Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to provide support for the private waste collection sector to help ensure the safe disposal of waste from key sectors during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is continuing to work closely with the waste industry to understand the impact on the sector of COVID-19 and to provide the necessary and appropriate support.
The Chancellor has already announced unprecedented support for businesses in general including a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, deferral of VAT payments for firms until the end of June and £330 billion of Government-backed and guaranteed loans, including a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Defra has been working with the waste industry to develop an online platform to facilitate the sharing of resources between local authorities and commercial operators. The platform, Waste Support, was launched on 16 April. In addition, the Environment Agency is taking a proportionate approach to regulation and has published a number of COVID-19 Regulatory Position Statements to address specific concerns around compliance with permit conditions, for instance on exceeding waste storage limits at permitted sites. These can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/covid-19-regulatory-position-statements
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether (a) kennels and (b) dog walking businesses are able to operate outdoors under the guidance on covid-19 announced on 23 March 2020.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government’s message to the public is clear: stay at home, in order to protect the NHS and save lives. To reduce social contact, the Government has ordered certain businesses and venues to close. A full list of those businesses required to close, and exemptions, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-businesses-and-premises-to-close/further-businesses-and-premises-to-close-guidance#businesses-and-premises-that-must-remain-closed
Kennels and dog walking businesses are not explicitly referred to as businesses that are required to close. Indeed, kennels and dog walking businesses play a key role in ensuring the welfare of the nation’s pets and can operate within the strict advice on social distancing and hygiene.
The Canine and Feline Sector Group, which advises both the Animal Health and Welfare Board for England and Defra Ministers, has issued its own guidance to pet businesses on how they can continue to operate under current restrictions and in line with guidance around social distancing and hygiene.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of UK fishing protection vessels in operation, (b) the type of vessel in operation (c) the number of square miles of ocean the vessels patrol; and if she has plans to increase the number of fishing protection vessels.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government has undertaken a thorough risk assessment of fisheries control and enforcement to ensure we have sufficient assets to meet all possible threats now that we have left the EU. These assets include, with respect to England via the Marine Management Organisation, core provision which is a scaleable, enduring patrol, surveillance and inspection capability based on two to three Offshore Patrol Vessels. In addition, the ten Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities in England have 22 inshore patrol vessels to undertake fisheries management and enforcement within the 0-6 nautical miles zone.
Fisheries control and enforcement is a devolved matter. It is for each Devolved Administration to decide how best to control its fishing waters. We work closely with the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure a coordinated approach to fisheries control and enforcement across UK waters.
English waters comprise around 230,000km2 of the UK’s total Exclusive Economic Zone of approximately 683,000km2.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the licence application currently lodged with the Marine Management Organisation by the Maritime Heritage Foundation is fully compliant with the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) licences the removal of substances or objects from the sea bed within the UK marine licensing area, under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009.
I can confirm that an application for a marine licence has been lodged with the MMO to recover items from HMS Victory 1744. However, the MMO has not concluded its determination of that application and the issues raised by it.
It should be noted that although Her Majesty’s Government is not a signatory to the Convention for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, it has adopted the Rules for activities directed at underwater cultural heritage, found in the Annex of the Convention, as best practice. As such any recovery of items from HMS Victory will need to comply with relevant UK polices that align with these requirements.
MMO will consider the application in that context and in accordance with the relevant Government policy on the issue.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many enforcement notices have been taken out against landfill operators in the (a) UK and (b) North East in the last 12 months.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
This is a devolved matter. In England, between 31/1/16 to 31/1/17 the Environment Agency served a total of 5 notices upon landfill operators in England, of which 2 notices were served in the North East
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
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 effectiveness of the Dogs Trust pilot quarantine on disrupting the illegal importation of puppies under the Pet Travel Scheme.
Answered by George Eustice
I welcome the Dogs Trust initiative to pay the quarantine costs of dogs and puppies identified at Dover as being not compliant to enter Great Britain under the EU Pet Travel Scheme. Since 2 December 2015, 108 puppies have been licensed into the quarantine facilities, mainly due to concerns that puppies were under the minimum age for travelling.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency will carry out an assessment of the effectiveness of the initiative following its conclusion.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2015 to Question 226362, whether the preparation of cannon for lifting and the dusting of mobile sediments on the wreck site of HMS Victory 1744 by Odyssey Marine Exploration in the summer of 2012 was included in the Marine Management Organisation investigation into unauthorised work on the HMS Victory 1744 wreck site.
Answered by George Eustice
Based on the evidence available, it is understood that a cannon was lifted prior to the introduction of the marine licensing system in April 2011. However, the investigation carried out by the MMO into the carrying out of licensed marine activities also obtained evidence of dusting of mobile sediments and other preparatory activities which would have required a marine licence, when there was in fact no such licence in place. As a result of this evidence, the MMO issued Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. with an official written warning for these activities on 7 November 2014, in accordance with its published compliance and enforcement strategy.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the lifting of a cannon from the wreck site of HMS Victory 1744 by Odyssey Marine Exploration formed a part of the Marine Management Organisation investigation into unauthorised work on the HMS Victory 1744 wreck site.
Answered by George Eustice
The investigation on the HMS Victory 1744 wreck site focused on activities at the wreck site in 2012. Based on the evidence available, it is understood that a cannon was lifted prior to the introduction of the marine licensing system in April 2011 under part 4 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, for which the Marine Management Organisation is the licensing authority.
Part 4 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act introduced a requirement to have a licence to remove objects from the sea-bed. Prior to this, under part II of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 which concerned the regulation of deposits in the sea, there was no similar provision regarding removal of objects from the seabed.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her Department's communications budget was in each year from 2010-11 to 2014-15.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The table below sets out the Core Department’s communications budget in the years requested. The figures shown represent the total cost of the Department’s Communications Directorate, including both pay and non-pay costs. The Directorate is responsible for both internal and external communications.
Year | Communications Budget (£m) |
2010-11 | 14.4 |
2011-12 | 13.0 |
2012-13 | 5.5 |
2013-14 | 4.3 |
2014-15 | 4.1 |
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her Department's advertising budget was in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2014-15.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Core Department does not budget at this level of detail. Therefore, the information requested cannot be provided.