Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what are the projected emissions resulting from waste over the period of the 4th, 5th and 6th carbon budget periods.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Government's Net Zero Strategy sets the UK on the path to deliver on its commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The Net Zero Strategy sets out Government's vision for transitioning to a net zero economy and covers a wide range of actions across different sectors.
Sectoral emissions for Waste and F-gases over forthcoming carbon budget periods are set out in Table 8 of the technical annex to the net zero strategy. These are: Carbon Budget (CB) 4 24-27 MtCO2e; Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) 17-20 MtCO2e and CB6 12-15 MtCO2e.
n.b. NDC is the midpoint of CB5
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has an emissions reduction plan.
Answered by Jo Churchill
On 19 October, the Government's Net Zero Strategy was published, setting the UK on the path to deliver on its commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The Net Zero Strategy sets out Government's vision for transitioning to a net zero economy and covers a wide range of actions across different sectors. The Natural Resources, Waste and Fluorinated-Gases (F-Gases) chapter covers Defra related sectors and their emission reductions including agriculture, peat and tree planting.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what are the projected resulting emissions for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use over the period of the 4th, 5th and 6th carbon budget periods.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Government’s Net Zero Strategy sets the UK on the path to deliver on its commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The Net Zero Strategy sets out the Government’s vision for transitioning to a net zero economy and covers a wide range of actions across different sectors.
Sectoral emissions for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) over forthcoming carbon budget periods are set out in Table 8 of the technical annex to the Net Zero Strategy. These are Carbon Budget (CB) 4; 51-57 MtCO2e; Nationally Determined Contribution 44-52 MtCo2e and CB6 38-48 MtCO2e.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he (a) has made and (b) plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of using powers under The Common Fisheries Policy and Aquaculture (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 to apply trade sanctions on relevant stocks against a nation State that is overfishing, for the purposes of securing the most advantageous deals for the UK fishing industry.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
Powers set out under Retained Regulation (EU) No 1026/2012 on certain measures for the purpose of the conservation of fish stocks in relation to countries allowing non-sustainable fishing. The measures can include targeted trade sanctions on the species that has been caught. Sustainable fishing remains a priority for UK and we continue to consult a range of countries through bilateral and multilateral engagement to agree suitable harvest control rules to prevent overfishing.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to ban the non-commercial importation of pregnant cats as well as pregnant dogs.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was introduced in Parliament on 8 June. The Bill allows us to protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and on the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation. These restrictions could relate to the movement of pets below a prescribed age and to the movement of heavily pregnant pets under the commercial and non-commercial rules. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders prior to the introduction of the legislation to ensure that our final measures are well considered and are guided by the latest evidence.
The Government is planning to launch a consultation later this year on the proposed restrictions to the commercial and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain. The consultation will allow us to refine the scope of the measures, including whether they apply to cats.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to increase the minimum age a kitten can enter the UK non-commercially to six months in order to prevent kitten smuggling and protect kitten welfare.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was introduced in Parliament on the 8 June. The Bill allows us to protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and on the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation. These restrictions could relate to the movement of pets below a prescribed age and to the movement of heavily pregnant pets under the commercial and non-commercial rules. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders prior to the introduction of the legislation to ensure that our final measures are well considered and are guided by the latest evidence.
The Government is planning to launch a consultation later this year on the proposed restrictions to the commercial and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain. The consultation will allow us to refine the scope of the measures, including whether they apply to cats.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
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 introduce compulsory tick and tapeworm treatments for cats entering the UK non-commercially.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The Pet Travel and Illegal import clauses of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill focus on measures to improve welfare of pets entering Great Britain. We remain aware of the concerns around ticks and tick-borne disease and tapeworm in cats and our future policy will be guided by risk assessment. Defra also continues to monitor the disease situation through the Tick Surveillance Scheme.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
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 introduce a requirement for a (a) rabies blood test for cats before entry into the UK and (b) wait period post vaccination which is in line with the incubation period of rabies.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The Pet Travel and Illegal import clauses of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill focus on measures to improve welfare of pets entering GB. Recent quantitative risk assessments have concluded that the risk of a pet animal with rabies entering the UK under the pet travel rules is very low. Defra continues to monitor the disease situation.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
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 (a) Government buying standards for food are in line with the UK’s targets for net zero emissions and (b) top-quality British farmers and producers can benefit from public sector contracts.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The Government will always champion greater consumption of our excellent British food and drink, including from British farmers and local producers. The Government Buying Standards for Food (GBSF) encourages the procurement of UK seasonal and locally produced food.
Defra is launching a public consultation this summer to review the GBSF. We want to enhance the GBSF in line with recent Government policy initiatives around promoting local produce, social value and environment and resource management.
The consultation will seek views as to how public sector food procurement can assist the Government in achieving net zero carbon emissions. This will include proposals for procuring from more sustainable farming systems, as well as ensuring caterers use energy efficient equipment and move away from food waste management to waste reduction.
We will also be seeking views on how the standards could be used to promote even greater uptake of locally produced food by public procurers and their suppliers.
In addition, Defra is working closely with the Crown Commercial Service to develop the Future Food Framework in the South West region. The trial will create significant new opportunities for our farmers and local producers to supply regional public sector bodies.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has plans to (a) commission and (b) fund further research to assess animal welfare in transport using modern broiler genotypes and transport systems.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The Government is committed to improving the welfare standards of all animal journeys. We are continuously assessing the available scientific evidence on improving animal welfare during transport and are committed to commissioning new research where it is needed in order to develop the evidence base further.
We launched a Call for Evidence, in 2018, on controlling live exports for slaughter and improving animal welfare during transport and, that same year, commissioned Scotland’s Rural University College and the University of Edinburgh to produce a systematic review of the evidence on welfare aspects of the transport of live animals.
The Government asked the then Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC, now Animal Welfare Committee) to provide an opinion on improving the welfare of animals during transport. FAWC considered the evidence obtained from the Call for Evidence; the report of the systematic review; as well as their engagement with stakeholders before submitting their opinion and recommendations.
We launched a consultation in England and Wales in 2020 on improvements to the domestic welfare in transport regime, informed by the recommendations from FAWC’s report. We will shortly be publishing our response to the consultation and outlining how we will take reforms forward.