Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress the VMD has made with its roadmap to help address the presence of chemicals from pet flea and tick treatments in UK waterways.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) leads the cross‑government Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PiE) Group and is taking forward a programme of work to address the presence of chemicals from pet flea and tick treatments in UK waterways. In response to detections of fipronil and imidacloprid above toxicity thresholds for aquatic invertebrates, the VMD published a roadmap setting out planned actions.
Progress includes holding the first PiE stakeholder workshop in Summer 2025, commissioning research on pet owner behaviours and exposure modelling, and working with environment agencies to improve monitoring data consistency. The VMD is also undertaking an evidence‑based review of the legal distribution categories for products containing these substances and contributing to international work to consider updates to environmental risk assessment approaches.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has assessed the potential merits of amending the user risk mitigation advice for spot-on pet treatments to include all sources of the potential impact of short and long term exposure in households where pets are treated routinely, including on children.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Veterinary Medicinal Products (VMPs) undergo a product-specific user risk assessment that considers all those that may come into contact with the medicine, including adults and children. This assessment considers the identified hazards of the medicine, the likely exposure to adults and children when VMPs are used as recommended and concludes on the likely risks to humans. The identified risks are mitigated using appropriate packaging and user safety warnings on the product information supplied with the medicines. Once authorised for marketing, pharmacovigilance reporting provides further data from use of these medicines in real-world situations, and these data are used to consider any changes required to reduce identified risks, such as updating the user safety warnings. If a concern with the current mitigations is identified, then the advice can be updated.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has assessed the potential merits of asking the VMD to reduce the unrestricted use of spot-on pet treatments by re-classifying them from general sales to POM-V.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is responsible for setting legal distribution categories for veterinary medicines and must balance animal health and welfare, public health, environmental protection and access to treatment. Many flea and tick products containing fipronil and imidacloprid are currently classified as AVM‑GSL, allowing supply without professional advice.
In light of environmental evidence, the VMD is undertaking an evidence‑based review of the distribution categories for these products. This includes considering whether requiring professional advice at the point of sale, through a minimum classification of NFA‑VPS, could help reduce environmental risk while maintaining access for pet owners.
Further details on this review will be available in early 2026. Any future regulatory decisions will follow a transparent, consultative process and will be based on robust scientific evidence, with animal welfare remaining paramount.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish the response to the Stage 3 consultation on managing bottom trawl fishing in 41 English marine protected areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Ely and East Cambridgeshire on 13 November 2025, PQ 88509.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the planned timescales are for the action points in the Cross-government Pharmaceuticals in the Environment Group Roadmap on addressing levels of fipronil and imidacloprid detected in UK waterways; and how she plans to measure their levels of success.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Cross-government Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PiE) Group Roadmap sets out a phased approach to addressing the presence of fipronil and imidacloprid in UK waterways. It outlines three broad categories of action: immediate efforts focused on communication and education; medium-term actions centred on evidence gathering; and longer-term regulatory interventions.
To ensure the roadmap remains responsive to emerging evidence and evolving priorities, the timelines have been intentionally kept broad. This flexibility is essential to allow the programme to adapt to new challenges or opportunities as they arise. While we have indicative timeframes, i.e. immediate actions are expected to show significant progress within a year, medium-term actions within five years, and longer-term actions will be shaped by the evidence gathered during the medium term, we recognise that agility is key. In particular, the longer-term regulatory actions will require careful consideration of the evidence base as it develops.
Success will be measured through progress against roadmap actions, including delivery of stakeholder engagement, improved guidance, and evidence outputs. In addition, environmental monitoring, led by the relevant UK environment agencies, will track levels of fipronil and imidacloprid in surface waters over time. Collectively, these measures will help assess the effectiveness of stewardship efforts and guide future regulatory decisions.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has considered requiring pet products containing pesticides that are sold off the shelf to the public to provide explicit (a) advice and (b) warnings of their potential impacts on the environment at the point of sale.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is aware of stakeholder concerns regarding veterinary medicines that can be sold without a prescription and are available from general retailers (AVM-GSL distribution category) for some companion animal flea and tick products. A review of this distribution category for these products remains an option that the VMD is considering in order to assess the requirements for advice and environmental warnings at the point of sale.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
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 plans to take to support fishers to adopt innovative gear with proven selectivity benefits.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As a member of the UK Gear forum, Defra will continue working with the fisheries administrations and industry to promote the commercial uptake of innovative fishing gear. Together, we are exploring opportunities to overcome barriers to the adoption of more selective gear types.
Defra will work with industry to explore how the £360 million Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund can be used to target investment where it matters most, which could include investment in new technology and equipment to modernise our fishing fleet.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with devolved fisheries administrations on a coordinated approach to supporting the commercial uptake of innovative fishing gear.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is engaging with the devolved fisheries administrations through the UK Gear Forum to identify opportunities for joint action, including potential funding routes.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
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 implement the recommendations of the report by Seafish entitled Supporting the Commercial Uptake of Innovative Fishing Gear, published on 10 September 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The results of this Defra funded report provides a useful insight into the issues and potential barriers to the adoption of more selective fishing gear. The UK fisheries administrations encourage the commercial uptake of innovative fishing gear and will work together to explore how to unlock the barriers to the take up of more selective gears, which this report can inform on.
Defra remains committed to keeping the dialogue open with industry partners and our partners in the devolved Governments. Defra will continue to support the use of trials of new innovative and selective fishing gear. Where a trial clearly demonstrates that the new fishing gear is shown to minimise the wider impact on the marine environment and reduces unwanted bycatch, Defra will look to make the necessary changes to regulations to facilitate this change.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
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 establish a registration scheme for UK vessels to provide ring-fenced funds to tackle the issue of abandoned end of life boats.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that end of life recreational vessels are a source of litter and pollution when abandoned and is leading an action in the OSPAR Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter to improve the management of end-of-life recreational vessels. As part of this work, the Government commissioned research on the number of vessels reaching end-of-life across the North East Atlantic area, and on policy options to reduce the issue of marine litter from abandoned vessels. This research is being used to inform the development of best practice guidance.