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 his Department has made of the number of staff required to replicate 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.
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 he plans to publish the response to his Department’s consultation Proposals to ban the use of plastic microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products in the UK, issued on 20 December 2016.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
We ran a consultation between 20 December 2016 and 28 February 2017 on our proposals to ban microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products. We will publish the Government’s response to the consultation shortly.
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 (a) Ministers and (b) officials she plans will represent the UK at the UN Ocean conference on 5 to 9 June 2017.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
No decisions have yet been taken on who will represent the UK at the High-Level UN Conference to support implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14.
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 she plans to include measures applying to (a) England and (b) all nations of the UK in the forthcoming 25 year plan for food and farming.
Answered by George Eustice
Our ambition is to be a world-leading food, farming and fishing nation that grows more, sells more and exports more of our food around the world. To this end, we are committed to publishing a 25 year food and farming plan and in order to develop this we are currently gathering views from right across industry and all parts of the UK.
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 her Chief Scientific Adviser plans to publish the report, From Waste to Resource Productivity.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Mark Walport, intends to publish his third Annual Report, “From Waste to Resource Productivity”, co-authored by Professor Ian Boyd, Chief Scientific Adviser at Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in the near future.
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 paragraph 1.301 of Budget 2016, which schemes (a) have been and (b) are planned to be supported by the £150 million investment in flood defence schemes in Leeds, Cumbria, Calder Valley and York.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The table below indicates the flood risk management schemes in Leeds, Cumbria, Calder Valley and York that were allocated funding from the £150 million investment announced in the Budget 2016.
Flood risk management schemes |
Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme |
York Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Kendal Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Appleby Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Filmby Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Eamont Bridge Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Wigton Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Pooley Bridge Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Rickerby Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Braithwaite Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Calder Valley - Hebden Bridge Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Calder Valley - Mytholmroyd Flood Alleviation Scheme |
Calder Valley - Flood Risk Reduction Schemes 1 |
Calder Valley - Flood Risk Reduction Schemes 2 |
The ‘Calder Valley - Flood Risk Reduction Scheme 1’ comprises a package of works to reduce flood risk throughout the Calder Valley while the ‘Calder Valley - Flood Risk Reduction Schemes 2’ entails a package of works to deliver catchment-wide measures and to develop potential schemes for affected communities in place such as Brighouse, Sowerby Bridge, Copley, Midgely, Halifax.
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, pursuant to her oral contribution of 24 November 2016, Official Report, column 1004 if she will publish a list of projects including their locations that will be supported by the £15 million investment.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Natural flood management solutions are an important part of our approach to reducing flood risk. The recently announced £15m investment specifically for natural flood management schemes across England presents an important opportunity to further develop the evidence base around working with natural processes to reduce flood risk. We are, therefore, thinking carefully about where these schemes are based, and so have not yet announced specific locations that will be supported by the fund.
The Environment Agency will be administering the £15m investment, and have already been working with Natural England, Forestry Commission and local partners to identify project proposals. Following the announcement of the fund they can now begin to work with partners to fully scope these opportunities, which will then need to be robustly assessed against a set of agreed criteria. Further details of the process for confirming projects and their locations will be announced in due course.
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 her oral contribution of 24 November 2016, Official Report, column 1004, whether that investment is in addition to the investment in flood defences announced in the March 2016 Budget.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The £15m announced by the Secretary of State to be spent on Natural Flood Management is included within the £700m for flood defence and resilience funding announced in the March Budget.
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 contribution of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to the Environmental Audit Committee on 25 October 2016, Question 332, what proportion of existing EU legislation within the policy remit of her Department cannot immediately be brought into UK law upon the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government will bring forward legislation in the next session that, when enacted, will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and ensure a functioning statute book on the day we leave the EU. This ‘Great Repeal Bill’ will end the authority of EU law and return power to the UK. The Bill will convert existing European Union law into domestic law, wherever practical and in that context all relevant legislation is currently being identified and assessed.
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 queries the Central Point of Expertise on Timber has received from (a) public sector bodies and (b) businesses in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Central Point of Expertise on Timber service closed on 31 March 2016. Defra does not hold complete information on how many queries the service received in the format requested.
The contractors advised that the number of queries had dropped over time. We hold some information from the final phase of the contract between 2012 and 2016, which illustrates this trend. The service received 257 queries between October 2012 and September 2013, 146 queries between October 2013 and September 2014, and 48 queries between October 15 and March 2016. These figures cover queries on timber, wood fuel and palm oil.
The government’s policy of buying timber and wood products only from legal and sustainable sources is well embedded within the key systems which govern our procurement, specifically the relevant government buying standards and the centralised procurement frameworks. Comprehensive online guidance is also provided.