Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to reform the producer responsibility system for packaging to make composting recognised as a form of recycling.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that innovation into biodegradable and compostable packaging could help reduce the environmental impacts of packaging if it is disposed of in the right way. However, currently this is often not the case. If biodegradable packaging is put in the domestic waste bin, for example, it is likely to end up in landfill and can break down to release powerful greenhouse gases, such as methane. If biodegradable plastic is mistakenly recycled with other plastics, it has the potential to damage the quality of the new products made from the recycled plastic.
As a consequence of these concerns, the Government published a call for evidence in July 2019 to help consider the development of standards or certification criteria for all bio-based, biodegradable, and compostable plastics to better understand their effects on the environment and our current waste system. As we develop our proposals to reform the packaging producer responsibility system we will consider the role of composting, informed by the outputs of this work.
Building on commitments in the Resources and Waste Strategy we launched a consultation earlier this year on reforming the packaging producer responsibility system, which proposed a mandatory UK-wide labelling system that provides clear information to help people to recycle. Defra officials are exploring how a mandatory labelling scheme can address consumer confusion about what to do with compostable packaging. We will take primary powers in the Environment Bill to enable us to implement a mandatory labelling scheme. The consultation closed on 13 May and the summary of responses and next steps can be found via the below link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/packaging-waste-changing-the-uk-producer-responsibility-system-for-packaging-waste
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential (a) merits and (b) feasibility of making video recording standard practice across all investigation stages of a crime.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Codes E and F of the Policing and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 governs the conduct video and audio recording of interviews of non-terrorism suspects, including appropriate safeguards. All interviews of terrorist suspects in England and Wales must be audio and visual recorded. The use of video recording for other stages of the investigatory process is an operational matter for the police. Research has not been conducted on the impact of broader recording practices.
The College of Policing published research on the impact of body worn video on outcomes. https://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Documents/BWV_Report.pdf This found that a significantly higher proportion of incidents attended by officers wearing a camera resulted in a charge rather than other criminal justice outcomes (e.g. cautions).
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Government's policies on homicide prevention.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
On 17 October, the Office for National Statistics published the latest crime statistics for the year ending June 2019. These show a 5% decrease in police recorded homicide compared to the previous year. There was also a 5% decrease in attempted murder offences in the latest year compared to the previous year. The Government will continue to take decisive action to bear down on all forms of serious violence, including knife crime and domestic abuse, by giving the police the resources and powers they need to tackle and investigate these crimes. In addition, we have introduced a landmark Domestic Abuse Bill and a wide-ranging package of non-legislative measures to improve the protection available to victims and to strengthen the use of Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs), ensuring that the learning from DHRs is effectively shared and put into practice to avoid future homicides.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the accuracy of different facial composite methods and the subsequent effect on conviction rates.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office has made no assessment of the accuracy of different facial composite methods and any effect it has on conviction rates.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve consumer education on using compostable packaging.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that innovation into biodegradable and compostable packaging could help reduce the environmental impacts of packaging if it is disposed of in the right way. However, currently this is often not the case. If biodegradable packaging is put in the domestic waste bin, for example, it is likely to end up in landfill and can break down to release powerful greenhouse gases, such as methane. If biodegradable plastic is mistakenly recycled with other plastics, it has the potential to damage the quality of the new products made from the recycled plastic.
As a consequence of these concerns, the Government published a call for evidence in July 2019 to help consider the development of standards or certification criteria for all bio-based, biodegradable, and compostable plastics to better understand their effects on the environment and our current waste system. As we develop our proposals to reform the packaging producer responsibility system we will consider the role of composting, informed by the outputs of this work.
Building on commitments in the Resources and Waste Strategy we launched a consultation earlier this year on reforming the packaging producer responsibility system, which proposed a mandatory UK-wide labelling system that provides clear information to help people to recycle. Defra officials are exploring how a mandatory labelling scheme can address consumer confusion about what to do with compostable packaging. We will take primary powers in the Environment Bill to enable us to implement a mandatory labelling scheme. The consultation closed on 13 May and the summary of responses and next steps can be found via the below link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/packaging-waste-changing-the-uk-producer-responsibility-system-for-packaging-waste
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
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 Answer of 2 October 2019 to Question 290327 and to the Answer of 1 October 2019 to Question 290324, if she will introduce the same policy as the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and switch to an electricity provider that supplies electricity solely from renewable resources within the next 12 months; and for what reason her Department has not already ensured its electricity is supplied solely from renewable resources.
Answered by George Eustice
In response to PQ290397 Defra Group already procures 88% of the energy used in 2018/19 from renewable sources. In the core Department this rises to 99.9%. The Core Department’s energy policy states it will purchase renewable electricity from the Crown Commercial Services Electricity Frameworks.
The only reason the Core Department utilises non-renewable electricity is where the landlord purchases the electricity for a leased site and then recharges the Core Department.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in how many wrongful conviction cases in England and Wales where an individual was exonerated by DNA evidence did the initial conviction involved witness identifications of the defendant.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The information requested is not held.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with (a) police forces, (b) the Royal College of Policing and (c) Police and Crime Commissioners on (i) the potential benefits of the Self-Administered Interview (SAI) technique and (ii) making the SAI technique standard practice for police forces.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We maintain an open dialogue with the police on how we can share best practice and enable them to more effectively investigate crime. The use of specific techniques, within lawful bounds, is an operational matter for chief constables.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 2 October 2019 to Question 290326 and to the Answer of 1 October 2019 to Question 290324, if he will introduce the same policy as the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and switch to an electricity provider that supplies electricity solely from renewable resources within the next 12 months; and for what reason his Department has not already ensured its electricity is supplied solely from renewable resources.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
I refer the hon. Member to the answer my right hon. Friend, the Minister for School Standards, Nick Gibb gave on 2 October 2019 to Question 290326.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions officials in her Department have had with patient groups on the right of referral to research that NHS England committed to in The Implementation Framework: support offer published in June 2019.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The right for patients to be referred to research was announced in the NHS Long Term Plan, the concept was developed during discussions with a range of stakeholders including charities. NHS England and NHS Improvement is at an early stage in developing the detailed proposal and patient and public involvement will be an integral part of this process.