Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which campaign groups attended the initial meeting of key stakeholders at the litter strategy advisory group.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Minister for Local Government and I had an initial meeting with the following organisations to discuss the Government’s intention to form a Litter Strategy Advisory Group and publish a National Litter Strategy:
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the (a) Tobacco Manufacturers Association, (b) Wine and Spirits Association, (c) Scottish Whisky Association, (d) British Food and Drinks Federation and (e) British Soft Drinks Association have been asked to attend the national litter strategy advisory group.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The current confirmed members of the Litter Strategy Advisory Group are:
Local Government Association |
London Councils |
Local councils |
Highways England and Connect Plus |
Industry Council for Research on Packaging and the Environment |
Foodservice Packaging Association |
Packaging and Films Association |
British Retail Consortium |
Wrigley |
McDonald’s |
Keep Britain Tidy |
Campaign to Protect Rural England |
Hubbub |
Clean Up Britain |
Marine Conservation Society |
Cleanup UK |
Chartered Institution of Wastes Management |
Bradford University |
Input to the Strategy’s development will go beyond the Advisory Group. We will seek the views of, among others, representatives from local government, campaign groups and independent experts, as well as voices from the packaging and fast-food industries. As part of this process, we will also establish a number of working groups on specific issues such as roadside litter, data and monitoring and enforcement.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dairy farms there were in (a) Carlisle constituency and (b) Cumbria in (i) 2012, (ii) 2013 and (iii) 2014.
Answered by George Eustice
The numbers of dairy farms in Carlisle constituency and Cumbria in 2012 to 2014 are shown below.
Also shown are the numbers of dairy cows on these, to help put the figures into context.
Carlisle Parliamentary Constituency | Cumbria | |||
Number of dairy farms (a) | Number of dairy cows (Thousand Head) | Number of dairy farms (a) | Number of dairy cows (Thousand Head) | |
2012 | 49 | 8 | 849 | 106 |
2013 | 49 | 9 | 823 | 105 |
2014 | 49 | 9 | 807 | 109 |
Source: Cattle Tracing System. | ||||
(a) Defined as the number of holdings with more than 10 dairy cows over 2 yrs old in the milking herd (i.e. with offspring) | ||||
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the Rural Development Programme for Forestry will announce its amount of funding and how it is to be used.
Answered by George Eustice
We announced on 19 December 2013 that we will be investing over £3.5 billion in rural development schemes up to 2020, of which over £3 billion will be spent on improving the environment.
Our responses to the consultation on implementing the new Common Agricultural Policy in England published on 19 December 2013 and 26 February 2014 provide further information on how rural development funding will be used. These are available at:
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/common-agricultural-policy-reform-implementation-in-england
We also announced on 9 January 2014 that as part of the new Rural Development Programme we intend to offer tree planting grants in 2015 in advance of new environmental land management agreements coming into effect in January 2016.
The new Rural Development Programme that we will submit to the European Commission shortly will confirm the amount of spending on forestry measures.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what amount of new forest has been planted in each year since 2010; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Up to date figures for woodland creation are expected to be available in June this year. In the meantime I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 24 February 2014, Official Report, column 100W, to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon).
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to double the amount of new productive conifer planting necessary to meet the target of 12 per cent woodland cover by 2060.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 10 March 2014, Official Report, column 75W, to the hon. Member for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock (Sandra Osborne).
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to replace productive conifer forest cover lost as a result of the (a) Open Habitats Policy and (b) Ancient Woodlands Policy.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Open habitats policy has a mechanism within it to ensure there is a balance between woodland creation and woodland loss based on the composition and productivity of the woodland that is being removed.
The Forestry Commission monitors the area of woodland restored to open habitats and uses the data along with the quality of biodiversity benefit to determine whether compensatory planting should be required when granting a felling licence.
Keepers of Time, the Ancient Woodland Policy, promotes the restoration of Plantations on Ancient Woodlands to site native species for biodiversity benefits. There is no reason why these woods should not still be managed productively, albeit with a different timber crop.
Asked by: John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on establishing a new Public Forest Trustee body.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 10 April 2014, Official Report, column 394W, to the hon. Member for Sterling (Anne McGuire).