Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2023 to Question 2393 on Dangerous Dogs: Veterinary Services, with which organisations within the veterinary sector his Department worked on the implementation of the ban on XL Bully type dogs.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra consulted with the British Veterinary Association, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and animal welfare organisations on the implementation of the ban on XL Bully dog types.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of vets who are able to provide a Certificate of Exemption for ownership of an American Bulldog XL by 1 February 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Owners of XL Bully type dogs who want to keep their dogs after the end of the transition period should apply to Defra for a Certificate of Exemption before 31 January 2024. From 1 February 2024 it will be a criminal offence to own an XL Bully dog in England and Wales without a Certificate of Exemption. Vets are not responsible for providing the Certificate of Exemption but must confirm that the dog has been neutered by a certain date for the Certificate to remain valid. Defra has worked closely with stakeholders, including the veterinary sector, on the implementation of the ban on XL Bully type dogs. We will continue to work closely as the ban comes into effect.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals on (a) livestock worrying, (b) puppy and kitten smuggling, (c) the import of dogs and cats with illegal mutilations and (d) cat and dog abduction.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We are committed to taking forward measures formerly in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill individually through other means during the remainder of this Parliament. We have listened carefully to views expressed on these measures and this approach will enable us to take this feedback into further consideration when delivering these measures.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park in the House of Lords on 20 June 2022, Official Report, column HL3, if she will publish the findings of work commissioned by her Department on the issue of pets being handed out as prizes in England.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In England and Wales, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 prohibits the sale of an animal, or the transfer of an animal as a prize, to anyone under the age of 16 years old. It also ensures that any person winning an animal as a prize is obliged to provide for its welfare. Our assessment is that these restrictions continue to be balanced and proportionate. Defra has not commissioned any additional external research into pets as prizes, but has commissioned other external research into the keeping of primates as pets, which is ongoing.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what legislation applies to the distribution of pets as prizes in England; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of that legislation.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In England and Wales, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 prohibits the sale of an animal or the transfer of an animal as a prize to anyone under the age of 16 years old and ensures that any person winning an animal as a prize is obliged to provide for its welfare. We consider these restrictions to be balanced and proportionate.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle waste crime.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to tackling waste crime and we are preparing significant reforms to continue to increase the pressure on illegal waste operators. We recently published our Government response to reform of the waste exemptions regime with the intention of closing loopholes and preventing exemptions from being misused to permit risky and illegal activity. Our planned electronic waste tracking reforms will make it harder than ever to mis-identify waste or dispose of it inappropriately. Planned changes to the Carriers, Brokers and Dealers licensing regime will modernise licensing and make it harder still for rogue operators to escape detection. These will come in addition to measures in the Environment Act 2021 which gives agencies stronger powers of entry and access to evidence in prosecuting waste crime as well as providing the Environment Agency with the ability to recover costs of investigation, intervention and enforcement at illegal or non-compliant waste sites.
The Government also launched the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) in 2020. It brings together the Environment Agency, HM Revenue & Customs, the National Crime Agency, the police, waste regulators from across the UK and other operational partners to share intelligence and tasking to disrupt and prevent serious organised waste crime. In the three years since the JUWC launched it has worked with 102 partner organisations and engaged in 175 multi-agency days of action, which have resulted in 51 associated arrests by other agencies.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of when a mandatory digital waste tracking system will be operational in England.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are working towards an operational digital waste tracking service from 2024 dependent on the development of the IT and the transition needs of businesses. We will be issuing a government response to our consultation on the implementation of mandatory digital waste tracking in the Spring.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with the (a) Scottish Government, (b) Welsh Government and (c) Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland on the development of a central digital waste tracking service.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The service we are developing will be UK wide and the project is a great example of joint working, with representatives from the devolved governments engaged in the development and decision making on a regular basis.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government is on track to eliminate waste crime by 2043.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
HM Government is committed to tackling waste crime and we are preparing significant reforms to continue to increase the pressure on illegal waste operators.
Our planned electronic waste tracking reforms will make it harder than ever to misidentify waste or dispose of it inappropriately. Planned changes to the Carriers, Brokers and Dealers licensing regime will modernise licensing and make it harder still for rogue operators to escape detection. We have also consulted on reforming waste exemptions which are often used to hide criminal activity, and will publish our response later this year.
These will come in addition to measures in the Environment Act 2021 which gives agencies stronger powers of entry and access to evidence in prosecuting waste crime, and existing powers we have already given the regulator in recent years to tackle illegal waste sites, including the ability to lock sites and to force rogue operators to clean up all their waste
As per our commitment in our landmark Resources & Waste Strategy, the Joint Unit for Waste Crime has been set up to disrupt serious and organised waste crime and reduce its impact on the economy, the environment and local communities. Through shared intelligence and enforcement, the Joint Unit is identifying, disrupting and deterring criminals and making them pay for the damage they have done to communities and the environment. In the two years since the Joint Unit for Waste Crime launched it has worked with over 50 partner organisations and engaged in 74 multi-agency days of action, which have resulted in 52 associated arrests by other agencies.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June 2022 to Question 18820 on Waste Management, when he plans to implement reforms to the waste carrier, broker, dealer regime.
Answered by Steve Double
We expect to publish the response to the recent consultation in due course.