Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the reasons for the changes made in the prospective regulations for the use of asulam in 2020; and what alternative means of controlling bracken will be available in species-rich environments in lowland England.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Asulam is an herbicide active substance that has been used for a number of years to control bracken in the form of the formulated product “Asulox”.
All uses of herbicides are subject to strict regulation to protect people and the environment on the basis of a scientific risk assessment. The usual regulatory process involves approval of the active substance followed by authorisation of the product. However, asulam is not currently approved and so the use of Asulox to control bracken requires an application each year for so-called emergency authorisation. Emergency authorisation requires: a strong case for the importance of bracken control; a strong case that there are no alternatives to asulam use; ensuring that the use of asulam will be limited and controlled; and providing appropriate levels of protection for people and for the environment.
The application for use of Asulox this year has been assessed by the Health and Safety Executive, which concluded that restrictions were necessary. These include a buffer zone to protect aquatic organisms and a restriction to allow aerial application only. Ground-based application has not been allowed as alternative products containing amidosulfuron are available for this purpose. Amidosulfuron products are authorised for use where bracken is present on grassland (which includes moorland and rough grazing). Bracken can also be controlled by mechanical methods such as cutting, crushing and rolling.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to undertake an independent assessment of the safety of asulam before the 2021 spraying season.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Applications to use asulam to control bracken are considered afresh each year. The assessment involves consideration of the need for use of asulam, ensuring that the use will be limited and controlled, and ensuring the protection of people and the environment. The assessment is carried out by the Health and Safety Executive with advice from the independent UK Expert Committee on Pesticides. This process will apply to any application received for the use of asulam in 2021.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what data on the full costs and revenues of the various ways of recycling, or otherwise disposing of, the UK’s domestic waste stream they use to inform their policy in this regard.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
We use the latest industry data on the cost of collection of waste and recycling, waste treatment and disposal. We work closely with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) which has strong industry links and is well placed for tracking and revisiting the latest evidence on costs and revenues.
In terms of costs, one of the key sources of information is the so called gate fee price, i.e. the prices asked by different waste and recycling industry actors to process a certain type of material. Our latest Digest 2017, shows the latest trends in gates fees across facilities like materials recovery facilities, energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion plants or landfill. There is more detail on the latest gate fee prices on WRAP’s website.
In terms of revenues, a key public source for material recycling revenues can be accessed at letsrecycle.com.
With respect to local authority costs and revenues of waste and recycling activities, a WRAP Consistency Framework summarises the core data in an evidence report (2016) which can be found on WRAP’S website. This is built on detailed assessments of local authority costs of collection and treatment, including elements like staff and non-staff costs as well as average revenues received for sold recyclates. Further information on this is provided in the WRAP Kerbside Analysis Tool available on Wrap’s website.