Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of adding the spiny lobster to the list of protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Consideration of the species to be protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is subject to a quinquennial review process by which Schedule 5 and Schedule 8 (listing protected animals and plants respectively) of the Act are reviewed by the British Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies; as set out under the requirements of Section 24 of that Act. This is the process by which Spiny Lobster would be assessed for addition to Schedule 5 of the Act.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance in humans arising from the overuse of antibiotics on farms.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government takes a ‘One-Health’ approach to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as set out in the ‘UK 5-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance 2019 to 2024’, which is underpinned by the UK’s 20-year Vision to Contain and Control AMR by 2040. Defra is a co-signatory with the Department of Health and Social Care on the 5-year National Acton Plan (NAP) and 20-year vision on AMR, and Defra leads on delivering the animal, plant and environment elements. The AMR NAP lays out the UK Government’s commitment to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals to reduce the risk of development and spread of AMR in animals and humans, while safeguarding animal health and welfare. A key component of this plan is to reduce the need for antibiotics, which is achieved through good farm management, biosecurity and disease prevention.
In the UK, we have a well-established antimicrobial use and resistance surveillance programme, which includes monitoring of sales and use of antibiotics in animals as well as routine monitoring of AMR in major food-producing species, healthy pigs and poultry. These surveillance programmes allow us to monitor progress and results are published every year in the UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance Sales and Surveillance (UK-VARSS) report.
The recently published UK-VARSS report shows that sales of antibiotics in food-producing animals are at their lowest ever level, with a 59% reduction since 2014. This highlights the success of the UK’s voluntary and collaborative approach between the Government and the farming and veterinary sectors to make sustainable reductions in antibiotic use while ensuring high animal health and welfare. The report also highlights that sales of highest priority, critically important antibiotics have reduced by 82% since 2014 and account for less than half a percent of total sales. This is to ensure that these medically important antibiotics are protected for use in humans.
The newly published third edition of the UK’s One Health report, a joint report from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and the UK Health and Security Agency, brings together antibiotic use and resistance data for people and animals. Sales of antibiotics in 2019 show that approximately two thirds of antibiotics are used in people while one third are used in animals. This report demonstrates the Government’s One Health approach to tackling AMR to keep antibiotics working in both people and animals.
The UK is now in the process of developing the second five-year NAP, which will run from 2024-2029. This will build on progress made in the 2019-2024 NAP and set out challenging ambitions and actions for the next five years, which will set us on course for achieving our long-term national and international ambitions.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Food Standards Agency on changing the legal definition of wishbone meat.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with the Government’s arm’s-length bodies, including the Food Standards Agency, on a range of issues.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many applications were received for the Sustainable Farming Initiative between January and September 2023; and how many of those applications have been awarded as of 20 September 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) received a total of 1,855 applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme between January and September 2023. Of these, 1,487 farm businesses have accepted an offer of agreement. SFI closed for new applications in June 2023 and started accepting new applications from September 2023. As of 18 October 2023, the RPA had received 14,937 registrations of interest for SFI23.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her priority outcomes are for the work of the Farm Tenancy Forum.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s priorities for the work of the Farm Tenancy Forum are to support the implementation of the Government response to the Rock Review and to explore all issues relating to the tenant farming sector in England. The Forum will provide ongoing engagement and feedback between Defra and the tenanted sector.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether Baroness Rock has been invited to be a member of the Farm Tenancy Forum.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Membership of the Farm Tenancy Forum consists of the organisations set out in the Terms of Reference published on 24 May 2023. The first meeting of the Farm Tenancy Forum discussed priorities for the forward work programme of the Forum in supporting the implementation of the Government response to the Rock Review on tenant farming. Baroness Rock attended for part of the first meeting and will have the opportunity to do so in future alongside the Minister as part of ongoing engagement in the implementation phase and to receive updates on the progress of the Farm Tenancy Forum.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what was discussed at the first meeting of the Farm Tenancy Forum on 19 July 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Membership of the Farm Tenancy Forum consists of the organisations set out in the Terms of Reference published on 24 May 2023. The first meeting of the Farm Tenancy Forum discussed priorities for the forward work programme of the Forum in supporting the implementation of the Government response to the Rock Review on tenant farming. Baroness Rock attended for part of the first meeting and will have the opportunity to do so in future alongside the Minister as part of ongoing engagement in the implementation phase and to receive updates on the progress of the Farm Tenancy Forum.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the members of the Farm Tenancy Forum.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Membership of the Farm Tenancy Forum consists of the organisations set out in the Terms of Reference published on 24 May 2023. The first meeting of the Farm Tenancy Forum discussed priorities for the forward work programme of the Forum in supporting the implementation of the Government response to the Rock Review on tenant farming. Baroness Rock attended for part of the first meeting and will have the opportunity to do so in future alongside the Minister as part of ongoing engagement in the implementation phase and to receive updates on the progress of the Farm Tenancy Forum.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing continued professional development training for each farming sector.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the value of continued professional development (CPD) and we are supporting the establishment of a new professional body for the farming industry; The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH). TIAH will strengthen support for skills and careers across the agriculture and horticulture sectors including supporting its membership to undertake CPD.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact of the flock depopulation measures carried out by the Animal and Plant Health Agency during the 2022-23 outbreak of avian influenza on bio-security.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Avian influenza, once introduced into a premises, spreads rapidly through birds present. As set out in the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain swift and humane culling of poultry and other captive birds on infected premises coupled with good biosecurity is used to prevent the amplification of avian influenza and subsequent environmental contamination, reduce the risk of disease spread from infected premises and mitigate any public health risk these infected birds may pose. Defra’s disease control measures seek to contain the number of animals that need to be culled, either for disease control purposes or to safeguard animal welfare. Current policy reflects our experience of responding to past outbreaks of exotic animal disease and is in line with international standards of best practice for disease control.
During the 2022/23 outbreak 5.4 million birds have died or been culled and disposed for disease control purposes, a small proportion of overall poultry production (c.20m birds slaughtered for human consumption per week).
At each infected premises the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) carry out veterinary investigations to identify, as far as possible the likely source of infection, and establish how long the disease may have been present on the infected premises together with identifying and investigating potential routes of spread from the premises. We have recently published the 2021/22 highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak which provides a summary of the outcomes of these investigations. The report for 2022/23 will be published in due course.
Epidemiological investigations to date show that the introduction of infection to poultry premises is almost entirely by direct or indirect spread from wild birds and that there has been no transmission between poultry premises apart from where they are located close together and are part of the same integrated company or business, and share staff and equipment. Key findings from these investigations help drive assessment and improvements in biosecurity best practice on poultry and other captive bird premises.