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Written Question
Agriculture: Energy
Wednesday 19th April 2023

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on extending the list of energy and trade intensive industries that are eligible for a higher level of energy support to include horticulture and poultry businesses.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra officials and Ministers have worked closely with counterparts across Government on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme and Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) support since the Government started to support business energy prices in Autumn 2022, raising the energy needs of businesses in our sectors via cross Government discussions on design of the scheme and formal Write Round processes.


Written Question
Agricultural Products: Exports
Wednesday 19th April 2023

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help support agricultural exports.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We are delivering our commitment to boost UK exports. We want people at home and abroad to be lining up to buy British.

We have expanded our agrifood attaché network from two to eleven locations around the world. They work to resolve market access barriers, reduce the complexity of trading requirements, and raise the profile of British products, enabling U.K. producers to tap into the growing international demand for our quality products.

The attachés work to drive export growth and help deliver on the opportunities created by new Free Trade Agreements.


Written Question
Meat: Imports
Wednesday 19th April 2023

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

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 adequacy of biosecurity checks on imported meat.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government published the Border Target Operating Model (TOM) ON 05 April 2023. In developing the TOM, we have designed a modern border with a simplified, effective, risk-based system of controls based on current assessments of risks to biosecurity. It will strike the appropriate balance between protecting the UK’s public health, food supply chains and natural environment, and setting a proportionate controls regime. The TOM will operate a more sophisticated approach to risk categorisation than the EU’s 3rd country model, with the intensity of controls calibrated to the level of risk presented by each commodity, and the country of origin. This will be underpinned independent and dynamic risk assessments which respond to changing risks. For high-risk and medium-risk goods, including POAO products in those categories, we will retain health certification and BCP inspection, albeit with frequently lower inspection rates than under the EU model.


Written Question
Members: Correspondence
Thursday 16th July 2020

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to reply to the correspondence dated 15 April and 18 May 2020 from the hon. Member for Wellingborough on a proposed large scale chicken farm in the hon. Member's constituency.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

The Secretary of State replied to my Hon. Friend’s correspondence on 13 July 2020.


Written Question
Horses: Tagging
Thursday 27th February 2020

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what regulations his Department has introduced in relation to the micro-chipping of horses; and what penalties can be levied on people that do not comply with those regulations.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

The rules relating to the microchipping of horses in England, including details of the penalties that can be applied in the event of non-compliance, are contained in The Equine Identification (England) Regulations 2018 (2018 No.761) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/761/made.

From 1 October this year, it will be mandatory in England, for owners to microchip horses, ponies and donkeys. Further information is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/compulsory-microchipping-to-improve-horse-welfare.


Written Question
Horses: Tagging
Thursday 27th February 2020

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his Department’s requirements are for Disposing of a dead horse on privately owned land where that horse had not been micro-chipped and its owner could not be traced.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

Dead horses should be disposed of at approved rendering or incineration facilities. Where the owner of a dead horse cannot be traced and it is on private land, responsibility for disposal lies with the land owner. In rare cases where there is no landowner, for example, on common land, the Local Authority has responsibility and Defra has at times been able to help with practical measures.


Written Question
Horses: Animal Welfare
Thursday 27th February 2020

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if will he bring forward legislative proposals to strengthen the protection of horses from cruel treatment.

Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General

The Government takes animal welfare very seriously and have committed to introducing tougher sentences for animal cruelty. We are supporting the recently introduced Private Member’s Bill – the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill - which seeks to increase the maximum custodial penalty for animal cruelty, including cruelty against horses, from six months’ imprisonment to five years’ imprisonment. In addition, such offenders can already be banned from owning or keeping animals for as long as the court sees fit. Local authorities have powers under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to investigate concerns about the ill-treatment or neglect of animals, and any person or organisation, such as the RSPCA, can take forward a private prosecution under the 2006 Act.


Written Question
Food: Sales
Tuesday 5th September 2017

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

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 promote the sale (a) in the UK and (b) globally of food produced in the UK.

Answered by George Eustice

We are using the UK’s growing reputation for high quality food and drink, with high standards of animal welfare, traceability and sustainability to increase demand for our great British products.

We are opening up public procurement to more small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and local producers. We are raising the profile and reputation of British food and drink overseas through the Food is GREAT campaign. Defra and DIT are also opening new markets and supporting exports in priority markets such as China, USA and India.


Written Question
Agriculture: Subsidies
Thursday 5th November 2015

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate she has made of the amount the EU will pay farmers in the UK in 2015.

Answered by George Eustice

In 2015, the UK has been allocated a total of €4 billion in CAP funds.

In pounds sterling, based on the average European Central Bank exchange rate for September used for calculating direct payments, this equates to a total of £2.9 billion. Of this amount, £2.3 billion is allocated to Pillar 1 direct payments and £620 million to Pillar 2 rural development.


Written Question
Government Departments: Mergers
Friday 11th September 2015

Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will have discussions with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on the merging of those departments.

Answered by George Eustice

There are no plans to have such discussions at the present time.