Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the new study by the Five Gyres Institute published in the journal Plos One on 8 March, concerning the increase in the amount of microplastic in the world’s oceans in the past 15 years; and what steps they will take, with international partners, in response to that report.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
Marine litter, including microplastics, is one of the greatest environmental challenges we are currently facing, reiterated by the new study by the Five Gyres Institute. Whilst we have not yet made an assessment of the findings of this latest study, we will continue to draw from a wide range of evidence and assessments to develop our policy, including any new research, enabling us to take the best possible action domestically, regionally and internationally to tackle the issue of marine microplastics and improve our understanding of their sources, pathways, impacts, distribution and abundance.
Domestically, we are working to prevent plastic from entering the environment in the first place by eliminating the most problematic plastics; we have already banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products and we have funded research to examine wider sources of microplastics, including tyres and textiles. This research will help to inform future policy.
As a Contracting Party to the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, the UK participates in monitoring programmes to assess regional trends in marine litter. Technical experts from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) have been leading an expert group to develop a new indicator for microlitter (including microplastics) in seafloor sediments, which could be used in future to inform regional policy.
The UK is a leading voice in tackling marine plastic pollution, co-sponsoring the proposal to prepare a new international, legally binding plastics treaty and taking an ambitious stance at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC1) in November last year. At INC1, the UK supported a treaty that will restrain the production and consumption of plastic to sustainable levels, address plastic design and encourage more recycling and re-use of plastic, in order to end plastic pollution, including microplastic pollution.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how long they expect the current food shortages in England, particularly of fruit and vegetables, to last; and what steps they are taking to help farmers and growers so that England is able to become more self-sufficient in terms of food production.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
We remain in close contact with suppliers, who are clear that current issues relating to the availability of certain fruits and vegetables are predominately caused by poor weather in Spain and North Africa where they are produced. These issues have been caused by unseasonal weather hampering production and harvest during December and January. Disruption is anticipated to last for 2-4 weeks
While short term supplies might be tight, overall, the supply chain is robust, and we are keeping the market under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group.
The capability, levers, and expertise to respond to disruption lie with industry. Government's role is to support and enable an industry-led response. UK Food Security remains resilient, and we continue to expect industry to be able to mitigate supply problems through alternative sourcing options.
The Government has taken steps to support energy costs, cut tariffs to reduce feed costs, improved avian influenza compensation schemes and taken a range of measures on fertilisers.
We work with industry bodies across the horticulture sectors, to monitor and assess the current market situation. We also work with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations at the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group (UK AMMG).
Minister Spencer held an industry roundtable with supermarkets on Monday 27 February to explore their plans for a return to normal supplies and contingencies for dealing with these supply chain problems.
Recognising the importance of food security, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK food security report was published in December 2021.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking (1) to prevent any further loss of wetlands, and (2) to restore wetlands to their natural state.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
In England we have set four legally binding targets for biodiversity:
- By 2030: to halt the decline in species abundance.
- By 2042: to reverse declines in species abundance; to reduce the risk of species extinction; and restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat.
Wetland restoration is important in driving species recovery.
On 31 January, the Government published its second statutory Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23). The EIP23 is delivery focused and sets out the actions that will drive us towards reaching our long-term targets and goals.
Through its active role in the Ramsar Convention on wetlands, the UK is also committed to supporting the conservation and wise use of wetlands internationally. In support of this we will establish a UK wetland inventory, mapping our wetlands for the first time.
The majority of the UK’s saltmarsh habitats are already in Marine Protected Areas. Our focus is now on ensuring these are effectively managed.
The Environment Agency leads the ‘Restoring Meadows, Marsh and Reef Initiative’, working with partners across government, the environmental NGO sector, academia and industry to facilitate the accelerated restoration of estuarine and coastal habitats, with saltmarshes being one of their three initial focus habitats.
The England Peat Action Plan, published in May 2021, sets out a strategic framework to improve management and protection of both our upland and lowland peatlands.
In the Net Zero Strategy, we committed to aim to restore approximately 280,000 ha of peatland in England by 2050. We are increasing levels of peatland restoration through the Nature for Climate Fund (NCF), which aims to provide funding for the restoration of approximately 35,000 ha of peatland by 2025. This represents a tripling of historic average annual restoration levels.
The NCF is providing over £33 million to restore 20,000 hectares of peatlands, with a further bidding round in 2023. The NCF Discovery Grant has also awarded over £5 million to 15 projects across England, stretching from Dorset to Northumberland, enabling the foundation work needed to prepare for the restoration of over 51,000 ha of peatland.
Through our Environmental Land Management schemes we are funding actions to maintain and improve wetland biodiversity, and to reduce nutrient and water supply pressures on wetlands. We published an update on our Environmental Land Management schemes on 26 January.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the guidance issued on 29 December 2022 by the Environment Agency on the disposal of Waste Upholstered Domestic Seating (WUDS) containing Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), why this legislation was not issued with more notice, given that it affects all councils that collect bulky upholstered domestic waste; what assessment they made of the amount of time that local councils and their Household Recycling Centres would need to make alternative arrangements for such items with their waste disposal partners; and what measures they have put in place to ensure that there is no increase in public fly-tipping and illegal dumping of bulky domestic waste items as a result.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
The Environment Agency (EA) is working to tackle the illegal disposal of waste domestic seating containing large quantities of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Guidance on how to comply with this legislation was published on GOV.UK when this legislation was introduced in 2016 and 2019 explaining the core requirements that apply to any waste containing POPs. Additional guidance was developed, with stakeholders, in winter 2021 to help provide more practical advice and issued to local authorities and their contractors in August 2022 regarding waste domestic seating containing POPs. The guidance was further updated before publishing on GOV.UK on 19th December 2022. The EA will continue to maintain and update this guidance as needed.
The EA and Defra have been working with stakeholders, including local authority representatives, from early 2021, to help them prepare to comply and to understand where changes to waste management arrangements would be required and the impact this would have on local authorities and their contractors. Engagement continued through guidance development and technical resolver groups. The EA attended local authority meetings during the second half of 2022 and has worked with individual local authorities to support them as needed.
The EA has provided three Regulatory Positions designed to help local authorities dispose of this waste appropriately, published in December 2022.
A large minority of local authorities were already incinerating this waste, and our understanding is that many more are now successfully doing so. All waste disposal authorities have household waste recycling centres with environmental permits which permit this waste, and therefore residents should have an outlet to dispose of it. Fly tipping is an offence which all local authorities treat seriously.
The Government recognises that this is particularly challenging for some local authorities due to their geography and infrastructure. Local authorities and their contractors have a duty of care to understand the nature of the waste they are responsible for and to manage it appropriately. Officials are monitoring a number of risks, including a risk of increased fly-tipping of waste domestic seating. The EA will continue to support local authorities as they take action to comply.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the 3,651 water bodies in England currently have “good” chemical and ecological status; why on 22 December 2022, the Environment Agency moved the target deadline to achieve “good” chemical and ecological status for England’s waterways, rivers, lakes and coastal waters back by 36 years to 2063; and what urgent steps they are taking to address the main sources of waterway pollution, including water treatment plants and agriculture.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
There are over 4000 surface water bodies in England. The last classification results showed that 16% of surface water bodies are currently at Good Ecological Status or Potential. About 97% of all surface water bodies would be at Good Chemical Status were it not for the presence of a some uPBT (ubiquitous, persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic) substances. The uPBTs are mainly legacy chemicals used all over the world in fire retardant, non-stick and water repellent commercial products. These chemicals are barely detectable in the water but can accumulate in the flesh of aquatic animals (biota). The Environment Agency’s move to biota monitoring has provided a more accurate picture of these chemicals. The three uPBTs (mercury, PFOS and PBDE) are generally causing water body failure out of around 50 priority chemical substances tested for chemical status.
Action has been taken on these small number of uPBT substances including national and international restrictions and bans on their use but there is no feasible way to remove them from the water. They will take an extended time frame to dissipate, which is allowed under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) natural conditions extension. The WFD ‘one out all out’ rule, however, means a water body must be at Good for all elements, and will fail overall if just one element fails. In all the water bodies which are less than ‘good’ overall, 79% of tests of the individual elements that make up ecological status return a ‘good’ or ‘high’ result.
There have been inaccurate claims in the media that the target for good ecological status has been moved back to 2063. This is not true. The updated river basin management plans published in December 2022 set objectives of good ecological status or potential for most water bodies by 2027 as required by the Water Framework Directive Regulations. Although action has already been taken on uPBTs, 2063 is a modelling prediction by the Environment Agency of when these chemicals will have naturally reduced, rather than a target.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made, if any, of the number of foxes currently living in urban areas; and whether this population has (1) increased, or (2) decreased, since 2017.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Current estimates are that there are about 255,000 foxes in England of which about half live in urban areas, giving an estimated urban population of about 127,500. There has been no assessment of trend in fox populations for the period since 2017.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they taking to improve international cooperation on identifying (1) animal viruses, and (2) zoonotic diseases.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
The UK continues to play a leading role in this critical area as part of our wider work to tackle zoonotic diseases, which are responsible for around 60% of all human diseases and 75% of all new and emerging infectious diseases.
Our world-class laboratories provide capability-building services to global partners, integrating technical support, surveillance, risk analysis and epidemiology expertise, and participating in numerous global research and development networks which offer a multi-disciplinary approach for early detection systems and emergency preparedness and response coordination, with a focus on animal and zoonotic diseases.
We also support country and regional partners through our Official Development Assistance budget to strengthen global health systems, so they are better able to prepare for, prevent, detect, and respond to a wide range of health threats, including zoonotic diseases. This includes our International Health Regulations Strengthening Project and Tackling Deadly Disease in Africa Programme, which take a One Health approach, emphasising the connections between human, animal, plant, and environmental health.
The UK is committed to ensuring that a One Health approach is also embedded in a strengthened global health security architecture. This includes work that the World Health Organisation is now leading to progress a UK G7 initiative to develop an International Pathogen Surveillance Network, as well as support for the work of the multidisciplinary One Health High Level Expert Panel, which is led by the Tripartite and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the proposed Berlin Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence.
During our G7 Presidency, we launched the One Health Intelligence Scoping Study, again led by the Tripartite and UNEP, and funded initially by the UK, which aims to improve global health resilience and early warning through building and integration of health intelligence systems. We also launched the International Zoonoses Community of Experts, which will facilitate greater international collaboration to strengthen zoonotic surveillance and risk assessment capacity, and hosted a very successful G7 Chief Vets Wildlife Meeting, which developed our collective knowledge of best practice in critical aspects of wildlife surveillance, intelligence sharing and risk communication.
This year, the UK is chairing the Global Health Security Agenda Zoonotic Disease Action Package (ZDAP), where we will work collaboratively with ZDAP member countries and organisations to strengthen our ability to prepare for and prevent, detect, respond and recover from zoonotic diseases.
In the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, the Government committed to reviewing and reinforcing the cross-government approach to biological security, including a refresh of the 2018 strategy, recognising the need to re-evaluate the risk landscape and consider evolving priorities since COVID-19, and in view of rapid advances in science and technology. We recently issued a Call for Evidence (copy attached to this answer) to help inform the refresh. By engaging with the public, experts, and stakeholders beyond government, we will ensure that some of the best minds in the UK and beyond continue to provide rich insight and challenge.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the finding in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species that 16 per cent of (1) dragonflies, and (2) damselflies, are under threat of extinction, what steps they are taking to (a) conserve, and (b) protect, rare and threatened dragonflies in England.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Government is concerned by the recent findings of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, that 16 percent of dragonflies and damselflies are under threat of extinction globally. In England, 12 percent of the dragonflies and damselflies that breed here are threatened.
As set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government is committed to taking action to recover our threatened native species. Natural England is taking action to conserve threatened dragonflies and damselflies through its Species Recovery Programme. For example, southern damselfly populations are being monitored and habitat condition improved. Under the ‘Back from the Brink’ partnership, habitat has been restored in Dorset, resulting in increased populations of southern damselfly at 3 out of 4 of sites.
In England we have an extensive network of protected wildlife areas providing benefits for many species, including sites specifically designated for species of particular importance. A total of 93 SSSIs in England are notified for important dragonfly or damselfly populations, including threatened species such as Brilliant Emerald and Norfolk Hawker.
The 25 Year Environment Plan commits us to restoring 75% of our one million hectares of terrestrial and freshwater protected sites to favourable condition by 2042.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to give weasels legal protection and to declare them ‘vulnerable to extinction’, further to their falling numbers.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The 2018 IUCN-compliant Red list assessment for Britain's terrestrial mammals classified weasels as Least Concern in Great Britain with an estimated population of 308,000; this assessment also noted that there is a deficiency of data on this species. The Government is aware of recent research suggesting the weasel may have undergone significant recent declines. The IUCN Red list assessments are an internationally recognised approach using agreed guidelines, and is an objective evidence-led process. This new evidence will be taken into account and considered when the Red list is next updated.
As set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government is committed to taking action to recover our threatened native species. Our landmark Environment Act requires a new legally binding target to be set to halt the decline of species abundance by 2030, which will help to drive actions to deliver nature recovery including benefitting species such as weasels. The Act also established Biodiversity Net Gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, conservation covenants and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities which will work together to direct investment and action across the country - including to create or restore habitats that enable wildlife such as weasels to recover and thrive as part of a Nature Recovery Network.
Beyond the Act, we are investing more funding than ever in nature, including over £750 million to protect, restore, and expand habitats like woodlands and peat bogs through the Nature for Climate Fund, and our £80 million Green Recovery Challenge Fund. And we are introducing three new schemes that reward farmers and land managers for the delivery of environmental benefits, including creating and preserving habitat, and making landscape-scale environmental changes, which will be crucial to supporting species recovery.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the present number of farm veterinary job vacancies; and what steps they plan to take (1) to increase the number of farm vets, and (2) to encourage a new generation to enter the profession.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
The Department is aware of challenges for veterinary businesses recruiting across all sectors of the profession, including farm animal vets. We have not specifically estimated the number of vacancies in the farm veterinary sector. The opening of new veterinary schools in the UK means that the numbers of veterinarians being trained here continues to grow. We are working with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), the British Veterinary Association and other stakeholders to support their work to encourage recruitment and retention in the profession. We are giving careful consideration to the RCVS’s proposals, which aim to increase opportunities for veterinary nurses and other allied professionals as part of a vet-led team, creating a more robust and flexible workforce, and to foster a professional environment that is inclusive and attractive to those wishing to pursue a veterinary career.