Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the local adaptation advisory panel last met.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Local Adaptation Advisory Panel (LAAP) acts as a forum for dialogue on climate change adaptation between local government, central government and arm’s length delivery bodies. The LAAP last met on 6 June.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Thames water surrounding the Grenfell tower site, including the Paddington basin, has been monitored for levels of contaminants including cyanide since the fire in 2017.
Answered by George Eustice
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the tenth special report of the Environmental Audit Committee, published on 24 October 2018 on Heatwaves: adapting to climate change: Government Response to the Committee's ninth report, HC 826, whether the Government has updated the adaptation guidance for local authorities.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Yes. On 27 June a new good practice guidance document was published to help local authorities strengthen preparedness to climate change risks: www.adeptnet.org.uk/climategpg.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the tenth special report of the Environmental Audit Committee, published on 24 October 2018 on Heatwaves: adapting to climate change: Government Response to the Committee's ninth report, HC 826, whether the Government plans to reinstate the regional climate change partnerships.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government works closely with an extensive set of stakeholders to build resilience to climate change risks across the whole country, including with the Local Adaptation Advisory Panel (LAAP), the Local Government Association, the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport, and Core Cities. In particular we support the LAAP, the forum on climate change adaptation at a local level, which brings together central and local government and agencies to promote and deliver adaptation in the local government sector.
In November last year we launched a new set of UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18), commissioned from the Met Office. UKCP18 is the first major update to the UK’s national climate change projections for nearly ten years, and this time it includes global and regional scenarios. The Government will use UKCP18 to inform its adaptation and mitigation planning and decision making, and the projections will also help local authorities, businesses and communities to take action to improve resilience.
This year we will be releasing a new addition to UKCP18 in the form of local projections on a similar resolution to that of operational weather forecast models (i.e. 2.2km). This will provide locally relevant information to inform decision making on future climate change to enhance resilience.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much Government funding was provided to UK Wild Camp.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Defra provided £4,999 to the Lake District National Park Authority. Defra has not paid any money to UK Wild Camp.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what body is responsible for monitoring progress against the 2017 Conservative manifesto commitment to plant 1 million trees in towns and cities; and (a) what progress his Department has made towards and (b) what his timescale is for achieving that commitment.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
DEFRA will track progress towards its 1 Million urban tree commitment, including by drawing on the Forestry Commission’s wider monitoring of trees planted with central government support. An initial assessment of progress will be made in the spring of 2020, when the first Urban Tree Challenge Fund projects are up and running. The timescale for meeting the commitment is the end of the current Parliament in 2022.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's consultation, Single use plastic: banning the distribution and/or sale of plastic straws, stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds in England, which closed on 3 December 2018, how many responses were received to that consultation; and when the results of that consultation will be published.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
We received 1602 responses to this consultation. We are considering these views. We expect to publish the summary of responses together with the Government response soon.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which company has been awarded the contract to build the UK REACH IT database system.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The UK REACH-IT service is being developed by Defra’s Internal Digital Data and Technology Services directorate with support from contingent labour and suppliers.
Suppliers include Kainos, Microsoft and Keep IT Simple.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many full-time equivalent staff have been allocated to work under the UK-REACH IT system.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
In a no deal scenario, Defra, the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency will require an estimated 170 full-time equivalent staff across the three organisations to deliver a functioning regulatory framework for chemicals, including the operation of a UK REACH IT system.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many chemicals have been uploaded to the UK REACH IT database as of 27 March 2019.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The ‘Comply with UK REACH’ IT system forms part of our planning for the scenario in which the UK leaves the EU without a deal. This IT system will only go live in a no deal scenario. No registration dossiers or technical information can therefore be submitted at this time.