Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans to (a) extend the (i) remit, (ii) expertise and (iii) capacity of the Non-Native Risk Analysis Panel (NNRAP) to replicate the functions of the EU Scientific Forum on Invasive Alien Species; and (b) allocate additional funding to the NNRAP to fulfil those additional responsibilities.
When we leave the EU the existing Great Britain Programme Board on non-native species and the Non-native Risk Analysis Panel will take over the role of the EU Committee on Invasive Alien Species and the EU Invasive Alien Species Scientific Forum respectively and be expanded to include Northern Ireland. The Non-native Species Secretariat will continue to support the Programme Board.
The UK has significant expertise in invasive non-native species, including in the area of risk analysis. In Great Britain we have had a comprehensive framework for assessing risks posed by these species since 2007 and this framework strongly influenced the EU’s approach, including its risk methodology, when the EU Invasive Alien Species Regulation came into force in 2015.
After we leave the EU this long-standing approach to risk analysis and independent scientific scrutiny will continue to ensure that decisions have robust scientific justification. We do not therefore anticipate a need for additional resources for these bodies in fulfilling their remit in the UK.
International co-operation is essential to control the spread of these species. The UK is committed to ongoing co-operation on invasive non-native species with the EU, Member States and other countries after we leave the EU.