Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 introducing a licensing or regulatory scheme for trainers to use electric dog collars in specific settings.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
A regulatory scheme would fail to offer adequate protection for cats and dogs, given the scope of these devices to cause harm. Additionally, implementing such a scheme would create a significant burden on any body charged with overseeing the use of such devices and ensuring compliance.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) growers and (b) growers associations on the potential merits of extending the length of the seasonal workers visa for the harvesting of crops which have a longer growing season than six months.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra holds regular discussions and roundtable events with growers and growers associations.
Ministers met with industry stakeholders, including growers, at the Farm to Fork Summit on 16 May at which the Government confirmed that the number of Seasonal Worker visas available in 2024 for horticulture will again be 45,000 (plus 2,000 for poultry), with the potential for a further 10,000 visas if necessary, contingent on sponsors and growers improving and abiding by worker welfare standards as previously agreed.
The Seasonal Worker visa route was designed to support horticulture growers in the UK during peak production periods, whilst maintaining robust immigration control. It allows horticultural businesses to recruit foreign workers for up to six months to work in both the edible and ornamental sectors. It was not designed to meet the full labour needs of the horticulture sector nor to be a source of permanent labour.
Furthermore, the Seasonal Worker visa, which is applied for outside the UK and lasts for six months or less, incurs no NHS surcharge of £624 per year, unlike a nine month or longer visa which would incur this cost to seasonal workers.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 March 2023 to Question 164001 on the Convention on Biological Diversity, when her Department plans to publish the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan to bring it into line with the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed at COP16.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
At COP15 all Parties committed to reviewing and updating their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans to bring them into line with the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by COP16 in 2024. The UK will honour this commitment and will publish the relevant documentation ahead of the next meeting of the COP.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the average time it took to import seed potatoes from France in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Records are not maintained of the time it takes to import individual consignments of seed potatoes as this is a commercial matter.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many applications for limited extended validity were made to the Environment Agency in each year since 2016; and how many were yet to be processed by year of application as of 25 March 2023.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No application is necessary for Limited Extended Validity (LEV) and the Environment Agency does not grant LEV. By operation of the law, LEV is automatic when a time-limited water abstraction licence is due to expire, an application to renew has been made at least three months before the expiry, and the Environment Agency cannot complete the determination before the expiry date. LEV allows the licence holder to continue to abstract water under the terms of the original licence until the renewal application is determined.
As of 25 March 2023, there were 122 Water Resources licences subject to ongoing time-limited licence renewal applications where LEV has been applied. Please note that this information is not routinely retained within the Environment Agency’s data systems and therefore this figure should be used with a degree of caution. The Environment Agency does not retain a record of applications where LEV has been applied each year once renewal applications have been determined. The number of licences subject to ongoing LEV varies continuously throughout the annual renewals cycle as the Environment Agency grant/refuse applications, particularly at this stage of the cycle as the majority of time limited licences have an end date of 31 March. For those applications that the Environment Agency has not determined, LEV becomes effective once the licence expires.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any applications to the Environment Agency for limited extended validity have been granted following legal injunctions against the Environment Agency since 2016.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There have been no applications to the Environment Agency for Limited Extended Validity (LEV) for time-limited abstraction licences following legal injunctions against the Environment Agency since 2016. LEV is not applied for and the Environment Agency does not grant LEV. By operation of the law, LEV is automatic when a time-limited abstraction licence is due to expire, an application to renew has been made at least 3 months before the expiry, and the Environment Agency cannot complete the determination before the expiry date.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the extent to which recent increases in the costs of production incurred by British fruit and vegetables producers are reflected in the prices being paid by retailers to British suppliers.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department has not made an assessment of the extent to which recent cost of production increases are reflected in the prices being paid by retailers.
We understand the importance of a well-functioning supply chain and regularly meet with industry representatives to discuss any issues being faced.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) Anglian Water and (b) Water Resources East on the suitability of the proposed Fens Reservoir to support agricultural use.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Through the Environment Agency’s National Framework for water resources, we have set out in detail our expectations for water companies on better collaboration on water resources management. Guided by the National Framework, Water Resources East, whose members include those in the agricultural sector, has been consulting on its draft water resources plan. The draft plan sets out how it will help secure water supplies in the long term, including accounting for agricultural water needs and includes new strategic infrastructure projects, such as the proposed Fens Reservoir. Water Resources East’s draft plan has been used to inform Anglian Water’s statutory draft water resources management plan. The Government also supports the agricultural sector with its Farming Transformation Fund grants for the construction of new reservoirs, with a second round set to launch in spring 2023.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate she has made of the average price differential between the retail price of British fruit and vegetables sold in the UK and the prices paid to UK-based primary producers for those products.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has not made such an estimate. Defra does not collect commercial data specifically on the prices primary producers receive for these products. The Office for National Statistics does publish average retail prices for a selection of fruit and vegetables alongside its monthly consumer price inflation figures. However, these prices do not distinguish between home grown and imported products.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 she has had with insurance companies about their willingness to insure poultry farmers against losses related to bird flu which are not covered by Government compensation schemes.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are aware that the recent unprecedented outbreak of AI has created problems for some poultry producers in obtaining insurance.
We are considering a number of options to both engage with insurers in explaining the measures that Defra and the industry has put in place, and in working with the industry to improve on-farm biosecurity.