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Written Question
Clean Air Act 1993
Friday 17th October 2014

Asked by: Laura Sandys (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to which local authorities penalties have been issued for breaches of the Clean Air Act 1993 since May 2010.

Answered by Dan Rogerson

The Clean Air Act includes fines for various offences to be enforced by local authorities through the magistrate courts. It does not provide for enforcement on local authorities. As the regulators, records of these should be held by local authorities. There is no requirement in the Act for local authorities to notify Defra of fines levied. Therefore, the department does not hold data for offences recorded as issued by local authorities for companies or private individuals.

Written Question
Ozone: East of England
Friday 17th October 2014

Asked by: Laura Sandys (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how and to whom the pollution alert on ozone in Eastern England was distributed on 18 July 2014.

Answered by Dan Rogerson

Defra issued an air pollution alert to the public on 18 July this year due to levels of ozone measured at Sibton (189µgm3) and St Osyth (185µgm3) in Eastern England. The alert was issued when hourly measurements exceeded the ozone public information threshold of 180 µg/m3 (micrograms per metre cubed) as defined in the Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC.

The alert was issued on Defra’s UK_Air website at:

http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/latest/alerts, and air quality Twitter feed @defraUKAir, giving details of the locations and measurements, as well as relevant health advice. Members of the public can also receive air quality information such as alerts by signing up to email bulletins at http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/subscribe.

Defra works closely with Public Health England to ensure information and health advice is provided to the public when pollution levels are elevated.

Written Question
Smoke and Chimney Gases
Friday 17th October 2014

Asked by: Laura Sandys (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which smoke control areas are currently designated in England and Wales.

Answered by Dan Rogerson

The power to designate smoke control areas under Part 3 of the Clean Air Act 1993 lies with local authorities as the regulators. Under the Act local authorities are required to publish details of the areas created in the London Gazette and their local newspapers prior to creating the associated smoke control orders. Therefore, the definitive lists of designated areas are held by individual local authorities.

Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 02 Apr 2014
Elliott Review and Food Crime

"It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr McCrea, and it is also a great pleasure to see the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice), whom I have not been in a debate with since …..."
Laura Sandys - View Speech

View all Laura Sandys (Con - South Thanet) contributions to the debate on: Elliott Review and Food Crime
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 02 Apr 2014
Elliott Review and Food Crime

"Absolutely. In many ways, the scandal rejuvenated the way we used to buy food in the high street from local suppliers. To be frank, while one trusts one’s local butcher, this systemic problem will face everyone in the food retailing sector if we do not start to recognise that certain …..."
Laura Sandys - View Speech

View all Laura Sandys (Con - South Thanet) contributions to the debate on: Elliott Review and Food Crime
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 02 Apr 2014
Elliott Review and Food Crime

"Yes. It is an incredibly important message, and I am happy to accept any invitation to have a cottage pie cooked by my hon. Friend...."
Laura Sandys - View Speech

View all Laura Sandys (Con - South Thanet) contributions to the debate on: Elliott Review and Food Crime
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 02 Apr 2014
Elliott Review and Food Crime

"The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, and he is doing extremely important work on the whole issue of food poverty. In my constituency, we have certain areas where accommodation does not have cookers. Families are supplied with microwaves, which confines them to buying expensive food that is frequently not …..."
Laura Sandys - View Speech

View all Laura Sandys (Con - South Thanet) contributions to the debate on: Elliott Review and Food Crime
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 02 Apr 2014
Elliott Review and Food Crime

"I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend; that is absolutely crucial. I do not believe that we have looked at our supply chains with vulnerability in mind. We have assumed, possibly rightly, that we have a very safe food system in this country, but in certain instances we might have …..."
Laura Sandys - View Speech

View all Laura Sandys (Con - South Thanet) contributions to the debate on: Elliott Review and Food Crime
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 02 Apr 2014
Elliott Review and Food Crime

"The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. That is both incumbent on the food sector and in its interests, because the horsemeat scandal has led to a major erosion of trust.

I am concerned that supermarkets sometimes make the excuse that they are too large to monitor their supply chains. We …..."
Laura Sandys - View Speech

View all Laura Sandys (Con - South Thanet) contributions to the debate on: Elliott Review and Food Crime
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 02 Apr 2014
Elliott Review and Food Crime

"Those early warning signs are the important issue for the Government. We need to ensure that when such things are seen to happen, they will trigger action from the FSA or DEFRA, which should work out the possible scenarios. Prices will be increasingly squeezed, and that will become more of …..."
Laura Sandys - View Speech

View all Laura Sandys (Con - South Thanet) contributions to the debate on: Elliott Review and Food Crime