Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
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 the number of farmers who received payments under the Environment Stewardship Scheme in October rather than August 2015 as a result of the withdrawal of online applications for such payments.
Answered by George Eustice
Environmental Stewardship (ES) claims are administered by Natural England. Historically, about 60% of advance payments have previously been paid in August.
All ES and Basic Payment Scheme claims have to be cross-checked before payment can be made in line with European regulatory requirements. This year, due mainly to the extension of the claims deadline, it was necessary to delay ES advance payments until they could be cross-checked. From 2018, new European rules will prevent any payments from being made before 16 October each year.
Natural England had paid 28,523 (60.24%) of advance payments by the end of October. Ninety-two percent of ES advance payments have now been made, and Natural England aims to pay the remainder of advance claims by the end of December.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
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 the cost of disallowance penalties relating to the Common Agricultural Policy as a result of the return to paper-assisted digital applications in 2015.
Answered by George Eustice
The new Common Agricultural Policy has been widely recognised as being more complex for farmers to understand and harder for Member States to administer. The new schemes have not yet been audited by the European Commission so it is too early to say what the level of any disallowance will be, but complexity tends to increase disallowance risk.
For the Basic Payment Scheme 2015 the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) sent pre-populated claim forms to farmers and land owners to allow them to submit their applications before the deadline. The RPA provided an unprecedented level of support to farmers and land owners through the Rural Payments Helpline and 50 Drop In Centres that allowed some 88,000 applications to be received within the deadline. ‘Paper-assisted’ means that forms were completed on paper but then entered on to a digital system by RPA staff.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the definition of paper-assisted digital applications is for the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme.
Answered by George Eustice
The new Common Agricultural Policy has been widely recognised as being more complex for farmers to understand and harder for Member States to administer. The new schemes have not yet been audited by the European Commission so it is too early to say what the level of any disallowance will be, but complexity tends to increase disallowance risk.
For the Basic Payment Scheme 2015 the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) sent pre-populated claim forms to farmers and land owners to allow them to submit their applications before the deadline. The RPA provided an unprecedented level of support to farmers and land owners through the Rural Payments Helpline and 50 Drop In Centres that allowed some 88,000 applications to be received within the deadline. ‘Paper-assisted’ means that forms were completed on paper but then entered on to a digital system by RPA staff.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many civil servants in her Department are in the redeployment pool.
Answered by George Eustice
There are presently six Departmental staff awaiting redeployment.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
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 the cost of using external agencies for recruitment to Senior Civil Service posts in her Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by George Eustice
In financial years 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 this data was not held centrally. Providing an estimate would be at a disproportionate cost. In 2013-14 Defra and its Executive Agencies spent £199,639 and in 2014-15 £103,977 on external agencies for recruitment to Senior Civil Service posts.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
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 26 October 2015 to Question 10866, when she next plans to publish the job titles and pay grades of appointments to extended ministerial offices.
Answered by George Eustice
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, Matthew Hancock, to PQ UIN 17505 answered on 30 November 2015.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what average time her Department took to respond to freedom of information requests in each year since 2005.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government publishes statistics on the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 within central government, including on timeliness.
The published figures can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
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 implementation of the greenhouse gas reporting regulation.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Defra has made no assessment of the effectiveness of the implementation of the greenhouse gas reporting regulation.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
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 potential effectiveness of a licensing regime for the use of wild animals in circuses.
Answered by George Eustice
I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given to the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion on 2 June 2015, PQ UIN 416.
The interim licensing scheme for the use of wild animals in travelling circuses in England came into force in January 2013. A preliminary assessment by Defra of the effectiveness of the licensing scheme was undertaken after the first set of annual licences issued had expired. The preliminary review suggested that the Regulations have been effective in establishing a licensing regime that appears to be ensuring compliance with the agreed welfare requirements of the Regulations for wild animals in travelling circuses. A full evaluation of the licensing scheme will be carried out, if required, as part of the statutory five year review.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield Heeley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to prevent the use of wild animals in circuses.
Answered by George Eustice
I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given to the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion on 2 June 2015, PQ UIN 416.
The interim licensing scheme for the use of wild animals in travelling circuses in England came into force in January 2013. A preliminary assessment by Defra of the effectiveness of the licensing scheme was undertaken after the first set of annual licences issued had expired. The preliminary review suggested that the Regulations have been effective in establishing a licensing regime that appears to be ensuring compliance with the agreed welfare requirements of the Regulations for wild animals in travelling circuses. A full evaluation of the licensing scheme will be carried out, if required, as part of the statutory five year review.