Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of studies by the British Trust for Ornithology which show that the population of starlings has fallen by 66 per cent since the 1970s.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government is aware of the British Trust for Ornithology data on starlings. The Government’s wild bird statistics that measure relative abundance show decreases for starlings of 81% in the long term (1970-2015) and 5% in the short term (2010-2015).
The cause of the decline in starlings, although not fully understood, is likely to be linked to food availability and over winter survival. To support starlings and other birds there are agri-environment scheme options that aim to boost food availability. In the period 2008-2014, farms in Higher Level Stewardship agreements, specifically undertaking bird friendly management options, found a sustained 79% increase in starling abundance.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of research by the Environment Department at the University of York which found that worms, maggots and flies at sewage treatment plants contain traces of many drugs, including anti-depressants.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Researchers at the University of York have published in a peer reviewed journal that earthworms collected at sewage treatment plants contained mean concentrations of 26.20±4.70 ng/g of the anti-depressant fluoxetine (trade name Prozac) (Bean et al. 2017). In a recent paper concerning the effects of low, environmental relevant, concentrations of Prozac on the courtship of starlings (Whitlock et al. 2018), they also refer to work by other researchers showing earthworms at sewage treatment plants to contain other contaminants including pharmaceuticals (Markman et al. 2007 & 2008). There are many other studies globally showing uptake of pharmaceuticals into a variety of invertebrate species.
The uptake of pharmaceutical residues from sewage, sewage effluent and sewage sludge has been shown to negatively impact invertebrates themselves and provides a clear route of exposure to many species of wildlife including birds and bats. The full significance of this is still being assessed.
References
Bean, T. G., Arnold, K. E., Lane, J., Bergstrom, E., Thomas-Oates, J. E., Rattner, B., & Boxall, A. B. A. (2017). Predictive framework for estimating exposure of birds to pharmaceuticals. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. DOI: 10.1002/etc.3771
Markman S,Guschina I,Barnsley S,Buchanan K,Pascoe D,et al. (2007) Endocrine disrupting chemicals accumulate in earthworms exposed to sewage effluent. Chemosphere 70: 119–125.
Markman S, Leitner S, Catchpole C, Barnsley S, Müller CT, Pascoe D, et al. (2008) Pollutants Increase Song Complexity and the Volume of the Brain Area HVC in a Songbird. PLoS ONE 3(2): e1674. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001674
Sophia E. Whitlock, M. Glória Pereira, Richard F. Shore, Julie Lane, Kathryn E. Arnold. Environmentally relevant exposure to an antidepressant alters courtship behaviours in a songbird. Chemosphere, 2018; 211: 17 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.07.074
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Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - 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 impact of low concentrations of anti-depressants on the courtship and breeding of starlings.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The experiments conducted by University of York in collaboration with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) demonstrated that exposing starlings to a maximal environmentally relevant concentration of an anti-depressant (fluoxetine) altered courtship behaviour in wild-caught starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). The males sang less and were more aggressive towards females that had been dosed with an anti-depressant than to the untreated females and in addition the treated females were also initially more aggressive towards males than the untreated females. However there were no effects on female courtship behaviour or on circulating female hormones in treated females. These findings suggest that exposure to this dose of anti-depressant reduced female attractiveness to the male but the reasons why are not clear. Whether these levels of anti-depressants in the environment would have a significant effect on an individual’s fitness or the population as a whole requires further investigation.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the findings of Professor Tyler of Exeter University relating to transgender fish in rivers affected by residues of contraceptive pills, what action they intend to take to avoid health risks to humans.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The class of substances known as Endocrine disruptors (EDCs) which include oestrogens found in contraceptive pills are a hazard to some wildlife. While it is correct that EDCs are a recognised environmental issue, which continues to be researched with a view to the protection of wildlife, EDCs do not pose a threat to drinking water supplies as drinking water treatment facilities will remove oestrogens, if they were to occur in river water.
The Environment Agency is currently commissioning work to survey the incidence and severity of intersex in wild fish in a number of rivers that were surveyed 15 years ago, to assess how the situation may have changed.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - 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 effectiveness of the Ragwort Control Act 2003 in preventing the spread of ragwort.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The effectiveness of this Act is assessed annually by recording details of complaints and enforcement cases. Research undertaken for Defra in 2013 concluded that ragwort is not becoming more widespread.
The Ragwort Control Act 2003 contains provision for a Code of Practice for the management and control of ragwort.
Common ragwort is one of the five, so called ‘injurious weeds’ and is toxic to grazing livestock including horses, so the priority is to protect them where there is a risk of them ingesting dead, dying or green ragwort. The Government recognises the impact that ragwort ingestion can have and we ask that landowners take all reasonable steps to ensure that ragwort does not spread from their land onto adjoining land, where it poses a risk to grazing livestock, land used for grazing or to produce hay/forage. Where complaints are received and there is a genuine risk to grazing livestock then action to ensure compliance is taken with private individuals or public bodies.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 12 May (HL8175), whether they are able to legislate for the labelling of British milk and dairy products for the UK market without approval of the EU authorities.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
As set out in my response to my Noble Friend’s previous question on 17 March 2016, we have consistently pushed within Europe for improved origin labelling on all food and these efforts have resulted in strong requirements for meat and meat products in the Food Information Regulations EU 1169/2011. We will continue to seek even stronger origin requirements for dairy products, to ensure that where the dairy ingredient of cheese, butter and cream is different from the place of manufacture this is clearly declared on the label. The UK is able to legislate nationally with the approval of the Commission but this legislation would only apply to produce made and sold in the UK.
Where there are harmonised measures, domestic legislation normally takes into account the principles of mutual recognition to prevent deliberate trade barriers between Member States.
The UK food industry recognises that country of origin information is important to UK consumers and in 2011 industry developed and committed to a set of voluntary principles for clearer country of origin labelling. The proposed EU implementing act will strengthen the voluntary principles and improve the quality and consistency of origin information.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - 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 possible role of the contraceptive chemical E22, which is resistant to water purification techniques, in the increase in number of freshwater and coastal water fish bearing both male and female sexual organs.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
In the UK, environmental regulators, scientific experts and the water industry have been researching the link between the synthetic steroid, 17α-ethinyloestradiol (EE2, used in human oral contraception) and fish populations to understand the role of endocrine disrupting chemicals on the reproductive physiology of fish. Most work has focused on EE2 which has been measured in some of our rivers and downstream of sewage treatment works (STWs); this matches findings in other countries.
Based on scientific evidence from the UK and in Europe, there is reasonable certainty that very low concentrations of EE2 can cause feminisation (intersex condition) in male fish. The incidence of intersex seems to relate to the size of the STWs and the dilution ability of receiving waters. In the UK, fish inhabit comparatively small-sized rivers where limited dilution of EE2 occurs. Conventional STWs can remove EE2 from sewage, but not to the very low levels of less than one nanogramme per litre (ng/L) where no endocrine disrupting effects are predicted. In some cases the impact on fish populations remains unclear, and some affected populations appear to be self-sustaining.
In 2014, EE2 was included on the European Commission’s ‘watch list’ under the Water Framework Directive to gather information on its occurrence in surface waters across the European Union. Data will be reported by the UK and other Member States, and reviewed by the Commission throughout 2017 to assess whether this pharmaceutical is to be prioritised for monitoring and control and is to be included in future versions of the Directive.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - 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 levels of pollution in (1) drinking water, (2) river water, and (3) coastal waters, caused by chemicals used in medications which are resistant to present purification techniques
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) published research in 2012 to assess the levels of pollution caused by a range of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs found in source waters, such as rivers, abstracted for drinking water and the comparative levels after water treatment. Over a year, substances were measured at four sites. Results agreed with similar studies and concentrations in English surface waters are generally low and below 1 microgramme per litre (1 μg/L). Levels of pharmaceuticals and drugs in drinking waters after treatment were generally significantly lower than those found in surface waters. This indicates that the drinking water treatment systems used in England and Wales are effective at removing these contaminants. The study concluded that the presence of low levels of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in drinking waters in England and Wales do not pose an appreciable risk to human health.
There is evidence that widely used pharmaceuticals are detected at low concentrations in sewage effluent and receiving surface waters. Due to a lack of good quality toxicity data for many of these substances to assess reliably risks to aquatic wildlife that may be exposed to them, research is underway in the UK, at European level and by the pharmaceutical industry to characterise the risks better. This includes a Chemical Investigations Programme, undertaken by England’s water companies, where significant investment is being made to investigate around 20 substances from 2015-2017. Reported data will improve our understanding of the contamination of surface waters due to these chemicals and information will contribute to assessment of the risk posed to, or via the aquatic environment.
In addition, the UK is participating in a European monitoring network of surface water sites on a ‘watch list’ of contaminants and pharmaceuticals, including the active ingredient of the contraceptive pill, EE2. The Devolved Administrations are doing something similar. Data will inform the Commission’s selection of future priority substances requiring control, and the chemical status of the EU’s surface waters with respect to these chemicals.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 2 March (HL6363), whether they have the power to make regulations requiring origin marking of dairy products without the consent of the EU.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
We have consistently pushed within Europe for improved origin labelling on all food and these efforts have resulted in strong requirements for meat and meat products in the Food Information Regulations EU 1169/2011. We will continue to seek even stronger origin requirements for dairy products, to ensure that where the dairy ingredient of cheese, butter and cream is different from the place of manufacture this is clearly declared on the label.
Where there are harmonised measures, domestic legislation normally takes into account the principles of mutual recognition to prevent deliberate trade barriers between Member States.
The UK food industry recognises that country of origin information is important to British consumers and in 2011 industry developed and committed to a set of voluntary principles for clearer country of origin labelling. The proposed EU implementing act will strengthen the voluntary principles and improve the quality and consistency of origin information.
Asked by: Lord Tebbit (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 16 November (HL3254), what is the UK share of the Common Agricultural Policy budget for 2015 in percentage and cash terms respectively.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
In 2015, the UK was allocated 7% of the Common Agricultural Policy budget which is equivalent to €4 billion.