Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) animal welfare and (b) environmental management protections in the comprehensive trade deal between the UK and New Zealand.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the UK and New Zealand includes ground-breaking provisions on both animal welfare and environmental protection
The forward-looking provisions in the animal welfare chapter are largely unprecedented in other FTAs. We have secured non-regression and non-derogation clauses on animal welfare. This means both countries are committed to not lowering their animal welfare standards or make exceptions for their producers in a manner that materially affects trade. The chapter includes strong commitments to work with New Zealand bilaterally and in international fora to progress animal welfare standards.
The Environment chapter demonstrates our global leadership on climate and environmental protection. It will liberalise tariffs on the largest list of environmental goods in any FTA to date and encourage trade and investment in low carbon services and technology. It includes commitments to tackle environmental challenges such as illegal wildlife trade, air pollution, marine pollution and litter, and promote biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, and the transition to a circular economy. The chapter also affirms our commitments to implement multilateral environmental agreements, including the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and Paris Agreement.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What steps he is taking to increase animal welfare standards.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
This Government has an ambitious programme of legislative and non-legislative measures that go further than ever to ensure the highest level of animal welfare standards. Our Action Plan for Animal Welfare provides an overview. As part of this, we have introduced the Animal Sentience and Kept Animals Bills and intend to legislate further in an Animals Abroad Bill.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the environmental benefits of banning microbeads in June 2018.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The ban on microbeads in rinse-off personal care products in 2018 was developed based on evidence of harm to the marine environment from microplastics, and specifically evidence of microbeads directly entering the marine environment through the water treatment process. It aimed to create a level playing field between businesses that had already taken voluntary action and those that continued to use microbeads. An impact assessment was carried out before the ban was implemented. The impact assessment can be found here:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2017/178/pdfs/ukia_20170178_en.pdf.
More evidence is required to understand the full impact of microplastics, including microbeads, on the marine environment. We have been working to understand other sources of microplastics into the marine environment. This includes a Defra funded study, which investigated the sources and pathways of microplastics from tyres and textiles into the ocean:
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
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 with the food retail sector to ensure continuity of food supply.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government has well-established ways of working with the food industry during disruption to supply situations. The Government has regular engagement across the industry who continue to monitor the situation closely, taking the necessary steps to address issues where they arise.
Following a significant spike in consumer demand, we have now seen stock levels in supermarkets improve. To support the food sector, the Government temporarily relaxed competition law and regulations relating to driver hours and delivery times so that the sector could work together to keep putting food on the shelves.
We welcome the actions that industry is taking, including hiring more staff, and prioritising delivery slots and shopping times for those that need them most. We are grateful for the extensive support and positive collaboration that the industry has shown. We will continue these conversations to keep food supply chains flowing and make sure people have the food and products they need.
Thanks to rapidly increasing testing capacity, the government has expanded eligibility to all essential workers with symptoms of coronavirus, including those working in the food and drink industry.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
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 with supermarkets to help vulnerable people to shop for groceries online.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Supermarkets have been working at pace to expand the total number of delivery and click and collect slots.
The Government is working to ensure that approximately 1.8 million people in England identified by the NHS as being at higher risk of severe illness if they contract Coronavirus have access to the food they need. We have shared with supermarkets the details of those who have registered as extremely clinically vulnerable and need help accessing food. These details are processed by the supermarkets, who match these names against their own customer databases. They then offer people the option of priority access to online delivery.
We are also working quickly to support people who do not fall into the category of being clinically extremely vulnerable, but still need help getting essential food supplies. This includes those who are elderly, disabled or have health conditions that make it difficult for them to get the food they need. We are speaking to food retailers, delivery organisations and volunteer groups to help prioritise those individuals to access essential food. Most supermarkets are offering prioritised delivery and click and collect slots to those they have identified as vulnerable from their customer databases (for example by age, shopping habits or previous use of vulnerable customer helplines). We are working closely with retailers and local authorities to stand up a service to allow local authorities to refer vulnerable people to supermarkets for a priority delivery or click and collect slot.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to allocation of convergence uplift funding in 2013, whether she has any plans to increase financial support to farmers in Scotland.
Answered by George Eustice
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
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 to tackle the illegal wildlife trade coming through Scottish ports and airports.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The UK is a Party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which regulates the wildlife trade and protects endangered wildlife from unsustainable trade. These obligations are effected in the UK through the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations. The issuance of CITES import, export and re-export permits is administered in the UK by the Animal and Plant Health Agency. Compliance with the regulations and licensing requirements is enforced across all UK borders.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what international representations are being made to reduce waste in the oceans in international waters and the Polar Regions.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The UK is committed to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 14 – preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution of all kinds. Marine litter is a global issue affecting every region of the world’s oceans and therefore needs global action. To achieve this goal we are working through a number of organisations and multilateral organisations.
We played a leading role within the G7 to drive ambitious action under the Ocean Plastics Charter in 2018 which has secured support from 16 governments and 20 businesses and organisations.
In April 2018 the Prime Minister launched the Commonwealth Clean Ocean Alliance, an action group under the Commonwealth Blue Charter that takes action on marine plastic pollution. Led by the UK and Vanuatu, 24 Commonwealth country members of the CCOA have pledged ambitious action to tackle plastic pollution. The CCOA is supported by a package of UK aid of up to £66.4m, which will provide technical assistance and boost much needed research and innovation to stop plastic entering the marine environment in the first place.
In the Polar Regions, the UK has maintained strong involvement in finalising the environmental aspects of the Polar Code, through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and Protection of the Marine Environment Working Group (PAME). The Polar Code includes mandatory measures covering pollution prevention from various wastes. The dumping of plastic waste in Antarctica is prohibited and UK fishing operators are leading action to reduce plastic pollution released into Antarctic waters.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
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 his Department has made of (a) how widespread social exclusion is in rural areas and (b) the effect of his Department’s policies on social exclusion in rural areas.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
This is a devolved matter and the below refers to England only.
Through the evidence gathered in the 2017-18 Community Life Survey in England, indicators linked to social exclusion do not show a significant difference between urban and rural areas. Adults living in rural areas are less likely to say that they feel they often/always feel lonely than people living in urban areas (3% compared with 6%). In addition, adults living in rural areas are more likely to say they feel they belong to their immediate neighbourhood (68%) than those living in urban areas (61%).
The cross-Government team on tackling loneliness is working with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations to ensure our work is complementary and to share insights and learn from one another.
Defra publishes the Statistical Digest of Rural England, a collection of statistics on a range of social and economic themes including poverty and well-being. The Digest allows for comparisons between rural and urban areas and is updated throughout the year. The Digest is available on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistical-digest-of-rural-england
In its response to a House of Lords’ report on the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act in May 2018, the Government reiterated its commitment to rural proofing all policies from the earliest stages so that they take account of the needs and circumstances of rural areas. Defra supports this through the provision of guidance and statistical information.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
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 support schemes which provide non-basic payment funding for farmers through the Common Agricultural Policy after the UK leaves the EU and during the time basic payments are to be maintained until 2022.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government understands the importance of providing stability to farmers as we leave the European Union.
The same cash total in funds for farm support has been committed for the duration of this Parliament.
We have also committed to fund Pillar II agreements, including agri-environment schemes, signed from within the current Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) allocation before the UK leaves the EU. These will be funded for their lifetime, as long as they are in line with domestic priorities and are good value for money.