Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following their introduction of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022, what assessment they have made of the UK’s food and environmental standards.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra is in the process of analysing and assessing its REUL stock, including in relation to food standards and environmental protections, to determine what should be preserved as part of domestic law, and what should be repealed, or amended. This work will determine how we use the powers in the Bill and therefore inform assessments of the Bill’s impact.
The United Kingdom is a world leader in environmental protection and in reviewing our retained EU law, we want to ensure that environmental law is fit for purpose for the UK’s unique environment and able to drive improved environmental outcomes, whilst ensuring regulators can deliver efficiently. Maintaining the UK’s high food standards remains our priority. HM Government remains committed to promoting robust food standards nationally and internationally, to protect consumer interests, facilitate international trade, and ensure that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to protect UK food and environmental standards if all associated EU regulation is removed from the UK statute book
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra is in the process of analysing its Retained EU Law (REUL) stock to determine what should be preserved as part of domestic law, and what should be repealed, or amended. This work will determine how we use the powers in the Bill, including in relation to food and environmental standards.
The United Kingdom is a world leader in environmental protection and in reviewing our retained EU law, we want to ensure that environmental law is fit for purpose for the UK's unique environment and able to drive improved environmental outcomes, whilst ensuring regulators can deliver efficiently. Any changes to environmental regulations will be driven with those goals in mind.
Maintaining the UK's high food standards also remains our priority. HM Government remains committed to promoting robust food standards nationally and internationally, to protect consumer interests, facilitate international trade, and ensure that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to amend the Equality Act 2010 as to change the protected characteristic of "sex" to "gender".
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The Government has no plans to do this.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the percentage of respiratory inhalers that (1) end up in landfill, and (2) are incinerated.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Defra has not conducted an assessment of the percentage of respiratory inhalers which are ultimately landfilled or incinerated.
Waste holders act in accordance with the waste hierarchy, so where waste does arise it is managed in the most resource-efficient way possible. The reuse or recycling of waste is preferred to energy recovery, through incineration for example, or disposal to landfill.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to bring before Parliament current proposals by the Lake District National Park Authority to sell land in the Lake District.
Answered by Lord De Mauley
National park authorities are independent bodies, provided with their powers to dispose of land under the 1972 Local Government Act. Government has no powers to direct a national park authority to dispose or not to dispose of land or a particular piece of land and has no plans to bring before Parliament the Lake District National Park Authority proposals for land sale.