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Written Question
Forests and Recreation Spaces
Thursday 27th January 2022

Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support new woodlands and community green spaces.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Our England Trees Action Plan sets out how we will deliver our ambitious commitments to treble tree-planting rates across the country and bring trees and woodlands closer to people, backed by the £750 million Nature for Climate Fund. We are funding three new Community Forests in Cumbria, Devon and the North East, have established the Urban Tree Challenge Fund, and have created opportunities for large-scale tree planting through the Landscape Recovery Scheme with details soon to be launched. On 24 January I had the pleasure of visiting Blenheim estate, a 104-hectare woodland created under the England Woodland Creation Offer. Landowners, land managers and public bodies can apply to the England Woodland Creation Offer, which provides both greater financial incentives to plant and maintain trees and offers greater recognition of the benefits provided by woodland to people and nature.


Written Question
Animal Welfare
Monday 25th February 2019

Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)

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 for the legal protection of the welfare of animals after the UK has left the EU.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Government has been very clear that leaving the EU will not lead to a lowering of our high animal welfare standards. Our regulatory system will offer the same level of assurance of animal welfare following our departure from the EU as it does now. The EU Withdrawal Act will ensure that existing EU standards are maintained once we leave the EU. For instance, existing bans on chlorinated chicken and hormone beef have been transferred into UK law and will remain in place after we leave.


Written Question
Food: Origin Marking
Thursday 12th July 2018

Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on ensuring the protection of UK food products through a protected designation of origin scheme after the UK leaves the EU.

Answered by George Eustice

The Government is determined to ensure continued protection for UK Geographical Indications (GIs) after the UK leaves the EU. We will put in place new UK GI schemes by the time we leave the EU.

The EU (Withdrawal) Act will convert EU rules into UK legislation. Regulations to amend those rules where necessary are being drafted and preparations for supporting infrastructure, such as guidance and a UK register, are also in hand.


Written Question
Plastics: Packaging
Monday 6th March 2017

Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to reduce companies' use of non-recyclable black plastic packaging.

Answered by Thérèse Coffey

The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations require businesses to ensure that all packaging does not exceed what is needed to make sure that the products are safe, hygienic and acceptable for both the packed product and for the consumer. They are also required to ensure that it is recyclable or recoverable at end of life.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has been working in partnership with industry to overcome technical barriers to the recycling of black plastics from using particular pigments in the manufacturing process. It is now possible to create a material that is almost identical in colour, but can be identified by the optical sorting equipment used by many materials recovery facilities. This could lead to increased recycling of the most common black plastic used in packaging. We therefore recommend that where plastic packaging is required to be black, retailers, brand owners and packaging manufacturers use detectable black colourants to enable the environmental benefits of recycling black plastics to be fully realised.

We recognise that there are still challenges. As part of the work on greater consistency in household recycling which industry and WRAP are taking forward, an advisory group supporting the consistency framework has recognised the recyclability of plastic packaging as an issue preventing comprehensive collection of dry recycling and has included an action to improve this, with black plastic as one of the key focus areas.

The Landfill Tax is the main driver in diverting residual waste from landfill. The standard rate is currently £84.40 per tonne. Defra is also investing £3 billion in a number of local authority projects through waste infrastructure grants. This is contributing towards the reduction of waste sent to landfill, promoting renewable energy, recycling and stimulating growth.


Written Question
Waste Management
Monday 6th March 2017

Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to (a) improve the recyclability of black plastic and (b) reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

Answered by Thérèse Coffey

The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations require businesses to ensure that all packaging does not exceed what is needed to make sure that the products are safe, hygienic and acceptable for both the packed product and for the consumer. They are also required to ensure that it is recyclable or recoverable at end of life.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has been working in partnership with industry to overcome technical barriers to the recycling of black plastics from using particular pigments in the manufacturing process. It is now possible to create a material that is almost identical in colour, but can be identified by the optical sorting equipment used by many materials recovery facilities. This could lead to increased recycling of the most common black plastic used in packaging. We therefore recommend that where plastic packaging is required to be black, retailers, brand owners and packaging manufacturers use detectable black colourants to enable the environmental benefits of recycling black plastics to be fully realised.

We recognise that there are still challenges. As part of the work on greater consistency in household recycling which industry and WRAP are taking forward, an advisory group supporting the consistency framework has recognised the recyclability of plastic packaging as an issue preventing comprehensive collection of dry recycling and has included an action to improve this, with black plastic as one of the key focus areas.

The Landfill Tax is the main driver in diverting residual waste from landfill. The standard rate is currently £84.40 per tonne. Defra is also investing £3 billion in a number of local authority projects through waste infrastructure grants. This is contributing towards the reduction of waste sent to landfill, promoting renewable energy, recycling and stimulating growth.