Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 set out a strategy for 10 per cent of English waters to be classed as Highly Protected Marine Areas by 2026.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We are not currently considering a numerical target for HPMAs in English waters. We recently consulted on five candidate pilot HPMAs and our current focus is designating sites using the views and evidence gathered during the consultation. Any pilot HPMAs would be designated through the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 by 6 July 2023. This would be a year from the start of the consultation as required by the Act.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many reindeer were exported from the UK in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021; and to which countries those exports were sent in each year.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There has only been one export of reindeer in 2021, this was exported from the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland and the consignment contained two reindeers.
There were no Exports of reindeer in 2020.
The information that we have provided is a true reflection of the information that we have access to. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data, as we can only rely on the information that has been input into external customer facing systems by third parties.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many reindeer were imported into the UK in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021; and from which countries they were imported.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There were no reindeer imports into Great Britain during 2020.
During 2021, there were two imports of reindeer (two consignments of two animals, a total of 4 animals). Both of these consignments came from Northern Ireland.
The information that we have provided is a true reflection of the information that we have access to. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data, as we can only rely on the information that has been input into external customer facing systems by third parties.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 introduce a ban on the prophylactic use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains committed to reducing the unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare.
Changes to the law on veterinary medicines is one of the tools which can be used to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in animals and, as one element of a programme of interventions to help deliver the UK's 5-year national action plan on antimicrobial resistance, it is our intention to strengthen our national law in this area
Over the past year the Veterinary Medicines Directorate has engaged in a comprehensive dialogue with stakeholders about a broad range of changes that we propose to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013, which set out controls on marketing, manufacturing, supply and use of veterinary medicines. Proposed changes include new measures to help tackle antimicrobial resistance
We are now preparing to publish a formal consultation paper setting out our proposals which will provide the opportunity for all affected stakeholders to express their views. Following the public consultation, we anticipate laying new legislation in 2023.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to use the next stages of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway to help ensure the high standards of animal welfare in abattoirs in the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal Health and Welfare Pathway maps out how farmers and government will work together to continually improve the health and welfare of our farmed animals, supported by the best science and evidence. It involves three mutually reinforcing pillars in making this change: financial incentives to help farmers deliver on-farm improvements; stimulating market demand through labelling and mandatory public disclosure to improve the accessibility, availability and affordability of higher welfare products; and, where needed, strengthening regulation to ensure the changes made endure. Following the post-implementation review of our welfare at killing legislation, and as part of our Action Plan for Animal Welfare, we are looking at a wide range of welfare at slaughter improvements that could be made to strengthen the regulatory baseline in slaughterhouses. Welfare at slaughter is a devolved matter, and the Government remains committed to working closely with the devolved administrations on our shared aims for animal welfare.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential merits of a ban on the overuse of antibiotics on healthy farm animals to help prevent antimicrobial resistance.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare. Antibiotics are an essential part of veterinary medicine. Failing to use antibiotics in animals which need them compromises animal health and welfare. It has been our position for many years that we do not support the routine or predictable use of antibiotics, including where antibiotics are used to compensate for inadequate farming practices.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate annually record the sales and usage of antibiotics in food producing animals, and have surveillance programmes in place which test for antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from animals. In the UK, the use of antibiotics in food producing animals has reduced by 55% between 2014 and 2021, and in 2021 we recorded the lowest antibiotic use to date.
As the Minister responsible for biosecurity, London Benyon regularly raises the risks of antimicrobial resistance in the relevant cross-Whitehall settings, including with counterparts at the Department of Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential risk to human health of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria polluting rivers from factory farms.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Antimicrobial usage (AMU) is a key driver influencing the occurrence and emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The degree of intensification of farm production systems can have a bearing on AMU, but that is not necessarily the case. Intensive production systems can involve high health status livestock with high biosecurity to prevent entry of disease and consequently can have low AMU. We are researching the pathways for AMR transmission in the environment to inform future monitoring. A cross-departmental project called Pathogen Surveillance in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (PATH-SAFE) was established in 2021. It brings together the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Environment Agency, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) to understand how pathogens and 'Superbugs' - or Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) - is spread. PATH-SAFE contains a workstream focused on AMR prevalence in three river catchments and this work will strengthen our understanding of AMR in the environment, including the relative importance of different sources, transmission routes and, the implications for people, animals, food and ecosystems. This will enable us to increase public awareness and inform effective control measures to protect human and animal health and the ecosystem, through a better understanding of the transmission pathway by which resistance develops and spreads.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 take steps to ban industrial fishing vessels from Marine Protected Areas.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only
We have built a comprehensive network of MPAs covering 40% of English waters and are now focusing on making sure they are properly protected. Nearly 60% of our 178 English MPAs are already protected from damaging fishing activity, including byelaws this year in the first four offshore sites, which ban bottom towed gear over sensitive habitats. We are aiming to have all MPAs in English waters protected from damaging fishing activity by 2024. Only fishing activities which could damage the protected features of an MPA require management, such as trawling on the seabed
We are reviewing our policy on industrial fishing, and we will continue to engage with stakeholders about our future approach over the next few months, particularly towards industrial fishing of sandeel and Norway pout within our waters. The UK advocates an approach towards setting Total Allowable Catches which is founded on the best available scientific advice and that will maintain or rebuild sustainable fish stocks and fisheries.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to publish proposals for the introduction of mandatory animal welfare labelling for food.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
At the end of 2021, the Government ran a call for evidence to gather data on the impacts, cost and deliverability of different types of labelling reforms for animal welfare.
Building on this call for evidence, the Government announced in the recent Food Strategy that we will consult on mandatory animal welfare labelling reforms in 2023. Consultation proposals are being co-developed with stakeholders across the supply chain.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
In England, we have already committed to setting a target to halt the decline in species by 2030, in addition to at least one long-term target for biodiversity. Following agreement of the Global Biodiversity Framework at CBD COP 15 we will be setting out our approach to implementing the framework domestically in our Environmental Improvement Plan, due to be published in 2023. The Plan will set out our ambitions and approach to nature recovery, including our legally binding targets and the actions that will drive us towards reaching them.