Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is monitoring content that is publicly available on social networking sites using overt monitoring techniques.
Answered by George Eustice
We routinely monitor social media networking sites to evaluate the effectiveness of our online messages when making announcements or sharing advice during an incident.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her Department's policy is on rewilding lynxes.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 prohibits the release of species that are not ordinarily resident in the wild, without a licence granted by Natural England.
If a licence application for the reintroduction of lynx is received, Natural England would consider it carefully in accordance with appropriate international guidelines, taking account of socio-economic impacts and the impact on the welfare of the animals themselves.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
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 number of dogs in the UK (a) in 2010 and (b) on the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government does not hold any official estimates of the numbers of dogs in the UK. However, according to the annual pet population survey carried out by the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association in 2010 there were an estimated 8 million dogs in the UK. The same survey for 2016 shows the estimated number of dogs in the UK to be 8.5 million.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department made in advance of the EU referendum for the eventuality of a vote to leave the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government took a position on EU membership during the referendum and the civil service worked in support of that at the time. However, now that a decision has been taken to leave the EU, Defra is working with other government departments on preparations for exiting the EU. In the meantime, all existing arrangements remain in place until negotiations are concluded and we leave the EU.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
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 protect (a) bees, (b) moths and (c) other animals from (i) habitat loss and (ii) toxic neonicotinoid pesticides.
Answered by George Eustice
Our National Pollinator Strategy highlights the vital contribution we can all make to support pollinators by ensuring they have suitable food and habitats.
The Strategy includes actions to improve the status of our insect pollinators, of which there are 1500 species in the UK. Many of the actions aim to reverse the loss of flower-rich habitat, one of the biggest sources of pollinator decline in England. Habitat creation actions in the Strategy also benefit other animals, including birds and bats.
All pesticides, including neonicotinoids, are strictly regulated and are only authorised if scientific assessment finds that their use is not expected to have harmful effects on human health or to have unacceptable effects on the environment.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
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 has taken to protect birds of prey.
Answered by Rory Stewart
All wild birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which provides a powerful framework for the conservation of wild birds, their eggs, nests and habitats. The Government is committed to ensuring the protection afforded to wild birds of prey is effectively enforced. There are strong penalties for offenders, including imprisonment.
Raptor persecution is one of six national wildlife crime priorities and is subject to a prevention, intelligence and enforcement plan.
The National Wildlife Crime Unit, which is part funded by Defra, monitors and gathers intelligence on illegal activities affecting birds of prey and provides assistance to police forces when required.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many big cat sightings have been reported in each year from (a) 2000 to 2010, (b) 2015 and (c) 2016 to date.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Natural England collects data relating to sightings or signs of exotic mammals including big cats. Data on sightings of big cats, reported to Natural England and its predecessors between 2000 and 2012, can be found by accessing the Natural England section of the National Archives website.
Data for big cat sightings from 2013 is as follows.
Year | No. cases reported | No. individual animals reported | Confirmed | Supported but not confirmed | Discounted | Probably other cause | Inconclusive |
2013 | 5 | 5 |
|
|
|
| 5 |
2014 | 1 | 1 |
|
|
|
| 1 |
2015 | 3 | 3 |
| 1 |
|
| 2 |
There have been no big cat sightings so far this year.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Government's policy is on banning wild animals from being used in circuses.
Answered by George Eustice
A ban on the use of wild animals in travelling circuses is a manifesto commitment and will be introduced as soon as parliamentary time allows. In the interim, the welfare of any wild animals still being used by travelling circuses in England is protected by the Welfare of Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses (England) Regulations 2012. Currently, 17 wild animals are licensed by Defra under the Regulations for use by two circuses.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
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 13 June 2016 to Question 39933, how much funding has been allocated to anti-beaching initiatives; and which countries have been identified as containing beaching hotspots.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK Government does not fund ‘anti-beaching’ initiatives. However, it does fund the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, the work of which is crucial in providing us with a better understanding of the general health of cetaceans in UK waters and the issues that affect them.
We are not aware of any countries identified as having ‘beaching hotspots’.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many whales, dolphins and other aquatic mammals have been beached on British shores in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra, in conjunction with the Devolved Administrations of Scotland and Wales, fund the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP), which investigates the causes of cetacean strandings around the UK.
Between 2006 and 2014 a total of 4838 cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) were stranded around the UK (English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Ireland) coast. 147 of these were successfully refloated. The 2015 data has not yet been published. This will be available in due course on the CSIP website, where the annual reports for preceding years are already available.
The published annual strandings data, shown below, may also be subject to change where additional strandings information is reported after publication.
Although not part of its formal remit, data on stranded seals has been collected by CSIP in recent years. Since 2010 2185 dead stranded seals have been recorded.
Year | No. of UK Cetacean Strandings | No. of UK Cetacean Live Strandings | No. of UK Cetaceans Refloated |
2006 | 718 | 31 | 9 |
2007 | 536 | 41 | 14 |
2008 | 566 | 83 | 24 |
2009 | 422 | 39 | 14 |
2010 | 277 | 27 | 6 |
2011 | 600 | 86 | 29 |
2012 | 562 | 75 | 15 |
2013 | 595 | 38 | 9 |
2014 | 562 | 55 | 27 |
Total | 4838 | 475 | 147 |