Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull 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 his Department has taken help tackle the import of dogs with cropped ears since 1 January 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is already an offence in England and Wales to carry out a non-exempted mutilation, including the cropping of a dog’s ears or the docking of their tails. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 creates tougher penalties for anyone convicted of such an offence face, either being sent to prison for up to five years, or receiving an unlimited fine, or both.
The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by the hon. Member for North Devon on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom including prohibiting the import of dogs with cropped ears.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the prominence of microplastic contaminants in human tissue samples.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is aware of a several published research papers that report finding microplastic particles in human tissues such as a lung and diseased liver. These studies are small but do indicate the potential of small numbers of microplastic particles to enter some human tissues. UKHSA is not directly involved with this work and is not currently assessing the prevalence of microplastic particles in human tissues, but does have some research work ongoing with Imperial College London to look at the factors that contribute to the uptake of microplastic particles into tissues.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull 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 she has made of the potential impact of microplastics in the air within (a) houses, (b) large cities, (c) hospitals and (d) health care environments.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency undertakes a range of ambient air quality monitoring on behalf of Defra including particulate matter monitoring. Particulate matter is a complex pollutant that could include some proportion of microplastics but this is not routinely assessed. Near real time data on particulate matter levels, as well as other pollutants, are made available on UK Air website.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull 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 her Department has made of the potential impact of microplastic contaminants on public health.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The potential impact of microplastic materials on human health has been assessed in 2021 by the UK Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) who published an overarching statement on potential risks from exposure to microplastics.
The COT concluded that it is not yet possible to perform a complete assessment for the potential risks to human health from exposure to micro and nanoplastics via the oral and inhalation routes". The COT made a number of recommendations for further research including understanding the risk of exposure from the oral and inhalational routes. UKHSA has work ongoing in this area in small projects in collaboration with Imperial College. These projects, while limited, are assisting the understanding of the potential risks from exposure to micro and nano plastics from inhalational and oral exposure.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to introduce new regulations to (a) monitor and (b) mitigate the presence of microplastics in the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No assessment has been made. We are commissioning a research project called the ‘Emissions of intentionally added microplastics’ which will investigate the risks of intentionally added microplastics. It will advise on the most effective measures to address risks and help identify wider evidence gaps that need to be addressed to support a more strategic approach to managing intentionally added microplastics.
The Government has, however, taken a targeted approach to tackling microplastic pollution. We’ve already banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products and we continue to tackle upstream sources of secondary microplastics that leak into the environment, by banning and restricting commonly littered plastic items – including single use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds and through our upcoming bans on single use plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers. We recently announced in the Plan for Water that we will change the law to ban the sale of wet wipes containing plastic subject to public consultation, which will be launched in Autumn 2023.
The UK Government is also proud to have supported the proposal by Rwanda and Peru that led to the ambitious resolution to start negotiating an international legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, agreed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022. The process to negotiate a new agreement is now underway, and the UK has taken an ambitious stance, including calling for specific provisions in the agreement to address microplastic pollution.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull 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 she has made of the potential merits of (a) monitoring and (b) mitigating the presence of microplastics within the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No assessment has been made. We are commissioning a research project called the ‘Emissions of intentionally added microplastics’ which will investigate the risks of intentionally added microplastics. It will advise on the most effective measures to address risks and help identify wider evidence gaps that need to be addressed to support a more strategic approach to managing intentionally added microplastics.
The Government has, however, taken a targeted approach to tackling microplastic pollution. We’ve already banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products and we continue to tackle upstream sources of secondary microplastics that leak into the environment, by banning and restricting commonly littered plastic items – including single use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds and through our upcoming bans on single use plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers. We recently announced in the Plan for Water that we will change the law to ban the sale of wet wipes containing plastic subject to public consultation, which will be launched in Autumn 2023.
The UK Government is also proud to have supported the proposal by Rwanda and Peru that led to the ambitious resolution to start negotiating an international legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, agreed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022. The process to negotiate a new agreement is now underway, and the UK has taken an ambitious stance, including calling for specific provisions in the agreement to address microplastic pollution.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what precautionary steps his Department is taking to support communities at risk of flooding.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In July 2020, the Government published a long-term Policy Statement, which sets out our ambition to create a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk. The Policy Statement includes five policies and a number of supporting actions which will accelerate progress to better protect and better prepare the country against flooding and coastal erosion.
The Government announced in March 2020 a record £5.2 billion investment in around 2,000 flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities across England. In July 2020 we announced an additional £170 million to accelerate the building of 23 flood schemes across the country.
To support communities that have experienced repeated flooding, the Government announced the creation of a new Frequently Flooded Allowance in July 2022 to boost schemes in these areas. The new ring-fenced £100 million allowance, as part of the £5.2 billion programme, will be targeted at eligible communities where 10 or more properties have flooded twice or more in the past 10 years.
In addition to the £5.2 billion investment in flooding and coastal erosion, the government’s Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation fund (2021–2027) will allocate:
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's report, entitled Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit Report: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, published in August 2021, which states that raptors are being persecuted by organised crime groups, if the Government will (a) recognise raptor persecution as serious and organised crime and (b) allocate additional resources to help tackle raptor persecution.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We welcome this report and the fact that it recognises the UK's global leadership in fighting wildlife and forestry crime. We invited the UN to undertake this analysis and we are proud to be the first G7 country to request this assessment. While raptor persecution is not linked to organised crime groups, this government takes it very seriously and Defra has this year more than doubled its funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) from £165,000 per year to over £1.2 million over the next three years to target wildlife crime priorities including the illegal killing of birds of prey.
The report does, however, link the illegal trade of raptors to organised crime. This government recognises illegal wildlife trade (IWT) as a serious crime, which is sometimes carried out by organised criminal groups, and advocates that approach worldwide. From August 2021 the Home Office has provided additional funding for the NWCU to tackle money laundering related to IWT, aligning directly to G7 commitments to intensify the combating of illicit finance from IWT. This is intended to be a three-year project.
We will carefully consider all of the UN report's recommendations to help us build on the positive progress we have made in tackling wildlife crime. The UK is already committed to protecting endangered animals and plants from poaching and illegal trade to benefit wildlife, local communities, the economy and protect global security. We are investing over £46m between 2014 and 2022 to counter international illegal trade by reducing demand, strengthening enforcement, ensuring effective legal frameworks and developing sustainable livelihoods.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull 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 potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to (a) set targets for the reduction of plastic pollution, (b) publish a strategy and annual reports on plastic pollution reduction and (c) establish an advisory committee on plastic pollution.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Bill requires the Government to set at least one long-term, legally binding target in four of the highest priority areas for environmental improvement, including Resource Efficiency and Waste Reduction. These targets will be set following a robust, evidence-led process that includes seeking independent expert advice, a role for stakeholders and the public, and approval from Parliament. We prefer to set a wider Resources and Waste target to ensure a holistic approach to all materials, not just plastics, to ensure we achieve the best environmental outcome.
As to a strategy, annual reports and an advisory committee on plastic pollution reduction, the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan sets out our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042. In December 2018 we published the Resources and Waste Strategy, which sets out how we want to achieve this and move towards a circular economy, effectively providing a strategy for plastic pollution reduction. The Environment Bill will enable us to significantly change the way that we manage our waste and take forward a number of the proposals from the Resources and Waste Strategy. The Bill contains powers to create extended producer responsibility schemes; introduce deposit return schemes; establish greater consistency in the recycling system; better control the export of plastic waste; and give us the power to set new charges for other single-use plastic items. All these measures will effectively contribute to reducing plastic pollution.
The Government are currently consulting on policy proposals for extended producer responsibility for packaging, a deposit return scheme and more consistency in recycling collections.
We also support the UK Plastics Pact (UKPP), which produces an annual report on the progress to plastic waste reduction targets in 2025. The Pact is a collaborative initiative of over 120 business members, representing retail, manufacturing, hospitality, the plastic supply sector, plastic recycling and resource management.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What steps he is taking to secure long-term funding for nature-based flooding solutions.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government sees nature-based solutions playing an increasing role in our effort to reduce flood risk, alongside traditional flood defences, in our £5.2 billion capital flood defence programme as well as through the £200 million innovation programme. These will run for the next six years. In addition, the Government’s ongoing investment in the environment, such as the Nature for Climate Fund and our environmental land management schemes, will also support natural flood management measures.