Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to provide (a) funding and (b) support for the control of (i) Himalayan Balsam, (ii) Japanese Knotweed and (iii) other invasive non-native species in the (A) Yorkshire Dales National Park and (B) River Lune catchment area; and whether his Department plans to implement a coordinated approach to enable management at the head of the catchment to prevent downstream spread.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the threats posed by invasive species including Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed and has a comprehensive Great Britain Non-native Species Strategy designed to co-ordinate action to tackle these threats.
Himalayan balsam is listed as a ‘Species of Special Concern’ under the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019, which means that it cannot be brought into GB, kept, bred, transported, sold, used or exchanged, allowed to reproduce, grown or cultivated, or released into the environment. This legislation is aimed at preventing further introduction and spread of these species. Japanese knotweed is listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This makes it an offence to cause Japanese knotweed to grow in the wild.
Funding is available for control and management of Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam and other invasive species through Defra’s Environmental Land Management Countryside Stewardship scheme. Over the last two years, Defra has funded twelve Local Action Groups (LAGs) across all regions in England to control invasive species through its Local Invasive Species Management Fund. The two-year fund, totalling just over £300,000, was used by LAGs mostly to remove invasive plants including Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed. Most of these projects also involved training volunteers, awareness-raising and community engagement.
In partnership with the Welsh Government and Natural England, Defra is funding specialist scientists at the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), an inter-governmental, not-for-profit organisation, to conduct biological control (biocontrol) research into the use of naturally occurring, living organisms to tackle Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed and other invasive, non-native plants. Biocontrol could provide a more cost- and time-effective way of managing these invasive plants as compared to manual removal.
The Government has also developed guidance on how to prevent the spread of Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam and other invasive non-native plants, and how to treat and dispose of them, which can be found on GOV.UK:
How to stop invasive non-native plants from spreading - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).