Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 deliver on commitments made as part of the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature at the United Nations General Assembly.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Government is committed to working with partners around the world to implement the ten commitments under the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature, which the UK co-created. To demonstrate our dedication to delivering on the Pledge commitments, in January 2021, the Prime Minister committed to spending at least £3 billion of the UK’s International Climate Finance over the next five years, on climate change solutions that protect and restore nature and biodiversity.
As you will be aware, Lord Goldsmith wrote to the devolved administrations prior to the Pledge’s launch to seek their support. I am grateful for the support of the Scottish Government, as signalled in their recently published ‘Statement of Intent’ on post-2020 biodiversity, and I am also grateful to the Welsh Government for their support.
In line with Pledge commitments, the UK Government is taking strong action on nature domestically as well as internationally. The environment is a devolved policy area and, in England, we are maintaining and extending key protections; introducing new legislation and new funding streams; we are supporting partnerships and we are working across Government to secure broad action. We have, for example, brought forward the first Environment Bill for more than 20 years which, alongside our strengthened Agriculture and Fisheries Acts, sets a new legal foundation for government action to improve the environment.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 effect of the 2019 Food Waste Strategy on levels of food waste from major retailers.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Government has not published a 2019 Food Waste Strategy. The hon. Member’s question may refer to the Scottish Government’s Food Waste Reduction Action Plan from 2019. The following answer describes other strategic documents which are relevant to the question.
In 2019, Defra commissioned Henry Dimbleby, its lead Non-Executive Director, to lead an independent review of the food system to develop recommendations to shape a National Food Strategy. Part One was published in July 2020, with Part Two due in Spring 2021.
To help tackle food waste, Defra and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) launched the UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap (FWRR) in September 2018. The roadmap sets out a clear direction for what all large businesses in the UK need to achieve in order for us to achieve our international targets for food waste reduction and provides a basis to track progress. It also allows a wider population of food businesses to show their commitment to implementing the Target, Measure, Act (TMA) approach.
The Resources and Waste Strategy (published in December 2018) sets out the Government's approach to tackling food waste, building on the direction set out in the FWRR. The 2020 annual progress report for the FWRR, published by WRAP and industry experts IGD, shows growing adoption of the TMA approach to food waste prevention with more than 70 new organisations committing to the Roadmap in the last twelve months.
Following support from respondents to our public consultation on increasing consistency in recycling, we are legislating through the Environment Bill to ensure that businesses and other organisations in England will be required to arrange for the collection of a core set of materials for recycling, including a separate food waste collection where this material is produced. We will be consulting further on this in 2021. We also committed in the Resources and Waste Strategy to consult to introduce mandatory reporting of food waste by businesses. We are currently engaging with industry and related stakeholders to inform the development of this consultation.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 introduce mandatory food waste reporting for all major food retailers.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the Resources and Waste Strategy the Government committed to consult on introducing mandatory reporting by businesses. We are engaging with industry and related stakeholders to inform the development of this consultation.
Due to the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on food and drink businesses, we have postponed the launch of this consultation until 2021.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to allocate funding to (a) research and development in sustainable fabrics and (b) fabric recycling facilities in the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Through the WRAP-administered Resources Action Fund we made £1.5 million available for small scale capital grants of between £20,000 to £170,000 to encourage innovation and support the development of textile reuse and recycling. Funds have been allocated to organisations in England to invest in facilities to improve the reprocessing of textiles waste, including recycling of waste textiles to create recycled fibres for manufacturers.
With backing from Defra, £30 million of research funding (of which £22.5 million is Government investment) has been allocated through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to establish five circular economy research centres. £4.5 million has been allocated to a centre focused on sustainable textiles. The Interdisciplinary Textiles Circularity Centre, led by the Royal College of Art, aims to reduce our reliance on imported clothing materials by leading research to turn post-consumer textiles and household waste into renewable materials for use in textiles products. This programme will harness academic excellence and industry expertise to deliver for the UK.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the fashion industry to improve the clarity of information and labelling on the sustainability of clothing.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the Resources and Waste Strategy the Government committed to providing consumers with better information on the sustainability of their purchases, including through better product labelling. In the Environment Bill, currently being taken through Parliament, we are seeking powers that will enable us to introduce labelling and information requirements for clothing, as well as eco-design requirements and producer responsibility schemes.
We have also worked closely with WRAP to develop the new voluntary agreement on textiles to succeed the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP 2020) from next year. Textiles 2030 was announced on 10 November and has ambitious targets, aligning with global goals on carbon, water and circularity and aims to drive the shift to a more resource-efficient textiles sector in the UK. Signatories will take action to improve the sustainability of their products in line with the ambitions of the new agreement.
We plan to publish our draft Waste Prevention Programme for consultation in the new year which will set out this Government’s approach to improving resource efficiency and reduce waste in a number of key sectors including textiles.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what representations he has received on the recently proposed bans on the human consumption of dog meat in Shenzhen and Zhuhai, China.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
While this department has received representations about the treatment of dogs in China, we have not received any representations about the proposed ban on the human consumption of dog meat in Shenzhen or Zhuhai, China.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 19 May 2020 to Question 46697, on Animal Products: Trade, by what date the Government plans to publish its response to his Department's consultation on controls on the import and export of hunting trophies.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given to her on 19 May 2020, PQ UIN 46697, which remains the current situation.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his timescale is for publishing the Government's response to his Department's consultation on controls on the import and export of hunting trophies published in November 2019 and updated in January 2020.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a delay in publication of the Government response to the consultation and call for evidence on controls on the import and export of hunting trophies. We are, however, continuing to work on this important area and will publish the Government response as soon as it is practical to do so. The outcome of the consultation, and the accompanying call for evidence, will inform our next steps.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 Cabinet colleagues on ensuring the safeguarding and welfare of equines moving between the UK and the EU in a future trade deal with the EU.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Secretary of State meets regularly with his Cabinet colleagues to discuss a range of topics, including the future trade deal with the EU. As the PM has made clear in his speech of 3 February, animal welfare is a priority for the UK in trade negotiations. The UK is proud of its world-leading food, health and animal welfare standards. We will not lower our standards as we negotiate the new trade deal.