Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
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 Answer of 15 January 2021 to Question 133641 on Hen Harriers, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies of the effectiveness of hen harrier nests on non-RSPB nature reserves in comparison to RSPB nature reserves; and whether she has made an assessment of the reasons why nests were more successful in non-RSPB nature reserves.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
No specific assessment of the effectiveness of our hen harrier recovery policies based on the ownership of land has been made.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill on the cultivated meat sector.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill will ensure that plants and animals developed using precision breeding technologies in ways which mimic traditional and natural processes, and food and feed products produced from such plants and animals, can be regulated proportionately to risk.
Under this Bill, HM Government intends to introduce simpler regulatory measures to enable food and feed produced from precision bred plants or animals to be brought to market more easily, and we will support our leading scientists to develop plants and animals that are more nutritious, resistant to pests and disease and resilient to extreme temperatures. HM Government acknowledges the potential benefits of innovative protein development and will continue to work together with interested parties including the cultivated meat sector on developments in this area.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
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 hold discussions with the RSPB on its decision to stop publishing its annual counts of the number of birds in its reserves.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
It is for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to decide how and when it publishes information collected from across its reserves, and as such, the Secretary of State has no plans to hold discussions with the RSPB on their internal decisions around publishing data.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which areas of forestry and woodland in Huntingdon constituency are classed by his Department as ancient woodland.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Of the 1,721.9 hectares of woodland identified within the Huntingdon constituency, 540.5 hectares (1.6% of land within the constituency or 31.4% of woodland within the constituency) is classed as ancient woodland.
There are 45 discrete areas of ancient woodland in the Huntingdon constituency. Twenty-nine are located in the western arm of the constituency to the west of the A1, mainly around Grafham Water. The others are mostly in two pockets: in the southern arm of the constituency to the west of Great Gransden; and in the far north side of the constituency north of Alconbury.
A map showing the location of the ancient woodland has been placed in the House Library.