Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of the (a) primary and (b) secondary legislation sponsored by (i) their Department or (ii) their predecessor Department has undergone a post legislative review in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Information on the number of pieces of primary and secondary legislation that have gone through post-legislative scrutiny by the department in the last ten years is not held by a central team in Defra. It would therefore incur disproportionate costs to obtain this information in full. We do have some information that we are able to provide on the last five years which we have detailed here. We are unable to provide information older than five years without incurring disproportionate costs as this information is not held within the department.
The information provided here is only held for internal administrative reasons and may not be exhaustive, for example, due to machinery of government changes to departmental structure in the past decade.
These post-implementation reviews have been made publicly available and links are included below.
Number of post-implementation reviews undertaken for primary and secondary legislation in each of the last five years:
Year | Primary Legislation | Secondary legislation |
2021 | 0 | 3 |
2020 | 0 | 4 |
2019 | 1 | 3 |
2018 | 0 | 1 |
2017 | 0 | 1 |
Links to publications by year publicly available on legislation.gov.uk:
Year | Link to Publication | Type of Legislation |
2021 | The Trade in Animals and Related Products Regulations 2011 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
Year | Link to Publication | Type of Legislation |
2021 | Secondary | |
2021 | The Energy Information Regulations 2011 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2020 | The Ozone-Depleting Substances Regulations 2015 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2020 | The Microchipping of Dogs (England) Regulations 2015 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2020 | The Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2020 | Secondary | |
2019 | Primary | |
2019 | The Tuberculosis (Deer and Camelid) (England) Order 2014 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2019 | Secondary | |
2019 | The Products Containing Meat etc. (England) Regulations 2014 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2018 | The Fruit Juices and Fruit Nectars (England) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2017 | The Tuberculosis (England) (Amendment) Order 2012 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many post legislative reviews (a) their Department or (b) their predecessor Department has undertaken on (i) primary and (ii) secondary legislation in each of the last five years.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Information on the number of pieces of primary and secondary legislation that have gone through post-legislative scrutiny by the department in the last five years is not held by a central team in Defra. It would therefore incur disproportionate costs to obtain this information in full. We do have some information that we are able to provide on the last five years which we have detailed here.
This information is only held for internal administrative reasons and may not be exhaustive, for example, due to machinery of government changes to departmental structure in the past decade.
These post-implementation reviews have been made publicly available and links are included below.
Number of post-implementation reviews undertaken for primary and secondary legislation in each of the last five years:
Year | Primary Legislation | Secondary legislation |
2021 | 0 | 3 |
2020 | 0 | 4 |
2019 | 1 | 3 |
2018 | 0 | 1 |
2017 | 0 | 1 |
Links to publications by year publicly available on legislation.gov.uk:
Year | Link to Publication | Type of Legislation |
2021 | The Trade in Animals and Related Products Regulations 2011 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2021 | Secondary | |
Year | Link to Publication | Type of Legislation |
2021 | The Energy Information Regulations 2011 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2020 | The Ozone-Depleting Substances Regulations 2015 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2020 | The Microchipping of Dogs (England) Regulations 2015 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2020 | The Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2020 | Secondary | |
2019 | Primary | |
2019 | The Tuberculosis (Deer and Camelid) (England) Order 2014 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2019 | Secondary | |
2019 | The Products Containing Meat etc. (England) Regulations 2014 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2018 | The Fruit Juices and Fruit Nectars (England) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
2017 | The Tuberculosis (England) (Amendment) Order 2012 (legislation.gov.uk) | Secondary |
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many pieces of (a) primary and (b) secondary legislation their Department has sponsored in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
(a)
The number of pieces of primary legislation sponsored by Defra over each of the past ten years is publicly available and can be calculated using the Parliament.uk website (https://bills.parliament.uk/).
(b)
The number of statutory instruments introduced by Defra over each of the past ten years is publicly available and can be calculated using the Defra Lex website (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/defralex). This information may not be exhaustive, for example, due to machinery of government changes to departmental structure in the past decade.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
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 impact of land use practice in the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that the way land is used and managed has a range of environmental impacts, both positive and negative. We regularly review and assess these impacts, working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Increasing the public and private benefits of land-use, and of land management, will be critical to achieving our environmental goals – particularly on climate change and nature recovery.
It is critical that the right environmental actions are delivered in the right places, while maintaining food security and sustainable development. In recognition of this, we have recently published our trees and peat actions plans. In addition we are:
o developing new schemes that will reward environmental land management;
o introducing a mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain via the Environment Bill; and
o introducing Local Nature Recovery Strategies across England that will propose priority locations for nature recovery and the delivery of nature-based solutions.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
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 the 2018-19 Main Estimates, published in April 2018, how much funding his Department has allocated to prepare for the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
HM Treasury has already allocated over £2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for preparations for leaving the EU so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this was allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on 13 March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/). This money will be paid out in Supplementary Estimates 18/19 later this financial year.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has met representatives of (a) SCL Group, (b) Strategic Communication Laboratories and (c) Cambridge Analytica; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Eustice
Departments publish quarterly details of Ministers’ meetings with external organisations on GOV.UK. These can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs&publication_type=transparency-data
As well as ministerial meetings, departmental officials meet external organisations on a regular and ongoing basis.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many officials employed in his Department in June 2016 had substantial experience of international trade negotiation.
Answered by George Eustice
The specific information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Many of the people employed in Defra’s EU and International Trade directorate and in the Great British Food Unit have knowledge and experience of international negotiations, including on securing access to markets. In the last two years we have opened or improved terms for over 200 new markets. Successes include Beef to the Philippines, Lamb to Kuwait and strengthened collaboration frameworks with China and Japan.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many officials employed in his Department as of 12 October 2017 have substantial experience of international trade negotiations.
Answered by George Eustice
The specific information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Many of the people employed in Defra’s EU and International Trade directorate and in the Great British Food Unit have knowledge and experience of international negotiations, including on securing access to markets. In the last two years we have opened or improved terms for over 200 new markets. Successes include Beef to the Philippines, Lamb to Kuwait and strengthened collaboration frameworks with China and Japan.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which EU directives relating to her Department's responsibilities are awaiting transposition into UK law.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK remains a member of the EU until we leave, with full rights and obligations of membership. This includes transposing EU legislation into UK law.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is aware of the following directives relating to the Department’s responsibilities for which transposition is planned:
Directive | Tittle |
2013/51/EURATOM | Directive 2013/51/EURATOM of 22 October 2013 laying down requirements for the protection of the health of the general public with regard to radioactive substances in water intended for human consumption. |
2014/97/EU | Commission Implementing Directive 2014/97/EU of 15 October 2014 implementing Council Directive 2008/90/EC as regards the registration of suppliers and of varieties and the common list of varieties. |
2014/96/EU | Commission Implementing Directive 2014/96/EU of 15 October 2014 on the requirements for the labelling, sealing and packaging of fruit plant propagating material and fruit plants intended for fruit production, falling within the scope of Council Directive 2008/90/EC. |
2014/98/EU | Commission Implementing Directive 2014/98/EU of 15 October 2014 implementing Council Directive 2008/90/EC as regards specific requirements for the genus and species of fruit plants referred to in Annex I thereto, specific requirements to be met by suppliers and detailed rules concerning official inspections. |
2015/412/EU | Commission Directive 2015/412/EU of 11 March 2015 amending Directive 2001/18/EC as regards the possibility for the Member States to restrict or prohibit the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in their territory. |
2015/996/EU | Commission Directive (EU) 2015/996 of 19 May 2015 establishing common noise assessment methods according to Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. |
2015/1480/EU | Commission Directive (EU) 2015/1480 of 28 August 2015 amending several annexes to Directives 2004/107/EC and 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the rules concerning reference methods, data validation and location of sampling points for the assessment of ambient air quality. |
2015/1787/EU | Commission Directive (EU) 2015/1787 of 6 October 2015 amending Annexes II and III to Council Directive 98/83/EC on the quality of water intended for human consumption. |
2015/2193/EU | Commission Directive (EU) 2015/2193 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from medium combustion plants. |
2015/2203/EU | Commission Implementing Directive EU) 2015/2203 of 25 November 2015 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to caseins and caseinates intended for human consumption and repealing Council Directive 83/417/EEC |
2016/11/EU | Commission Implementing Directive 2016/11 of 5 January 2016 amending Annex II to Council Directive 2002/57/EC on the marketing of seed oil and fibre plants. |
2016/317/EU | Commission Implementing Directive (EU) 2016/317 of 3 March 2016 amending Council Directives 66/401/EEC, 66/402/EEC, 2002/54/EC, 2002/55/EC, 2002/56/EC and 2002/57/EC as regards the official label of seed packages. |
2016/2284/EU | Commission Implementing Directive (EU) 2016/2284 of 14 December 2016 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants, amending Directive 2003/35/EC and repealing Directive 2001/81/EC. |
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hours her Department spent on processing freedom of information requests in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Defra does not record the time processing Freedom of Information Act requests.