Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what are the projected resulting emissions for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use over the period of the 4th, 5th and 6th carbon budget periods.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government’s Net Zero Strategy sets the UK on the path to deliver on its commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The Net Zero Strategy sets out the Government’s vision for transitioning to a net zero economy and covers a wide range of actions across different sectors.
Sectoral emissions for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) over forthcoming carbon budget periods are set out in Table 8 of the technical annex to the Net Zero Strategy. These are Carbon Budget (CB) 4; 51-57 MtCO2e; Nationally Determined Contribution 44-52 MtCo2e and CB6 38-48 MtCO2e.
Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to encourage procurement of British produce within meals available for (a) staff of her Department and (b) people in her Department's care since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The provision of catering for both Home Office staff and people in our care is outsourced to a number of contractors. None of these contracts require the suppliers to use British produce in the meals that they provide.
Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to encourage procurement of British produce within meals available for (a) staff of his Department and (b) people in his Department's care since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has staff in 13 offices across England and is only responsible for the procurement of produce for meals in one of these offices. The Coventry Office contract to provide meals, available for staff to purchase, was let before 1 January 2021. The remaining 12 offices are managed by other government departments or other organisations where the Department for Education has no involvement with the meals contracts.
The supplier for the Coventry Office meals contract is committed to supporting local produce, with all fresh goods to travel a maximum of 50 miles. 100% of the fresh meat is reared and sourced through local British suppliers, all fresh fruit and vegetables are sourced through local and regional suppliers and all fresh bakery products are made by bakers in close proximity of the Coventry office.
Environments where teaching takes place, such as schools, colleges and universities, are autonomous and have the freedom to make their own procurement decisions based on individual need and circumstances regarding British produce used within meals.
The Department has, and continues to review, a wide range of deals across public sector buying organisations, including three catering frameworks. All have been assessed for compliance with procurement regulations, ease of use, suitability and value for money.
Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to encourage procurement of British produce within meals available for (a) staff of his Department and (b) people in his Department's care since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
a) Meals for staff across the Department are primarily provided by each individual member of staff though some meals are available across the following environments, namely
- Prisons – the procurement of produce for such meals is similar to the provision of meals for people in his Department’s care;
- Other (Courts, Approved Premises, Training Centres, Offices, etc) – several of our locations have a limited catering facility where food is available from the third party operator.
Our third party provided service contracts include a requirement that all procured produce needs to comply with the Government Buying Standards, for example
- All food served must be produced in a way that meets UK legislative standards for food production, or equivalent standards.
- Catering contractors must ensure that food is verifiable as meeting these standards by either checking that farm inspection systems meet UK standards of inspection or their equivalent, or if not, that they are subject to an independent assurance system.
- At least 10% of the total monetary value of primary commodity (that is, raw ingredient) food and drink procured shall be inspected and certified to:
i) publicly available Integrated Production (IP) or Integrated Farm Management (IFM) standards that require the systematic and integrated management, at farm level, of: natural habitats and biodiversity, prevention and control of pollution, energy, water and waste, management of soils, landscape and watercourses and contain within their scope requirements that are consistent with the definition of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) contained in European Council Directive 2009/128/EC
or
ii) publicly available organic standards compliant with European Council Regulation 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products.
Please note the 10% is of the total monetary value and can be made up of any combination of commodities allowing the procurer flexibility to find the best solutions for their circumstances.
b) Since 1 January 2021 we have embedded the Prison Bread contract that was openly competed in late 2020 culminating in award and go live in November 2020. This national contract ensures that all public sector prisons in England & Wales, as well as privately managed prisons that opt to make use of this contract, have access to fresh bread that is 100% British.
Product provenance remains a key criterion when our contracted supplier of Prison Food adjusts their supply chain. Within this contract we continue to monitor spend on UK products every month and this has seen our spend increase on UK produce since the contract was awarded in 2017. At the time of contract award we were the first central government department to fully integrate the tools made available in support of the report by Dr Peter Bonfield titled - A Plan for Public Procurement. Elements of these tools have been deployed in 2021 on our Prison Retail Contract procurement exercise so that UK legislative standards for animal welfare, the environment and supply chain assurance all form part of the tender evaluation.
We continue to engage closely with other central government colleagues in order to refine policies and procedures that are aimed at supporting UK food producers. Earlier this week we engaged with the Future Food Framework/Buying Better Food*, led by Crown Commercial Service and supported by the South West Food Hub, on their delivery of a new dynamic approach to public sector food procurement which has locality at its heart.
Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to encourage procurement of British produce within meals available for staff of his Department since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Under the terms of existing Ministry of Defence (MOD) contracts, the procurement of British produce within meals is the responsibility of the MODs contractor. All produce sourced must meet the mandated government buying standards for food and catering services. MOD works collaboratively with its suppliers, who assure us they buy British produce where practicable.
Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to encourage procurement of British produce within meals available for (a) staff in his Department and (b) patients since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The catering provider contracted to supply services to the Department has adopted a United Kingdom-first sourcing policy.
The National Health Service is required to purchase food through the appropriate frameworks which identifies safe working practices and the quality of the product. The NHS Supply Chain and NHS organisations have shown an ambition to source with local producers where possible.
Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HMRC has spent in aggregate on legal costs defending claims from taxpayers which reached court in each of the last 10 available financial years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC incur several different types of legal costs when defending claims in Tribunals and Courts, such as Counsel fees, Court costs and Expert Witness costs. The department’s financial records are not currently set up to differentiate between costs relating to defending claims in Courts or Tribunals and other legal spend.
However, HMRC can provide costs incurred on Counsel fees and Court fees in litigation teams over the last 10 years. Aside from their staff costs, these will cover the vast majority of external legal spend on litigation and related activities.
£000s | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 |
Counsel fees | 6,643 | 7,983 | 6,851 | 7,326 | 8,840 | 8,599 | 7,956 | 7,923 | 8,926 | 8,464 | 7,935 |
Court costs | 90 | 109 | 128 | 130 | 90 | 121 | 175 | 127 | 148 | 155 | 134 |
Expert Witness costs* |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 1,030 | 1,107 |
*Data not available for years 2010/11 – 2018/19
The Tax Assurance Commissioner’s Report (part of HMRC’s Annual Report) contains details of the tax protected in litigation by HMRC. Over the last 5 years this has amounted to over £180 billion.
Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question
To ask the President of COP26, on how many occasions the Climate National Strategy Implementation Group has met since June 2020; what (a) business was considered and (b) decisions were taken at each such meeting; what matters have been referred to the Committee for implementation by (a) the Climate Action Implementation Committee of the Cabinet (b) other Cabinet committees and (c) other bodies; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.
Through the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan and our Energy White Paper, we have set out concrete steps we will take to build back greener from the pandemic and reach net zero emissions by 2050. Ahead of COP26, we will set out ambitious plans across key sectors of the economy, including a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy, setting out the Government’s vision for transitioning to a net zero economy. This will raise ambition as we outline our path to meet net zero by 2050, our Carbon Budgets and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question
To ask the President of COP26, with reference to his oral evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee on 11 March 2021, HC 222, Qq 80-82, on what dates the Climate Action Implementation Committee of the Cabinet has met since June 2020; what (a) business was considered and (b) decisions were taken at each such meeting; what decisions have been taken by correspondence since the Committee was established; what matters have been referred to the Committee for implementation by the Climate Action Strategy Committee; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.
Through the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan and our Energy White Paper, we have set out concrete steps we will take to build back greener from the pandemic and reach net zero emissions by 2050. Ahead of COP26, we will set out ambitious plans across key sectors of the economy, including a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy, setting out the Government’s vision for transitioning to a net zero economy. This will raise ambition as we outline our path to meet net zero by 2050, our Carbon Budgets and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
Asked by: Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What steps he is taking to improve river water quality.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I would like to thank my Honourable Friend for the role he has played in championing action to tackle pollution. He will know that our amendments to the Environment Bill will require the Government to produce and report on a statutory plan to tackle unacceptable discharges of untreated sewage that affect our rivers and beaches. Water companies and the Environment Agency will also be required to report annually on storm overflow activity. We are also acting to tackle agricultural pollution in rivers, including funding advice to farmers and vital investment in slurry management.