Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of covid-19 restrictions on access to veterinary services.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) has published surveys about the impact of the restrictions. These show there was an initial impact on veterinary practices. They have, however, since been able to adapt and are now able to work nearer to full capacity. Changes include the introduction of procedures to protect the safety of staff and customers.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the withdrawal of Capital Grant funding for contaminated land remediation in 2017 on the development of (a) brownfield and (b) greenbelt sites.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
No assessment has been made of the effect of the withdrawal of Capital Grant funding in 2017 for contaminated land remediation on brownfield and greenbelt sites.
It is the responsibility of local authorities to identify and prioritise contaminated land remediation where there is an unacceptable risk to health and the environment, as under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This includes brownfield and greenbelt sites where there is an unacceptable risk from the current land use.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
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 is taking to increase the number of trees planted in (a) the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, (b) the North West and (c) the UK.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Forestry is a devolved matter. Since 2010 the Government has planted just over 15 million trees, or nearly 13,000 hectares of new woodland in England. In this Parliament over 4.1 million trees have been planted, and we are on track to meet our targets to plant 11 million trees and a further 1 million trees in and around our towns and cities.
The Government is investing £5.7 million to kick-start the development of the Northern Forest, led by a partnership of the Community Forests and the Woodland Trust. Specifically, this will fund the planting of at least 1.8 million new trees across the Northern Forest by 2022, and help the partnership develop approaches to achieve their longer-term vision of 50 million trees planted over the next 25 years.
St Helens and other parts of the North West are located within the Northern Forest and will benefit from increased tree planting through this initiative. Our Trees for Schools programme and Urban Tree Challenge Fund are also helping to increase planting rates in these places.
The Government remains committed to the shared public and private sector aspiration of reaching 12% woodland cover in England by 2060 and has signalled this in the Clean Growth Strategy and the 25 Year Environment Plan.
To increase the rate of afforestation in England, the Government has simplified grant applications and announced additional funding of £50 million for the Woodland Carbon Guarantee to incentivise planting and carbon sequestration. Recently we announced a new Northumberland Forest, planting up to one million trees by 2024.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what targets her Department set for the reduction of air pollution in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
We have not set local targets for reducing air pollution.
We set concentration limits for a range of pollutants which local authorities are expected to ensure compliance with. Local authorities have statutory duties to review and assess local air quality, declare Air Quality Management Areas and put in place action plans to clean up local air if air quality standards or objectives are not achieved or are not likely to be achieved.
Our national Air Quality Strategy sets out the air quality standards and objectives that must be achieved locally.
Our landmark Environment Bill ensures that local authorities have a clear framework for tackling air pollution and simple to use powers to address air pollution in their areas.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
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 improve air quality in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Our Clean Air Strategy includes new and ambitious goals, legislation, investment and policies which will help us to clean up our air faster and more effectively. The Environment Bill includes measures to improve air quality including ensuring local authorities have a clear framework, and simple to use powers, to tackle air pollution.
Local authorities already have statutory duties to review and assess local air quality, and to declare Air Quality Management Areas and put in place action plans to clean up local air if improvements are necessary. There are a range of tools available to them to support this work.
The Borough’s latest assessment of air quality in St Helens is detailed in their Annual Status Report for 2018. This details the measures they have put in place to tackle poor air quality and the progress they are making towards achieving their air quality objectives.