Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2020 to Question 72166 on Animal Products: Imports, what steps he is taking to include lions in the definition of endangered species.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government takes the conservation of endangered species seriously and is committed to doing all we can to support wildlife and the environment, both in the UK and internationally.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is internationally recognised for its work in identifying the conservation status of species, known as the “Red List”. The IUCN currently classifies lions as ‘Vulnerable’. For the extinction risk of lions to be increased to ‘Endangered’ the species must meet several additional classification criteria.
The Government works with other countries, and through international conventions, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, to further the conservation of vulnerable species such as lions based on the latest available evidence.
The Government also supported the establishment of the Big Cats Task Force at the 18th CITES Conference of the Parties last year, which aims to bolster international cooperation against illegal trade in big cat specimens.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2020 to Question 72166 on Animal Products: Imports, when he plans to make a decision on the import of trophy-hunted animals and animal parts.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow on 19 May 2020, PQ UIN 46697, which remains the current situation.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 to ban the import of trophy-hunted animals and if he will list which animals will be banned.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government is committed to doing all we can to support wildlife and the environment, both in the UK and internationally, including by delivering on our manifesto commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies from endangered species.
Our consultation on controls on the import and export of hunting trophies, which closed in February 2020, provided an opportunity for respondents to provide views on which species they considered needed further restrictions. No decisions have been made yet as the pace of this work was impacted by the Government’s need to focus on addressing the urgent issue of COVID 19. We will publish the summary of responses to the consultation and call for evidence in due course. The outcome will inform our next steps.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the proposed ban on the import of animal parts as trophies will include lions.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government is committed to doing all we can to support wildlife and the environment, both in the UK and internationally, including by delivering on our manifesto commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies from endangered species.
Our consultation on controls on the import and export of hunting trophies, which closed in February 2020, provided an opportunity for respondents to provide views on which species they considered needed further restrictions. No decisions have been made yet as the pace of this work was impacted by the Government’s need to focus on addressing the urgent issue of COVID 19. We will publish the summary of responses to the consultation and call for evidence in due course. The outcome will inform our next steps.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 increase the number of trees planted in (a) the West Midlands and (b) England.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To drive an unprecedented step-change in planting and reach net zero, the Government is investing in tree planting in England through the recently announced £640 million Nature for Climate Fund. This supports our commitment to increase planting across the UK to 30,000 hectares of trees per year by 2025.
The Government supports woodland creation through grants and incentives. These include the recently launched Woodland Carbon Guarantee, in addition to the existing Countryside Stewardship, Woodland Carbon Fund, Woodland Creation Planning Grant and the Urban Tree Challenge Fund. These grants are available to local authorities, land managers and community-led organisations across England, including those in the West Midlands.
While we do not set specific targets for individual constituencies, we are working hard to increase the uptake of grant schemes across England, and strongly encourage eligible organisations to take advantage of this support.
The Government continues to consider ways to further incentivise land managers and owners to plant more trees. Later this spring we will be consulting on the English Tree Strategy, to gather information to help us design policy to best increase planting.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 increase biodiversity in the Midlands.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Across England, the Government is investing in protected sites, restoring wildlife-rich habitats and supporting species recovery.
Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) provide legal protection for our most important wildlife and natural features in England. There are over 4000 SSSIs in England, covering around 7% of the land area in England. The East and West Midlands are home to some of the finest, with 848 of these sites covering an area of 190,205 hectares.
The Government also provides substantial public funding for managing protected sites and restoring wildlife habitats, spending £2.9 biilion on agri-environment schemes in England through our seven-year Rural Development Programme. Schemes are tailored to the specific biodiversity interests in the Midlands through our local targeting statements[1].
The Government supports species recovery through its agri-environment schemes and partnership projects. Natural England is working with conservation organisations and landowners on the Back from the Brink programme, a £7.7 million partnership funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and others to put over 100 priority species on the road to recovery. Two Back from the Brink projects are in the Midlands, both led by Butterfly Conservation. The Limestone’s Living Legacies project is restoring a network of limestone grassland sites across the Cotswolds. A second project in Rockingham Forest, Northamptonshire, is restoring and managing woodland to aid the local recovery of vulnerable species and the reintroduction of the Chequered Skipper, which last year become the first previously extinct butterfly to have bred successfully in an English woodland for more than 40 years.
Our Bees’ Needs Champions Awards has recognised a number of councils and community groups from across the Midlands for their own exemplary work to support pollinators.
Our 25 Year Environment Plan marked a step-change in ambition for the natural environment and we are determined to build on these successes.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/countryside-stewardship-statements-of-priorities
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the recycling rates in Birmingham in each year since 2015.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Year | Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting by Birmingham City Council |
2014/15 | 26.6% |
2015/16: | 22.9% |
2016/17: | 24.4% |
2017/18: | 20.7% |
2018/19 | 22.0% |
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural affairs, what recent steps her Department has taken to support the food and beverage sector in the West Midlands.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government works closely with the full spectrum of food and drink businesses across the country to promote growth, jobs, productivity and exports. As elsewhere, we engage with businesses in the West Midlands, both directly and through trade associations and other businesses groups, to support them in their efforts to: address economic challenges; understand and mitigate regulatory and compliance issues and; prepare successfully for EU exit. This includes recent collaboration with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) such as the Marches LEP, with which the Government has run a number of successful industry events.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 air quality in Sutton Coldfield.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Air quality is a threat to public health and more needs to be done to improve it. That is why we have put in place a £3.5 billion plan to reduce harmful emissions from road transport, and published the Clean Air Strategy which focuses on broader emissions beyond road transport and which aims to cut air pollution and save lives.
Local authorities are responsible for reviewing and assessing local air quality and must take action in the event of exceedances in pollution concentration limits. The Environment Bill includes measures to improve air quality which will ensure that local authorities have a clear framework, and simple to use powers, to tackle air pollution.
The Government is taking a strong national leadership role in improving air quality and provides financial and expert support to local authorities to develop innovative plans to tackle local air pollution. Defra and the Department for Transport’s Joint Air Quality Unit has been working with local authorities including Birmingham City Council to tackle nitrogen dioxide exceedances.