Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle the decline of seabirds.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ensuring nature’s recovery is a top priority for this Government. This is why the Government has announced a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) to deliver on our legally binding environment targets, including reversing the decline in species abundance and reducing the risk of national extinction.
Earlier this year, Natural England published the English Seabird Conservation and Recovery Pathway (ESCaRP), which assesses the vulnerability of seabird species in light of the pressures they are facing and sets out actions that could help to bring about seabird recovery. Defra plans to seek stakeholders’ views on the recommended actions this winter.
The Oslo-Paris Commission (OSPAR), the regional seas convention for the North East Atlantic, has published a Regional Action Plan (RAP) for Marine Birds on 6 September. UK experts were involved in developing the RAP which aims to reduce and eliminate the main pressures and activities impacting marine birds in the North-East Atlantic.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farms are part of the Countryside Stewardship scheme in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As of 03 September, there are 63 farm businesses with a Countryside Stewardship Agreement for the South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farms are part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As of 03 September, there are 90 farm businesses with a Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreement for the South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the updated UK Food Security Report.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra will publish the next UK Food Security Report later this year as required, and in accordance with, the Agriculture Act 2020. The Report will examine past, current, and predicted trends to present the best available understanding of UK food security.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
TTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of directly fully funding internal drainage boards.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has committed to work with the internal drainage board (IDB) sector and MHCLG to review IDBs’ current funding and costs. This will include examination of whether any changes are needed to their funding model.
IDBs are local independent statutory public bodies, mainly funded by the beneficiaries of their work. This includes farmers who pay drainage rates and local authorities that pay special levies. Those beneficiaries are represented on the boards of IDBs, where decisions on the forthcoming programme of work and sets the annual drainage rates and special levies.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many instances of fly tipping were recorded in South Holland and the Deepings constituency in (a) 2022, (b) 2023 and (c) 2024 to date.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities are required to report fly-tipping incidents and enforcement actions to Defra, which the department publishes annually, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/env24-fly-tipping-incidents-and-actions-taken-in-england. This data isn't available at a constituency level and excludes the majority of private-land incidents.
Data for the period April 2023 to March 2024 will be published at the end of this year.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of birds that were killed by onshore wind turbines in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department does not hold information on the number of birds that were killed by onshore wind turbines.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 take steps to help reduce roadside littering.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local councils are responsible for keeping the majority of trunk roads and other minor roads clear of litter. They have enforcement powers to help them do this, such as issuing a civil penalty to the keeper of a vehicle from which litter is thrown.
National Highways is responsible for keeping motorways and certain trunk roads clean and clear of litter. They inspect and grade the Strategic Road Network in accordance with Defra’s Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse and litter is picked almost every day on their roads. Their activities are reported and monitored via its corporate Performance Indicator outlined in the Roads Investment Strategy.
At this stage, the Government has not yet made an assessment of what actions to take to address the specific challenges associated with roadside litter.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 take steps to ban the breeding of cats which are predisposed to conditions that cause pain and suffering.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (the Regulations), anyone in the business of breeding and selling cats as pets needs to have a valid licence issued by their local authority. Licensees must meet strict statutory minimum welfare standards which are enforced by local authorities who have powers to issue, refuse, vary or revoke licences.
Defra has been working on a post-implementation review of the Regulations. This review considers whether the Regulations have met their objectives, and where there could be scope to further improve the protections they provide.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to prevent kitten smuggling into the United Kingdom.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to introducing the most ambitious boost in animal welfare in a generation. We are considering the most effective ways to deliver this and will be setting out next steps in due course.