Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 produced guidance on (a) the use of packaging by manufacturers when distributing (i) consumables and (ii) non-consumables to their supply chain and (b) declaring the amount of packaging used for operational processing.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Guidance for obligated businesses on their current packaging waste recycling responsibilities is published on GOV.UK. The requirements include registering with the regulator, reporting data on the packaging they use or supply, meeting recycling obligations and obtaining evidence of compliance with the regulations. Guidance has also been published on GOV.UK on meeting new reporting requirements under the Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging scheme. Defra has not published guidance on the use of packaging by manufacturers when distributing products.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 bring forward legislative proposals to reduce the packaging used for distributing (a) consumables and (b) non-consumables within manufacturers' supply chains.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our proposals for Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging will make businesses financially responsible for the waste management costs of the packaging they use or supply that ends up in household bins and street bins. This includes packaging used to distribute products purchased online directly to consumers. This will encourage businesses to reduce the amount of packaging they use and to use packaging that can be recycled easily. The UK Government jointly with the Devolved Administrations is consulting currently on the draft Regulations that will introduce Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging. These do not include any specific requirements on businesses to reduce distribution packaging.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 make representations to her US counterpart on the potential merits of granting whiskey from Northern Ireland the same level of distinctive product protection as afforded to Scotch whisky in that country.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Government fully recognises the importance of Irish Whiskey to the Northern Ireland economy, and we welcome the recent rise in exports of Irish Whiskey to the United States. We are fully supportive of attempts by the industry to strengthen the protection of Irish Whiskey in US federal law and will ask the US Government to pursue this to align with protection afforded already to Scotch Whisky.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 he has made of the effect on air quality of the use of hydrogen energy technology.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham on 10 September, PQ UIN 905828.
[https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-09-10/905828]
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 strengthen the development of agroecology across the UK; and if she will withdraw her support of the G7 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition to provide more resources for agroecology enhancement.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra is investing £4million over three years in research through the Sustainable Intensification Research Platform to improve the environmental and economic performance of farming. This includes exploring the role of agro-ecological practices as part of innovative farming systems.
Support is also available for UK farmers to adopt environmentally beneficial practices through agri-environment schemes.
The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is a multi-donor, multi-stakeholder initiative and operates in ten developing countries. In the UK Government, DFID is leading on our engagement with the programme.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 in addition to its work at the International Whaling Commission to discourage Japan from resuming Antarctic whaling.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK Government raises its opposition to Japan’s whaling under special permit for ‘scientific purposes’ at every appropriate opportunity.
Most recently, the UK Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) reiterated the Government’s concerns in relation to Japan’s proposal to resume whaling in the Antarctic at a meeting with the Japanese Commissioner to the IWC in May 2015, and officials from the Japanese Embassy in March 2015. Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Japan and I, as the then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Farming, Food and Marine Environment, have also both written to the Japanese Government on this issue.
Also quite recently, at the meeting of the Scientific Committee, which advises the IWC, members of the UK’s scientific delegation were proactively involved in discussions surrounding the validity of Japan’s proposed Antarctic Whaling Programme.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
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 tackle the illegal importation of puppies to the UK from Eastern Europe.
Answered by George Eustice
The action we are taking to tackle this trade is focused on three areas:
Firstly, responsibility for stopping the illegal movement of puppies begins in the country where they are born, where the authorities have a duty to ensure that the welfare of pets intended for sale is safeguarded and that EU pet passports are issued correctly. Following a recent report by the Dogs Trust ‘The Puppy Smuggling Scandal’ published in November 2014 the Chief Veterinary Officer wrote to the authorities in the countries highlighted in the report and follow up action has been taken. My officials will continue to act on reports of abuse of the pet travel scheme.
Secondly, we will maintain effective border controls. The UK carries out more checks on pets at the border than most other EU member states and stringent penalties are in place where people are found to be breaking the rules.
Thirdly, the illegal trade is driven by demand for cheap pedigree puppies and we have published guidance on the steps pet owners can take to avoid buying an illegally imported pet: https://www.gov.uk/buying-a-cat-or-dog. We are also working with the Pet Advertising Advisory Group who have developed minimum standards for on-line pet advertisers and which have led to the removal of over 130,000 problematic adverts in the last year.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much in Single Farm Payment was paid to farm businesses in each county of Northern Ireland in the last year for which data is available.
Answered by George Eustice
The administration of the Single Payment Scheme within countries in the UK is a devolved issue and therefore the operation of the Scheme in Northern Ireland is a matter for the Northern Ireland Department for Agriculture and Rural Development.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she next plans to meet farming organisations in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
We work closely with farming organisations across the UK and look forward to meeting representatives in due course.