Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if the Government will take steps to (a) mitigate against and (b) effectively monitor bycatch in high-risk fisheries.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We recognise that accidental bycatch in fisheries is one of the greatest threats faced by sensitive marine species such as dolphins and seabirds, and we remain fully committed to tackling this issue. The Fisheries Act 2020 and Joint Fisheries Statement have an “ecosystem objective” which includes an objective to minimise and, where possible, eliminate incidental catches of sensitive marine species.
Since 2020, Defra has funded Clean Catch UK, a research programme which is developing and trialling a range of bycatch monitoring and mitigation measures in Cornwall (a known high-risk area for sensitive species bycatch). This programme has developed a bycatch self-reporting mobile application validated by observers and electronic monitoring and an online ‘Bycatch Mitigation Hub’ with information on different approaches to reduce bycatch. In addition, we are working with the fishing industry to trial various innovative technologies to reduce cetacean bycatch.
The UK Government funds a comprehensive and well-respected bycatch monitoring programme which provides essential observer data on incidents of sensitive species bycatch. The programme focusses primarily on gear types with a high expected or known risk of sensitive species bycatch. A new contract for the bycatch monitoring programme is expected to begin in April 2022.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
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 ensure that the Joint Fisheries Statement expected in November 2022 contains a commitment to establishing specific, time-bound and measurable objectives to minimise and where possible eliminate bycatch of sensitive species.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We recognise that accidental bycatch in fisheries is one of the greatest threats faced by sensitive marine species such as dolphins and seabirds, and we remain fully committed to tackling this issue. The Fisheries Act 2020 and Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS) have an “ecosystem objective” which includes an objective to minimise and, where possible, eliminate incidental catches of sensitive marine species.
The JFS is out to consultation until 12 April 2022. After the consultation, we will summarise the responses and place this summary on the UK Government and all devolved administrations’ websites.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the total amount of textile waste produced by the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Approximately 921,000 tonnes of used textiles are disposed of in household residual waste in the UK each year, with a further 620,000 tonnes sent for reuse and recycling.
These figures do not include commercial textiles waste from brands/retailers UK operations.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if the Government will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a one pence per garment levy to support better clothing collection and sorting.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government's Resources & Waste Strategy identified textiles as a priority for consideration for an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. EPR works to ensure producers, rather than taxpayers, pay the costs of their products when they become waste – and incentivise them to cut waste and make their products more sustainable and easier to recycle. Research is underway and we will engage stakeholders on options by the end of 2022.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions the Government has had with the fashion industry to encourage major fashion outlets to take part in voluntary initiatives including (a) the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan and (b) Textiles 2030 over the last two years.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government worked closely with WRAP on the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) 2020 and to develop and launch the ambitious new voluntary agreement, Textiles 2030
Building on the success of SCAP, Textiles 2030 was launched in April 2021 and we are pleased that within six months 92 signatories have joined, including ASOS, Boohoo, Dunelm, John Lewis, M&S, New Look, Next, Primark, Sainsbury’s, Ted Baker and Tesco. 62% of all clothing put on the UK market is represented by Textiles 2030 members. The new initiative is underpinned by ambitious targets including halving the carbon footprint of new products by 50% and reducing the water footprint by 30%, both by 2030.
Defra ministers have been proactively engaging with industry to drive participation in both SCAP (now closed) and now Textiles 2030. This included chairing a roundtable with industry in February 2021 ahead of the launch of Textiles 2030 and events to mark the 6-month celebration of Textiles 2030 and closing of SCAP in October last year.
We are now working closely with Textiles 2030 to support our policy development.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
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 improve transparency in the fashion supply chain by (a) providing the information on clothing labels or (b) other steps to allow consumers to easily access information on a garment's carbon footprint when making a purchase.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the Government’s Resources & Waste Strategy we committed to provide consumers with better information on products when they purchase items, such as textiles and clothing. Our draft Waste Prevention Programme for England published in March 2021 identified textiles as one of seven key sectors for action and outlined the steps we are taking to improve information.
Through our landmark Environment Act 2021 we have powers to require better information on the resource efficiency of products to enable informed consumer choice.
We will be assessing options this year on what type of information would best support more sustainable purchasing decisions for textiles products, before making decisions. We are also providing funding to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to update their environmental footprint modelling tool later this year, working with industry signatories to the Textiles 2030 scheme. This will increase the level, availability and transparency of data relating to carbon emissions across the life cycle of garments.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing commercial fishing practices to ensure that fishing practices that are incompatible with the delivery of the Government's climate objectives are phased out in a fair and transparent manner.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Climate Change Objective in the Fisheries Act ensures that future fisheries management policy will mitigate against the effects of fishing on climate change, as well as adapting to any future impacts of climate change. Fisheries administrations will introduce legally binding policies, for example, to mitigate and reduce emissions, to achieve this objective in the Joint Fisheries Statement.
In addition, UK Fisheries Authorities will develop Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) which will set out in detail the management measures needed for sustainable harvesting and measures to minimise the impact of fishing activity on the environment. Plans will be regularly reviewed against indicators to monitor the FMPs effectiveness in meeting its goals and targets against stock health and sustainability, levels of compliance and wider ecosystem health.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
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 policy immediately to ban industrial fishing in offshore Marine Protected Areas.
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 Belfast South on 6 November 2020, PQ UIN 107768.
[questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-10-22/107768]
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on a deposit return scheme.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Policy officials continue to engage regularly with the Scottish Government. Ministers met in July 2018 and are due to meet again in February 2019.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the reference in the Government's Industrial Strategy to protecting and enhancing all aspects of natural capital applies to such capital in other countries that might be affected by decisions made by the UK.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Leeds North West, Alex Sobel, on 11 December 2017, PQ UIN 117908.