Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to implement the enhanced physical checks set out in the Border Target Operating Model and if so, when they plan to do so.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The BTOM sets outs out a risk-based, proportionate regime of controls which assesses the inherent biosecurity or public health risk presented by an import, together with the prevalence of relevant pests and diseases and our confidence in the exporting country’s production standards and health controls.
This assessment allows us to set controls at the most appropriate level and focus on the areas of highest risk to the UK. The goods posing the highest biosecurity risk are being prioritised as we build up to full check rates and high levels of compliance.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what priority they will give to pursuing a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Veterinary Agreement; and when they expect any such negotiations with the European Union to commence.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra in conjunction with the Department for Business and Trade will work to reset the relationship with our European friends to strengthen ties and tackle barriers to trade, while recognising that there will be no return to the single market or customs union.
We will tackle trade barriers through seeking to negotiate a veterinary / Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement with the European Union to prevent unnecessary border checks and help tackle the cost of food.
I will update this House in due course on the next steps.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Douglas-Miller on 12 March (HL2920), whether they will forecast the impact of different charges at different border control posts on traffic volumes, queues and emissions once the commercial ports have set their own fees.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
It is up to individual commercial ports to determine their own charging structure and rates. This will allow ports to ensure costs cover their expenses while remaining viable for both industry and businesses.
Border Control Posts are designed to handle high volumes of imported sanitary and phytosanitary goods and offer extended opening hours with staff working shifts on site to carry out reliable checks which minimise friction on traffic flow.
The Government has worked with port and airport operators, traders, Port Health Authorities and the Animal and Plant Health Agency to make sure we have the right infrastructure, systems and resources in place.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to publish any reports from their newly launched environmental science network focusing on deep-sea mining, DSM Environmental Network.
Answered by Lord Benyon
On 19 February, we opened the new UK Deep-Sea Mining (DSM) Environmental Science Network to applications. The aims of the network are to recognise and promote the extensive and world-renowned UK expertise in environmental and natural science related to DSM. The Network will not be responsible for developing policy or providing advice or recommendations to the Government or Ministers. Rather, it will help fill the current evidence gaps on the environmental impact of DSM, coordinate research effectively and strategically, make sure UK research is included in the global environmental evidence base for DSM, and encourage conversations between the Government and the scientific community to raise awareness and coordination between DSM science and policy environmental issues.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will introduce secondary legislation under Schedule 17 to the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Lord Benyon
The Government is committed to bring forward secondary legislation under the Environment Act 2021 on forest risk commodities imminently.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 27 December 2023 (HL1079), what assessment they have carried out to inform the conclusion that no differential impact on traffic flows, congestion and emissions has been identified by different levels of user charges.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
Charges to recover BCP operating costs for Government-run facilities are due to be published shortly through the Government Response to the “Charging Arrangements at government-run border control posts” consultation. Commercial ports will independently set their own fees which are still being finalised, therefore the impact of different charges at different BCPs on traffic volumes, queues and emissions cannot currently be quantified.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 23 November (HL180), whether they have developed plans for managing traffic flows through the Sevington border facility (1) when the facility is operating smoothly, and (2) during periods of congestion and queuing.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
Sevington Inland Border Facility is a cross-Government managed site owned by the Department for Transport. HM Revenue and Customs operates customs checks on the site and Defra has built a Border Control Post to support sanitary and phytosanitary checks on goods arriving from the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel.
Departments have worked together to develop traffic management plans which set out the mitigations required to ensure traffic flow is managed in and around the site, both when the facility is operating smoothly and in the event of congestion. These have also taken into account the wider Kent Resilience Forum Traffic Management plans, which include the use of some capacity at Sevington if required in times of disruption.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 23 November 2023 (HL180), what "appropriate contingencies" are under consideration to be deployed by (1) importers, and (2) the Government.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
The introduction of new controls for the Border Target Operating Model is not expected to impact products of animal origin and fresh produce availability. We are working closely with importers and border officials, and we are continuously monitoring the range of potential risks that could impact on the supply chain, and this would inform any future thinking around contingencies to be deployed if required.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of adopting crop diversity to mitigate against climate change crop failure and promote sustainable food production and security.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller
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.
It is not Government policy to determine which crops farmers should prioritise to include in their crop rotation. However, we will continue to support farmers, so they can make the right decisions for them and the productivity of their land.
Defra’s Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) on Wheat, Oilseed Rape, Pulses and Vegetable crops aim to improve the main UK crops by identifying genetic traits to improve their productivity, sustainability and resilience. Across the GINs we have already successfully identified genetic traits that have improved resilience to climate change and common pests and diseases, and we are working with breeders to incorporate these traits into elite UK crop varieties.
A recent Defra commissioned research project “Review of opportunities for diversifying UK agriculture through investment in underutilised crops” also sought to identify underutilised, underdeveloped and novel crops with potential to be grown successfully in the UK within diversified cropping systems. The report can be located on the Defra Science & Research webpage at the following link: Science Search (defra.gov.uk).
Furthermore, UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production and ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the need to ban the commercialisation of products derived from deforested areas and certify more strongly the origin of products imported to the UK.
Answered by Lord Benyon
The Government recognises the impact of consumption in the UK on the world’s forests. In 2019 we asked an independent taskforce - the Global Resource Initiative (GRI) – to provide the UK Government with specific recommendations on addressing the problem. The GRI submitted its first report in March 2021, and recommended the Government introduce a mandatory due diligence requirement on organisations using ‘forest risk commodities’ – commodities whose production is associated with wide-scale deforestation – in their supply chains.
The Government introduced new legislation through the Environment Act to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. Recent research estimates that around 70% of global tropical deforestation for commercial agriculture between 2013 and 2019 was conducted in violation of national laws.
The Government announced further details of our forest risk commodities regulations at COP28 in December. The new law will make it illegal for larger organisations, with a global annual turnover of more than £50 million, to use key forest risk commodities produced on land illegally occupied or used. Initial secondary legislation will focus on four commodities identified as key drivers of deforestation: cattle products (excluding dairy), cocoa, palm oil and soy.
Organisations in scope will also be required to undertake a due diligence exercise on their supply chains and to report on this exercise annually. To ensure transparency, information about businesses' due diligence exercises will be published. Businesses in scope that do not comply with these requirements may be subject to fines and other civil sanctions.
The secondary legislation required to operationalise the Environment Act provisions will be laid as soon as parliamentary time allows.