Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
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 meet its obligations under Article 2, section 1b of the Paris Agreement.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
In December 2020, the UK became one of the first countries in the world to fulfil a key commitment of the Paris Agreement by publishing its first Adaptation Communication. This sets out what the UK is doing to prepare for the effects of climate change at home, and support those facing impacts overseas. Aims include to increase the visibility and profile of adaptation and its balance with mitigation and enhance learning and understanding of adaptation needs and actions. The UK government provided a short update in October 2021, to signal its ongoing commitment to transparency on the adaptation action we are taking.
The third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3), published in July 2023, addresses all 61 risks and opportunities identified in the third Climate Change Risk Assessment. NAP3 includes dedicated responses to risks to domestic agricultural productivity and UK food availability, safety, and quality from climate change overseas. This publication marks a step-change in the UK government's approach to climate adaptation. We’re responding to threats to domestic food production through our Environmental Land Management farming schemes, better protecting hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses with a record-breaking £5.2 billion investment in flood and coastal schemes, and safeguarding future water supplies by working with regulators to accelerate £2.2 billion of investment through our ambitious Plan for Water.
Adapting to this changing climate is vital to strengthen our national security and resilience and to protect the economy from higher costs in the future. We are working with the Met Office Hadley Centre and others to develop R&D which will help enhance the resilience of the agri-food system in response to climate change.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
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 has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the level of transparency that food producers have with consumers when using derogations for the use of non-organic agricultural ingredients.
Answered by Mark Spencer
A company who prepares, produces, stores, imports, exports or sells organic food in the UK must be certified by an approved UK organic control body.
A product for consumption may only be labelled and marketed as “organic” if it meets the organic production rules, at least 95% of the agricultural ingredients are organically certified, all other ingredients, additives and processing aids are listed as permitted in the organic regulations and the product, labels and suppliers are certified.
The 5% non-organic limit is only for permitted non-organic ingredients listed in the organic regulations or where an ingredient is not available in sufficient quality or quantity.
Derogations for non-organic ingredients which are not listed in the organic regulations are considered based on documentary evidence of non-availability of an ingredient in organic form in sufficient quality or quantity.
Our organic food legislation requires organic and non-organic ingredients to be identified in the ingredients panel on the label of an organic product. The Government is not overly prescriptive about how the organic and non-organic agricultural ingredients of a given product are shown so long as it is obvious to the consumer. An asterisk against all organic or non-organic ingredients is a common method used by UK producers.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the accuracy of the on-farm calculations undertaken by (a) farmers and (b) her Department of on-farm (i) carbon cycling and (ii) sequestration.
Answered by Mark Spencer
(a) At present there are many tools to support on-farm carbon calculations and audits available for use by farmers and farm advisers. Defra is in the process of completing an assessment of the variability and comparability of the most popular on-farm carbon audit tools, which differ widely in their complexity and underlying methodology. There are trade-offs between the accuracy and specificity of tools, and the complexity of data required to underpin the calculations. Defra is considering options to improve standardisation.
(b)There is a mature evidence base on the cycling and sequestration of carbon within and through the farmed and semi-natural landscape. On-farm emissions are monitored and assessed through the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory, and Defra is seeking to understand broader supply chain emissions through additional research. Other research has assessed methods to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in farming and carbon stores; all of which undergoes independent scrutiny through peer review.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to page 49 of the report entitled National Food Strategy: The Evidence, published 2021, whether she has made an assessment of trends in the level of the UK's greenhouse gas footprint per kilogram of bovine meat and how this compares to other countries.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Emissions from beef production are highly variable both between countries and within countries, reflecting a wide range of production systems. Defra has assessed the best available data, which suggest that emissions from UK beef production range between 16-34 kg CO2-eq per kg meat. These data also suggest that UK beef emissions are roughly equivalent to the rest of the EU, USA, and Australia, but notably less than Brazil or Indonesia. The UK is currently the fourth most efficient of 11 EU producers. Defra is keeping the evidence base on product carbon footprints under review and updating where required.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the DIVA test will be approved for TB.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Developing a vaccine against TB in cattle is one of the Government’s top priorities. Defra aims to have a deployable cattle TB vaccine (‘CattleBCG’) and a new companion DIVA skin test (to detect infected among vaccinated animals) in the next few years. Field trials of the CattleBCG vaccine and the DIVA skin test started in 2021 and are ongoing.
Final deployment will rely on the success of the ongoing field trials, achieving UK Marketing Authorisations from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) (for both CattleBCG and the companion DIVA skin test), gaining international recognition through WOAH and our trading partners for both products, an IT system to record and trace vaccinated cattle, and acceptance of vaccination from stakeholders across the supply chain. Defra is working closely with industry to co-design policy proposals that will be brought to public consultation. This would pave the way for removing or relaxing legal barriers to CattleBCG and DIVA skin test use in England and Wales.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to seek the ability to be to able to ban food imports on animal welfare grounds under World Trade Organization terms.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We remain firmly committed to upholding our world-leading animal welfare standards as an independent trading nation.
The UK will not compromise its high standards of animal welfare in any trade partnerships or agreements. In accordance with existing World Trade Organisation rules, we retain the ability to regulate for the protection and improvement of animal welfare.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with the NFU on animal welfare labelling for food.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Defra Ministers meet regularly with a range of stakeholders including the NFU on a wide range of issues including animal welfare and food information to consumers.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
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 taking steps to help ensure that imported poultry that has not been produced to UK legal standards is not used in the catering sector.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government is proud of the high food safety and animal welfare standards that underpin our high-quality Great British produce. We have no intention of undercutting our own reputation for quality by lowering our food and animal welfare standards.
All food and drink products imported into the UK irrespective of the purpose for which they will be used has to comply with our import requirements and regulatory standards for food safety. Agri-food products produced to different environmental and animal welfare standards can be placed on the UK market as long as they comply with our requirements. This includes products from the EU and other longstanding trading partners alongside products traded under new agreements.
A range of Government departments, agencies and bodies continue to ensure that standards are met including the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, Health and Safety Executive and Local Authorities Trading Standards. They will continue to do so to ensure that all food imports comply with the relevant UK product rules and regulations.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
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 tackle imports of poultry not reared in accordance with UK legal standards.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government is proud of the high food safety and animal welfare standards that underpin our high-quality Great British produce. We have no intention of undercutting our own reputation for quality by lowering our food and animal welfare standards.
All food and drink products imported into the UK irrespective of the purpose for which they will be used has to comply with our import requirements and regulatory standards for food safety. Agri-food products produced to different environmental and animal welfare standards can be placed on the UK market as long as they comply with our requirements. This includes products from the EU and other longstanding trading partners alongside products traded under new agreements.
A range of Government departments, agencies and bodies continue to ensure that standards are met including the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, Health and Safety Executive and Local Authorities Trading Standards. They will continue to do so to ensure that all food imports comply with the relevant UK product rules and regulations.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of the UK's withdrawal from the EU on the broiler poultry industry.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to the various challenges the industry, including the broiler poultry sector, has faced in the past few years. The UK poultry sector operate in an open market with the value of poultry products established by those in the supply chain.
Defra continues to keep the poultry market situation under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. Defra ministers and officials also meet regularly with poultry industry stakeholders to discuss the challenges the poultry sector is facing.