Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
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 require chewing gum manufacturers to disclose the full composition of gum base on product labels.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Current food labelling rules permit manufacturers to list ‘gum base’ as an ingredient, where ‘gum base’ means gum preparations used in the manufacture of gum base for chewing gum. Manufacturers can provide more descriptive information relating to ingredients contained in the ‘gum base’ if they wish but this is not a requirement. There are currently no plans to amend the legislation.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the context of Natural England no longer accepting complaints about the spread of injurious weeds, by what means the Weeds Act 1959 is now being enforced.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England (NE) is dealing with historic weeds complaints but is not currently taking new complaints. This is a temporary measure whilst NE reviews with Defra the approach to addressing injurious weeds, to improve access to appropriate advice and guidance and ensure enforcement resources are targeted most effectively.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason Natural England is no longer accepting complaints about the spread of injurious weeds.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England (NE) is dealing with historic weeds complaints but is not currently taking new complaints. This is a temporary measure whilst NE reviews with Defra the approach to addressing injurious weeds, to improve access to appropriate advice and guidance and ensure enforcement resources are targeted most effectively.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what means the Weeds Act 1959 is being enforced.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England (NE) is dealing with historic weeds complaints but is not currently taking new complaints. This is a temporary measure whilst NE reviews with Defra the approach to addressing injurious weeds, to improve access to appropriate advice and guidance and ensure enforcement resources are targeted most effectively.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
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 impact of drought on farmers in the South West; and what steps he is taking to help mitigate that impact.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Drought has led to an early harvest with a reduction in crop quality and yields. Livestock farmers are facing a growing risk with forage, winter feed supplies and consequently buying additional food or selling animals to reduce pressure on supplies.
Measures to support farmers include:
An updated prospect report will be published this autumn to inform farmers of the water resources situation in order to improve resilience and planning for next year.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Special Protection Zone regulations on the ability of small towns to establish new burial grounds; and what assessment he has made of the merits of providing (a) guidance and (b) funding support for communities facing (i) environmental and (ii) planning barriers to cemetery provision.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Source Protection Zones are sensitive areas because the underlying groundwater contributes towards public drinking water supplies.
To protect those supplies from pollution, unless exempt, new cemeteries must operate under an environmental permit and the Environment Agency has published guidance on this, including information needed to support a planning application. The Environment Agency has recently consulted on a proposal to develop simpler, cheaper, permitting options for cemeteries, which could lead to cost-saving for eligible operators.
The Government has asked the Law Commission to review the legal framework governing burial and cremation, including concerns raised about the long-term availability of burial space. They anticipate publishing the report on their findings in late 2025. The Government will consider the Law Commission’s recommendations once these have been published and will respond in due course.”
For context, the Government does not have operational day-to-day responsibility for burial grounds, which are managed locally, and there is no statutory duty on local authorities to provide burial facilities. Although Government (DCA/MoJ) does provide Guidance for Burial Ground Managers (which includes issues to consider when planning burial space) and Guidance for Operators of Natural Burial Grounds neither address this specific issue.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
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 impact of mandatory food waste reporting in Austria on (a) food waste reduction levels, (b) businesses and (c) food inflation.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has announced its plans to publish a Circular Economy Strategy for England and a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions the government and others will make on a sector-by-sector basis, one of which is agri-food.
As part of this work, evidence for action from right across the economy will be considered and evaluated in terms of what interventions may be needed, including introducing a mandatory food waste reporting requirement for large food businesses.
No assessment of the potential impact of mandatory food waste reporting in Austria has been made.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timeline is for mandating food waste reporting.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has announced its plans to publish a Circular Economy Strategy for England and a series of roadmaps detailing the interventions the government and others will make on a sector-by-sector basis, one of which is agri-food.
As part of this work, evidence for action from right across the economy will be considered and evaluated in terms of what interventions may be needed, including introducing a mandatory food waste reporting requirement for large food businesses.
No assessment of the potential impact of mandatory food waste reporting in Austria has been made.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
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 (a) reduce microplastic pollution in marine ecosystems and (b) support local authorities to (i) monitor and (ii) manage microplastic waste.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
At home and abroad, the UK is taking action to develop our understanding of the microplastic problem and to prevent and reduce microplastic pollution. Microplastics are used in a range of applications and are produced from the degradation of plastic products.
Plastic pellets are the feedstock for the production of plastic products, and can be lost throughout the supply chain. To tackle this issue, we have supported the development of a Publicly Available Specification by the British Standards Institution (PAS 510:2021), which sets out the steps companies should take to reduce the loss of plastic pellets across their operations.
Technical experts from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) have also been leading the Oslo and Paris Convention (OSPAR) Convention to develop a new indicator for microlitter (including microplastics) in seafloor sediments. This will help us to track progress in reducing plastics in the environment at a regional scale. The UK also contributes to the OSPAR Microplastic Expert Group, which is examining ways that we can better detect and quantify microplastics in samples taken for research.
Finally, in negotiations to establish a new international treaty on plastic pollution, the UK has called for binding provisions to reduce and prevent microplastic pollution from all sources. In particular, the UK has called for specific provisions to prevent and eliminate emissions and releases of plastic pellets, flakes and powder across the whole supply chain.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to develop the new Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the new scheme on farmers in South Cotswolds constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The future Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer will build on what has made SFI effective so far. Defra will be working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future SFI offer that fairly and responsibly directs funding. Further details about the reformed SFI offer will be announced following the spending review in summer 2025.