Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - 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 impact of recycling reforms on local authority finances.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We published an impact assessment alongside the 2021 consultation on Consistency in recycling England, which can be found attached to this answer. The final impact assessment is due to be published in line with the laying of the secondary legislation for Simpler Recycling.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much meat has been seized at the UK border by officials in each of the last six months; and whether they expect to completely eradicate the import of illicit produce under their Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The data we have relates to seizures of “products of animal origin, contaminated goods and packaging” (not necessarily just meat) reported to Defra by English PHAs only. Any seizures made by other officials or seizures not reported to Defra are not included here. The data below relates to all EU and Rest of World imports.
Year | Number of seizures of products of animal origin reported to Defra by English Port Health Authorities | Total weight (kilogrammes) |
2022 (w/c 22 October 2022-w/c 31 December 2022 inclusive) | 42 | 4,123 |
2023 (w/c 7 January 2023 to 30 December 2023 inclusive) | 622 | 53,879 |
2024 (w/c 6 January 2024 to w/c 27 January 2024 inclusive) | 45 | 7,572 |
Total | 709 | 65,574 |
There are rules for bringing food or animal products into Great Britain (GB) for personal use, depending on the country that the traveller is coming from. There are restrictions on meat, dairy and other products.
African swine fever (ASF) cases in Europe in 2022 represented new “jumps” in disease distribution towards the United Kingdom. While we consider that the overall risk of entry of ASF virus into the UK from all combined pathways remains at medium, the particular pathway of human-mediated transport of non-commercial, infected products from the EU is considered to be high risk. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) conducts outbreak risk assessments on ASF in the EU, published here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/african-swine-fever-in-pigs-and-boars-in-europe and attached to this answer.
As a result, we announced controls restricting the movement of pork and pork products into GB to help safeguard Britain's pigs. Travellers are no longer allowed to bring pork or pork products weighing over two kilograms into GB, unless they are produced to the EU’s commercial standards. The controls, which came into force in September 2022, strengthen the standards for bringing pork and pork products into GB from the EU and EFTA states. This measure helps limit possibly infected pig meat being brought into GB through various means, such as in passengers’ luggage or in vehicles.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to expand the types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) regulated under environmental permitting, and whether they will consider tightening the limits on the amount of PFAS that can be in effluent.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency is developing options to increase the number of PFAS that are controlled through environmental permits issued under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. This is focused on those with the strongest evidence of harm, such as PFAS listed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and may include new statutory and non-statutory standards for water quality which can be used to set permit limits for discharges to rivers.
More widely, the Government is working with the Environment Agency to assess levels of PFAS occurring in the environment, their sources, and potential risks to inform policy and regulatory approaches. Action has already been taken to ban or highly restrict specific PFAS both domestically and internationally, including perfluoro-octane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as well as perfluorohexanesulphonic acid (PFHxS), a persistent organic pollutant, the use and production of which was prohibited in 2023.
In the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023, the Government also committed to consult on improvements to the regulatory framework for industrial emissions to better reflect our environmental priorities. This will include assessing whether any changes are required to ensure that industrial emissions of persistent chemicals such as PFAS are effectively controlled.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce safeguards to ensure that, under their Border Target Operating Model, there can be no interference with consignments which enter the UK via the Port of Dover prior to inspections being carried out at the Sevington inland border facility.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Goods selected for inspection will not be legally cleared for sale or use within the UK until they have attended and been cleared at the BCP. Where the BCP has concerns, either due to non-attendance or evidence of non-compliance, there are existing provisions, including requiring return or destruction of the goods, or for the goods to be referred for inland controls by the local authority.
Any vehicles suspected to be carrying illegal imports (e.g. those for which customs declarations and pre-notification have not been made or suspected to have been made in bad faith) will continue to be stopped and dealt with by Border Force at the point of entry to the UK, not sent to Sevington.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - 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 impact of requiring weekly food waste collections on rural councils.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Financial burdens introduced through new statutory duties on local authorities will be assessed in accordance with the new burdens doctrine and reasonable net costs will be covered by the government in line with the new burdens doctrine. We have brought forward up to £295 million in capital funding to roll out weekly food waste collections across England. This will cover the cost of additional bins and vehicles. Defra developed the funding formula in collaboration with the Waste and Resources Action Programme. The formula took into account rurality and underwent an extensive assurance process with local authority networks. We are still calculating resource funding allocations.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - 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 adequacy of funding to local authorities to implement the simpler recycling reforms that were announced in October 2023.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Financial burdens introduced through new statutory duties on local authorities will be assessed in accordance with the new burdens doctrine and reasonable net costs will be covered by the Government in line with the new burdens doctrine. We have brought forward up to £295 million in capital funding to roll out weekly food waste collections across England. This will cover the cost of additional bins and vehicles. Defra developed the funding formula in collaboration with the Waste and Resources Action Programme and underwent an extensive assurance process with local authority networks. Requests by local authorities to reconsider funding allocations, based on new evidence, are currently being considered. We are still calculating resource funding allocations.
Extended Producer Responsibility payments will be provided to local authorities for the costs of collecting and managing household packaging waste through efficient and effective services. This includes the collection of additional packaging materials for recycling such as plastic films and flexibles. Initial estimates are that local authorities in the UK will collectively receive payments in the region of £1.2 billion per annum for managing household packaging waste. Payments modelling is currently underway to refine this estimate ready for packaging Extended Producer Responsibility implementation.