Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 she has made of the transparency of Natural England's licencing system.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Natural England publishes information on the different types of licences available and how to apply to use them on GOV.UK. Where an application results in a licence not being issued, Natural England will provide the applicant with an explanation for this.
Natural England has an ongoing programme of reviewing and, where appropriate, reforming the licensing system. Detailed reviews (including public consultation) of the general and class licences were undertaken in 2014 and 2008/9.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 he has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) effectiveness of the Natural England licensing process in protecting endangered species of birds.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Natural England has an ongoing programme of reviewing and, where appropriate, reforming the licensing system. Detailed reviews of the General and Class Licences were undertaken in 2014 and 2008/9, including public consultation on proposed changes. A number of changes were made after the 2008/9 consultation, and fewer more minor changes following the 2014 consultation.
Licences to take action against bird species are only granted if there are no other satisfactory solutions and there is no detrimental impact on the conservation status of native wild bird populations and protected species. This effect, including the cumulative effect of other licences, is considered for each individual licence.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) legislative and (b) non-legislative steps his Department is taking to tackle toxic air pollution.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government has adopted ambitious, legally binding international targets to reduce emissions of five of the most damaging air pollutants (fine particulate matter, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, non-methane volatile organic compounds) by 2020 and 2030.
We have also put in place a £3.5 billion plan to reduce harmful emissions from road transport. Local authorities have been granted funding to undertake air quality improvement.
We published our new and world leading Clean Air Strategy, which is focused on broader emissions beyond road transport and aims to cut air pollution and save lives. The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised the Strategy as “an example for the rest of the world to follow”.
Through the Clean Air Strategy, the Government has made a commitment to setting a new, ambitious, long term target to reduce people’s exposure to PM2.5, and will publish evidence early this year to examine what action would be needed to meet the WHO annual mean guideline limit of 10 µg/m3. The Government has also committed to introducing legislation to strengthen, simplify and update the legislative framework that applies at the local level in order to both enable and drive further reductions in local concentrations of air pollution. We have also outlined plans to enable greater local action to tackle domestic burning by updating the current Smoke Control Area framework and providing local authorities with more flexible, proportionate enforcement powers.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which service providers are contracted to carry out third party cleaning contracts for his (a) Department and (b) executive agencies; if he will list all of the services delivered by third party contractors to his (i) Department and (ii) executive agencies; and how many people working for those third party contractors are paid less than the Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.
Answered by George Eustice
The service providers contracted to carry out third party cleaning contracts for Defra managed buildings, including those of our executive agencies, are provided through an outsourced Total Facilities Management contract with Interserve FM. Interserve FM holds information on the rate of remuneration of its staff, however the contract requires Interserve FM to pay all employees the living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.
The Living Wage Foundation rates can be found at the Living Wage Foundation website (https://www.livingwage.org.uk/). There is a rate for London based staff and a rate for staff based outside of London.
The Total Facilities Management contract covers all building and ground maintenance, cleaning and security services for the Defra managed estate, therefore all third party contracts delivered under the contract are covered by the Living Wage Foundation commitment.
A list of all services delivered by third party contractors and the associated wage information is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 is taking steps to restrict the tethering of (a) horses and (b) other animals; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (the 2006 Act), it is an offence to fail to provide for an animal’s welfare or to cause it any unnecessary suffering. In relation to equines, the 2006 Act is backed up by the statutory Code of Practice for the Welfare of Horses, Ponies, Donkeys and Their Hybrids (the Code). The Code provides owners and keepers with information on how to meet the welfare needs of their horses and includes a specific section on how to tether a horse.
Local authorities have powers under the 2006 Act to investigate allegations of cruelty or poor welfare. In addition, welfare organisations such as the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare (WHW) may also investigate such matters. If anyone is concerned about the way a horse or other animal has been tethered, they should report the matter either to the relevant local authority, or to the RSPCA or WHW who can investigate. If a horse or other animal is found not to be tethered appropriately, this could lead to a prosecution under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
I consider that the existing legislation and guidance in place in respect of tethering of horses ensures their welfare needs are met appropriately.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 (a) make footpaths more accessible to people with restricted mobility and (b) create new footpaths to connect places and communities.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Public rights of way are a local matter and are handled by individual local highway authorities.
Local authorities are required to keep a Rights of Way Improvement Plan (ROWIP) to plan improvements to their network. The expectation is for local authorities, whenever possible, to look at the needs of all users, including where possible to provide specific improvements for a range of users with limited mobility including wheelchair users and those with young children in pushchairs.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of racehorses (a) injured and (b) killed in the UK in each year for which information is available.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) publishes annual statistics of the number of horse fatalities at racecourses. These are shown in the table below and can also be found on their website. We do not have any estimates of the numbers of racehorses injured.
| 1994 |
| 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
Runners | 71,475 |
| 94,776 | 90,518 | 91,146 | 86,456 | 88,377 | 89975 | 91360 |
Fatalities | 202 |
| 181 | 211 | 196 | 189 | 156 | 171 | 167 |
Rate | 0.28% |
| 0.19% | 0.23% | 0.22% | 0.22% | 0.18% | 0.19 | 0.18 |
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government plans to take to protect the environment after the UK leaves the EU; and whether those steps will aim to maintain existing levels of protection as required under current EU legislation.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government is committed to maintaining environmental standards after we leave the EU, and will continue to uphold international obligations through multilateral environmental agreements.
The EU (Withdrawal) Act will ensure existing EU environmental law continues to have effect in UK law after the UK leaves the EU.
The Government will establish a new, independent statutory body to hold Government to account on the environment, alongside a statutory statement of environmental principles to guide future Government policy making.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 he has made of the level of the UK's self-sufficiency in the production of food.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK’s current production to supply ratio is 60% for all food and 75% for indigenous-type foods. This has remained steady over the last decade and is not low in the context of the past 150 years. The UK has historically been a net importer of food and sources from a diverse range of stable countries and this will continue once we leave the EU.
Self-sufficiency is not in itself an indicator of food security. Achieving increased self-sufficiency in indigenous products would not insulate us from shocks to the system – for example, weather and disease can affect the harvests and yields.
Our aim is for a thriving and self-reliant agriculture sector. Our future agriculture policy contains several provisions to help food producers better engage with the market: these include measures to increase productivity and invest in new technology.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to increase the level of self-sufficiency in UK food production.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK’s current production to supply ratio is 60% for all food and 75% for indigenous-type foods. This has remained steady over the last decade and is not low in the context of the past 150 years. The UK has historically been a net importer of food and sources from a diverse range of stable countries and this will continue once we leave the EU.
Self-sufficiency is not in itself an indicator of food security. Achieving increased self-sufficiency in indigenous products would not insulate us from shocks to the system – for example, weather and disease can affect the harvests and yields.
Our aim is for a thriving and self-reliant agriculture sector. Our future agriculture policy contains several provisions to help food producers better engage with the market: these include measures to increase productivity and invest in new technology.