Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2024 to Question 17736 on Import Controls, whether goods checked at a Government-run border control post will be subject to any (a) fees and (b) charges other than the Common User Charge and costs relating to the acquisition of Environmental Health Certificates.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Port Health Authorities (PHAs)have charging mechanisms in place for covering the costs of checking sanitary and phytosanitary consignments, and the Government, in conjunction with devolved administrations, is working with PHAs to review fee levels and support the implementation of new checks of imports from the EU in early 2024.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is the competent authority with responsibility for the inspections of plants and plant products at Border Control Posts and Control Points. APHA charging rates for these inspections can be found here.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the cost to individual business of acquiring an Environmental Export Health Certificate for a consignment of goods being imported to the UK since the introduction of the Border Target Operating Model in January 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will publish the Economic Impact Assessment of the legislative measures required to enable the Border Target Operating Model in due course and no later than the Statutory Instruments are laid. This will contain summary data tables and they will include the requested information.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the pay ranges at each grade are for Food Standards Agency staff based (a) in and (b) outside London.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Food Standards Agency salary structure and ranges for 2023/24 effective from 1 August 2023 are available at the following link:
https://www.food.gov.uk/about-us/fsa-salary-structure
The then Minister for the Cabinet Office and HM Paymaster General, the Rt Hon Jeremy Quin MP laid a written statement (HCWS940) on 13 July 2023 which outlined the pay ranges for senior civil servants from 1 April 2023.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the prolonged heatwave and drought on eastern and southern Africa, in particular on children, and what steps they are taking in response.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We closely monitor climatic conditions in Africa - including recent drought conditions in parts of Eastern and Southern Africa, where over 80 million people are experiencing crisis levels of food insecurity. In 2023 the UK was the 4th largest bilateral donor to humanitarian appeals in sub-Saharan Africa. Our programmes in the region are directly tackling food insecurity and poor access to safe water, in order to improve the nutritional and health status of children. The UK is also raising the profile of humanitarian needs with our international partners, maintaining a focus on the need for long-term solutions to climate related crises in the region, including drought.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make representations to the Israeli government on (a) publishing an official list of aid that is restricted to Gaza and (b) ensuring that nutritional and medical aid needed to treat starvation are not restricted.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Foreign Secretary has been clear that we need to see increased access for aid through land routes, increased capacity inside Gaza, an expansion of the types of aid allowed into Gaza, and the provision of electricity, water and telecommunications to both the north and the south of Gaza.
We are doing all we can to get as much food into Gaza as possible. On 20 March, the Foreign Secretary announced that the UK has funded WFP to provide 2000 tons of food aid, enough to feed 275,000 people in Gaza.
A field hospital, provided by UK Aid funding to UK-Med, has arrived in Gaza. This facility, staffed by UK and local medics, will be able to treat over 100 patients a day, ensuring those with health issues have access to vital aid.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
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 implications for his policies of the level of microplastic pollution in biosolids; and whether his Department is taking steps to help tackle this issue.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government continues to review the regulatory framework for biosolids spread to land to protect human health and the environment.
The Government has taken a range of steps to stop sources of plastics and microplastics entering sewers and moving into biosolids, including:
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following concerns raised by farmers regarding changes to the standard of food imports, what steps they are taking to address the impact of post-Brexit trade deals on British farmers.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All food and drink products imported into the UK, including those from countries we have trade agreements with, must comply with the UK’s import requirements and standards. The independent Trade and Agriculture Commission concluded that our Free Trade Agreements with Australia, New Zealand and CPTPP are consistent with the maintenance of UK statutory protections in relation to animal and plant health, animal welfare and the environment.
Supporting UK food and agriculture is an integral part of the UK’s trade strategy. The Prime Minister made this clear at the Farm to Fork Summit in May 2023 and in his open letter to farmers. This letter, alongside the 2022 National Food Strategy, sets out the principles that guide our approach to agriculture and trade. We are putting farmers at the heart of British trade by delivering new export opportunities, protecting our sensitive sectors and our high food safety standards, upholding UK production standards and removing market access barriers.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what subscriptions to (a) newspapers, (b) magazines and (c) online journals his Department has paid for in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The following is a combined list of subscriptions that the Defra Library and Communications have paid for over the last three financial years. Some are in print and some are online. Not everything on the list was purchased in all three years – subscriptions change on demand and to reflect usage. Information on any subscriptions from other team budgets is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Defra Library purchases magazines and journals for Defra, Animal and Plant Health Agency and Natural England staff to support them in their role. The Communications team purchases newspapers for monitoring the media coverage of issues in Defra’s remit.
Angling Times magazine | Environmental Finance | Lyell Collection |
Animal Health Research Reviews | Estates Gazette | Materials Recycling World |
Argus Fertilizer Europe | Ethical Consumer | Microbiology Society |
Avian Pathology | Executive Support magazine | New Zealand Veterinary |
BioOne | Farmers Guardian | Planning Resource |
Bird Study Pack | Farmers Weekly | Privacy and Data Protection |
Bloomberg | Financial Times | Professional Update |
British Archaeology magazine | Fishing News Weekly | Responsible Investor |
British Poultry Science | Freedom of Information Journal | Royal Forestry Society |
British Wildlife Magazine | Fresh Produce | Sunday Times |
Conservation Land Management | Geoheritage | Telegraph |
Daily Express | Goat Veterinary Journal | The Economist |
Daily Mail | Guardian | The Grocer Magazine |
Daily Mirror | Habitats Regulations Assessment | The Sun |
Daily Telegraph | Harvard Business Review | The Times |
Dairy Industry Newsletter | Horticulture Week | UK Livestock magazine |
Dods People and Monitoring | I | Veterinary Pathology |
Econlit | ICES Journal of Marine Science | Washington Trade Daily |
Elsevier Freedom Collection | iNews | Water Report |
Ends Europe | Inside Housing | Wiley STM Collection |
Ends Report | Insurance Post | Yorkshire Post |
Ends Waste & Bioenergy | Nature.com |
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Environment Complete | Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation |
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Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of adult vapers that may return to tobacco products as a result of the disposable vapes ban.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The health advice on vaping is clear, vaping can play a role in helping adult smokers to quit, but if you don’t smoke, don’t vape, and children should never vape. However, youth vaping has tripled in the last three years, and one in five children have now used a vape. We know that disposable vapes have played a significant role in this rise, with 69% of 11 to 17-year-olds who vape now using disposables, compared to just 7% in 2021. Disposable vapes also cause significant environmental harm, with five million disposable vapes thrown away every week.
To protect children and the environment, the Government has taken the decision to ban the sale and supply of disposable vapes.
The Impact Assessment on the disposable vape ban, published by the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs on 11 March 2024, states that it is difficult to quantify the number of people switching either between different types of vapes, disposable to reusable, switching from vaping to smoking cigarettes, or stopping vaping or smoking altogether, as a result of a ban on disposable vapes.
However, reusable and refillable vapes will still be available for adult smokers to use as a quit aid and as a more affordable option than smoking. Therefore, it will not be necessary for adult vapers to return to tobacco products because refillable vapes will remain easily available to them, at a small cost relative to most tobacco products.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much meat has been seized at the UK border by officials in each of the last six months; and whether they expect to completely eradicate the import of illicit produce under their Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The data we have relates to seizures of “products of animal origin, contaminated goods and packaging” (not necessarily just meat) reported to Defra by English PHAs only. Any seizures made by other officials or seizures not reported to Defra are not included here. The data below relates to all EU and Rest of World imports.
Year | Number of seizures of products of animal origin reported to Defra by English Port Health Authorities | Total weight (kilogrammes) |
2022 (w/c 22 October 2022-w/c 31 December 2022 inclusive) | 42 | 4,123 |
2023 (w/c 7 January 2023 to 30 December 2023 inclusive) | 622 | 53,879 |
2024 (w/c 6 January 2024 to w/c 27 January 2024 inclusive) | 45 | 7,572 |
Total | 709 | 65,574 |
There are rules for bringing food or animal products into Great Britain (GB) for personal use, depending on the country that the traveller is coming from. There are restrictions on meat, dairy and other products.
African swine fever (ASF) cases in Europe in 2022 represented new “jumps” in disease distribution towards the United Kingdom. While we consider that the overall risk of entry of ASF virus into the UK from all combined pathways remains at medium, the particular pathway of human-mediated transport of non-commercial, infected products from the EU is considered to be high risk. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) conducts outbreak risk assessments on ASF in the EU, published here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/african-swine-fever-in-pigs-and-boars-in-europe and attached to this answer.
As a result, we announced controls restricting the movement of pork and pork products into GB to help safeguard Britain's pigs. Travellers are no longer allowed to bring pork or pork products weighing over two kilograms into GB, unless they are produced to the EU’s commercial standards. The controls, which came into force in September 2022, strengthen the standards for bringing pork and pork products into GB from the EU and EFTA states. This measure helps limit possibly infected pig meat being brought into GB through various means, such as in passengers’ luggage or in vehicles.