Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What steps he is taking to improve cooperation between government agencies tackling pollution of rivers and streams.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
I recently met local hon. Members, Southern Water and the local agencies cooperating on pollution issues in West Sussex and the Solent.
River Basin Management Plans ensure the coordination of action on pollution and the wider management of the water environment, and all relevant Government agencies provide input to their development.
We supplement these with the Catchment Based Approach which brings together, locally, public bodies, business and third sector organisations. We also support initiatives to deliver a coordinated approach to specific issues such as the Storm Overflows Taskforce and the Chalk Rivers Action Group.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what powers his Department has to initiate action under the Prevention of Damage By Pests Act 1949; and in what circumstances those powers have been used.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 places a duty on local authorities to ensure that their areas are kept, so far as practicable, free from rats and mice. Should Defra become aware that a local authority is failing to discharge its responsibilities, Defra has certain default powers to initiate action.
Additionally Defra may give direction to any business involving the manufacture, storage, transport or sale of food. These directions may include:
- prohibiting or restricting the business or use of any premises, vehicles, or equipment which is or is likely to become infested;
- prohibiting or restricting the acceptance, delivery, retention or removal of any infested food or of any other infested goods which are likely to come into contact with food manufactured, stored, transported or sold;
- carrying out any structural works or treatments necessary for preventing or remedying infestation in any premises, vehicle, equipment, food or other goods;
- In cases where the infestation cannot be remedied the Minister may order the food or container to be destroyed within a specific timeframe.
The Department does not have any record of any case where the Minister has had to exercise his powers under the Act in the last five years.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times his Department has used powers under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1945 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 places a duty on local authorities to ensure that their areas are kept, so far as practicable, free from rats and mice. Should Defra become aware that a local authority is failing to discharge its responsibilities, Defra has certain default powers to initiate action.
Additionally Defra may give direction to any business involving the manufacture, storage, transport or sale of food. These directions may include:
- prohibiting or restricting the business or use of any premises, vehicles, or equipment which is or is likely to become infested;
- prohibiting or restricting the acceptance, delivery, retention or removal of any infested food or of any other infested goods which are likely to come into contact with food manufactured, stored, transported or sold;
- carrying out any structural works or treatments necessary for preventing or remedying infestation in any premises, vehicle, equipment, food or other goods;
- In cases where the infestation cannot be remedied the Minister may order the food or container to be destroyed within a specific timeframe.
The Department does not have any record of any case where the Minister has had to exercise his powers under the Act in the last five years.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of residual waste sent to landfill, incineration and transfer stations in 2019 could have been recycled.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
We do not hold this information. The main data on waste that goes to landfill, incineration and transfer stations is from the permitted site returns that are submitted to the Environment Agency. The way that the data is reported for particular waste categories means it is not possible to make reliable estimates for the amount of waste received at permitted waste sites that could have been recycled.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to section 2(1) of the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1947, if he will issue guidance to residents on the steps they can take to hold local authorities to account for their duty to take such steps as may be necessary to secure so far as practicable that their district is kept free from rats and mice.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 places a duty on local authorities to ensure that their areas are kept, so far as practicable, free from rats and mice. Should Defra become aware that a local authority is failing to discharge its responsibilities, Defra has certain default powers to initiate action.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what powers local authorities have to tackle vermin outbreaks in private properties.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Managing problems with rats and mice is the responsibility of the owner or occupier of the property where the problem occurs. Insofar as local authorities are owners and occupiers of property, they have the same powers to control rats and mice as any other owner or occupier.
To address public health risk, the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 makes local authorities responsible for ensuring that their districts are kept, so far as practicable, free from rats and mice. In meeting this obligation, a local authority may serve a notice on the owner or occupier of land requiring them to take such steps as may be specified in the notice to destroy rats and mice on their land. Where necessary, the local authority has the power to take those steps as specified in a notice themselves and recover from the owner or occupier any expenses reasonably incurred in doing so. The 1949 Prevention of Damage by Pests Act also requires occupiers of land, other than agricultural land, to give notice in writing to the local authority of rodent infestations.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to review the 2003 household waste mix model.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Following our consultation in 2019 on measures to improve consistency in recycling from businesses and households, the Environment Bill published in January 2020 sets out how the Government will legislate to require local authorities to collect recyclable household waste separately from other household waste so that the waste can be recycled or composted. The recyclable household waste to be collected will be metal, paper, glass, plastics, food and garden waste. Together with similar measures to increase recycling from businesses and other organisations, these changes will help to achieve ambitions set out in the Resources and Waste Strategy 2018 to increase the quantity and quality of recyclable material collected for recycling.