Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
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 risk of infectious zoonotic diseases (a) mutating in and (b) spreading from fur farms to other mammals; and what steps he is taking to mitigate that risk.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government shares the British public’s high regard for animal welfare. Fur farming has been banned in England and Wales since 2000 (2002 in Scotland and Northern Ireland). Fur farming is legal in some EU countries. Where outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 and avian influenza virus have occurred in fur farms in Europe in recent years, the governments in those countries took action to cull the affected farms to mitigate the risk of spread.
Nevertheless, together with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) we are keeping a close eye on the findings of zoonotic pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 and avian influenza in mink, foxes and other animals farmed for fur and the possible risk to human and animal health. We are vigilant to changes in risk and continue to use our established systems which include international disease monitoring programmes in the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and UKHSA to monitor the situation the outcomes of which are reviewed through our Veterinary Risk Group (VRG) and the Human Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance (HAIRS) group. The HAIRS group have published a risk assessment on the transmission from animals to humans of influenza of avian origin and on the risk SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK captive or wild Mustelidae populations presents to the UK human population. There is no direct exposure to infected fur farms for kept or wild mammals in the UK and there is no evidence to suggest an increased risk to wildlife.
International collaboration and knowledge exchange on avian influenza and other zoonotic pathogens is facilitated through discussions between the UK Chief Veterinary Officer and representatives from our national and international reference laboratories, and their counterparts in the EU and globally through the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the QUADs alliance and allied projects. Including through the joint WOAH-FOA Scientific Network on animal influenza OFFLU.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
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 had recent discussions with the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales on steps to improve crop resilience.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our fantastic British farmers are world leaders and carefully plan their planting to suit the weather, their soil type and their long-term agronomic strategy. I understand the increasing importance of farmers having access to crop varieties that are resistant to climate change and variable weather conditions, to maintain crop quality and yields.
The third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) was published in July 2023, and addresses the 61 risks and opportunities identified in the third Climate Change Risk Assessment. NAP3 includes dedicated responses to risks to domestic agricultural productivity and UK food availability, safety and quality from climate change overseas.
One of these responses, the recent Precision Breeding Act, is a major step in unlocking growth and innovation in technologies like gene editing and supports Defra’s efforts to reinforce food security in the face of climate change. Through the Act we want to encourage researchers and commercial breeders to be at the forefront of capturing the potential benefits of precision breeding for British farmers and consumers. For instance, research into wheat that is resilient to climate change is currently underway at the John Innes Centre. Gene editing techniques have been used to identify a key gene in wheat that can be used to introduce traits such as heat resilience whilst maintaining high yield. This could help to increase food production from a crop that 2.5 billion people are dependent on globally.
Also included in the NAP3, Defra’s flagship breeding research programme, the Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) on Wheat, Oil Seed Rape, Pulses and Vegetable crops identify genetic traits to improve productivity, sustainability, resilience and nutritional quality of our crops. The GINs also provide a platform for knowledge exchange for breeders, producers, end users and the research base, and a means for the delivery of scientific knowledge, resources and results to add value to wheat crops.
The £270 million Farming Innovation Programme also supports industry-led research and development in agriculture and horticulture. All projects support productivity and environmental outcomes that will benefit farmers and growers in England. In our latest ‘climate smart’ farming themed competition, we awarded over £11 million to projects investigating novel approaches to growing and managing crops. Previous competitions have also supported crop-related research.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the planned defunding of level 3 Criminology in England on the comparative ability of students from (a) England and (b) Wales to pursue careers in criminal justice.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to ensuring that students in post-16 education have access to a high quality suite of qualifications that are easy to choose from and which provide the best chances for progression into higher study, or into a skilled job. The department firmly believes that, until the Advanced British Standard (ABS) is introduced, A Levels and T Levels are the best route at Level 3 to achieving those outcomes. A Levels are world class qualifications that provide the best preparation for higher education in most academic subject areas, including the social sciences.
The government’s view is that A Levels should be the academic qualifications of choice at Level 3. This is based on evidence about progression and attainment for students who study A Levels compared to those who study other academic qualifications at Level 3. Students who study A Levels tend to both do better and have higher completion rates at university than students who studied other qualifications, even when taking into account background characteristics.
An impact assessment was undertaken to consider the post-16 reforms at Level 3 as a whole, which can be read here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1091841/Revised_Review_of_post-16_qualifications_at_level_3_in_England_impact_assessment.pdf.
The study of criminology at Level 3 is not generally an entry requirement for criminology and other related degree courses. A Level sociology, which is in the same sector subject area of sociology and social policy, will serve students wishing to progress to criminology degrees. Students wishing to progress into other careers in criminal justice and national security, such as legal, policing or prison and probation services, could also undertake other A Levels such as law, combined with small alternative academic qualifications in approved subjects such as uniformed protective services.
Development of the ABS is a decade long reform programme. Therefore, removal of funding from technical qualifications overlapping with T Levels is continuing as planned. The technical parts of the ABS are much closer to the T Level than any other qualification, meaning that T Levels will be the most future proof qualification for students at 16 to 19.
As the department reforms applied general qualifications, it will be up to colleges to decide what they offer to ensure that students have access to a wide range of publicly funded qualifications. As education is a devolved matter, the devolved administrations may take a different approach to post-16 education.
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, on how many occasions Ministers from his Department have visited (a) Wales, (b) Scotland and (c) Northern Ireland in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Across the UK Government we are committed to delivering the best possible outcomes for all citizens, no matter where in the country they call home. All citizens contribute to the strength of the United Kingdom which is the most successful political and economic union the world has ever seen.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
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 (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to help reduce methane emissions from (a) anthropogenic sources, (b) landfills and (c) fossil fuel production.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the UK, overall greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector have decreased by 74% since 1990. This is mostly due to the implementation of methane recovery systems at UK landfill sites, increasing landfill methane capture rates, and reductions in the amount of biodegradable waste disposed of at landfill sites. In 2022, the waste sector accounted for 4.6% of total UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions, with landfill methane emissions responsible for 80% of the sector’s emissions.
We are committed to tackling these remaining emissions and are exploring options for the near elimination of municipal biodegradable waste being sent to landfill in England from 2028, in line with the commitment in the Net Zero Strategy. Under the Government’s Simpler Recycling reforms, set out within new s45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as amended by the Environment Act 2021), all households, businesses and relevant non-domestic premises will be required to arrange for the collection of food waste for recycling or composting. Recycling via anaerobic digestion will produce biogas and significant carbon savings over sending food waste to landfill. To explore further measures to achieve our commitment we issued a call for evidence on 26 May 2023 to support detailed policy development. A summary of responses to this call for evidence and further information will be published in due course.
We are undertaking research to quantify site-specific methane emissions from landfill and update our understanding of residual (non-recyclable) waste composition. Both of these projects will support efforts to further reduce methane emissions from landfill sites and report our emissions in line with UNFCCC guidelines.
Defra considers that Methane Suppressing Feed Products (MSFPs) are an essential tool to decarbonise the agriculture sector. In England, our objective is to establish a mature market for these products, encourage uptake and mandate the use of MSFPs in appropriate cattle systems as soon as feasibly possible and no later than 2030. We are committed to working with farmers and industry to achieve this goal, and in early March convened the inaugural meeting of a Ministerial-led industry taskforce on MSFPs.
The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR) provide wide-ranging powers to control emissions to air, water and land from regulated installations through permits. Methane is a pollutant under the EPR and, where relevant, industrial installations must comply with EPR permit conditions to control and monitor methane.
In the 2020 Energy White Paper, the Government committed to the World Bank’s ‘Zero Routine Flaring by 2030’ initiative which aims to eliminate routine flaring from oil production globally.
Through the North Sea Transition Deal and the industry’s subsequent Methane Action Plan, UK industry has committed further to accelerate compliance with the World Bank's initiative where possible, set a 50% methane reduction target by 2030 (against a 2018 baseline) and have adopted the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s methane intensity target of 0.2% by 2025.
Emissions associated with methane venting and flaring are accounted for in our binding domestic carbon budgets.
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) already expects methane emissions to be as low as possible, and for all new developments to be developed on the basis of zero routine flaring and venting, (and to be either electrified or electrification-ready).
All platforms are expected to have zero routine flaring and venting from or before 2030.
The consenting process for flaring and venting is administered by the NSTA, which is working with industry to keep non-routine flaring and venting to a minimum.
The NSTA recently consulted on its draft OGA Plan, which included a section on flaring and venting. It is due to publish its response and the final OGA plan soon.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support the (a) growth and (b) development of the creative industries in South Wales.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK Government has a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and add another 1 million jobs by 2030. As set out in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, we are committed to working with industry and the devolved administrations to ensure our creative industries continue to be the best in the world. As part of this, we invited Creative Wales to become a member of the Creative Industries Council to ensure they are represented in discussions about the UK’s creative industries.
Culture and the creative industries are devolved policy areas. The UK Government has provided opportunities to support Welsh creative businesses through the following programmes:
The UK-wide Film & TV Restart scheme which supported 1,259 individual film and TV productions and £3.06 billion in production expenditure through the pandemic. Wales received £287.5 million – the largest share of funding of any nation after England (c.9%).
The £56 million Creative Clusters programme was announced in the 2018 Sector Deal: and supported R&D across the Cardiff Clwstwr one of 9 first-wave of clusters across the UK. The Clusters programme has generated approximately £252 million of private co-investment, creating or safeguarding over 4000 jobs.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, on how many occasions Ministers from her Department and its predecessor Department have visited (a) Wales, (b) Scotland and (c) Northern Ireland in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Across the UK Government we are committed to delivering the best possible outcomes for all citizens, no matter where in the country they call home. All citizens contribute to the strength of the United Kingdom which is the most successful political and economic union the world has ever seen.
We do not hold information centrally on all Ministerial visits to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland conducted since the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology was established in February 2023. However, we are able to provide some detail of recent Ministerial visits.
This week, the Minister for Science visited Edinburgh for Arctic Science Summit Week.
In December 2023, Minister for Technology and the Digital Economy visited the compound semiconductor cluster in South Wales.
In May 2023, Chloe Smith MP also visited the compound semiconductor cluster in May 2023 during her time as Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Earlier this month, the Minister for AI and Intellectual Property visited Belfast for CyberNI Week. The Minister also visited Belfast for CyberNI week in April 2023, along with a visit to the Intellectual Property Office HQ Newport, Wales in November 2023.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
As of September 2023, there were 101,276[1] (FTE) staff in post across the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
To provide the quantitative base to answer this PQ, this could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. This would require manually entering each individual record to extract the data and engaging with all workplaces across England and Wales to ascertain locally managed/ recorded information.
All Ministry of Justice staff are held to high levels of professional and personal conduct and are subject to pre-employment vetting checks to ensure suitability for employment into post. Across the MoJ, all directly employed roles require a minimum of Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) level to enter the organisation and this includes a request of criminal conviction history. For any roles requiring a higher security level, roles may require an enhanced DBS check or be subject to National Security Vetting (NSV) checks which are carried out externally by UK Security Vetting (UKSV).
Across the MoJ, we must act in accordance with the high expectations that the Government and members of the public expect from us to ensure we drive our vision to deliver a world-class justice system that works for everyone. People are at the heart of what we do, and security and safety considerations are paramount in ensuring we welcome the right people to come to work for us to deliver our objectives. This might mean that some people may not ever be considered suitable to hold employment with us because of their background. Criminal conviction history of the applicant, including offence type and length of time since conviction will be assessed during vetting decision making to assess suitability for the role applied.
[1] Workforce management information: MOJ - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Donald Trump’s comments about NATO members and spending on defence.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK’s commitment to NATO, and the principle of collective defence under Article V, is resolute. We expect all NATO Allies to come to the aid of others.
The UK has led the conversation on defence spending at NATO. Since the NATO Defence Investment Pledge, which Leaders agreed in Newport Wales in 2014, European Allies and Canada have invested heavily on Defence and will have added more $600 billion by the end of this year. Now is the time for all Allied and democratic nations across the world to ensure their defence spending is growing.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to minimise reputational damage to the UK’s Armed Forces capability, following recent issues regarding the material state of the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The recent issue on HMS Queen Elizabeth was identified during pre-sailing checks and is corrosion on a coupling on the starboard shaft caused through general wear and tear. It is not the same issue experienced by HMS Prince of Wales in 2022. It is not uncommon to have maintenance issues with state-of-the-art ships which contain complex engineering and technology. HMS Queen Elizabeth is a decade old and has thousands of miles under her hull, conducting operations around the world.
As a replacement, HMS Prince of Wales was able to deploy to take part in Operation Steadfast Defender in seven days, which is a huge undertaking. This ability to rapidly deploy another carrier to an urgent task underlines the importance of having two aircraft carriers, providing flexibility and the ability to project power around the world.
The Royal Navy continues to meet its operational commitments at home and abroad.