Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
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 support the UK ornamental horticulture industry to harvest under the new UK-EU trading arrangements.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government recognises the importance of the ornamental horticultural sector to local economies. We have the climate, landscape, and entrepreneurial growers in this country allowing us to grow top-quality fresh flowers, ensuring consumers are able to access the widest range of beautiful UK grown flowers for most of the year.
We will always champion the ornamental sector, looking for ways they can stay competitive with measures to increase productivity and invest in new technology. Defra is collaborating with the Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable Group, and in particular the Horticulture Trades Association, on a Growth Strategy for the sector to help ensure the ornamental horticulture sector continues to thrive. This is industry led and underlined by research identifying key areas of opportunity for growth in the sector.
The Government is aware that a reliable source of labour is a key part of bringing in the harvest for the ornamental sector. Defra is working closely with industry to understand labour demand and supply and help our world-leading growers access the labour they need.
In 2021 and beyond, horticultural businesses will continue to be able to rely on EU nationals living in the UK with settled or pre-settled status. More than 4.5 million EU citizens and their families have been granted settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and the application deadline to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme is 30 June 2021.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to alleviate the difficulties trading with the EU experienced by UK shellfish exporters since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra is working with other government departments, industry and EU authorities to ensure smooth trade flow and minimise disruption at the border. We have established a weekly seafood exports working group to identify issues and resolve across government. A joint Defra/HMRC support package of guidance and training has also been issued to exporters, including sector-specific technical workshops for shellfish exporters. A £23 million fund has also been made available to support seafood businesses, covering losses caused by delays incurred between 1 - 31 January, with applications now open.
With regard to live bivalve molluscs, we continue to raise the issue with the EU to seek urgent resolution to their unacceptable change of position regarding exports from ‘Class B’ waters. We have offered to provide reasonable additional reassurances to demonstrate shellfish health, on the understanding the Commission must recognise the existing high standards and history of UK-EU trade.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to The Border with the European Union: Importing and Exporting Goods, published 13 July 2020, what the timescale is for creating the additional Border Control Posts.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We are working with ports and airports to develop a delivery programme which will be supported by the investment fund of £705 million announced last week. We expect Border Control Posts to be operational from July 2021.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to page 42 of The Border with the European Union: Importing and Exporting Goods, published 13 July 2020, what criteria will determine the risk-led approach to identity and physical checks on live animals until July 2021.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Between January and July 2021, health certification and pre-notifications will be required for live animals and germinal products, and identity and physical checks will continue to be carried out at destination on a risk basis. The following parameters are usually assessed to determine if a live animal is high risk: country of origin including its disease status, importer risk, species. Future levels of checks will take into account the level of checks imposed by the EU on UK goods of similar risk status.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to The Border with the European Union: Importing and Exporting Goods, published 13 July 2020, what estimate he has made of the staffing levels required for the increased checks on animals and food referenced in that policy paper.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The new funding of £705 million announced on 9 July includes funds for recruitment of specialist staff including vets and plant health inspectors. We are working with the Food Standards Agency and our delivery bodies, including the Animal & Plant Health Agency and Port Health Authorities, to develop resourcing plans for the required expansion of controls. We are already expanding the capacity of some of these delivery bodies and as the details of the new regime are finalised, we will continue to work with them to ensure recruitment of the required number of additional staff.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) women and (b) men his Department has appointed to each of his Department's non-Departmental Public Bodies in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
The Commissioner for Public Appointments completes and publishes an annual data survey for all new appointments and reappointments made to boards of public bodies by Government including the overall gender diversity.
Data on the gender diversity of new non-executive appointees to public boards for 2012 to 2015 is published on Gov.uk
(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/diversity-in-public-appointments).
Data on the gender diversity of non-executive appointees to Defra’s non-Departmental Public Bodies in 2016/17 and 2017/18 is in the table attached.
Data on the gender breakdown of "executive" permanent staff appointments in each of the last five years is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
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 respond to the letter of 25 January 2018 from the hon. Member for Leeds West on the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
I replied to the hon. Member for Leeds West on Friday 2 March. I apologise for the delay in replying.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much of his Department's planned £2.5 billion investment in flood investments will be allocated to Leeds; and what the timetable is for completion of those schemes.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Between April 2015 and March 2021, the Government plans to invest £54.5 million within the Leeds City Council boundary. This will deliver more than 15 individual schemes and projects to reduce flood risk to communities and safeguard the economy. The majority of these will be completed by March 2021.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on supporting businesses who are unable to get flood insurance as part of their commercial insurance.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The British Insurance Broker Association (BIBA) insurance product, launched in December 2016, provides flood insurance for many small businesses that have struggled to access it to-date. We understand that this new product is already providing insurance and has strong support from brokers. BIBAs ‘Find a Broker Service’ can help business identify local brokers participating in the BIBA scheme and is accessible through BIBAs website.
https://www.biba.org.uk/find-insurance/results/?insurance=908
The Government continues to work with commercial interests under the Property Level Resilience Roundtable to promote the uptake of measures that make properties resilient to flooding. These are measures that prevent water entering a property and speeding recovery when it does. One objective is to develop better standards and certification, enabling insurers to take greater account of resilience measures in the future.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress his Department has made on investment in flood defences.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
As the Government manifesto outlines, we will continue to invest a record £2.5 billion over six years to better protect the country from flooding. This includes over 1,500 flood defence schemes, which will better protect more than 300,000 properties by 2021.
From April 2015 until May 2017, this investment has given better protection to 97,000 homes. This has been achieved by £785 million of Government grants in aid and £179 million of external contributions.