Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many litres of untreated sewage spilled into the River Derwent in Mid Derbyshire in (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Event Duration Monitors (EDM) record the number of times there has been a discharge of storm sewage and for how long each discharge was for. The Water Companies send in an annual summary which gives the total number of discharges per year and the total duration per year for each site where it is a permit requirement. The 2020 data is not yet available as it is submitted at the end of February.
Event Duration Monitors started being installed in 2016 and have been progressively installed across Combined Sewer Overflows, Sewage Pumping Stations and Sewage Treatment Works. Not all sites require EDM monitoring, this depends on the sensitivity of where the discharge is made.
Direct storm sewage discharges to the River Derwent, Derbyshire (Source to confluence with River Trent)
Year | 2018 | 2019 |
Number of sites reporting EDM Data | 26 | 45 |
Total number of storm sewage spills | 983 | 1788 |
Total duration (hours) of storm sewage spills | 3845 | 12475 |
The discharge from these water company assets (in this case Severn Trent Water Ltd) is only permitted to occur when there is elevated flow in the combined (sewage and surface water) sewerage network due to rainfall/snowmelt. The discharge is known as storm sewage and the impact on water quality is reduced due to the increased dilution both within the sewer and the receiving watercourse.
In January 2021 the Storm Overflows Taskforce announced plans by the water companies to accelerate work to install monitoring devices on all storm overflows by 2023. The Environment Agency is working with all water companies to increase the transparency of EDM data by 2022. This will provide readily accessible data in a consistent format, which will give greater visibility and increase responsibility of water companies to go faster and further in reducing harm from storm overflow discharges.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether imports of trophy hunting can arrive in the UK via other countries to those in which the trophies originated.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Hunting trophies are generally imported directly from the source country. However, there are occasions when hunting trophies are exported via another country. An example would be when specialist taxidermy services may not be available in the source country where the trophy was hunted.
Imports from countries which are not the source country of the hunting trophy remain subject to the same requirements to secure a permit under the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations, which are directly applicable in the UK and will become Retained EU Law in the UK after we leave the EU. All applications for permits to import hunting trophies into the UK are assessed to make sure that the import would not have a harmful effect on the conservation status of the species or on the extent of the territory occupied by the relevant population of the species. Import suspensions are in place for countries where hunting of certain species is considered unsustainable.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which countries are allowed to import hunting trophies to the UK.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) permit system allows trade in hunting trophies of listed species, from any country party to CITES, only when it is satisfied that the export will not be harmful to the survival of the species. Import suspensions are in place for countries where hunting of certain species is considered unsustainable.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
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 make it her policy to introduce a moratorium on the importation of hunting trophies to the UK.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Last month we announced that we will be consulting on whether to further restrict the import and export of hunting trophies. We are acting to respond to the public’s concerns and the consultation will be published in due course.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether animal (a) bones, (b) hands, (c) tails and (d) other parts are included in the ban on hunting trophy imports to the UK.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Last month we announced that we will be consulting on whether to further restrict the import and export of hunting trophies.
The consultation will cover a range of options. This is an important next step to determine how best to respond to conservation, welfare and ethical concerns. Following the consultation we will publish a Government response setting out any future policy actions required to move ahead on this important issue. The exact scope and timing of any further action will be subject to results of the consultation.