Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the threshold is for compensation payments under Schedule 9A, Part 5, Paragraph 25(2) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as amended by the Infrastructure Act 2015.
Answered by Rory Stewart
To date, no thresholds for these discretionary payments have been set and no funds have been allocated or paid. In accordance with paragraph 26 of Schedule 9A, guidance on such matters will be provided to environmental authorities through a code of practice. No species control orders are expected to be made until the code is produced.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what payments have been made under Schedule 9A, Part 5, Paragraph 25(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as amended by the Infrastructure Act 2015 to date.
Answered by Rory Stewart
To date, no thresholds for these discretionary payments have been set and no funds have been allocated or paid. In accordance with paragraph 26 of Schedule 9A, guidance on such matters will be provided to environmental authorities through a code of practice. No species control orders are expected to be made until the code is produced.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much has been allocated for the payment of compensation in respect of species control agreements and orders under Schedule 9A, Part 5, Paragraph 25(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as amended by the Infrastructure Act 2015.
Answered by Rory Stewart
To date, no thresholds for these discretionary payments have been set and no funds have been allocated or paid. In accordance with paragraph 26 of Schedule 9A, guidance on such matters will be provided to environmental authorities through a code of practice. No species control orders are expected to be made until the code is produced.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the total value was of land owned by National Park authorities that was sold in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15; and what estimate she has made of the likely value of such land in each of the next five years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
National Park and the Broads Authorities are independent bodies operating within the local government framework. They are provided with powers to dispose of land under the 1972 Local Government Act and review their landholdings and liabilities from time to time as part of good financial management practice. The information requested is not held centrally by Her Majesty’s Government and the National Park and Broads Authorities have provided the following information on the value of land sales:
2010/11 £60,000
2011/12 £344,400
2012/13 £180,500
2013/14 £1,557,000*
2014/15 £45,700
No estimate of the likely value of such land in each of the next five years has been made.
*includes the sale of Blencathra field study centre. The sale to the Field Studies Council enabled the Lake District NPA to re-invest part of the receipts in the development and opening of a new Northern Area Office in Threlkeld, from which all NPA activity in the northern part of the Park is now based. The remainder was re-invested in other projects across the National Park and the sale of the field study centre has provided the Field Studies Council, a registered charity, with an asset.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the six-year flood and coastal erosion investment programme on risk of loss of life from flooding.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Assessments of the impact of flood and coastal erosion defence investments on risk to life from flooding are made on an individual project basis. Defra has provided guidance on how this should be done based on factors, such as the vulnerability of the population; the depth and speed of onset of a flood; and the timeliness of flood warnings.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the total value was of public forest estate land sold in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15; and what estimate she has made of the likely value of such land sold in each of the next five years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The values of public forest estate land sold in:
· 2010-11 was £12.7m
· 2011-12 was £5.6m
· 2012-13 was £0.4m
· 2013-14 was £0.43m and,
· 2014-15 was £0.28m
We expect a broadly similar pattern of land disposal and acquisition to continue. This has resulted in a small net gain of public forest estates in recent years. No estimate of any future sales of any part of the Public Forest Estate has been made.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Supreme Court judgment in the case of R (on the application of ClientEarth) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what date she plans to publish an updated consultation on local air quality management.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Government intends to publish an updated consultation on local air quality management this autumn.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what date she plans to publish the report into the effect of an East Coast storm surge on food supply.
Answered by George Eustice
The project referred to is a food related project concerning the resilience of the food supply chain.
The report of the Defra project The Resilience of the Food Supply to Port Flooding on the East Coast (FO0454) has been completed and peer reviewed and is currently being finalised for publication in accordance with our procedures.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what date she plans to publish reports into the social and economic effect of an East Coast storm surge.
Answered by George Eustice
The project referred to is a food related project concerning the resilience of the food supply chain.
The report of the Defra project The Resilience of the Food Supply to Port Flooding on the East Coast (FO0454) has been completed and peer reviewed and is currently being finalised for publication in accordance with our procedures.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her policy is on the adoption by the European Commission of the proposed European Food Safety Authority guidance on the risk assessment of plant protection products on bees, published by that organisation in June 2013.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government protects bees by ensuring that policy actions on pesticides (plant protection products) are based on the best evidence available. Guidance documents for plant protection products are prepared by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), as the Commission’s independent scientific adviser. They are adopted by the Commission once they have been formally ‘noted’ by Member States in the EU Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed.
EFSA prepared a new Guidance Document on the risk assessment of plant protection products on bees. When this was put to the Standing Committee in July 2014, it was supported by too few Member States to be ‘noted’. The Commission is still considering the way forward.
Guidance documents for plant protection products are addressed to regulators and regulated companies. They are not statutory and are not incorporated into UK legislation. The Health and Safety Executive, as the UK regulator, and the Expert Committee on Pesticides, which provides independent advice to Ministers, draw on guidance documents in carrying out their work.