Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to maintain animal welfare after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
This Government is committed to high standards of animal welfare. We are working to deliver a number of manifesto commitments that will strengthen our position as a world leader in this field at the end of the Transition Period.
We have committed to introduce tougher sentences for animal cruelty. To deliver this, we are currently supporting the passage of a Private Member’s Bill, the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill, which increases the maximum custodial penalty for the worst animal cruelty offences from six months or an unlimited fine to five years or an unlimited fine.
We will take advantage of our departure from the EU to deliver our manifesto commitment to end excessively long journeys for slaughter and fattening of livestock. We have previously run a call for evidence on the topic and will launch a full consultation before the end of the year.
We are continuing to work on delivering our other manifesto commitments, including developing new laws on animal sentience and cracking down on the illegal smuggling of dogs and puppies. We will also be consulting in the near future on our commitments to ban pet primates, introduce mandatory cat microchipping and implement the Ivory Act. We have also committed to ban imports from trophy hunting of endangered animals. We ran a call for evidence and consultation on this issue and the Government will be publishing our response to this as soon as we are able to do so.
In addition to supporting the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill, we are considering the best legislative vehicle to bring forward these reforms in the near future.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to include targets for tree (a) planting and (b) preservation in relation to (i) planning and (ii) building requirements in his forthcoming England Tree Strategy.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We committed in our manifesto to increase tree planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025. As noted in a public paper this summer, we are exploring whether a statutory target for trees in England would be appropriate, under the target setting process proposed by the Environment Bill.
To increase planting in England, we recently consulted on proposals for a new ambitious England Tree Strategy, which will be published in spring 2021. This will set out our long-term vision for trees in England and the policy priorities needed to achieve this, as well as plans for how the £640 million Nature for Climate Fund will support the substantial increase in woodland creation that we have committed to achieving in this Parliament.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to ban destructive industrial fishing in marine protected areas.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Marine protection is a devolved matter and the information below relates to England only.
Good progress has been made for Marine Protected Areas in the inshore area. Over 90 have byelaws in place to prevent activities such as trawling which could damage protected features on the seabed. The Common Fisheries Policy has inhibited our ability to protect offshore areas. At the end of the Transition Period, we will use new powers contained in the Fisheries Bill to put byelaws in place as we have done in the inshore environment. A Call for Evidence for the first sites will be launched shortly, followed by the formal consultation in early 2021.
The MMO will monitor the activity of fishing boats to ensure compliance with protection measures. Not all fishing activities within Marine Protected Areas will require management, only those likely to damage the habitats and species they were set up to protect.
When the transition period ends, the UK will be able to decide which vessels can access our waters and the new licensing framework within the Fisheries Bill will allow us to apply conditions to the activities of all vessels fishing in UK waters. Any vessels granted access to fish in our waters, regardless of nationality, will need to abide by UK rules including those on sustainability.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure people who are blind or partially sighted are able to access essential groceries.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government is working to ensure that approximately 1.8 million people in England identified by the NHS as being at higher risk of severe illness if they contract Coronavirus have access to the food they need. We are also working quickly to support people who do not fall into the category of being clinically extremely vulnerable, but still need help getting essential food supplies. This group includes blind or partially sighted people who may struggle to comply with social distancing in food shops as they often rely on a combination of touch and guiding from another person to navigate.
Defra has been working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Local Government Association and local authority chief executives who are leading on vulnerable people to ensure that all local authorities can provide the necessary support to all food-vulnerable people. The vast majority of local authorities have dedicated COVID-19 helplines and accessible resources for people who need support and help to access food. Local authorities are establishing networks of local volunteers and linking in with the voluntary and community sector to deliver groceries to people who do not have friends, family or neighbours who can shop for them.
Supermarkets have been working at pace to expand the total number of delivery and click and collect slots and we are working with major retailers to ensure that they prioritise delivery slots for those who are most vulnerable and at risk, including the blind or partially sighted.