Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether there are any statutory requirements for the minimum distance between a (a) proposed and (b) existing mineral extraction site and a site of critical national infrastructure.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
There are no minimum distances.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2024 to Question 24720 on Fertilisers: Russia, from which countries have imports of fertiliser increased since March 2022.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
As per the answer of 13 May 2024, UK imports of fertiliser originating from Russia fell 80% in 2023, compared to 2022 import values.
Across a similar period, from March 2022 to February 2023, the value of direct fertiliser imports grew most significantly from the following 10 countries: Egypt, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, USA, Poland, Trinidad and Tobago, France, Lithuania, and Israel. These countries accounted for around 82% of the total increase.
More recent data shows that the largest increases, between March 2023 and February 2024, were from: Egypt, Israel, Morocco, USA, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, China, Canada, Greece, and Nigeria. These countries accounted for around 93% of the total increase for this period.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the decision by the US to impose a 50% tariff on Chinese-made solar cells.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has noted the new tariffs on a series of Chinese goods being imported into the US. The UK does not routinely comment on trade measures taken between other countries.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a 50% tariff on Chinese-made solar cells in the context of US tariff policy.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has noted the new tariffs on a series of Chinese goods being imported into the US. The UK does not routinely comment on trade measures taken between other countries.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department's planned timescale is for issuing guidance to local authorities on allocating funding for the Local Transport Fund.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is working with His Majesty’s Treasury to agree the funding profile for the Local Transport Fund as well as the split between capital and revenue funding. The Department will provide advice for local transport authorities shortly on the scope, process and accountability framework for the new funding, to ensure that local authorities can develop delivery plans to make the most of it.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Captogan has been found in the UK; and whether his Department is taking steps to prevent it becoming available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In December 2021, the Government launched its ten-year drugs strategy, to cut crime and save lives. As part of this, £300 million has been allocated to fund activity to break drug supply chains from end-to-end, This includes restricting upstream flow, securing the UK border, and ensuring we remain agile in the face of changing threats.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) regularly assess the threat posed to the UK by the trafficking of illicit drugs. At this time, we are not aware of any captagon on UK streets and to date, no instances of captagon being seized at a UK border have been recorded; however, shipments have been seized in Europe.
As such, the UK will continue to seek coordinated global action to address the effects of the captagon trade, in close cooperation with our regional partners.
Beyond this, the UK Government and its law enforcement partners are leveraging our extensive international networks to maximise cooperation with other governments to tackle drug trafficking upstream. This includes identifying and disrupting organised crime groups aiming to exploit the UK, and seizing drugs before and during their journey to the UK.
Additionally, we are also funding Border Force and the NCA to develop and deliver innovative intelligence-led approaches to securing our border which keeps pace with changes to routes and methods used by criminals.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the UK has imported fertiliser from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
In March 2022, the UK introduced additional duties of 35% on Russian fertilisers, excluding urea which is subject to a tariff of 6%. In July 2022, the UK also introduced bans on certain kinds of fertiliser.
HMRC data shows that UK imports of fertiliser from Russia in 2023 were down 80% compared to 2022 import values, demonstrating the impact of sanctions and additional tariffs.
We will continue to apply pressure, and coordinate with our international partners to do so, until Ukraine prevails or Putin ends his war of choice.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether UK Research and Innovation have (a) staff and (b) offices in China.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UK Research Innovation (UKRI) has one overseas office in China with seven staff, co-located in the British Embassy Beijing.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he plans to support the draft UN resolution tabled by Rwanda, Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina on declaring 11 July as an international day of reflection and remembrance of the Srebrenica genocide.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The UK is proud to support the draft resolution. The atrocities that took place at Srebrenica were a genocide, as confirmed by the International Courts. We must never forget the victims of the Srebrenica genocide.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to introduce a national monitoring system to track agricultural land being developed for ground mounted solar.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As the Prime Minister said at PMQs last week, we must protect our nation’s food security and therefore our most valuable agricultural land.
As per planning policy, local planning authorities should consider all the benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land, when making plans or taking decisions on new development proposals. Where significant development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, planning authorities should seek to use poorer quality land in preference to that of a higher quality. Planning Practice Guidance also sets out a preference for the use of lower quality agricultural land.
I agree that monitoring of the impacts of solar on agricultural land is important and am in discussions with my counterparts in DLUHC and DESNZ.