteria of perishability, animal welfare and economic impact to specific geographical areas of the UK.
The Government is also taking contingency measures to ensure the continued supply of Category 1 goods in the event of disruption to key freight flows at the end of the transition period. The Category 1 goods list includes critical food chain dependencies, such as chemicals and key additives used within the food supply chain. Should it be required, Government freight capacity will enable the prioritised import of certain inputs required for just-in-time production in the UK.
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain.
Defra is working closely with officials in the Department for Transport, the Borders and Protocol Delivery Group, and other Government departments on the transport of food products, including considering prioritising movements in the event of disruption.
Across Government we are introducing a number of measures which will ensure the quick and efficient transport of food products between the UK and EU. The Check an HGV is Ready to Cross the Border service (formerly referred to as the Smart Freight service) and Kent Access Permit are designed to ensure smooth flow of freight, including food, to the EU from Kent.
In parallel to the Check an HGV service, Defra is developing contingency plans to prioritise certain goods for exports, which will be deployed if severe and sustained traffic disruption arises in Kent. We have consulted on proposals to allow for the prioritisation of a limited range of goods through Kent. This would include agricultural products based on strict criteria of perishability, animal welfare and economic impact to specific geographical areas of the UK.
The Government is also taking contingency measures to ensure the continued supply of Category 1 goods in the event of disruption to key freight flows at the end of the transition period. The Category 1 goods list includes critical food chain dependencies, such as chemicals and key additives used within the food supply chain. Should it be required, Government freight capacity will enable the prioritised import of certain inputs required for just-in-time production in the UK.
Air pollution poses one of the biggest environmental threats to public health. That is why we are already investing £3.8 billion to clean up our air, including £880 million which is ring fenced to help Local Authorities (LAs) tackle NO2 exceedances previously identified in the 2017 UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Concentrations. We are continuing to work closely with these LAs to help develop and implement their local clean air plans which can include charging Clean Air Zones, although other measures that are at least as effective are preferred. We rigorously assess local clean air plans to make sure they will deliver reductions in NO2 levels in the shortest possible time. However, LAs ultimately make decisions on whether Clean Air Zones are the most suitable measure to introduce in their area.
We are carefully considering all the options recommended in the Global Resource Initiative Taskforce’s report, including a mandatory due diligence obligation, and will set out our response in due course.
I refer to the answer I gave on 1 May 2020 (PQ 38461).
The Department has not yet made a full assessment of the link between the destruction of biodiversity and habitats on levels of emerging zoonoses. The recent 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report on biodiversity and ecosystem services highlights this as a factor potentially exacerbating the emergence of infectious diseases in wildlife, domestic animals and people. We are continuing to review the evidence and the complex links between the destruction of natural habitats and infectious diseases, to enable us to take an informed view as soon as possible.
The Government is committed to setting up an Office for Environmental Protection. Work is ongoing to identify suitable premises and we will take into consideration any workplace guidance requirements in light of coronavirus over the coming months.
The UK’s objective for 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity is to agree a framework that spurs action and the transformative changes needed for halting and reversing global biodiversity loss.
We will promote ambitious and practical targets, including targets to enhance ecosystem resilience and species recovery, supported by strengthened implementation mechanisms that are consummate with the scale of the challenge.
The Government has well-established ways of working with the food industry during disruption to supply situations. Our retailers already have highly resilient supply chains and they have adapted quickly to these changes in demand to ensure people have the food and products they need. Food supply into and across the UK is resilient.
To help the industry to respond to this unprecedented demand we have introduced new measures to support businesses to keep food supply flowing on to shelves and into homes. These include temporary relaxation of competition laws to allow supermarkets to work together, extending delivery hours to supermarkets and flexing rules on drivers’ hours to allow a higher frequency of deliveries to stores to ensure shelves are being replenished more quickly.
Supermarkets are already protecting shopping time for certain key workers. For example, several supermarkets have priority shopping hours for NHS staff and social care workers. We remain in close contact with industry on how they can support keyworkers.
Our intention has always been to legislate if a voluntary approach failed to deliver. We are currently considering the next steps.
The English Tree Strategy consultation will be launched in spring. We will consult into the summer for up to three months to inform the final strategy which we will publish in the autumn.
The Defra funded research being carried out by Middlesex University on responsible dog ownership will be published in due course.
Our manifesto committed to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares of trees per year by 2025. As forestry is devolved, we are working with the Devolved Administrations to determine how we collectively meet this commitment. We will need to significantly increase tree planting in England, and the forthcoming consultation on the English Tree Strategy will take views on whether a target should be set for England.
We are committed to increasing tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares of trees per year by 2025. As forestry policy, and budgets to support it, are devolved we are working with the Devolved Administrations to determine how we deliver this UK commitment.
The Nature for Climate fund announced in the manifesto will support a range of measures to increase tree planting in England whilst delivering other environmental benefits. This will build on current grant incentives and schemes to create woodlands.
We will need a range of effective measures that support farmers and land managers to plant and maintain trees and will consult on options to do this through the upcoming England Tree Strategy consultation.
Funding has been allocated under the Countryside Stewardship scheme for woodland creation and the associated maintenance payments for the financial years 2019/20 to 2023/24 as follows:
(£000's) | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
CS Woodland Creation Total | 5,233 | 5,157 | 5,386 | 5,566 | 5,746 |
It has been estimated that in the earlier years of the Countryside Stewardship, the average cost per hectare was £4,243. More recent applications, since 2018, had a value of £4,153 per hectare. These figures are for capital grants only and exclude the additional annual maintenance grants, worth £200/ha for 10 years, also available.
Chemicals with persistent and mobile properties, such as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), are widely used in consumer and industrial products. Restrictions of these substances should be based on clearly established and agreed criteria.
My department is working with regulators to improve the understanding of the emissions and risks of persistent and mobile chemicals, and how we manage these chemicals will be considered in our forthcoming Chemicals Strategy.
The Government is committed to phasing out the use of peat in horticulture in England by 2030. In 2011 we introduced a voluntary target for amateur gardeners to phase out the use of peat by 2020 and a final voluntary phase-out target of 2030 for professional growers of fruit, vegetables and plants. While some progress has been made, we stated in the 25 Year Environment Plan that we would consider implementing further measures if there is insufficient movement to peat alternatives by 2020. We will set out our plans around the use of peat in horticulture in due course.
We are working with the industry to make the transition to peat alternatives and to overcome barriers to their use. This includes, for example, jointly funding research with the industry on peat replacements in professional horticulture.
The Government has always been clear on the need to phase out burning of protected blanket bog to conserve these vulnerable habitats, and we are looking at how legislation could achieve this.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government committed to publishing an England Peat Strategy to create and deliver a new ambitious framework for peat restoration in England. We intend to publish it in due course. That strategy will set out a holistic plan for the management, protection and restoration of our upland and lowland peatlands so that they deliver benefits for climate and nature. We are considering the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations in drawing up the strategy.
We are currently allocating £10 million in 2018-21 for approximately 5,948 hectares of peatland restoration; our manifesto committed to increase that as part of the new £640 million Nature for Climate Fund. We will set out more details of funding allocated specifically to peat restoration in due course.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government committed to publishing an England Peat Strategy to create and deliver a new ambitious framework for peat restoration in England. We intend to publish it in due course. That strategy will set out a holistic plan for the management, protection and restoration of our upland and lowland peatlands so that they deliver benefits for climate and nature. We are considering the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations in drawing up the strategy.
We are currently allocating £10 million in 2018-21 for approximately 5,948 hectares of peatland restoration; our manifesto committed to increase that as part of the new £640 million Nature for Climate Fund. We will set out more details of funding allocated specifically to peat restoration in due course.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government committed to publishing an England Peat Strategy to create and deliver a new ambitious framework for peat restoration in England. We intend to publish it in due course. That strategy will set out a holistic plan for the management, protection and restoration of our upland and lowland peatlands so that they deliver benefits for climate and nature. We are considering the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations in drawing up the strategy.
We are currently allocating £10 million in 2018-21 for approximately 5,948 hectares of peatland restoration; our manifesto committed to increase that as part of the new £640 million Nature for Climate Fund. We will set out more details of funding allocated specifically to peat restoration in due course.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government committed to publishing an England Peat Strategy to create and deliver a new ambitious framework for peat restoration in England. We intend to publish it in due course. That strategy will set out a holistic plan for the management, protection and restoration of our upland and lowland peatlands so that they deliver benefits for climate and nature. We are considering the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations in drawing up the strategy.
We are currently allocating £10 million in 2018-21 for approximately 5,948 hectares of peatland restoration; our manifesto committed to increase that as part of the new £640 million Nature for Climate Fund. We will set out more details of funding allocated specifically to peat restoration in due course.
In the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government committed to publishing an England Peat Strategy to create and deliver a new ambitious framework for peat restoration in England. We intend to publish it in due course. That strategy will set out a holistic plan for the management, protection and restoration of our upland and lowland peatlands so that they deliver benefits for climate and nature. We are considering the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations in drawing up the strategy.
We are currently allocating £10 million in 2018-21 for approximately 5,948 hectares of peatland restoration; our manifesto committed to increase that as part of the new £640 million Nature for Climate Fund. We will set out more details of funding allocated specifically to peat restoration in due course.
UK overseas trade data is published, free of charge, by HM Revenue & Customs. It includes export and import data relating to the items requested, and is available from this web address: www.uktradeinfo.com.
Current EU controls on surface decontamination of poultry (Regulation (EC) 853/2004) will be retained through the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and have been made ready to be carried over into UK law after the Transition Period through ‘The Specific Food Hygiene (Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019’. This maintains the status quo, whereby any substances for surface contamination must be approved by the appropriate authority. No products, other than potable water, are currently approved in the EU to decontaminate poultry carcases and this remains the case in the UK.
Council Directive 96/22/EC (as amended) prohibits the use of certain substances having a hormonal or thyrostatic action, and beta agonists (including ractopamine) in livestock farming and imported products. The EU legislation was transposed into domestic legislation by the Animals and Animal Products (Examination for Residues and Maximum Residue Limits) (England and Scotland) Regulations 2015, with similar legislation enacted in Wales and Northern Ireland. This legislation remains in place.
The UK is proud of its world-leading food, health and animal welfare standards. We remain firmly committed to upholding our high environmental, food, and animal welfare standards now we have left the EU.
As set out in our manifesto, we will not compromise our standards as we negotiate new trade deals. Nor will we put the UK’s biosecurity at risk. The Government will stand firm in trade negotiations to ensure any future trade deals live up to the values of farmers and consumers across the UK.
My officials meet regularly with Department for International Trade officials to discuss the negotiation of Free Trade Agreements.
We have been clear - across Government, from the Prime Minister down - that we will not lower our standards in pursuit of trade deals, and that we will use all the tools at our disposal to make sure that standards are protected.
Negotiations of future trade agreements with these countries have not yet begun. To date, talks between my officials and their counterparts in these countries have focused on building knowledge of our respective current domestic standards in these areas and understanding how our Partner Countries have treated them in some of their existing trade agreements.
Throughout these exploratory discussions Defra has stressed the importance of maintaining our high standards on welfare, food safety and the environment in future, all of which the Government’s election manifesto committed us to protecting.
The UK is proud of its world-leading food, health and animal welfare standards. We remain firmly committed to upholding our high environmental, food, and animal welfare standards now we have left the EU.
As set out in our manifesto, we will not compromise our standards as we negotiate new trade deals. Nor will we put the UK’s biosecurity at risk. The Government will stand firm in trade negotiations to ensure any future trade deals live up to the values of farmers and consumers across the UK.
UK overseas trade data is published, free of charge, by HM Revenue & Customs. It includes export and import data relating to the items requested, and is available from this web address: www.uktradeinfo.com.
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs as gathering the information would require each individual Control Body to contact each producer.
The main principles of organic farming are that animal health and welfare are primarily promoted by good management and care of animals.
Organic production employs a system that ensures animals have access to pasture (when weather and ground conditions permit) and are truly free range, that they have plenty of space – which helps to reduce stress and disease - and that they can graze and forage naturally on organic pasture (grasses and other crops) where only natural fertilisers are used and pesticides are severely restricted.
There were approximately 37,400 organic pigs raised in the UK in 2018, approximately 10% of which were breeding sows (3,800). Farrowing crates are prohibited in organic production and organic regulations require farrowing sows to have at least 7.5 m2 of indoor space per sow and 2.5 m2 of outdoor space per sow.
The UK is ahead of most other pig producing countries in that an estimated 40% of breeding sows in the UK are kept outdoors and farrow freely. Of the 60% of sows kept in indoor group housed systems the majority will use farrowing crates, of which there are many different designs. I believe the aim should be for farrowing crates not to be necessary. It is important that we make progress towards a system which both safeguards the welfare of the sow as well as the piglets and also works commercially, and that we do so as quickly as possible so that crates can be consigned to history.
A new statutory welfare code for pigs was laid in Parliament on 9 September 2019 and includes guidance on farrowing to protect the welfare of both sows and piglets. The code will come into force shortly.
Defra does not hold statistics on how many pigs are reared outside or indoors. The terms free range, outdoor-reared and outdoor-bred are industry-owned marketing terms and Defra does not hold data on this type of information. To the best of our knowledge, this data is not available elsewhere.
The UK has been in the forefront in opposing animal tests where alternative approaches could be used – the “last-resort principle” - and we will retain that principle moving forward, enshrining it in the Environment Bill
We are working collaboratively with partner countries at the OECD as part of their test guidelines programme to develop new methods aimed at reducing the need for performing tests on animals for new chemical substances.
As the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, the UK has now entered into the transition period. During this period, the UK will remain within the EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulatory framework.
At the end of the transition period we will bring EU REACH in to UK law. This will mean that any decision we take as an independent regime will be consistent with the fundamental aims and principles of REACH and based on rigorous assessment of the scientific evidence. We will not change what REACH sets out to achieve, including a high level of protection of human health and the environment.
After our exit from the EU on 31 January 2020, the UK will enter into an implementation period. During this period, the UK will remain within the EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulatory framework including the European Chemical Agency (ECHA). The nature of our future relationship with the Agency will be determined by the outcome of our negotiations with the EU.
I refer the hon. Member for Bristol East to the answer I gave her today, UIN 118845.
We are engaging closely with the US administration to address our serious concerns about the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as talking to our friends and allies across the world who are similarly affected, we will continue to robustly defend the interests of UK industry.
During the Secretary of State's visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, the Inflation Reduction Act was atop of her agenda. She held meetings with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai to reaffirm her concerns about the legislation and a potential global subsidies race, as well as EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, where she continued to push for both sides to work together and with other international partners on our response to the Inflation Reduction Act.
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade has not had any discussions with her Portuguese counterpart on a visa agreement for remote workers.
Tariff-free access for UK exports of electric vehicles is provided by the EU as well as 33 of 67 countries the UK has concluded agreements with, including Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey. A further 20 countries provide staged preferential tariff reductions until full liberalisation, mainly by 2023.
There are 9 countries that do not offer tariff-free access for exports, and 5 that offer partial tariff-free access. These countries are largely part of Economic Partnership Agreements which are development-focussed free trade agreements, where the UK has usually agreed to liberalise its markets to a greater extent than its developing country partners, including with Kenya and the Pacific States, and remain unchanged from access granted under the original EU agreements.
Of the 34 trade agreements that the UK has signed to date, all provide tariff-free access relating to imports on electric vehicles, except within 4 agreements: Canada, Japan, Ukraine and Viet Nam.
Electric vehicles are subject to staged annual tariff reductions with these agreements, with tariff-free imports commencing in January 2022 (Canada, Viet Nam), January 2023 (Ukraine) and February 2026 (Japan).
Tariff free trade in electric vehicles demonstrates the UK’s commitment to tackling climate change and supports wider government policy to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The tariffs referred to are imposed as part of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) award of retaliatory rights in the Boeing dispute, recognising harm felt by UK and European industries as a result of US subsidies.
The UK Government continues to push for a swift de-escalation of the Airbus and Boeing disputes. We want a negotiated settlement and to remove punitive tariffs that unnecessarily harm businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic, who are already dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.
For the remainder of the Transition Period, the United Kingdom will automatically impose the EU’s retaliatory measures under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement. From January 2021 the United Kingdom will represent itself independently in disputes at the WTO and shall undertake such actions as are in the best interests of the United Kingdom.
The tariffs referred to are imposed as part of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) award of retaliatory rights in the Boeing dispute, recognising harm felt by UK and European industries as a result of US subsidies.
The UK Government continues to push for a swift de-escalation of the Airbus and Boeing disputes. We want a negotiated settlement and to remove punitive tariffs that unnecessarily harm businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic, who are already dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.
For the remainder of the Transition Period, the United Kingdom will automatically impose the EU’s retaliatory measures under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement. From January 2021 the United Kingdom will represent itself independently in disputes at the WTO and shall undertake such actions as are in the best interests of the United Kingdom.
In preparation for the end of the transition period, the Department for International Trade assessed whether the EU anti-dumping measure on bicycles should continue to apply after the transition period. This was done through a Call for Evidence process, which was a technical exercise based on objective evidence from businesses, validated through reputable, publicly available sources.
The criteria for the assessment as to whether an existing EU measure, such as the measure on bicycles, should be maintained in the UK were as follows:
Now that we have left the EU, the UK will be able to negotiate, sign and ratify new free trade agreements. We are working to begin formal negotiations with key partners, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, as swiftly as possible. We will also seek accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
All animal products imported into the UK under existing or future free trade agreements will, as now, have to comply with our food safety standards. We will use the opportunities provided through future free trade agreements and wider international engagement to promote high animal welfare standards among our international trading partners.
UK officials continue to engage with US and Australian officials in preparation for the launch of negotiations and to help build a shared understanding of our countries’ approaches and ambitions for their future bilateral trade and investment relationship.
In their interactions with EU27 officials, UK officials have reiterated that while laws and regulations may diverge from those of the EU, the Government will uphold the UK’s high regulatory standards.
The report published by the Office for Budget Responsibility includes revised forecasts for electric vehicle take-up, which are made independently of Government.
These forecasts now more closely align with projections produced by the Department, reflecting the ZEV targets set out in the Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes Order 2023, introducing a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate GB-wide.
A comprehensive Cost Benefit Analysis accompanying this legislation includes the assessment of carbon savings out to 2050, with analysis estimating 411MTCO2e in carbon savings for GB between 2024-2050
The UK proudly hosts the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and is committed to acting through the IMO to address international shipping pollutants and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
A decade of concerted action at international level has seen effective reductions in pollutant emissions and the UK took a leading role in advocating for the global IMO sulphur cap for marine fuels in 2020.
Domestically the Government published guidance to support UK ports to reduce pollutant emissions and since April 2010 applied limits to sulphur content of marine fuels for ships at berth.
To complement UK climate leadership at the IMO, particularly in securing the ambitious IMO Greenhouse Gas Strategy (July 2023), the UK has been a driving force on the development of clean maritime technologies, with announcements at London International Shipping Week’s Clean Maritime Day on Green Shipping Corridors through the Clydebank Declaration and launching a £1.5 million International Green Corridor Fund in September 2023, as well as the winners of the over £80 million Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure (ZEVI) competition, which will see zero emission vessels deployed in the UK by 2025.
We will also set out how we will take ambitious action domestically in the forthcoming refreshed Clean Maritime Plan, which will set out an ambitious and credible pathway to net zero GHG emissions for the sector, considering the impact of our own domestic action and international measures, as these develop through the IMO.
As per my response on 04 September, the department is working to publish an update to the Clean Maritime Plan as soon as possible.
The Government will support any Local Transport Authority wishing to franchise their bus services.
The Bus Services Act 2017 provides automatic access to franchising powers to Mayoral Combined Authorities in England.
Other authorities can request those powers from the Secretary of State but need to demonstrate that they have the capability and resources to deliver franchising, and that franchising is the best option to deliver improvements for passengers.
The Department is currently revising the Bus Services Act 2017 Franchising Scheme Guidance, published in November 2017, to provide updated and detailed advice on the franchising process.
Regarding the current action on Go North East, I hope both sides can come to a mutually acceptable agreement that delivers for passengers.
The Department plans to publish new guidance on socially and economically necessary services during this Parliament.
The strategic outline business case for the proposed re-opening of St Anne’s station has been submitted to my Department as part of the Restoring Your Railway programme. An announcement on the next steps for the project is expected in due course.
The Government has not made an assessment of the level of funding required to maintain the National Cycle Network (NCN). The NCN is made up of over 12,000 miles of signed on and off-road routes across the UK. Sustrans manage the NCN and rely on a variety of partners to maintain and grow the Network, including landowners, highway authorities, and national and local government.
38% of the operational fleet of the Government Car Service are classed as Ultra Low Emission vehicles (ULEV).
The Government is working with industry to improve electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure. There are now over 42,000 public chargepoints, alongside hundreds of thousands in homes and workplaces. The Government estimates that by 2030, around 300,000 public chargepoints will be needed as a minimum. The Government expects to see a market-led roll-out for the majority of chargepoints with over £6 billion of investment already committed.
The Government’s funding interventions are focused on two sectors: high powered chargers on the strategic road network through the Rapid Charging Fund (RCF) and local on-street charging through the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund (LEVI).
The LEVI fund will support local authorities to work with industry to transform the availability of charging infrastructure for drivers without off-street parking. The Government has announced a further £381 million of LEVI funding (£343 million capital and £37.8 million resource), which will be made available over the next two financial years. The RCF will future-proof the electrical capacity at strategic locations to support ultra-rapid en-route charging.
The Government is also working to improve the experience of people using public chargepoints. In the coming months, the Government will regulate to mandate open data to ensure consumers can locate the right chargepoints for their needs, mandate 99 per cent reliability across each rapid charging network and will aim to introduce contactless payment provision for all new chargepoints over 8kW
Rental e-scooter trials were launched in July 2020 across England. The Department for Transport commissioned an independent evaluation of the e-scooter trials, covering data up to December 2021. The evaluation examines how and why rental e-scooters are used, and by whom, as well as safety, mode shift, environmental and wider social impacts.
The Department published the findings report of the national evaluation of e-scooter rental trials in England on 15 December 2022.
The findings have already been used to inform updates in guidance and regulation of the e-scooter trials and will continue to be used to inform policy development. These include:
mandatory unique identification numbers for all rental e-scooters, to allow members of the public to differentiate trial from non-trial e-scooters; and
increased guidance and encouragement for operators to provide helmets and incentivise their use.
The Government plans to introduce legislation for private and rental e-scooter use when parliamentary time allows and will consult on regulations in due course.
Rental e-scooter trials were launched in July 2020 across England. The Department for Transport commissioned an independent evaluation of the e-scooter trials, covering data up to December 2021. The evaluation examines how and why rental e-scooters are used, and by whom, as well as safety, mode shift, environmental and wider social impacts.
The Department published the findings report of the national evaluation of e-scooter rental trials in England on 15 December 2022.
The findings have already been used to inform updates in guidance and regulation of the e-scooter trials and will continue to be used to inform policy development. These include:
The Government plans to introduce legislation for private and rental e-scooter use when parliamentary time allows and will consult on regulations in due course.
The second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2) estimates that over £3 billion of investment will be invested in active travel between 2021/22 to 2024/5. This includes estimates for City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) (£700m), Levelling Up Fund (£576m), Future High Streets Fund (£289m), Towns Fund (£293m) and National Highways Designated Funds (£90m). An update on estimates across all funds included within CWIS2 will be published in the next CWIS Report to Parliament.
The Government is investing more than £5.5 billion between 2020 and 2025 into local highways maintenance; this funding covers all aspects of the highway, including footways. The Government believes local councils are best placed to allocate this money in their areas.
Prior to registration vehicle manufacturers must supply evidence that their vehicles comply with international road vehicle approval requirements. Provisions for vehicle headlamps define maximum and minimum intensity, light pattern and position on the vehicle. Domestic legislation also prohibits the use of headlamps that cause undue dazzle or discomfort for other road users.
The Department’s engineers are involved in ongoing international activity at the United Nations and proposals to amend headlamp aiming criteria are expected to be agreed this month, together with requirements for mandatory automatic headlamp levelling.
The Department for Transport has provided over £2 billion in emergency and recovery funding since March 2020 to support bus services and mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) have received over £8 million of this funding. This support is set to continue until 30 June, and Department is actively working on plans to support the sector from July onwards and will make a further announcement on this in due course. The Department continues to discuss the scale of the challenge with representatives from local authorities and from bus operators.
The Government also provides WECA with £1.1 million annually through the Bus Service Operator Grant (BSOG), which is provided directly to Local Authorities to subsidise socially necessary bus services.
The amount of funding required depends on a wide variety of factors including the uncertainty over the long-term impact of the pandemic on cycling activity. A total of around £3 billion of Government funding is projected to be invested in cycling and walking up to 2025.
The Department consulted on measures to address inconsiderate pavement parking in 2020 and received over 15,000 responses. We have been considering all views expressed and the options for managing pavement parking. This is a complex issue and we want to ensure that local authorities have appropriate and effective tools at their disposal. We will publish the formal consultation response and announce next steps as soon as possible.
There are currently criminal offences that cover these matters. However, we keep the law under review and listen to the concerns of those affected by tragic cases of death or serious injury.
The Government is considering a Call for Evidence on motoring offences. while the potential scope and timings are being confirmed, it is expected that it will include issues around drink and drug driving, and the offence of failure to stop and report. There may also be the opportunity to highlight other areas of concern.
I want to ensure that disabled people have the confidence to travel by bus and recognise that audible and visual information supports that. I remain committed to making Accessible Information Regulations, so that passengers can begin benefitting from audible and visible route and stop information as soon as possible.
The Department for Transport and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have confirmed that Active Travel England will become a statutory consultee in the planning system from June this year. Active Travel England also provided design reviews for relevant submissions to the Levelling Up Fund. The Department for Transport will continue to support DLUHC on its consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework and would encourage all interested in these matters to respond to that consultation.
As part of the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme, local authorities were able to bid for:
As the costs of zero emission buses and supporting infrastructure will vary between projects, the proportion of grant funding spent on supporting infrastructure varies between projects.
As a proportion of the total grant funding awarded for the entire scheme, approximately 19% of the costs relate to infrastructure, including both electric vehicle charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure.
A zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate will increase the UK’s supply of ZEVs, create thousands of new jobs and put our industry at the forefront of this global transition. It will help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, encourage new investments in infrastructure and improve consumer choice. A technical consultation on its design closed on 10 June and we are now analysing consultation responses. We will bring forward the Government’s response in due course.
We do not have estimates broken down by types of investment.
The total number of public electric vehicle chargepoints in the UK, as of 01 January, for each of the last 5 years, is given in the table below:
Year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Total | 7,211 | 10,309 | 16,505 | 20,775 | 28,375 |
Source: DfT/Zap Map
The total number of public electric vehicle chargepoints in the UK, funded through the OZEV On-Street Residential ChargePoint scheme (ORCS), for each of the last 5 financial years is given in the table below:
Year | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Total | 50 | 427 | 1,099 | 1,015 | 50 |
ORCS grants are offered to successful applicants, but funds are only released upon final completion of installation. These figures only include charging devices that have been installed and claimed for.
In 2016 government awarded £40m to eight local authorities to support the delivery of a wide range of innovative chargepoint solutions in their areas. The total number of chargepoints delivered is provided in the table below. This includes fast and rapid chargepoints.
Local Authority | Chargepoints |
Bristol City Council | 179 |
Dundee City Council | 30 |
Transport for London | 4,300 |
Milton Keynes Council | 156 |
North East | 28 |
Nottingham City Council | 229 |
Oxford City Council | 46 |
York City Council | 38 |
The Department’s data on the total number of public electric vehicle chargepoints comes from Zap-Map. We are unable to determine from this data which of the public chargepoints were delivered through funding from (a) the private sector or (b) local authorities.
While the Department publishes data on the number of chargepoints delivered through funding for domestic and workplace grant schemes, these charge points are not intended for public use.
The UK’s National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) is compiled annually to report emissions by pollutant and source sector. The latest data available at Devolved Administration level is for 2019 and is publicly available at: https://naei.beis.gov.uk/reports/reports?report_id=1030.
Data from the NAEI for 2019 shows that in the UK 1.1% of total nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions were attributable to buses and 2.4% from public transport. In England 1.2% and 2.7% of total NOx emissions were buses and public transport respectively.
For particulate matter less than 10 micron (PM10), data from the NAEI for 2019 shows that in the UK 0.3% of total PM10 emissions were attributable to buses and 0.5% to public transport. In England these are 0.3% and 0.5% of total PM10 emissions respectively.
For particulate matter less than 2.5 micron (PM2.5), 0.3% of total PM2.5 emissions were from buses and 0.5% from public transport in 2019. In England buses and public transport contributed 0.3% and 0.6% of total PM2.5 emissions respectively.
Figures provided above for public transport include buses and rail only. Figures for buses include both buses and coaches. Figures for rail has excluded rail freight.
In Scotland the Scottish Government has funded 272 zero emission buses through the Scottish Ultra Low Emission Bus Scheme and 276 zero emission buses through the Scottish Zero Emission Bus challenge fund. Transport funding in Scotland is supported by the UK block grant awarded to the Scottish Government.
In Wales, 68 zero emission buses have been directly supported by the UK Government through funding to Welsh local transport authorities and bus operators. The Welsh Government has also provided funding for further zero emission buses. Transport funding in Wales is supported by the UK block grant awarded to the Welsh Government.
In 2020 the Government provided £50 million funding to the Northern Ireland Executive for ultra low emission public transport. This funding will support the introduction of over 100 zero emission buses in Northern Ireland.
The requested figures are in the tables below. The Department does not collect this data for Northern Ireland.
Table 1 – Number of buses used as Public Service Vehicles by local bus operators as at 31 March 2021
Thousand
Financial year | England | Scotland | Wales | Great Britain | ||
2020/21 | 32.7 | 3.7 | 1.3 | 37.8 |
|
|
Source: DfT Annual Bus Statistics (BUS0602)
Table 2 – Percentage of buses used as Public Service Vehicles by fuel consumption type as at 31 March 2021
Fuel Consumption Type | England | Scotland | Wales | Great Britain | ||
Hydrogen | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
|
|
Electric (not hybrid) | 2% | 2% | 0% | 2% |
|
|
Diesel-Hybrid | 14% | 7% | 0% | 13% |
|
|
Methane/Biomethane | 1% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
|
|
Diesel | 79% | 87% | 98% | 81% |
|
|
Other (including Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO)) | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
|
|
Unknown | 3% | 6% | 2% | 3% |
|
|
Source: DfT Annual Bus Statistics (BUS0609b)
National Highways will ensure its strategic road network caters for all road user needs - including cyclists and pedestrians, particularly in urban areas.
There are no budget changes related to Smart Motorways as the spend deferred from the pausing of new schemes will largely be balanced out by spending on new commitments such as additional emergency areas.
The Secretary of State has asked his officials to speed up work on finding safe alternative unleaded fuel such as UL91. Since then, the Department has engaged with sector stakeholders, international aviation regulators such as the FAA, and aviation fuel manufacturers, to identify effective measures. A survey to understand the sentiment of airfields and aircraft operator clubs has just closed and will be used to inform further policy interventions. Options that could be considered include information campaigns, improving the data and evidence, and measures to affect the relative price or access to different fuels. As this is still at policy development stage, engagement has been by officials, and the Secretary of State has not had significant discussions with the aviation sector on this.
This is a global issue since nearly all commercial flight training involves fuel incorporating TEL since it reduces the risk of engine misfires with potentially serious consequences for aircraft safety. The use of fuel incorporating TEL is widespread across many countries GA sectors, including the United States and many European countries, where it is the dominant fuel used for piston engine aircraft.
The Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs leads the development of the UK REACH alongside the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). My officials engaged with them to understand the legal status of TEL in the EU, as well as to understand how the UK REACH regulations would work. No country globally has banned TEL. The HSE recently announced that they would not include TEL in their list of authorised chemicals under the UK REACH as they judged that with intensive efforts already ongoing to find a substitute, additional regulatory pressure is unlikely to speed this, but would revisit this when substitutes had been tested and certified.
Aside from noting whether TEL would be assessed for inclusion in Annex 14 of UK REACH, neither my officials, myself nor the Secretary of State have engaged either organisation to influence their decision.
In response to an enquiry by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association about the future of 100LL the Secretary of State asked his officials to speed up work on finding safe alternative unleaded fuel such as UL91. This is highly technical safety work involving the FAA, EASA and engine manufacturers in which the UK seeks to play a leading part.
This is a global issue since nearly all commercial flight training involves fuel incorporating TEL since it reduces the risk of engine misfires with potentially serious consequences for aircraft safety. The use of fuel incorporating TEL is widespread across many countries GA sectors, including the United States and many European countries, where it is the dominant fuel used for piston engine aircraft.
The Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs leads the development of the UK REACH alongside the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). My officials engaged with them to understand the legal status of TEL in the EU, as well as to understand how the UK REACH regulations would work. No country globally has banned TEL. The HSE recently announced that they would not include TEL in their list of authorised chemicals under the UK REACH as they judged that with intensive efforts already ongoing to find a substitute, additional regulatory pressure is unlikely to speed this, but would revisit this when substitutes had been tested and certified.
Aside from noting whether TEL would be assessed for inclusion in Annex 14 of UK REACH, neither my officials, myself nor the Secretary of State have engaged either organisation to influence their decision.
In response to an enquiry by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association about the future of 100LL the Secretary of State asked his officials to speed up work on finding safe alternative unleaded fuel such as UL91. This is highly technical safety work involving the FAA, EASA and engine manufacturers in which the UK seeks to play a leading part.
The Department’s consultation on pavement parking ended on 22 November 2020. We received over 15,000 responses from a mixture of local authorities, disability organisations, businesses and other organisations. Since then each of these has been read and carefully considered. In the light of the consultation findings, Ministers are now actively considering the options for addressing pavement parking. This is a priority and we will publish the formal consultation response and announce next steps for policy as soon as possible.
The Department’s consultation on pavement parking ended on 22 November 2020. We received over 15,000 responses from a mixture of local authorities, disability organisations, businesses and other organisations. Since then each of these has been read and carefully considered. In the light of the consultation findings, Ministers are now actively considering the options for addressing pavement parking. This is a priority and we will publish the formal consultation response and announce next steps for policy as soon as possible.
The Department’s consultation on pavement parking ended on 22 November 2020. We received over 15,000 responses from a mixture of local authorities, disability organisations, businesses and other organisations. Since then each of these has been read and carefully considered. In the light of the consultation findings, Ministers are now actively considering the options for addressing pavement parking. This is a priority and we will publish the formal consultation response and announce next steps for policy as soon as possible.
The Department for Transport is always looking to work with the motor insurance industry to encourage the use of vehicles in ways that are better for the environment. My officials regularly engage with representatives of the insurance industry on a variety of issues and this is one of them, and they will continue to do so. The Association of British Insurers has a web page providing advice on car sharing, and the British Insurance Brokers’ Association run a not for profit ‘find a broker’ service, and they maintain a list of brokers who specialise in car sharing.
This is a global issue since nearly all commercial flight training involves fuel incorporating TEL since it reduces the risk of engine misfires with potentially serious consequences for aircraft safety. The use of fuel incorporating TEL is widespread across many countries’ GA sectors, including the United States and many European countries, where it is the dominant fuel used for piston engine aircraft.
The Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs leads the development of the UK REACH alongside the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). My officials engaged with them to understand the legal status of TEL in the EU, as well as to understand how the UK REACH regulations would work. No country globally has banned TEL. The HSE recently announced that they would not include TEL in their list of authorised chemicals under the UK REACH as they judged that with intensive efforts already ongoing to find a substitute, additional regulatory pressure is unlikely to speed this up keeping the UK in line with the EU, but would revisit this when substitutes had been tested and certified.
Aside from noting whether TEL would be assessed for inclusion in Annex 14 of UK REACH, neither my officials, myself nor the Secretary of State have engaged either organisation to influence their decision.
In response to an enquiry by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association about the future of 100LL the Secretary of State asked his officials to speed up work on finding safe alternative unleaded fuel such as UL91. This is highly technical safety work involving the FAA, EASA and engine manufacturers in which the UK seeks to play a leading part.
This is a global issue since nearly all commercial flight training involves fuel incorporating TEL since it reduces the risk of engine misfires with potentially serious consequences for aircraft safety. The use of fuel incorporating TEL is widespread across many countries’ GA sectors, including the United States and many European countries, where it is the dominant fuel used for piston engine aircraft.
The Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs leads the development of the UK REACH alongside the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). My officials engaged with them to understand the legal status of TEL in the EU, as well as to understand how the UK REACH regulations would work. No country globally has banned TEL. The HSE recently announced that they would not include TEL in their list of authorised chemicals under the UK REACH as they judged that with intensive efforts already ongoing to find a substitute, additional regulatory pressure is unlikely to speed this up keeping the UK in line with the EU, but would revisit this when substitutes had been tested and certified.
Aside from noting whether TEL would be assessed for inclusion in Annex 14 of UK REACH, neither my officials, myself nor the Secretary of State have engaged either organisation to influence their decision.
In response to an enquiry by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association about the future of 100LL the Secretary of State asked his officials to speed up work on finding safe alternative unleaded fuel such as UL91. This is highly technical safety work involving the FAA, EASA and engine manufacturers in which the UK seeks to play a leading part.
This is a global issue since nearly all commercial flight training involves fuel incorporating TEL since it reduces the risk of engine misfires with potentially serious consequences for aircraft safety. The use of fuel incorporating TEL is widespread across many countries’ GA sectors, including the United States and many European countries, where it is the dominant fuel used for piston engine aircraft.
The Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs leads the development of the UK REACH alongside the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). My officials engaged with them to understand the legal status of TEL in the EU, as well as to understand how the UK REACH regulations would work. No country globally has banned TEL. The HSE recently announced that they would not include TEL in their list of authorised chemicals under the UK REACH as they judged that with intensive efforts already ongoing to find a substitute, additional regulatory pressure is unlikely to speed this up keeping the UK in line with the EU, but would revisit this when substitutes had been tested and certified.
Aside from noting whether TEL would be assessed for inclusion in Annex 14 of UK REACH, neither my officials, myself nor the Secretary of State have engaged either organisation to influence their decision.
In response to an enquiry by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association about the future of 100LL the Secretary of State asked his officials to speed up work on finding safe alternative unleaded fuel such as UL91. This is highly technical safety work involving the FAA, EASA and engine manufacturers in which the UK seeks to play a leading part.
This is a global issue since nearly all commercial flight training involves fuel incorporating TEL since it reduces the risk of engine misfires with potentially serious consequences for aircraft safety. The use of fuel incorporating TEL is widespread across many countries’ GA sectors, including the United States and many European countries, where it is the dominant fuel used for piston engine aircraft.
The Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs leads the development of the UK REACH alongside the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). My officials engaged with them to understand the legal status of TEL in the EU, as well as to understand how the UK REACH regulations would work. No country globally has banned TEL. The HSE recently announced that they would not include TEL in their list of authorised chemicals under the UK REACH as they judged that with intensive efforts already ongoing to find a substitute, additional regulatory pressure is unlikely to speed this up keeping the UK in line with the EU, but would revisit this when substitutes had been tested and certified.
Aside from noting whether TEL would be assessed for inclusion in Annex 14 of UK REACH, neither my officials, myself nor the Secretary of State have engaged either organisation to influence their decision.
In response to an enquiry by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association about the future of 100LL the Secretary of State asked his officials to speed up work on finding safe alternative unleaded fuel such as UL91. This is highly technical safety work involving the FAA, EASA and engine manufacturers in which the UK seeks to play a leading part.
This is a global issue since nearly all commercial flight training involves fuel incorporating TEL since it reduces the risk of engine misfires with potentially serious consequences for aircraft safety. The use of fuel incorporating TEL is widespread across many countries’ GA sectors, including the United States and many European countries, where it is the dominant fuel used for piston engine aircraft.
The Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs leads the development of the UK REACH alongside the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). My officials engaged with them to understand the legal status of TEL in the EU, as well as to understand how the UK REACH regulations would work. No country globally has banned TEL. The HSE recently announced that they would not include TEL in their list of authorised chemicals under the UK REACH as they judged that with intensive efforts already ongoing to find a substitute, additional regulatory pressure is unlikely to speed this up keeping the UK in line with the EU, but would revisit this when substitutes had been tested and certified.
Aside from noting whether TEL would be assessed for inclusion in Annex 14 of UK REACH, neither my officials, myself nor the Secretary of State have engaged either organisation to influence their decision.
In response to an enquiry by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association about the future of 100LL the Secretary of State asked his officials to speed up work on finding safe alternative unleaded fuel such as UL91. This is highly technical safety work involving the FAA, EASA and engine manufacturers in which the UK seeks to play a leading part.