Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria his Department uses to determine when bans on personal imports of food products should be implemented following disease outbreaks.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Personal imports of meat and dairy products from the European Union (EU) into Great Britain (GB) are subject to a transitional exemption from rules that apply to personal imports from outside the EU single market. As part of our national mission to protect our food sector and farmers, we have put in place a series of emergency safeguard measures banning personal imports of certain animal products into GB, in response to outbreaks of Peste des Petits Ruminants, African Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease in the European Union. The devolved governments in Wales and Scotland have put in place equivalent measures. Decisions on whether to impose safeguard measures on personal imports of animal products are based on expert risk assessments and advice from the UK Chief Veterinary Officer and the Chief Veterinary Officers in Wales and Scotland. We publish risk assessments on GOV.UK: www.gov.uk/government/collections/animal-diseases-international-monitoring.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria his Department plans to use to decide when personal imports of meat and dairy products from the European Union can be reinstated.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Personal imports of meat and dairy products from the European Union (EU) into Great Britain (GB) are subject to a transitional exemption from rules that apply to personal imports from outside the EU single market. As part of our national mission to protect our food sector and farmers, we have put in place a series of emergency safeguard measures banning personal imports of certain animal products into GB, in response to outbreaks of Peste des Petits Ruminants, African Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease in the European Union. The devolved governments in Wales and Scotland have put in place equivalent measures. Decisions on whether to lift safeguard measures on personal imports of animal products are based on expert risk assessments and advice from the UK Chief Veterinary Officer and the Chief Veterinary Officers in Wales and Scotland. We publish risk assessments on GOV.UK: www.gov.uk/government/collections/animal-diseases-international-monitoring.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of increased water bills on Thames Water customers in (a) Tooting and (b) other areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For too long, investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population and climate change. Bills will therefore now need to rise to invest in our crumbling infrastructure and deliver cleaner waterways.
Ofwat’s five-yearly ‘price review’ sets the price, investment and service package for water companies in England and Wales. Ofwat published their final determinations for Price Review 2024 on 19 December, which sets company expenditure and customer bills for 2025-2030. This will deliver substantial, lasting, improvements for customers and the environment through a £104bn upgrade for the water sector.
Government expects water companies to put robust support in place for customers that are struggling to pay their bills. These include bill discount schemes such as WaterSure and Social Tariffs as well as financial support measures to assist households to better manage their budgets and provide flexible payments including payment holidays, payment matching, benefit entitlement checks and money/debt advice referral arrangements.
The Government expects industry to keep the current support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers across the country are supported. Bills must remain affordable, and customers cannot be expected to pay the price for years of underperformance in the past.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 reduce the impact of increased water bills on Thames Water customers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For too long, investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population and climate change. Bills will therefore now need to rise to invest in our crumbling infrastructure and deliver cleaner waterways.
Ofwat’s five-yearly ‘price review’ sets the price, investment and service package for water companies in England and Wales. Ofwat published their final determinations for Price Review 2024 on 19 December, which sets company expenditure and customer bills for 2025-2030. This will deliver substantial, lasting, improvements for customers and the environment through a £104bn upgrade for the water sector.
Government expects water companies to put robust support in place for customers that are struggling to pay their bills. These include bill discount schemes such as WaterSure and Social Tariffs as well as financial support measures to assist households to better manage their budgets and provide flexible payments including payment holidays, payment matching, benefit entitlement checks and money/debt advice referral arrangements.
The Government expects industry to keep the current support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers across the country are supported. Bills must remain affordable, and customers cannot be expected to pay the price for years of underperformance in the past.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 of increasing statutory regulation of the veterinary profession.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials are actively engaging with key stakeholders, including representatives from the BVA (British Veterinary Association), as well as the RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons), BVNA (British Veterinary Nursing Association), and the Vet Schools Council to review opportunities for reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act (VSA). This core working group is looking at how changes to policy can support the profession, animals, and consumers in the future.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the Environment Agency's response to the fire at the Weir Road recycling centre on Saturday 7 September 2024.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency are responsible for the regulation of the environmental permit held by Reston Waste Management at 77 Weir Road. After being notified of the fire late on Saturday 7 September by the London Fire Brigade (LFB), Environment Agency staff worked throughout the weekend with LFB to review potential impacts to air, land and water. As the incident continued, the Environment Agency provided advice to LFB and London Boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth regarding impacts to the environment and maintained input via multi-agency meetings. Environment Agency staff attended the site on Tuesday 10th September following a large number of complaints about the smoke from the fire. Their attendance ensured that waste was being managed appropriately and no longer causing a discharge to enter the River Wandle.
Officers from the Environment Agency are in regular contact with the Cllrs in Merton and Wandsworth whose Wards were affected by the fire, along with officers from those boroughs. The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Environment Agency, alongside those partners. They will be working with the fire brigade to understand the cause of the fire, and the reasons why it took so long to extinguish. The London Borough of Merton is leading a formal multi-agency review of the incident and the Environment Agency will feed into this review. Alongside this, the Environment Agency is assessing the actions taken by Restons Waste Management, to understand if any more could have reasonably been done to prevent or mitigate the effects of the fire.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of programmes supported through the Blue Planet Fund were already in operation before the Fund was established.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Since 2021, the Blue Planet Fund has invested into 12 programmes. Three programmes were already being supported through Defra’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocation: the Blue Forests Initiative, the Global Plastic Action Partnership and one component of the Championing Inclusivity in Plastic Pollution programme. Two further programmes - the Ocean Country Partnership Programme and Sustainable Blue Economies - are new Blue Planet Fund programmes, but where we incorporated the strongest components of other pre-existing Defra ODA programmes that were then closed prior to the launch of the Blue Planet Fund.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to improve cross-government oversight of the Blue Planet Fund.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Following the recent Independent Commission for Aid Impact rapid review we will issue a full management response in January. Both spending departments will continue to work together under the oversight and strategic direction of the Defra-FCDO Joint Management Board. Aligned Official Development Assistance delivery guidance across Defra and FCDO is applied to existing and new Blue Planet Fund programmes to ensure coherent, effective and relevant delivery.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the amount and proportion of funding provided to arms length bodies through the Blue Planet Fund that was spent on management fees.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
By the end of March 2024, approximately £5 million will have been spent on Arms-Length Body (ALB) overhead fees under the Blue Planet Fund’s Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP). This represents 22 percent of their allocated budget to deliver OCPP. The percentage of ALB spend that has been attributed to overhead costs has decreased each year of the programme, and we expect this trend to continue as more in-country partners are onboarded to carry out delivery.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 make an estimate of the number of cucumbers that were imported in February (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Provisional HMRC Overseas Trade Data shows the UK imported 16,600 tonnes of cucumbers in February 2022. Data for February 2023 is not yet available.