Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the war in Ukraine on the (a) supply and (b) price of (i) animal feed and (ii) fertiliser.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
i. The UK has a highly resilient food and animal feed supply chain which has coped well in responding to challenges in the past few years.
Cereals and oilseeds make up a significant proportion of animal feed, most of which are internationally traded commodities. Subsequently, their supply chains are dynamic and responsive to global market developments in price and availability. These developments may be influenced by the war in Ukraine or additional factors unrelated to the conflict, such as weather conditions and currency fluctuations.Our high degree of food security is built on strong domestic production and imports from diverse sources. We recognise the essential role that domestic production plays in providing food security and resilience, which is why the government is committed to broadly maintaining the current level of food we produce domestically.
We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments.
ii. In 2022, nitrogen fertiliser prices increased to two to three times their recent nominal historic levels (imported ammonium nitrate prices were £870/t), due to increased global gas prices and conflicts around the world (including but not limited to the conflict in the Ukraine) as well as strong demand driven by high crop prices.
The AHDB publishes a GB fertiliser price time-series for the most commonly used fertiliser products to increase transparency of market prices and show trends to growers. This shows a plateauing of fertiliser prices in GB from June 2023 until now. While this is a GB price series the same situation applies to the UK as a whole. This plateau in prices is partly due to global price factors, but also regional demand has been affected by poor weather and shifts in crop choices by farmers.
Defra is continuing to monitor fertiliser prices and supply chains through regular engagement with key manufacturers and wider stakeholders. We are also working with other government departments to coordinate intelligence, and understand supply and pricing issues.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 help ensure an adequate supply of (a) animal feed, (b) fertiliser and (c) CO2.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
a) Animal feed: The UK has a highly resilient food and animal feed supply chain which has coped well in responding to challenges in the past few years. Cereals and oilseeds make up a significant proportion of animal feed, most of which are internationally traded commodities. Subsequently, their supply chains are dynamic and responsive to global market developments in price and availability. These developments may be influenced by the war in Ukraine or additional factors unrelated to the conflict, such as weather conditions and currency fluctuations. Our high degree of food security is built on strong domestic production and imports from diverse sources. We recognise the essential role that domestic production plays in providing food security and resilience, which is why the government is committed to broadly maintaining the current level of food we produce domestically.
We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments.
b) Fertiliser: In 2022, nitrogen fertiliser prices increased to two to three times their recent nominal historic levels (imported ammonium nitrate prices were £870/t), due to increased global gas prices and conflicts around the world (including but not limited to the conflict in the Ukraine) as well as strong demand driven by high crop prices.
Defra is continuing to monitor fertiliser prices and supply chains through regular engagement with key manufacturers and wider stakeholders. We are also working with other government departments to coordinate intelligence and understand supply and pricing issues.
CO2: Defra works closely with stakeholders across the food industry, to encourage CO2 contingency planning and resilience. The tightness in supply of CO2 has eased and shown more stability recently and the industry has taken steps to make efficiencies and use alternative CO2 sources where possible. The stable supply of CO2 is vital to several CNI sectors including food and water. We recognise the importance of CO2 supply for our key sectors.
Over the past few years we have completed extensive work to build resilience into the sector including: monitoring and encouraging further diversification of production and supply in the UK; providing clarity on various regulatory questions, including through the Environment Agency’s publication of a Regulatory Position Statement on the capture, treatment, storage and use of carbon dioxide (CO2) from anaerobic digestion (AD) of waste; and working with industry on this supply chain through various forums. The diversification of this supply chain is being demonstrated through a series of recent industry announcements, such as British Sugar’s recent reopening of the CO2 capture plant at their Wissington site.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what (a) steps she is taking and (b) discussions she has had to support businesses prepare for the full implementation of the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In recent months, the Department for Business and Trade has met with a range of business representative organisations, as well as other stakeholders, to discuss the new tipping legislation and address any remaining concerns. Businesses and other stakeholders also had the opportunity to respond to the public consultation. The responses are currently being analysed to inform the final version of the statutory Code of Practice.
The final version of the Code will be published in the coming weeks, to ensure businesses have sufficient time to ensure they are compliant, ahead of coming into force in the summer.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 help increase staff retention in the veterinary sector.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is aware of the challenges facing the veterinary sector, including retention of qualified veterinary surgeons. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, as the regulator for the veterinary profession, published its Workforce Action Plan in 2022 to progress issues of recruitment, retention and return. Defra works closely with the RCVS on issues concerning the veterinary profession and continues to keep reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act, where amendments might support increases in recruitment and retention, under review.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 plans to take to mitigate the threat from bluetongue virus as the midge vector increases in activity.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) officials took robust action following findings of cases of Bluetongue virus, following our well-established processes for managing cases of disease. We are planning for a possible resurgence of the disease over the coming months as the weather warms, and the risk of infected midges blowing over from northern Europe increases. We recently held a Ministerial roundtable with key industry stakeholders to discuss the options and understand their priorities over the coming months. Surveillance of susceptible animals and epidemiological assessments continue, and we are actively engaging with vaccine manufacturers on the development of BTV-3 vaccines for use in the UK. We are modelling the risk of incursion and proactively raising awareness with animal keepers in higher-risk areas, and are monitoring vector activity.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with (a) the police and (b) animal welfare stakeholders on the actions of people involved in catapult groups on social media.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The use of catapults against animals, and the sharing of disturbing imagery associated with such use on social media, is an issue that has been relayed to my officials by certain local police forces and the National Wildlife Crime Unit. I am informed a new national group has recently been created to address the catapulting of wildlife, focusing on education, prevention, detection and justice. Officers from Essex Police and the Metropolitan Police are leading the group, named Operation Lakeshot, and they are working in partnership with the RSPCA and Nature Watch.
The government takes wildlife crime seriously and it is a matter of concern. Under provisions in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and the Animal Welfare Act 2006, there are a range of offences around deliberate attempts to kill, injure, or inflict harm on wildlife. Furthermore, the Online Safety Act 2023 will also require social media firms to take action to tackle content that results in the unnecessary suffering of animals, or that encourages activity that causes the unnecessary suffering of an animal. This includes removing such content.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the availability of homes in Cumbria.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government is providing £212 million from the Housing Infrastructure Fund for Cumbria County Council’s Carlisle Southern Link Road, which intends to support the delivery of up to 10,325 new homes in Carlisle.
In Barrow-in-Furness, the Government is spending to support the delivery of over 800 new homes at Barrow Waterfront, including up to £24 million from the Brownfield Infrastructure and Land Fund, and £1.5 million from the Brownfield Land Release Fund to support the release of land at Marina Village.
To the end of March 2023 £4.4 million has been allocated to Cumbria from the Affordable Homes Programme (2021-126) to deliver 74 new affordable homes. Overall, since 2010, 4,400 affordable homes have been delivered in Cumbria (3,100 for rent, of which 1,200 for social rent).
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to support low income households in Penrith and The Border constituency to transition to net zero.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is allocating around £20 billion over this Parliament and next improving energy efficiency and low carbon heating of homes, reducing reliance on fossil fuel heating and reducing household energy bills for low income households in Penrith and The Border constituency as well as other constituencies.
The Government will deliver upgrades to over half a million homes in the coming years through Social Housing Decarbonisation, Home Upgrade Grant Schemes and Energy Company Obligation Schemes.
The Government has spent over £2 billion to support transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), focusing on reducing barriers to adopting ZEVs, including offsetting higher upfront cost, and accelerating rollout of chargepoint infrastructure.