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Written Question
Inland Border Facilities: Ashford
Tuesday 26th March 2024

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 what plans they have to introduce safeguards to ensure that, under their Border Target Operating Model, there can be no interference with consignments which enter the UK via the Port of Dover prior to inspections being carried out at the Sevington inland border facility.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Goods selected for inspection will not be legally cleared for sale or use within the UK until they have attended and been cleared at the BCP. Where the BCP has concerns, either due to non-attendance or evidence of non-compliance, there are existing provisions, including requiring return or destruction of the goods, or for the goods to be referred for inland controls by the local authority.

Any vehicles suspected to be carrying illegal imports (e.g. those for which customs declarations and pre-notification have not been made or suspected to have been made in bad faith) will continue to be stopped and dealt with by Border Force at the point of entry to the UK, not sent to Sevington.


Written Question
Dogs: Imports
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

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 merits of (a) increasing the age at which puppies can be imported to six months and (b) reintroducing rabies blood tests for imported puppies.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by Selaine Saxby MP on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom including prohibiting the import of puppies under six months old.

There are already strict legal controls on the entry of animals into Great Britain aimed at preventing the introduction of rabies. All dogs, cats and ferrets entering Great Britain must be vaccinated against rabies. We are not currently proposing any changes to the animal health requirements for dogs, cats and ferrets entering Great Britain. The Government monitors disease risk carefully. If the disease risk changes, or an immediate public health risk is identified, appropriate action will be taken.


Written Question
Dogs: Imports
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle the commercial movement of pregnant dogs into Great Britain; and whether he plans to take legislative steps to curb this practice.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by Selaine Saxby MP on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom including prohibiting the import of heavily pregnant dogs over 42 days gestation.


Written Question
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many studies the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science has (a) conducted and (b) completed using close-kin DNA analysis; and on what species those studies focused.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Close-kin DNA analysis is a relatively new scientific method for assessing the genetic profile and abundance of animal populations. While it has been used in fish populations elsewhere, including on thornback ray in the Bay of Biscay, the planned scientific study with pollack in the English Channel would be the first time Cefas have used it in the UK.


Written Question
Landfill: Safety
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Environment Agency has made a recent assessment of the safety of historic landfill sites that are in close proximity to urban areas.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Local Authorities have the statutory duty to inspect their Areas to identify contaminated land (including historic landfills and non-permitted sites) in accordance with a written inspection strategy which they must publish and maintain.

The Environment Agency has responsibility to require those responsible to remediate historic landfills and non-permitted sites if they have been determined as contaminated land and designated as a ‘special site’ by the local authority under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Since 2000, 54 sites have been designated as special sites including 13 historic landfills Contaminated Land Special Sites - data.gov.uk


Written Question
Landfill: Regulation
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)

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 effectiveness of the regulation of landfill sites.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The vast majority of landfill sites do not cause problems and the regulatory framework serves them and their local communities well. Where poor performance does occur the Environment Agency has a range of powers to bring sites back into compliance and, where necessary, to take enforcement action against operators.


Written Question
Marine Protected Areas: Fishing Vessels
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of bottom trawling on Marine Protected Areas.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Slough, on 6 July 2023, PQ UIN 192154.

A byelaw restricting the use of bottom trawling in 13 Marine Protected Areas mentioned in that answer came into force on 22 March 2024.


Written Question
Food: Import Controls
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the impact of the proposed 70 per cent cut in funding from DEFRA from April 2024 for the inspection team of Dover Port Health Authority, and (2) how this will affect the action of this team to maintain UK food safety and security.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

On the 31 January 2023 we introduced the first stage of the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) which balances the need to protect biosecurity with the impact on trade. All port health authorities (PHAs) and local authorities (LAs) undertaking the new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks on EU goods from 30 April 2024 will be able to issue charges to recover their costs in the way they do now for Rest of the World goods. In 2022, Defra began providing a temporary financial support package to PHAs and LAs to retain staff until the introduction of the BTOM. In that time, these staff were focused on supporting wider biosecurity work. This included supporting Border Force with enforcing the temporary African Swine Fever (ASF) safeguard measure on pork and pork products from the EU, in place pending implementation of a new SPS policy for goods intended for personal use.

Defra remains committed to protecting biosecurity and we are confident that this will not negatively impact UK food safety and security. We are working closely with all border stakeholders in the lead up to all implementation dates of new SPS controls. We are working with them to train and upskill staff to ensure that any new controls that are brought in are enacted in an efficient manner so as not to disrupt trade, but which crucially will maintain our high biosecurity standards.


Written Question
Import Controls: Small Businesses
Tuesday 26th March 2024

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 what steps they are taking to address challenges faced by small businesses and importers due to the introduction of new border checks and paperwork requirements post-Brexit.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) sets out our new global regime of border controls that makes better use of technology and data to reduce friction and the cost of border controls for businesses and consumers when compared to the proposed July 2022 regime. It will create a radically simpler yet secure experience for traders moving goods across the UK border.

After engaging with stakeholders and considering the implementation challenges they raised, alongside the need to manage biosecurity risks, we have adapted the timeline we originally published in the draft version of the BTOM to give businesses and their supply-chains more time to prepare. Many goods, including more than 60% of animal product consignments, are now deemed low risk and either not controlled at all or only subject to pre-notification, and medium risk goods are subject to fewer physical checks than the EU’s regime.

Defra has also introduced several facilitations for groupage movements, as well as developing our Certification Logistics Pilot. Those facilitations include: relaxed official sealing requirements for animal products; greater flexibility in transporting groupage loads; elimination of 'Either/Or' sections in health certificates; the use of schedules allowing greater number of similar animal products under a single export health certificate, and greater flexibilities in the pre-notification and import declaration processes.

All businesses will also benefit from the Single Trade Window, a simple service gateway that serves as a single point of interaction between businesses and UK border processes, submitting information to the Government only once and in only one place ensuring administration costs are kept to a minimum.


Written Question
Agriculture: Christchurch
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)

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 list all Government investments in the farming sector in Christchurch constituency since 1 April 2023.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has supported the farming and rural sector through payments under a range of schemes.

Since 1 April 2023, the RPA has released through schemes and grants approximately £326k in the Christchurch constituency. A breakdown of these figures is in the table below.

Basic Payment Scheme

Countryside Stewardship Scheme

Environmental Stewardship

Sustainable Farm Incentive

Other Grants

Total

£218,516

£57,616

£21,286

£5,602

£22,802

£325,822

There are no species recovery or landscape recovery projects funded within the Christchurch constituency.

There are no live Conservation and Enhancement Scheme agreements.

The Dorset peat project is Defra funded. However, there are no peat restoration sites within the constituency boundary – sites at Cannon Hill and Holt Heath are close to the boundary.

The only project to highlight which falls within the constituency is the Salisbury to sea (Christchurch Harbour) fish barrier removal study, which also incorporates floodplain reconnection opportunities funded by Network Rail but is being managed and contracted by Natural England in partnership with the Environment Agency.

Except for New Forest Higher Level Stewardship there are no other funds that Natural England is aware of linked to New Forest National Park which overlaps at the east boundary of the constituency.

There are Countryside Stewardship agreements funded and associated investment of time by Natural England staff locally on agri agreements and Catchment Sensitive Farming (Stour and Avon catchments) within the Christchurch constituency.