Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether Natural England has invited the Dorset National Park team to be involved in the further assessment of the Dorset proposal.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England is undertaking a strategic England landscape assessment to identify areas which may have potential for future National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty designation, as well as places for alternative landscape action. This assessment is providing an opportunity to gather a wide range of views including those of local stakeholders, including groups such as the Dorset National Park team. All designation orders made by Natural England are subject to the Secretary of State’s confirmation.
Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
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 (a) has taken and (b) will take to protect the UK fishing industry from cheaper imports of seafood from countries with which the UK (i) has agreed and (b) seeks to agree a trade deal with during trade negotiations with those countries.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The UK is a nation that trades seafood internationally. The majority of UK fleet landings are exported, whilst most of the fish we consume is imported.
Through direct engagement with industry and by working in partnership with Seafish and other organisations, Defra works closely with seafood businesses to inform our negotiating positions in Free Trade Agreement negotiations.
Defra will always champion UK seafood producers. In line with the government’s manifesto commitment to build markets for British produce at home and abroad, we are committed to increasing domestic consumption of locally sourced seafood and expanding opportunities for the UK seafood sector overseas.
Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of farmers who will benefit from the Farming Investment Fund in West Dorset.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Farming Investment Fund is not geographically targeted. I would encourage farmers, growers, foresters and contractors in all areas, including those in West Dorset, to consider what equipment, technology and infrastructure would most improve their business and to take this opportunity to invest to help their businesses to prosper.
Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will commission the Foods Standards Agency to undertake a survey on methods of slaughter earlier than 2022 as planned.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra has been working with the Food Standards Agency on the design of a slaughter survey to take place in February 2022. The timing of the survey has been carefully selected to represent a typical week for the meat processing industry, avoiding religious festivals, and for consistency with the previous survey.
This timescale also reflects the intention to build bespoke data collection and analysis software to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the survey. It is our plan to collect data on a more regular basis in future and the new software will enable us to do this.
Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will release the method of slaughter statistics for (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The last method of slaughter survey was undertaken by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in 2018 and the results were published in February 2019 - Farm animals: survey of slaughter methods 2018 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The survey is not conducted annually and we are planning for it to be carried out again by the FSA in early 2022.
Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
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 help small fishing vessels, that have catches below the minimum threshold, to obtain support from the Seafood Response Fund.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Seafood Response Fund did not have restrictions based on minimum vessel size but did utilise a minimum sales threshold of £10,000 recorded on sales notes supplied by registered buyers and sellers of fish between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2019. The scheme was targeted in this way to ensure that Defra only supported businesses that participated in the seafood sector on a fulltime basis. Wider government support was available for businesses impacted by COVID-19, and the £10,000 threshold ensured the fisheries scheme represented value for money and was targeted at commercial fishing businesses that were reliant on seafood as their main source of income.
The Government remains committed to supporting the seafood sector, including small fishing vessels, and at the last Spending Review we announced £32.7 million in funding to support the sector. In England some of this funding is being used to deliver the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme, which will provide grant funding for projects that help seafood businesses of all sizes adapt to new export conditions, recover from the impacts of COVID-19 and achieve other sector priorities. Businesses outside England should contact their own fishing administrations to see what other support may be available.
Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
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 payments made by the Rural Payments Agency are received on time.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has a number of schemes which provide financial support to the rural economy. The three main land schemes, which offer an annual payment, are Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Countryside Stewardship (CS) and the Environmental Stewardship Scheme (ES).
Famers submitting a valid claim under these schemes will normally receive a payment between 1 December and 30 June the following year.
For 2019 we released by 30 June:
o BPS 2019 – 84,225 (99.9%) payments worth £1.79bn
o CS 2019 – 10,899 (94.2%) worth £88.46m
o ES 2019 – 12,020 (97.7%) worth £182.22m
There are several reasons for why payments may be delayed beyond the 30 June such as ongoing discussions with claimants, the resolution of probate, or ongoing fraud investigations.
Payments for 2020 claims began in December and are ongoing. The RPA delivered its best ever December payment performance, paying around 98% of BPS claims by the end of the year, despite the challenges caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Asked by: Chris Loder (Conservative - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farmers have received support from the Coronavirus Hardship Fund for Dairy Farmers.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The new dairy response fund opened for applications on 18 June 2020. Full details of the application process can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/dairy-response-fund-2020. The funding will provide eligible dairy farmers in England with up to £10,000. Payments will commence from 6 July 2020. The scheme will help those dairy farmers most in need of support to sustain their businesses by maintaining production capacity without impacts on animal welfare.