Asked by: Brian Mathew (Liberal Democrat - Melksham and Devizes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a holistic approach to tackling carbon emissions.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
While DESNZ leads across Government on net zero, Defra is responsible for reducing emissions from agriculture, land use (including peat), F-gases and waste (including wastewater), whilst simultaneously increasing England's carbon saving potential through our forestry policies.
Defra already takes a holistic approach to tackling carbon emissions, aligning emissions reduction with nature recovery and economic growth.
Without nature’s recovery we can’t achieve our ambitions to drive down emissions, and that is why we are charting a new course to save nature, achieve net zero and grow our economy.
We are working at pace to help farmers transition to greener practices, establish a taskforce to plant millions of trees to help remove carbon from the air and move towards a circular economy to reduce our demand for raw materials that destroy the environment.
Asked by: Brian Mathew (Liberal Democrat - Melksham and Devizes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to require standardised information about the inclusion of genetically engineered food ingredients to be clearly marked on food packaging for consumers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Existing labelling rules for genetically modified organisms (GMO) stipulate that foods sold in Britain that contain GMO ingredients must be labelled with this information. This labelling gives consumers the choice on whether to consume such foods containing, or consisting of, GMO ingredients, and the choice to avoid such foods, should they wish to do so. In the case of food sold loose, or where food has been cooked in a GMO product, for instance cooking oil, this information must appear on a notice, menu, ticket, or label which can be easily read by customers.
Information about any characteristic or property which renders a food consisting of or containing genetic modifications different from its conventional counterpart, such as its composition, nutritional value, the intended use of the food or feed, or any health implications for certain sections of the population, must also be included.