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Written Question
Environment Agency: Licensing
Wednesday 20th December 2023

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

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 make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the planned deadline of January 2024 for Environment Agency Regulatory Position Statement 197.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Regulatory Position Statement (RPS) 197 has been in force since 2005 but it does not currently contain an expiry date. The Environment Agency (EA) will be consulting the waste industry on a replacement for RPS 197. That will allow a temporary extension to the disposal of metal shredding residues and residues from the processing of metal shredding residues which are classed as hazardous waste, at landfill for non-hazardous waste. As part of the consultation the EA will ask for feedback on appropriate deadlines.


Written Question
Sugar Beet
Wednesday 6th December 2023

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

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 help support negotiations between sugar beet growers and British Sugar PLC.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain, with risk and reward being properly shared, therefore we recognise the importance of sugar beet farmers receiving a price agreed for their 2024 sugar beet crop that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market.

Defra had discussion with all parties and were pleased to see NFU Sugar and British Sugar resume negotiations and continuing with the well-established process in place which is designed to be independent between both parties.

It is very important that all parties involved now continue to follow that process and reach a mutually acceptable outcome.


Written Question
Avian Influenza: Vaccination
Thursday 19th January 2023

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

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 potential merits of working with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to amend legislation to allow avian influenza vaccines to be used in the UK.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The vaccination of poultry and captive birds excluding those in licensed zoos against avian influenza is not currently permitted. While authorised avian influenza vaccines are available in the UK, these vaccines are unlikely to provide full protection for the current strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza circulating in the UK and continental Europe, or cross-protection to other strains which may circulate in the future. At present, vaccination can help to reduce mortality, but it is likely that some vaccinated birds would still be capable of transmitting avian influenza if they became infected. This would increase the time taken to detect and eradicate the virus and many trading partners will not accept the use of vaccination.

Defra in conjunction with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) will continue to monitor the development and availability of vaccines for their utility in preventing and responding to avian influenza outbreaks as they are put forward for market authorisation by vaccine manufacturers. Any future decisions on disease control measures, including the use of vaccination, will be based upon the latest scientific, ornithological, and veterinary advice.


Written Question
Avian Influenza: Vaccination
Wednesday 18th January 2023

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason there are no avian influenza vaccine trials taking place in the UK.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The vaccination of poultry and captive birds excluding those in licensed zoos against avian influenza is not currently permitted. While authorised avian influenza vaccines are available in the UK, these vaccines are unlikely to provide full protection for the current strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza circulating in the UK and continental Europe, or cross-protection to other strains which may circulate in the future. At present, vaccination can help to reduce mortality, but it is likely that some vaccinated birds would still be capable of transmitting avian influenza if they became infected. This would increase the time taken to detect and eradicate the virus and many trading partners will not accept the use of vaccination.<br/> <br/> Defra in conjunction with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate will continue to monitor the development and availability of vaccines for their utility in preventing and responding to avian influenza outbreaks as they are put forward for market authorisation by vaccine manufacturers. Any future decisions on disease control measures, including the use of vaccination, will be based upon the latest scientific, ornithological, and veterinary advice.


Written Question
Food: Public Sector
Monday 21st November 2022

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

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 plans to mandate the public sector procurement of locally sourced British food and drink.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Under domestic and international regulations, we cannot stipulate that food procured for the public sector must be British. Government does however have a manifesto commitment to encourage the public sector to buy British, to support farmers and reduce environmental costs, and a commitment to support start-ups and small businesses via government procurement. Public sector food should therefore champion healthier, sustainable food, provided by a diverse range of suppliers. To underpin this approach, we held a consultation on public sector food and catering policy, this summer. We are analysing the responses received and will consider the feedback when making final decisions on new policy, alongside ensuring we meet our domestic and international legal obligations.


Written Question
Agriculture: Energy and Fuels
Monday 21st November 2022

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

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 plans to take to support farmers with the increased costs of food production, in the context of rising fuel and energy costs.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We understand that the global spike in oil and gas prices has affected the price of agricultural commodities, which are always closely correlated to energy costs. The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a price reduction to make sure that all businesses, including farmers, food producers, manufacturers and packagers, are protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period.

HM Government is also supporting businesses to improve their energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2030. This could deliver up to £6 billion in cost savings by 2030. We have extended the Energy Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme by three years and more than doubled its budget.

We recognise that for the pig and poultry sectors, animal feed is a substantial input cost. As of 1st June, we have successfully concluded the removal of Section 232 tariffs, allowing us to remove the 25% tariff on US maize imports, a key ingredient for animal feed.

Defra has a collaborative relationship with industry which allows us to effectively respond to disruption, should it occur. This was successfully demonstrated in response to unprecedented disruption to both supply and demand throughout COVID-19.

We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. We have also increased our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real time intelligence.


Written Question
Poultry: Animal Welfare
Monday 21st November 2022

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

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 it her policy to change the requirement for ducks to be swabbed before each movement and instead require only a visual inspection.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra requires assurance that birds, poultry products or materials associated with their keeping are not affected by avian influenza prior to them being moved out of disease control zones. Testing for avian influenza prior to movement is not required outside disease control zones.

Ducks can be sub-clinically infected with avian influenza and clinical inspection alone would not provide sufficient evidence that birds were not infected hence swabbing and negative results from diagnostic testing undertaken at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) avian influenza national reference laboratory are required prior to each movement as a condition of a movement licence being granted. However, we do not require testing of day-old ducklings prior to movement because we can rely on the success of hatching of a batch of ducks to indicate whether avian influenza is present in the eggs.


Written Question
Agriculture: Avian Influenza
Friday 18th November 2022

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

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 are taking to improve the processing time of payments made to farms affected by Avian Influenza.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Outbreaks of avian influenza in both kept and wild birds continue to occur at an unprecedented scale across Europe and the UK with cases continuing to be confirmed into year two of the outbreak for the first time. We recognise that these outbreaks are very distressing for the individual poultry farmers that are affected.

Compensation paid for birds culled by HM Government for disease control purposes is designed to promote prompt reporting of suspicion of disease and is only payable for healthy birds as set out in the Animal Health Act 1981. There is no compensation available for sick birds or birds that have died. Compensation is not paid for consequential losses, including business interruption caused by control measures, nor for eggs or poultry meat. Compensation is also not paid for other things that have to be seized because they pose a risk of transmitting disease.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) makes its assessment of the disease status of the birds based on clinical inspection and veterinary judgment. On 28 October we announced a new package of measures to support domestic producers with the impacts of avian influenza. This included changes to the compensation scheme (effective from 1 October).

Compensation will now be linked to decisions taken at the start of planned culling rather than at the end. Such that APHA’s assessment of the health of the birds to be culled will now be made shortly before the culling begins or within 48 hours of a decision to cull the birds being made whichever is shorter. This will allow us to give earlier certainty about entitlement to compensation, better reflect the impact of outbreaks on premises and lead to swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures. The amount of compensation is established by APHA using the relevant valuation rate card (or for specialist stock by a specialist valuer). The valuation rate cards are updated by APHA five times per year (in November, January, March, June and September) to ensure rates are in line with average market values for the types of birds.

In addition, in consultation with the Food Standards Agency, an easement to marketing rules was introduced in England on 28 October. The measures mean that farmers who breed turkeys, geese, ducks or capons for their meat will have the option to slaughter birds early, and to freeze them, which can then be defrosted and sold to consumers as whole birds, stuffed crowns or 2-3 bird roasts between the period 28 November and 31 December 2022. Products will also need to be properly labelled and accompanied by in-store signage and online information for customers. This option is being introduced to give producers certainty over business planning. The Welsh Government announced a similar concession on 3 November.

We produce over 11 million turkeys in the UK every year. Over the Christmas period approximately 8 million turkeys, 200,000 geese and 100,000 ducks are sold to some of the highest standards in the world. Around 50% of these are usually sold frozen. There is no immediate threat to the food supply chain as a result of the current outbreak, with the introduction of the above measure helping mitigate any potential risks to the supply of seasonal poultry products for the Christmas market.


Written Question
Poultry: Avian Influenza
Friday 18th November 2022

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department have plans to provide support for poultry farms following a cull as a result of Avian Influenza.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Outbreaks of avian influenza in both kept and wild birds continue to occur at an unprecedented scale across Europe and the UK with cases continuing to be confirmed into year two of the outbreak for the first time. We recognise that these outbreaks are very distressing for the individual poultry farmers that are affected.

Compensation paid for birds culled by HM Government for disease control purposes is designed to promote prompt reporting of suspicion of disease and is only payable for healthy birds as set out in the Animal Health Act 1981. There is no compensation available for sick birds or birds that have died. Compensation is not paid for consequential losses, including business interruption caused by control measures, nor for eggs or poultry meat. Compensation is also not paid for other things that have to be seized because they pose a risk of transmitting disease.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) makes its assessment of the disease status of the birds based on clinical inspection and veterinary judgment. On 28 October we announced a new package of measures to support domestic producers with the impacts of avian influenza. This included changes to the compensation scheme (effective from 1 October).

Compensation will now be linked to decisions taken at the start of planned culling rather than at the end. Such that APHA’s assessment of the health of the birds to be culled will now be made shortly before the culling begins or within 48 hours of a decision to cull the birds being made whichever is shorter. This will allow us to give earlier certainty about entitlement to compensation, better reflect the impact of outbreaks on premises and lead to swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures. The amount of compensation is established by APHA using the relevant valuation rate card (or for specialist stock by a specialist valuer). The valuation rate cards are updated by APHA five times per year (in November, January, March, June and September) to ensure rates are in line with average market values for the types of birds.

In addition, in consultation with the Food Standards Agency, an easement to marketing rules was introduced in England on 28 October. The measures mean that farmers who breed turkeys, geese, ducks or capons for their meat will have the option to slaughter birds early, and to freeze them, which can then be defrosted and sold to consumers as whole birds, stuffed crowns or 2-3 bird roasts between the period 28 November and 31 December 2022. Products will also need to be properly labelled and accompanied by in-store signage and online information for customers. This option is being introduced to give producers certainty over business planning. The Welsh Government announced a similar concession on 3 November.

We produce over 11 million turkeys in the UK every year. Over the Christmas period approximately 8 million turkeys, 200,000 geese and 100,000 ducks are sold to some of the highest standards in the world. Around 50% of these are usually sold frozen. There is no immediate threat to the food supply chain as a result of the current outbreak, with the introduction of the above measure helping mitigate any potential risks to the supply of seasonal poultry products for the Christmas market.


Written Question
Poultry: Avian Influenza
Friday 18th November 2022

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

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 support poultry farmers affected by the 2022 outbreak of Avian Influenza.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Outbreaks of avian influenza in both kept and wild birds continue to occur at an unprecedented scale across Europe and the UK with cases continuing to be confirmed into year two of the outbreak for the first time. We recognise that these outbreaks are very distressing for the individual poultry farmers that are affected.

Compensation paid for birds culled by HM Government for disease control purposes is designed to promote prompt reporting of suspicion of disease and is only payable for healthy birds as set out in the Animal Health Act 1981. There is no compensation available for sick birds or birds that have died. Compensation is not paid for consequential losses, including business interruption caused by control measures, nor for eggs or poultry meat. Compensation is also not paid for other things that have to be seized because they pose a risk of transmitting disease.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) makes its assessment of the disease status of the birds based on clinical inspection and veterinary judgment. On 28 October we announced a new package of measures to support domestic producers with the impacts of avian influenza. This included changes to the compensation scheme (effective from 1 October).

Compensation will now be linked to decisions taken at the start of planned culling rather than at the end. Such that APHA’s assessment of the health of the birds to be culled will now be made shortly before the culling begins or within 48 hours of a decision to cull the birds being made whichever is shorter. This will allow us to give earlier certainty about entitlement to compensation, better reflect the impact of outbreaks on premises and lead to swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures. The amount of compensation is established by APHA using the relevant valuation rate card (or for specialist stock by a specialist valuer). The valuation rate cards are updated by APHA five times per year (in November, January, March, June and September) to ensure rates are in line with average market values for the types of birds.

In addition, in consultation with the Food Standards Agency, an easement to marketing rules was introduced in England on 28 October. The measures mean that farmers who breed turkeys, geese, ducks or capons for their meat will have the option to slaughter birds early, and to freeze them, which can then be defrosted and sold to consumers as whole birds, stuffed crowns or 2-3 bird roasts between the period 28 November and 31 December 2022. Products will also need to be properly labelled and accompanied by in-store signage and online information for customers. This option is being introduced to give producers certainty over business planning. The Welsh Government announced a similar concession on 3 November.

We produce over 11 million turkeys in the UK every year. Over the Christmas period approximately 8 million turkeys, 200,000 geese and 100,000 ducks are sold to some of the highest standards in the world. Around 50% of these are usually sold frozen. There is no immediate threat to the food supply chain as a result of the current outbreak, with the introduction of the above measure helping mitigate any potential risks to the supply of seasonal poultry products for the Christmas market.