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 plans he has to ensure that marine Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas continue to receive the same level of environmental protection as currently received after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Environmental protections for designated areas continue as before, ensuring the whole body of existing EU environmental law continues to have effect in UK law.
The Secretary of State has also announced that we will consult on creating a new, statutory, independent body to uphold environmental standards, and a new policy statement setting out environmental principles.
We will continue to uphold all our obligations under international environmental treaties.
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 it is government policy that the UK will remain in the European Fisheries Control Agency during a transition period after exiting the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra is assessing future working arrangements with organisations such as the European Fisheries Control Agency.
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 information on sustainable procurement his Department has requested from the Ministry of Justice in the last year for the purpose of assessing his Department's performance against Government buying standards.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra Commercial has not requested any specific information on sustainable procurement from the Ministry of Justice in the last year for the purpose of assessing that Department's performance against Government buying standards. Defra adheres to Government buying standards on sustainability and has incorporated them into its contracting terms and conditions. From September this year, Crown Commercial required all government departments to adhere to the ‘balanced scorecard’ approach to food procurement.
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 lead local flood authorities have (a) completed and (b) not completed a local flood risk management strategy.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) are required to report on progress with their strategies on an annual basis and the last annual collection was as of 31 March 2017. Following this, I wrote in July to the outstanding authorities and as a result, as of the beginning of November 2017, out of the 152 in England:
143 have completed and published their strategy; and
9 have either completed their public consultation or were at public consultation stage on their draft.
The Department is continuing to monitor progress with the Lead Local Flood Authorities that have not yet completed their strategy.
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 local authorities had air quality management areas (AQMA) as of July 2017; what the name and description is of each AQMA; when each AQMA was declared and amended; and for what pollutant that AQMA has been declared.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
As of July this year, 278 local authorities (71% of those in the UK) had one or more air quality management areas (AQMAs) declared. Details of the current AQMAs declared by local authorities, including their names, description, when they were declared and amended and the relevant pollutant for which they were declared are provided on the UK-AIR website: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/aqma/list.
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 pet passports have been issued in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) issue blank pet passports to approved Official Veterinarian (OV) practices who then issue these for cats, dogs and ferrets to move under the Pet Travel Scheme. The below data is for numbers of blank pet passports issued to OV practices by APHA. We do not record the number of pet passports issued by OV practices to individual animals, however carriers do record the number of times pets travel.
Year | Total number of pet passports issued to OV practices |
2012 | 64000 |
2013 | 68175 |
2014 | 72325 |
2015 | 119704 |
2016 | 95449 |
2017 (to date) | 81461 |
In December 2014 new model pet passports were introduced as a result of a new EU Regulation covering pet movements. This will account for the increase in the number of pet passports issued to OV practices in 2015.
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 assessment he has made of the cost to the public purse of replicating the relevant functions of the European Chemicals Agency after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
No decisions have yet been made on our future relationship with the EU's agencies and bodies, including the European Chemicals Agency, after leaving the EU.
Prior to any decisions on replicating relevant functions, the Government will always look to minimise disruption and costs, which will include considering a number of options. Defra, along with all other Government departments, continues to take a responsible approach in preparing for all exit scenarios.
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 assessment he has made of the number of staff required to replicate the relevant functions of the European Chemicals Agency after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The resourcing of EU Exit work is one of the key priorities of the Department and will be subject to on-going assessment. The resources we need in the future will be dependent on the policy choices we make for the regulation of chemicals when we leave the EU.
The department is working across Government and with industry to assess the potential effect to businesses of the UK no longer having access to the services provided by the European Chemicals Agency.
This work is on-going and will help inform our negotiating position. Our priority is to maintain an effective regulatory system for the management and control of chemicals to safeguard human health and the environment, respond to emerging risks and allow trade with the EU that is as frictionless as possible.
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 plans his Department has to replicate the relevant functions of the European Chemicals Agency after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The resourcing of EU Exit work is one of the key priorities of the Department and will be subject to on-going assessment. The resources we need in the future will be dependent on the policy choices we make for the regulation of chemicals when we leave the EU.
The department is working across Government and with industry to assess the potential effect to businesses of the UK no longer having access to the services provided by the European Chemicals Agency.
This work is on-going and will help inform our negotiating position. Our priority is to maintain an effective regulatory system for the management and control of chemicals to safeguard human health and the environment, respond to emerging risks and allow trade with the EU that is as frictionless as possible.
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 assessment he has made of the cost to the public purse of replicating the relevant functions of the European Environment Agency after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
In common with other EU agencies, as part of exit negotiations the Government will discuss with the EU (and European Environment Agency Member Countries) any potential future relationship with the European Environment Agency. Currently, no decisions have been taken on the future UK membership of EU Agencies, including the European Environment Agency.
In taking any decisions on replicating relevant functions, the Government will always look to minimise disruption and costs.