Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to complete their review of beaver release policy in England.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
We will continue to work with Natural England to develop our approach to beaver reintroductions in England. Further information on this will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, in formulating rules for the natural capital markets, farmers and landowners will be permitted to ‘stack’ trades, that is to sell credits in different markets from the same operation; if so, whether carbon credits will be included in the stacking system; and, if not, what effect they expect that to have on the viability of new broad-leaved woodland as compared with coniferous plantations.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
The Government is committed to supporting farmers and other land managers to access revenue streams for ecosystem services, including carbon, from their land. As set out in the Nature Markets Framework, published in March this year, it is currently possible to ‘stack’ credits for different ecosystem services from the same land, in limited circumstances. Defra is funding research to enable consideration of whether a broader range of opportunities for stacking could be permitted in future without risking the environmental integrity of credits.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what research they are supporting into the options for introducing parasites and diseases of oak processionary moth into the UK as an alternative to the use of sprays that kill all lepidoptera larvae.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
Government is actively supporting research into alternative control methods for Oak Processionary Moth (OPM). This research aims to minimise or avoid the use of chemical sprays that can have negative impacts on other species, and is exploring nature-based management solutions, mating disruption and biopesticides.
Research has shown that there are at least five species which parasitise OPM in its natural range abroad. One of these species, Carcelia iliaca, has been naturally established in the UK since 2015, and is found commonly associated with OPM here. Current research is looking at ways to manage habitats to increase populations of C. iliaca and other natural predators.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all farmers piloting the Sustainable Farming Incentive are members of their local farmer cluster; and if not, what plans they have to require such farmers to join.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
The SFI pilot is testing a version of SFI with 840 farmers across the country for three years and commenced in November 2021. Those taking part in the pilot represent a broad range of farmers that include owner occupiers and tenants; large and smaller scale businesses; and arable, livestock and mixed farming enterprises. The pilot is testing the end to end operational side of the scheme as well as the delivery and effect of the environmental Actions. Learning from the SFI pilot is feeding back into our policy teams in Defra to help develop and iterate the full schemes. Whilst some farmers within the SFI pilot may already be part of their local farm cluster group, land in the SFI pilot is not subject to any existing additional agri-environment scheme. This is so we can ensure the learning we gain from our farmers taking part in the pilot is directly related to the elements of the scheme we are testing and learning from.
As we evolve our existing Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme, this will pay for more locally-targeted actions relating to specific habitats and features that can be done alongside food production. Through CS Plus we plan to increase the impact of the scheme by adding in more ways to incentivise and reward those who work together across multiple holdings to deliver specific environmental outcomes relevant to the locality, and join up connecting habitats across local areas.
Both SFI and CS will be available to all eligible farmers that wish to take part and as we develop these schemes, we will continue to refine the actions with farmers and land managers to make sure they work on the ground, are good value for money, and deliver the intended outcomes for sustainable domestic food production and the environment.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many farmed animals have been slaughtered for human consumption for each of the last 10 years, broken down by broad species group.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
Statistics for the total amount of species slaughtered for human consumption in the last 10 years are as follows:
Year by Year Breakdown:
Year | Cattle | Sheep | Pigs | Chickens | Turkeys |
2012 | 2,038,900 | 11,899,100 | 10,034,500 | 873,788,600 | 18,420,300 |
2013 | 2,018,200 | 12,447,800 | 10,049,700 | 902,247,700 | 17,518,500 |
2014 | 2,071,800 | 12,814,500 | 10,227,200 | 900,382,000 | 15,411,800 |
2015 | 2,030,300 | 13,188,400 | 10,627,000 | 953,111,200 | 16,952,100 |
2016 | 2,099,100 | 12,844,500 | 10,733,100 | 992,639,100 | 15,568,400 |
2017 | 2,092,200 | 13,297,600 | 10,420,200 | 1,036,679,600 | 14,923,500 |
2018 | 2,115,200 | 12,817,100 | 10,667,100 | 1,083,094,200 | 16,154,000 |
2019 | 2,140,900 | 13,154,700 | 10,862,100 | 1,049,761,000 | 16,093,900 |
2020 | 2,137,000 | 13,059,400 | 10,923,400 | 1,096,698,900 | 16,224,100 |
2021 | 2,019,000 | 11,774,300 | 11,264,200 | 1,123,196,600 | 11,982,600 |
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the benefits of introducing a Digital Deposit Return Scheme, through which consumers could recycle drinks containers via kerbside collections using unique barcodes to reclaim deposits, and (2) the potential for incorporating a digital element into their existing proposals for a deposit return scheme.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
We consulted last year on how a deposit return scheme (DRS) might operate. The consultation set out information on a return to retailer model similar to those used successfully in other countries and we also asked for information on digital systems that could be used for a DRS.
The technology for a digital DRS is not yet available at the scale required for full implementation but we are aware of trials and research in the digital field. As these progress, we hope to be able to access more information concerning the practicalities and feasibility of using this technology, most notably in ensuring the scheme continues to deliver on its objectives, particularly with regard to improving the quality of material collected. While a return to retailer model forms our main proposal for a DRS at this stage, we remain interested to see and encourage innovation in DRS.