Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they spent in the 2016–17 financial year on biosecurity measures relating to bee diseases and pests, broken down by (1) policy functions, (2) inspectorate functions, (3) technical support functions (for example, risk assessments and diagnostics), (4) response functions (including control activities), (5) research, and (6) total budget.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) spent £2.8m on bee diseases in 2016/17 including both direct costs and apportioned support staff and overheads.
APHA do not keep the split as requested but can further subdivide the cost between direct costs (£1.6m) and apportioned support staff and overheads (£1.2m).
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they spent in the 2016–17 financial year on biosecurity measures relating to animal diseases and pests, broken down by (1) policy functions, (2) inspectorate functions, (3) technical support functions (for example, risk assessments and diagnostics), (4) response functions (including control activities), (5) research, and (6) total budget.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) spent £200m on animal diseases in 2016/17 including both direct costs and apportioned support staff and overheads.
APHA do not keep the split as requested but can further subdivide the cost between direct costs (£117m) and apportioned support staff and overheads (£83m).
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they spent in the 2016–17 financial year on biosecurity measures relating to invasive non-native species, broken down by (1) policy functions, (2) inspectorate functions, (3) technical support functions, for example, risk assessments and diagnostics, (4) response functions, including control activities, and (5) research.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Biosecurity and control of invasive non-native species are devolved matters.
In England in 2016/17 the government spent an estimated total of £922,000 on biosecurity measures relating to invasive non-native species.
The overall cost can be apportioned as £145,000 for policy functions, £90,000 on risk analysis, £335,000 for early warning and rapid response measures, £210,000 on coordination, £80,000 on communication and awareness raising activities, and £62,000 on research.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they spent in the 2016–17 financial year on biosecurity measures relating to tree diseases and pests, broken down by (1) policy functions, (2) inspectorate functions, (3) technical support functions, for example, risk assessments and diagnostics, (4) response functions, including control activities, and (5) research.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) spent £13.2m on plant and tree diseases in 2016/17 including both direct costs and apportioned support staff and overheads.
APHA do not keep the split as requested but can further subdivide the cost between direct costs (£10.1m) and apportioned support staff and overheads (£3.1m).
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they spent in the 2016–17 financial year on biosecurity measures relating to plant diseases and pests, broken down by (1) policy functions, (2) inspectorate functions, (3) technical support functions, for example, risk assessments and diagnostics, (4) response functions, including control activities, and (5) research.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) spent £13.2m on plant and tree diseases in 2016/17 including both direct costs and apportioned support staff and overheads.
APHA do not keep the split as requested but can further subdivide the cost between direct costs (£10.1m) and apportioned support staff and overheads (£3.1m).
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the annual cost to the economy in each of the past ten years of (1) animal diseases, (2) bee diseases, (3) fish diseases, (4) invasive non-native species, (5) plant diseases, and (6) tree diseases, in England.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Data on all these matters are not held centrally. Collation of this information would involve finance teams across five different organisations (Defra, APHA, Environment Agency, Fera and the Forestry Commission) analysing, collating and reconciling ten years of financial data stored in different formats and IT platforms. As a result, we are not able to provide the information within the given timeframe.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much was spent in each of the past ten years on biosecurity in England in relation to (1) animal health, (2) bee health, (3) fish health, (4) invasive non-native species, (5) plant health, and (6) tree health, broken down by (a) policy functions, (b) inspectorate functions, (c) technical support functions, (d) response and control functions, and (e) research.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Data on all these matters are not held centrally. Collation of this information would involve finance teams across five different organisations (Defra, APHA, Environment Agency, Fera and the Forestry Commission) analysing, collating and reconciling ten years of financial data stored in different formats and IT platforms. As a result, we are not able to provide the information within the given timeframe.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take in response to the findings of the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017 that new and emerging invasive non-native species are one of six urgent climate change risks for the UK.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The UK has long recognised the threats posed by invasive non-native species. In 2008, we published a comprehensive Great Britain Non-native Species Strategy designed to tackle these threats, the first of its kind in Europe.
As part of our strategy, we carry out horizon-scanning for new invasive non-native species likely to pose a significant risk if they arrive in the UK. These threats are formal assessments using a comprehensive risk framework that takes climate change into account. We will be carrying the next horizon scanning exercise in 2018.
We also carry out risk analysis for individual species which specifically takes the potential impacts from climate change into account.
We have set up a Great Britain working group to consider research needs relating to invasive non-native species, which includes the impacts from climate change.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prosecutions for trafficking of puppies have taken place in the past 12 months; and whether they plan to introduce any new measures to address such trafficking.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
We take the issue of the trafficking of puppies seriously. The Animal and Plant Health Agency is working in partnership with Dogs Trust, enforcement bodies and transport carriers to identify non-compliant animals destined for Dover and Folkestone ports. This partnership began in December 2015 and has resulted in over 650 puppies being seized and placed into quarantine. Should APHA checks identify that a dog has been imported, but is not compliant with the import rules, the relevant local authority is informed.
Local authorities are responsible for taking enforcement action when puppies and dogs are discovered to be non-compliant with importation rules. Details of prosecutions in 2016 are reported in the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s ‘Return of expenditure incurred and prosecutions taken under the Animal Health Act 1981 and incidences of disease in imported animals for the year 2016’. In 2016 there were five prosecutions for the illegal importation or landing of dogs under the Rabies (Importation of Dogs, Cats and Other Mammals) Order 1974 and The Trade in Animals and Regulated Products Regulations.
It is also important to recognise the illegal trafficking of dogs is ultimately driven by demand. Defra has published guidance on buying a pet. This guidance contains guidelines to follow when buying a dog such as buying from a reputable supplier and viewing the animal and its documentation, and also highlights the trade in illegal imports. Defra also works closely with the Pet Advertising Advisory Group to drive up standards for online advertisements and make potential pet owners and website operators more aware of rogue dealers.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) reduce waste going to landfill, and (2) increase recycling of plastic cups and bottles.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
As a country we are moving away from landfill to more environmentally beneficial and higher value uses for waste. We are making good progress with diverting waste from landfill with the amount of local authority waste in England going to landfill falling by over 70% between 2000/01 and 2015/16. Landfill tax is the main driver in diverting residual waste from landfill and is currently £86.10 per tonne.
Defra is also investing £3 billion in a number of local authority projects through Waste Infrastructure Grants. This is contributing towards the reduction of waste sent to landfill, promoting renewable energy, recycling and stimulating growth.
England has already achieved a lot in the area of recycling, increasing household recycling from 11% in 2000 to 44% in 2015.
In September 2016, the Waste and Resources Action Programme and an industry advisory group published a framework for greater consistency, encouraging councils to recycle a common set of materials, as well as setting out actions to rationalise packaging, particularly plastics, into items that can be collected for recycling while supporting innovation in packaging design.
Current Packaging policies and regulations have resulted in recycling of packaging rising from around 46% in 2005 to 60% in 2015. We have also announced our intention to increase obligated businesses’ packaging recycling targets to over 75% by 2020. As part of this, we have made great progress in boosting recycling rates for plastic bottles. Their collection for recycling has increased dramatically, from less than 13,000 tonnes in 2000 to over 330,000 tonnes in 2015, and almost all local councils now collect plastic bottles as part of their general waste collection services.
As part of the Litter Strategy for England, published on 10 April, we have established a working group to look at different voluntary and economic incentives to improve recycling and reuse of packaging, and to reduce the incidence of commonly littered items. The working group’s first investigation will consider voluntary models or regulatory options and measures to target drinks containers, including plastic bottles.