Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made a recent assessment of the role of allotment sites in meeting the objectives of her plans for biodiversity net gain.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The biodiversity value of allotments is recognised in the biodiversity metric that we intend to use for biodiversity net gain, subject to a recent consultation. We are currently analysing responses to the consultation on this metric and will publish a response in due course. We have also been engaging with the sector to discuss how biodiversity net gain might affect allotments and how the approach could incorporate the delivery of new allotments.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits for reducing single-use plastics by allowing larger e-liquid bottles for e-cigarettes.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has made no specific assessment of the potential merits for reducing single-use plastics by allowing larger e-liquid bottles for e-cigarettes.
Regardless of size, e-liquid bottles can and should be recyclable. The Government's landmark Resources and Waste Strategy sets out our plans to eliminate avoidable plastic waste over the lifetime of the 25 Year Plan and drive up recycling rates. We will also be introducing a new world-leading tax on plastic packaging which will apply to businesses producing or importing plastic packaging which doesn't meet a minimum threshold of at least 30% recycled content, subject to further consultation, from April 2022. Together with the government's reform of the Packaging Producer Responsibility system, this will transform the economic incentives of producers by encouraging more use of recycled plastic and driving up recycling rates.
The Department of Health and Social Care is undertaking a post implementation review of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 that provides the regulatory framework for e-cigarettes. This includes a public consultation, which closed on the 19 March, which allowed the opportunity for people to share their opinions on the regulations. The Government will publish its response later this year.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much emergency funding he plans to allocate to Forestry England to enable that organisation to continue (a) operating and (b) paying staff (i) during and (ii) after lockdown.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra and the Forestry Commission are discussing options to manage financial impacts arising from COVID-19. With reduced income from timber and visitors, Forestry England (FE) has made use of the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to reduce costs, protect jobs and retain staff. FE continues to manage and care for the nation’s forests, adapting working practices in line with public health guidelines.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 level of funding required from the public purse to enable Forestry England to maintain its activities (a) during and (b) after the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra and the Forestry Commission are discussing options to manage financial impacts arising from COVID-19. With reduced income from timber and visitors, Forestry England (FE) has made use of the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to reduce costs, protect jobs and retain staff. FE continues to manage and care for the nation’s forests, adapting working practices in line with public health guidelines.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that Forestry England is able to maintain the (a) wages of its staff, and (b) number of jobs in its organisation during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra and the Forestry Commission are discussing options to manage financial impacts arising from COVID-19. With reduced income from timber and visitors, Forestry England (FE) has made use of the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to reduce costs, protect jobs and retain staff. FE continues to manage and care for the nation’s forests, adapting working practices in line with public health guidelines.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
If he will bring forward legislative proposals to recognise animal sentience.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There has never been any question that this Government’s policies on animal welfare are driven by the fact that animals are sentient beings. However, the Government has been very clear that we will make any necessary changes required to UK law in a rigorous and comprehensive way to ensure animal sentience is recognised after we leave the EU.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 he has had with Cabinet colleagues on creating a replacement for the European School Milk Scheme.
Answered by George Eustice
The Secretary of State and I have regular discussions with ministers in other government departments on a range of matters.
We want children to be healthy and well-nourished and the dairy industry makes an important contribution to this. Alongside the European Union (EU) scheme, the Government is already doing a great deal nationally to promote children’s dairy consumption through, for example, the much larger national free Nursery Milk Scheme, and by ensuring the availability of milk for pupils under the School Food Standards, including free milk for disadvantaged pupils. The longer-term approach to the EU Scheme is still under consideration.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of school children who will be affected by the discontinuance of subsidies from the European School Milk Scheme.
Answered by George Eustice
The Secretary of State and I have regular discussions with ministers in other government departments on a range of matters.
We want children to be healthy and well-nourished and the dairy industry makes an important contribution to this. Alongside the European Union (EU) scheme, the Government is already doing a great deal nationally to promote children’s dairy consumption through, for example, the much larger national free Nursery Milk Scheme, and by ensuring the availability of milk for pupils under the School Food Standards, including free milk for disadvantaged pupils. The longer-term approach to the EU Scheme is still under consideration.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the levels of bovine TB in areas which are (a) under and (b) not under badger control measures.
Answered by George Eustice
The report on the comparison of the effect of the first two years of badger control in the first two areas is available here:
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the largest single herds slaughtered due to the detection of bovine TB in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
In 2016 more than 29,000 cattle were compulsory slaughtered in England due to the discovery of bovine TB following surveillance testing. On average six reactors are found and slaughtered from testing where bovine TB is detected in a herd. As the comprehensive bovine TB testing surveillance regime ensures most bovine TB incidents are detected at an early stage, it is very rare for cattle herds to be fully slaughtered for bovine TB control reasons in England. There have been four such cases in England in the past five years.
Year of incident | Herd size |
2016 | 60 |
2015 | 0 |
2014 | 130 |
2013 | 0 |
2012 | 122 & 25 |