Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
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 environmental impact of single-use, disposable e-cigarettes.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra has made no assessment of the environmental impact of single-use, disposable e-cigarettes.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the amount of PM 2.5 emissions that has been produced by the (a) manufacturing and combustion sector as a whole, (b) burning of all types of biomass and (c) burning of wood pellets for energy.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Emissions of key air pollutants, including PM2.5, are compiled and reported by Defra
on an annual basis through the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. The latest data is available to view at https://naei.beis.gov.uk/data.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the next steps are of the Government's commitment to exploring a ban on foie gras, as announced in the Action Plan for Animal Welfare published 12 May 2021.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has made clear that the production of force-fed foie gras raises serious welfare concerns. Building on the opportunities presented by our departure from the EU, we are now able to actively consider any further steps that could be taken in relation to foie gras that is produced overseas using force feeding practices. We continue to gather information and speak to a range of interested parties about the issues involved, in line with the Government’s commitment to improving animal welfare standards as set out in the Action Plan for Animal Welfare. This will be used to inform our approach to the issue of force-fed foie gras.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions officials in his Department have had with representatives of the water industry on tackling the illegal discharge of untreated sewage into rivers across the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I have been repeatedly clear that the frequency of sewage discharges and pollution incidents is unacceptable. We are the first Government to introduce a legal duty to clean up our waterways, backed up by our direction to Ofwat. We are cracking down on water companies, putting in place ambitious targets, and we have launched a consultation on our plan to reduce storm overflows. On this side of the House we voted in favour of a whole package of measures to improve water quality – the Hon Lady and her colleagues opposite did not.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps are being taken to increase the availability of kerbside recycling of (a) plastic film and (b) other soft plastics.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government wants to see a significant increase in the recycling of plastic film and flexible packaging and are delivering measures to support this.
In the 2021 consultation on Consistency in Household and Business recycling in England, we proposed local authorities be required to collect recyclable plastic films from households be no later than the end of 2026/27. We will publish our Government response to the consultation in due course.
We have also taken steps to boost the market for plastic recycling – delivering the conditions for further private sector investment. The Plastic Packaging Tax comes in from April and will see a charge of £200 per tonne on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content. This measure is already driving significant demand for plastics for recycling, which in turn supports important interim measures such as retailer-led front of store collections of plastic films.
This work, alongside other measures such as restrictions on single-use plastics, Extended Producer Responsibility and the Deposit Return Scheme, supports the delivery of our 25 Year Environment Plan target of ending all avoidable plastic waste.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much single-use plastic has been used in Government buildings in 2021.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Under the Greening Government Commitments Framework published in 2021 we introduced a new target to remove consumer single-use plastic from the central Government office estate. The first report under this new framework, covering the 2021-22 financial year, is due to be published later this year, and will set out how much single-use plastic has been used.