Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
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 promote the up-listing of African lions to Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
At the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) earlier this year, it was decided that lions should not be uplisted to Appendix I of the Convention. The Government supported this decision.
Based on the biological and other listing criteria under CITES, our assessment is that the entire lion population of Africa does not currently meet the criteria for inclusion in Appendix I. This is notably the case for Southern African lion populations, which have an increasing population trend.
The UK takes the conservation of lions seriously. At the CITES Conference of the Parties, the UK played an instrumental role in banning the trade in wild lion bones, which represents a key conservation concern. We also supported a broad range of decisions to support African lion conservation on a continent-wide basis.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
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 support the Chinese government in protecting tigers.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
I met the Chinese delegation to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of Parties in London immediately before the conference which was held in Johannesburg from 24 September to 5 October 2016. We discussed the conservation of a number of species including tigers.
At the Conference, the UK, working with the Member States of the European Union and other countries, achieved strong outcomes for tigers including agreement to proposed decisions to scrutinise captive breeding facilities, and a regional photographic repository of seized tiger skins to aid enforcement action.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on what the additional £13 million to tackle the illegal wildlife trade announced in her Department's press release, UK leading global fight against illegal wildlife trade, published on 17 November 2016, will be spent.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The UK has a strong record as a global leader in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), and remains committed to working to bring an end to this scourge.
We intend to use the additional £13 million in UK funding announced on 17 November to tackle IWT through a number of new initiatives to reduce demand, strengthen enforcement and develop sustainable livelihoods for communities affected by IWT. This is likely to include expanded British Military training for African park rangers; additional funding for Interpol to expand its work with key nations, tracking and intercepting illegal shipments of ivory, rhino horn and other illegal wildlife products; and up to £4million for the International Consortium for Combatting Wildlife Crime.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with her Indian counterpart on preventing the practice of capturing and breaking young elephants in India for use in the tourism industry.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Prime Ministers David Cameron and Narendra Modi met in London in November 2015 and issued a joint statement in which they resolved to work together to improve protection for both captive and wild Asian elephants. There have been no discussions with the Indian Government specifically on banning the use of elephants in tourist attractions or preventing the capturing and breaking of young elephants for use in the tourism industry. However, further official level discussions have taken place with the Indian High Commission to discuss the joint statement and discuss specific areas on which we might work constructively beyond international fora such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Within CITES the UK has led on securing agreement to measures to increase focus on protecting Asian elephants. These include the strengthening of national legislation and enforcement to combat illegal trade in live Asian elephants, for range countries to develop strategies to manage their captive domestic populations and to develop and apply a regional registration and marking system covering domestic Asian elephants.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
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 help prevent the hunting to extinction of endangered species.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) legal rules are in place to ensure that any international movement of trophies from the hunting of endangered species can only take place if the hunt is assessed as not having a detrimental impact on the survival of the species.
In light of growing concerns about the sustainability of the hunting of some species, we have worked with EU Member States to introduce stricter controls on the importation of hunting trophies of certain endangered species, including lions and African elephants. As a result, the importation of hunting trophies of certain species from certain countries is currently prohibited.
We have also been pressing for tough, transparent, global standards for the hunting of protected species. I attended the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES where Parties agreed to remove the loophole that allowed such trophies to be transported as personal effects. As a result, export permits will be needed for almost all hunted animals of endangered species included in Appendix II of CITES, including lions and African elephants, as well as those in Appendix I. Building on this, we agreed clear criteria the exporting country should consider when assessing that the hunt was both legal and sustainable before issuing an export permit.
Finally, in the case of lions and African elephants, the UK has to then confirm that we agree with this assessment and issue a corresponding permit before any import can take place. As a result, we secured greater scrutiny of trade in trophies to ensure the sustainability of exports.
We will continue to monitor the impact of trophy hunting and will work to put in place greater protection, including prohibiting imports, if this is shown to be needed.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
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 prohibit the importation of trophies secured from the killing of (a) lions, (b) elephants and (c) other mammals in African countries.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) legal rules are in place to ensure that any international movement of trophies from the hunting of endangered species can only take place if the hunt is assessed as not having a detrimental impact on the survival of the species.
In light of growing concerns about the sustainability of the hunting of some species, we have worked with EU Member States to introduce stricter controls on the importation of hunting trophies of certain endangered species, including lions and African elephants. As a result, the importation of hunting trophies of certain species from certain countries is currently prohibited.
We have also been pressing for tough, transparent, global standards for the hunting of protected species. I attended the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES where Parties agreed to remove the loophole that allowed such trophies to be transported as personal effects. As a result, export permits will be needed for almost all hunted animals of endangered species included in Appendix II of CITES, including lions and African elephants, as well as those in Appendix I. Building on this, we agreed clear criteria the exporting country should consider when assessing that the hunt was both legal and sustainable before issuing an export permit.
Finally, in the case of lions and African elephants, the UK has to then confirm that we agree with this assessment and issue a corresponding permit before any import can take place. As a result, we secured greater scrutiny of trade in trophies to ensure the sustainability of exports.
We will continue to monitor the impact of trophy hunting and will work to put in place greater protection, including prohibiting imports, if this is shown to be needed.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on ensuring elephants are given the highest level of international protection.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The UK Government is committed to tackling the crisis facing the African elephant from poaching and illegal trafficking. We fully support the existing global ban on ivory trade. The UK has discussed the global level of protection afforded to the elephant with EU Member States on numerous occasions. In particular, the proposal submitted to the 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to include all populations of African elephant in Appendix I was debated in EU CITES meetings in preparation for CoP17.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what resources her Department allocated to local authorities and the emergency services in Northamptonshire to develop their capacity to deal with flash floods in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Government provides funding to Lead Local Flood Authorities to carry out their duties in relation to managing and co-ordinating local flood risk under the Flood and Water Management Act. Local flood risk includes surface water run off. However, local authorities decide what to spend according to local priorities.
For the past three years this funding has been provided through two mechanisms i.e. direct grant from Defra via the Local Services Support Grant and from the Department for Communities and Local Government through the Local Government Finance Settlement. The total funding provided to Northamptonshire County Council in the last three years for their role as a Lead Local Flood Authority was:
Of this, the funding provided directly by Defra was:
This Department does not fund the work of the emergency services.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
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 has put in place further flood prevention measures in response to the recent flooding in Northamptonshire.
Answered by Rory Stewart
As the Lead Local Flood Authority, Northamptonshire County Council will be carrying out 17 formal flood investigations, with support from the Environment Agency. These flood reports will recommend actions to reduce the risk of future flooding. The Environment Agency will review their programme of works, in line with the recent flooding incident, and will investigate if any Capital work can be brought forward to reduce flood risk.