Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department plans to bring forward proposals for further Highly Protected Marine Areas.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra recently announced that it intends to designate the first three Highly Protected Marine Areas in English Waters. These HPMAs would be designated before 6th July 2023. Currently there are no targets set or planned for Highly Protected Marine Areas, however Defra will explore additional sites this year. Any future sites will also be subject to consultation.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 take steps to set targets on the designation of additional Highly Protected Marine Areas.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra recently announced that it intends to designate the first three Highly Protected Marine Areas in English Waters. These HPMAs would be designated before 6th July 2023. Currently there are no targets set or planned for Highly Protected Marine Are-as, however Defra will explore additional sites this year. Any future sites will also be subject to consultation.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 encourage the use of low carbon technologies such as water saving devices in (a) new build and (b) existing homes.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
On 31st January 2023, as part of the Environment Improvement Plan, we published our roadmap for water efficiency in new developments and retrofits. Here we set out 10 actions we are taking on water efficiency in new developments and retrofits, including reviewing building regulations and working across government to integrate water efficiency into energy efficiency advice and retrofit programmes. The actions can be found in further detail here: Environmental Improvement Plan (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 it his Department's policy to create at least five no-take Highly Protected Marine Areas.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra recently consulted on five candidate pilot Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). The consultation closed on 28 September. The responses and further evidence received are currently being analysed, and will inform the Secretary of State’s decision on whether pilot sites should be designated and if so, what their final site boundaries should be. Any pilot HPMAs would be designated through the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 by 6 July 2023. This would be a year from the start of the consultation as required by the Act.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 set out a strategy for 10 per cent of English waters to be classed as Highly Protected Marine Areas by 2026.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We are not currently considering a numerical target for HPMAs in English waters. We recently consulted on five candidate pilot HPMAs and our current focus is designating sites using the views and evidence gathered during the consultation. Any pilot HPMAs would be designated through the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 by 6 July 2023. This would be a year from the start of the consultation as required by the Act.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many reindeer were exported from the UK in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021; and to which countries those exports were sent in each year.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
There has only been one export of reindeer in 2021, this was exported from the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland and the consignment contained two reindeers.
There were no Exports of reindeer in 2020.
The information that we have provided is a true reflection of the information that we have access to. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data, as we can only rely on the information that has been input into external customer facing systems by third parties.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many reindeer were imported into the UK in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021; and from which countries they were imported.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
There were no reindeer imports into Great Britain during 2020.
During 2021, there were two imports of reindeer (two consignments of two animals, a total of 4 animals). Both of these consignments came from Northern Ireland.
The information that we have provided is a true reflection of the information that we have access to. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data, as we can only rely on the information that has been input into external customer facing systems by third parties.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 introduce a ban on the prophylactic use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government remains committed to reducing the unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare.
Changes to the law on veterinary medicines is one of the tools which can be used to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in animals and, as one element of a programme of interventions to help deliver the UK's 5-year national action plan on antimicrobial resistance, it is our intention to strengthen our national law in this area
Over the past year the Veterinary Medicines Directorate has engaged in a comprehensive dialogue with stakeholders about a broad range of changes that we propose to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013, which set out controls on marketing, manufacturing, supply and use of veterinary medicines. Proposed changes include new measures to help tackle antimicrobial resistance
We are now preparing to publish a formal consultation paper setting out our proposals which will provide the opportunity for all affected stakeholders to express their views. Following the public consultation, we anticipate laying new legislation in 2023.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to use the next stages of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway to help ensure the high standards of animal welfare in abattoirs in the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Animal Health and Welfare Pathway maps out how farmers and government will work together to continually improve the health and welfare of our farmed animals, supported by the best science and evidence. It involves three mutually reinforcing pillars in making this change: financial incentives to help farmers deliver on-farm improvements; stimulating market demand through labelling and mandatory public disclosure to improve the accessibility, availability and affordability of higher welfare products; and, where needed, strengthening regulation to ensure the changes made endure. Following the post-implementation review of our welfare at killing legislation, and as part of our Action Plan for Animal Welfare, we are looking at a wide range of welfare at slaughter improvements that could be made to strengthen the regulatory baseline in slaughterhouses. Welfare at slaughter is a devolved matter, and the Government remains committed to working closely with the devolved administrations on our shared aims for animal welfare.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 hold discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential merits of a ban on the overuse of antibiotics on healthy farm animals to help prevent antimicrobial resistance.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The UK Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare. Antibiotics are an essential part of veterinary medicine. Failing to use antibiotics in animals which need them compromises animal health and welfare. It has been our position for many years that we do not support the routine or predictable use of antibiotics, including where antibiotics are used to compensate for inadequate farming practices.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate annually record the sales and usage of antibiotics in food producing animals, and have surveillance programmes in place which test for antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from animals. In the UK, the use of antibiotics in food producing animals has reduced by 55% between 2014 and 2021, and in 2021 we recorded the lowest antibiotic use to date.
As the Minister responsible for biosecurity, London Benyon regularly raises the risks of antimicrobial resistance in the relevant cross-Whitehall settings, including with counterparts at the Department of Health and Social Care.