Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with representatives of supermarkets on the sale of endangered fish species.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government regularly engages with UK retailers on a wide variety of policy areas, including on the sustainability of fish stocks in UK waters and beyond.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to Operation Yellowhammer HMG Reasonable Worst Case Planning Assumptions paragraph 6ii, if he will list all financially viable mitigations to fully close risks associated with UK veterinary medicine availability in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Veterinary medicines have been recognised by the Government as critical to human and animal welfare and national security.
The majority of veterinary medicines used in the UK (and ingredients and components to make them) are either produced in or enter via the EU. The Government is working with animal health companies who have been carrying out extensive EU Exit contingency planning for all EU Exit scenarios, including no deal, covering all aspects of their supply chains, from regulatory compliance and stocking levels to logistics and customs. This includes, as appropriate, increasing stocks of product in the UK, changing supply routes, transferring marketing authorisations and other regulatory processes.
Additional cross-government activities include a comprehensive business/trader readiness information campaign to help individuals and businesses understand what they need to do to get ready for Brexit and the Government’s Freight Capacity Framework is intended to support the continued supply of Category 1 goods (to include veterinary medicines) in the event of border disruption.
Supply is expected to cope with a normalised ordering pattern.
With this planning in place, we are confident that we have made every effort to ensure continuity of supply of veterinary medicines in the UK.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many non disclosure agreements in relation to preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal her Department has signed with (a) private organisations and (b) public organisations between (i) 23 June 2016 and 22 August 2019 and (ii) since 22 August 2019.
Answered by George Eustice
The requested information on the number of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) entered into between specific dates is not held centrally by Defra, and could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency funding has been made available to the Welsh Government for the agricultural sector in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra is working closely with colleagues across the devolved administrations to understand the potential impacts of a no-deal exit on the agricultural sector.
The Treasury has now made available £6.3 billion to prepare for Brexit, including £4.2 billion funding this financial year alone.
In the event of no deal, the Government would of course take economic measures to mitigate any short-run disruption, support the economy through the transition, and to boost the long-term potential of the UK economy.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
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 effect of climate change on social and economic inequality in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Government has not made such a specific assessment though we do consider the distributional impact of our interventions on different groups, including low income households, in our adaptation planning.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to monitor antibiotic resistant bugs in seagull faeces in the UK.
Answered by David Rutley
The Government conducts surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in animals and publishes the results annually on GOV.UK in the Veterinary Antibiotic Sales and Surveillance report. These surveillance programmes do not include wildlife.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on how many occasions his Department has received representations from the UK Statistics Authority on his Department's presentation and use of statistics in each year since 2010.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Details on the UK Statistics Authority’s interventions are published in the correspondence[1], publications[2], and issues log[3] sections of their website since 2010.
The Authority’s Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) also carry out regular assessments and systemic reviews, details of which can also be found on the Authority’s website[4].
In September 2018, the Authority published the first annual summary of its interventions for the financial year 2017/18[5]. The report for 2018/19 will be published in the autumn.
[1] https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence-list/
[2] https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/publications-list/
[3] https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports-and-correspondence/issues-log/
[4] https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/osr/
[5] https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/publication/annual-casework-review-20172018/
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
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 ensure horse owners comply with his Department's tethering guidelines.
Answered by David Rutley
Following representations from some equine bodies, I will be meeting a number of groups, including the British Horse Council who coordinate the views of the sector, to discuss the issue of tethering. Information on how to tether a horse is contained within the statutory Code of Practice for the Welfare of Horses, Ponies, Donkeys and Their Hybrids, which sets out guidance to keepers on how to provide for the welfare needs of their equidae, as required by the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The RSPCA, World Horse Welfare and local authority inspectors carry copies of the Code of Practice with them when called out to investigate complaints about the welfare of horses. They inform owners, by referring to the relevant part of the code, how to care for their animals including in relation to tethering.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
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 miles of English coastline which are deemed unbeneficial for flood protection or adaption.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
This is a devolved matter and the answer applies to England.
The Government has not made any such assessment. Shoreline management plans prepared and approved by local authorities contain details of expected levels of protection.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
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 improve the resilience of (a) homes and (b) businesses against flooding.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
In England, we are working with the commercial and technical sectors through a business led Property Flood Resilience Roundtable, to increase the uptake of flood resilience approaches (recoverability and resistance), both by homes and businesses, in areas at risk of flooding.
Flood Re was established in 2016 to help improve the affordability and availability of Flood Insurance for homes at high risk of flooding across the whole of the UK (including Wales). Flood Re is required to take action to help the flood insurance market transition to one that is risk reflective by 2039. This includes exploring ways in which Flood Re can help improve the uptake of flood resilience measures in homes at risk of flooding.
Our investment programme will better protect at least 300,000 homes from the risk of all flooding and coastal erosion by 2020/21. Up to 60,000 commercial properties have also benefited from better protection thanks to these schemes.
Property Flood Resistance schemes are eligible for GIA and are used where it is technically or financially difficult to use other mechanisms and for residual risk to increase the level of protection from an asset.