Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
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 ensure that cane sugar importation from African and Caribbean countries is protected when EU beet sugar quotas are lifted in 2017.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra has been working closely with the Department for International Development and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to ensure that the Economic Partnership Agreements between African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and the EU are concluded. This will ensure that African and Caribbean countries continue to benefit from preferential access to the EU for their sugar.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
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 protect cane sugar refiners (a) in East London and (b) elsewhere in the UK following the lifting of beet sugar quotas in 2017.
Answered by George Eustice
During negotiations of the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy, which led to the agreement to end sugar beet production quotas in 2017, the UK pushed for the full liberalisation of the sugar regime in order to allow the sugar cane refiners to compete with the beet producers on an equal footing.
Disappointingly, there was insufficient support from other Member States to secure the necessary changes as part of that exercise. However, we remain committed to working with the European Commission to address this issue through forthcoming EU trade agreements.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her Department's policy is on EU renegotiation of quotas to get a better deal for cane sugar importers.
Answered by George Eustice
During negotiations of the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy, which led to the agreement to end sugar beet production quotas in 2017, the UK pushed for the full liberalisation of the sugar regime in order to allow the sugar cane refiners to compete with the beet producers on an equal footing.
Disappointingly, there was insufficient support from other Member States to secure the necessary changes as part of that exercise. However, we remain committed to working with the European Commission to address this issue through forthcoming EU trade agreements.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
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 air quality in London; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Defra uses both monitoring and modelling to assess air quality in the UK. Data is updated hourly on our website at: http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/. For the 17 automatic monitoring sites in London, modelled data for previous years and projections for the achievement of EU air quality limit values for nitrogen dioxide are also available on the website.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
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 public health risks from air pollution in London; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) advises the Government on all matters concerning the health effects of air pollutants. COMEAP has previously assessed the effects of long-term exposure to air pollution on mortality. It has also assessed mortality effects from particulate matter specifically, which included an assessment for London. The reports are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/comeap-reports.
Mortality attributable to particulate air pollution is included in the Public Health Outcomes Framework, used to assess progress by local authorities in addressing this health issue.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his policy is on the future of the public forest estate and on ways of putting this on a sustainable footing for the future; and whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to achieve those policy objectives.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Government's policy on the future of the Public Forest Estate is set out in its Forestry and Woodlands Policy Statement of January 2013. The Government is committed to maintaining the Public Forest Estate in public ownership and to establishing a new operationally-independent public body to manage the estate for the long-term benefit of people, nature and the economy.
There were many proposals competing for the limited space within the Fourth Session programme and the proposed forestry measures could not be accommodated. However, the Government stands by its commitment to establish the new public body as soon as parliamentary time allows.