Asked by: Marcus Fysh (Conservative - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether there has been any illegal whaling within British-administered waters; and what steps the Government is taking to prevent such whaling.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK is fully committed to upholding the global moratorium on Commercial Whaling adopted by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. The moratorium is enforced by the appropriate authorities. We are not aware of any illegal whaling activity that takes place in British-administered waters.
Asked by: Marcus Fysh (Conservative - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the contribution of farmers and landowners to supporting bees and pollinators.
Answered by George Eustice
Farmers and other land managers make a vital contribution to supporting pollinators through management and creation of beneficial habitat features. This is reflected in Defra’s National Pollinator Strategy implementation plan.
Well over one thousand applications for the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme, which funds environmentally beneficial land management, contained the Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package. As part of our monitoring and evaluation programme, we will assess the effectiveness of the Scheme in supporting bees and other pollinators.