Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
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 enable the early resumption of shooting after the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government has said people can now leave their homes for the purposes of open-air recreation in public open spaces to promote their physical or mental health or emotional wellbeing. What counts as “open-air recreation” is not defined in the regulations but would include shooting. The regulations define public open spaces as:
(a) Land laid out as a public garden or used for the purpose of recreation by members of the public;
(b) land which is "open country" as defined in section 59(2) of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, as that definition has been extended by section 16(1) of the Countryside Act 1968;
(c) land which is "access land" for the purposes of Part 1 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (see section 1(1) of that Act)
The Government has published guidance on the phased return of outdoor sport and recreation. Outdoor sports courts and other outdoor sporting activities are permitted to reopen if those responsible for them are ready to do so and they can do so safely, following public health guidance. This can be found on the GOV.UK website at:
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
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 hold discussions with the Environmental Agency on reducing levels of raw sewage discharged into (a) main and (b) non-main rivers by water companies.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ministers hold regular discussions with the Environment Agency (EA), on all environmental issues including water quality. My officials also regularly meet with their EA colleagues to discuss waste water management, including sewage discharges.
In England, the majority of the sewerage system is ‘combined’, meaning that sewage is collected along with rain water run-off. Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in the sewerage system operate to reduce the risk of sewer flooding of homes and land during heavy rainfall. To prevent discharges, between 2015 to 2020 water companies are installing monitors on up to 13,000 of the 15,000 CSOs in England. These will measure how often and for how long they operate, helping inform where improvement works may be required and providing information to the public about spills. This information has been used to help develop the environmental programme that the water companies will be implementing over the next five years, which includes almost £4 billion of investment to reduce pollution from sewage.
All discharges from CSOs require a permit issued by the EA, containing conditions to protect the environment. The EA has the powers to take action if water companies breach their permits and cause harm to the environment.
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
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 publish her Department's response to the Wild Justice Challenge on the effect of rearing gamebirds on Sites of Special Scientific Interest; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra can confirm that the Secretary of State will make a statement shortly. In summary, in response to a pre-action protocol letter from Wild Justice (WJ) in July 2019, last September Defra accepted in its reply that in principle the release of non-native gamebirds on, or affecting, Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) could constitute a “plan or project” requiring appropriate assessment under Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive. Whether they will actually do so in any given case will depend on whether they may have a significant effect on the specific SPA or SAC in question. This will depend in turn on the nature of the activities, the features and condition of the SPA or SAC, the distance from the SPA or SAC where the activities are carried out and the possible effects of the activities. While not accepting the argument that current laws do not provide for appropriate assessment in such cases, we proposed to undertake a review to consider the legislative arrangements around the relevant activities and whether there were ways in which their effectiveness could be improved.
WJ’s recent pre-action protocol letter of 20 January 2020 essentially demanded that the Secretary of State should provide the timetable and terms of reference for the legislative review and confirm that the Secretary of State will proscribe or regulate gamebird releases within 5km of any SPA or SAC before gamebird introductions commence in Summer 2020. Defra confirmed in its response to WJ that work on the review is underway and that we will announce further details in the coming weeks. Defra confirmed that the review will include, though will not be limited to, consideration of the section 28E Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 consenting process and the use of Special Nature Conservation Orders in relation to non-native gamebirds release, specifically common pheasant and red-legged partridge, as well as exploring other possible options that might be used so that such releases can be subject to appropriate assessment where appropriate.
Defra explained that the object of the review is to identify the most suitable approach, and that the Secretary of State will not take any steps that pre-empt the outcome. Given the scope of what is involved, Defra stated that it is not in its view reasonable nor realistic to expect measures to be implemented before summer/autumn 2020.