Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to tackle and prevent organised dog fighting.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government considers that the necessary laws to tackle dog fighting are already in place. The police have specific powers under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to tackle dog fighting and work closely with the Special Operations Unit of the RSPCA to gather intelligence against gangs involved in organised dog fights.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to encourage local authorities to adopt proactive enforcement policies to help combat fly-tipping.
Answered by Rory Stewart
We are committed to tackling fly-tipping, and as set out in the Government’s manifesto we have given local authorities the power to issue fixed penalty notices for small-scale fly-tipping. These new enforcement tools provide local authorities with an alternative to prosecutions and will assist them to take a proportionate enforcement response.
This builds on other Government action to tackle fly-tipping, which has included: working with the Sentencing Council on its guideline for sentencing for environmental offences, which came into force on 1 July 2014; making it easier for vehicles suspected of being involved in waste crime to be stopped, searched and seized; and continuing our work with the Defra-chaired National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to promote and disseminate good practice in the prevention, reporting, investigation and clearance of fly-tipped waste.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to encourage recycling by local authorities.
Answered by Rory Stewart
I refer the hon Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green, Catherine West, on 8 June 2016, PQ UIN 38978.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 assist businesses in areas which are prone to flooding to obtain flood insurance.
Answered by Rory Stewart
We are currently not aware of any evidence suggesting that there is a systemic problem with the availability of commercial flood insurance and we have recently published a report that considers the availability of flood insurance for small businesses in areas of high flood risk. The report is available at:
However, we recognise the difficult challenges that some small businesses could face in areas of high flood risk. We have therefore committed to work with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and other stakeholders to monitor the insurance market for small businesses. We are keen to work across Government, and with a range of business interests, to better understand the nature and extent of any problem that might exist.
The ABI have assured us that the insurance industry will continue to provide insurance to small businesses on a competitive basis.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 work with farmers and land owners in areas susceptable to flooding to encourage them to allow parts of their land to flood to avoid flooding elsewhere.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Temporarily storing flood water on agricultural land can be a cost effective way of reducing risks elsewhere in a catchment, and where such schemes are planned, farmers/landowners are paid to store flood water on their land in a managed way, with payments being made to offset the damages caused by additional deliberate flooding that forms a part of the flood management scheme.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing the use of upland management schemes in areas susceptible to flooding as a method of flood prevention.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Land management change can have important benefits in reducing flood risk. We will encourage any measures that could help manage flood risk, for example management of our peat uplands and planting trees to slow the flow at the same time as providing wider environmental benefits within catchments. Flood risk management is also one of the targeting criteria for woodland creation funded through the new Countryside Stewardship scheme and the Forestry Commission also continues to undertake research into understanding what role woodlands can play in managing flood risk.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 encourage economic development in rural areas within English metropolitan counties.
Answered by Rory Stewart
In August, the Secretary of State launched the Government’s Rural Productivity Plan. This sets out a series of measures to help rural communities and businesses reach their full potential and contribute to increasing national productivity.
By investing in education and skills, increasing wages, improving infrastructure and connectivity, and simplifying planning laws for rural businesses and communities, this will help create thriving rural areas where generations of families can open and expand their businesses, buy a home and educate their children at first class schools.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 encourage people to consume locally-sourced food produce.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government recognises the value that high-quality, locally produced food has to consumers, communities and the economy. The Great British Food Campaign was launched on 3 November to celebrate the achievements of British food and drink and to ensure that the conditions are right for its quality, creativity and reputation to flourish.
2016 will be the Year of British Food. It will celebrate the quality and provenance of Britain’s producers, manufacturers, retailers and restaurateurs allowing everyone to benefit from and share the UK’s culinary heritage.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the proportion of waste sent to landfill by local authorities.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The latest available published statistics on the management of Local Authority collected waste in England are for the financial year 2014/15 which were published on 1 December 2015 and include information on the waste disposed to landfill. These data are available in the statistical notice and accompanying dataset on the gov.uk website via this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results.
In the financial year 2014/15, 25% of all Local Authority managed waste was disposed to landfill compared to 79% in 2000/01 with year on year reductions. Details are given in Table 1 below.
Table 1 Local Authority Managed waste in England Disposed to Landfill
Year | LA managed waste sent to landfill (thousand tonnes) | Proportion of all LA managed waste sent to landfill (%) |
2000/01 | 22,039 | 79% |
2001/02 | 22,421 | 78% |
2002/03 | 22,068 | 75% |
2003/04 | 20,936 | 72% |
2004/05 | 19,822 | 67% |
2005/06 | 17,873 | 62% |
2006/07 | 16,890 | 58% |
2007/08 | 15,513 | 54% |
2008/09 | 13,784 | 50% |
2009/10 | 12,490 | 47% |
2010/11 | 11,391 | 43% |
2011/12 | 9,568 | 37% |
2012/13 | 8,514 | 34% |
2013/14 | 7,933 | 31% |
2014/15 | 6,361 | 25% |
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 work with local authorities to reduce the level of fly-tipping.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Tackling fly-tipping is a Government priority and manifesto commitment. Next spring we will be giving councils the power to tackle small scale fly-tipping through fixed penalty notices as an alternative to prosecutions.
This builds on other Government action to tackle fly-tipping, which has included: