Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment the Government has made of the percentage of palm-derived ingredients used for animal feed in the UK that originate from sustainable palm oil.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government has not made this assessment. However, the Government is committed to supporting the sustainable production, import and use of commodities, including palm oil. The Government established the UK Roundtable on Sourcing Sustainable Palm Oil in 2012, bringing together British businesses and supporting them to shift to sustainable palm oil supply chains. In 2021, 72% of all palm and palm kernel oil imports into the UK were certified sustainable, up from 16% in 2010.
Wanting to go further, the UK Government has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to help tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. This new law will make it illegal for larger businesses operating in the United Kingdom to use key forest risk commodities produced on land illegally occupied or used. We ran a consultation from 3 December 2021 to 11 March 2022 to seek views on the details of regulations that will implement the Environment Act provisions, to ensure that these are designed effectively. The Government published a summary of responses to this consultation on 1 June 2022 and is committed to implementing due diligence provisions at the earliest opportunity through secondary legislation.
The Government will continue to work in partnership with countries which produce palm oil and other stakeholders, to incentivise sustainable palm oil production.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the treatment of pigs on industrial farms; and whether she has had recent discussions with (a) World Animal Protection and (b) other animal welfare advocacy organisations on the treatment of pigs on those farms.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All pig farms regardless of scale, must comply with relevant legislation, including comprehensive animal welfare rules concerning how pigs must be kept.
In addition to the animal health and welfare legislation, Defra has a Code of Practice for the Welfare of Pigs updated in 2020, which farmers are required by law to have access to and be familiar with, which encourages high standards of husbandry. A full public consultation was held as part of the code development and work on updating the code included discussion with a wide range of interested parties.
There have been no recent discussions with World Animal Protection and other animal welfare advocacy organisations.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department spent on technical assistance programming delivered by UK-based organisations in 2021 by (a) Official Development Assistance and (b) non-Official Development Assistance spending.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Providing this answer will incur disproportionate costs to the Department.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to prevent import of (a) timber products illegally logged in the Congo Basin and (b) products produced in countries outside the Congo Basin using timber illegally logged within that country.
Answered by Scott Mann - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
HM Government has a long and proud history of supporting action to combat deforestation and promote the sustainable management of the world’s forests.
The United Kingdom was instrumental in the EU adopting the 2003 Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, which aims to improve forest governance, reduce illegal logging and encourage trade in legally sourced timber. The FLEGT Action Plan is manifest in the UK through two sets of regulations, the UK Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade Regulations, and the UK Timber Regulations.
Timber being imported from the Congo Basin into the United Kingdom is subject to UK Timber Regulations. These prohibit the placing of illegally harvested timber and timber products on the UK market and requires operators, those first placing such products on the market, to exercise due diligence. This includes gathering information on timber, including its species, quantity, supplier, country of harvest and compliance with applicable legislation. Operators must then assess the risk of timber being illegal and mitigate any identified risk by taking steps to verify legality.
Importers are also obliged to consider all species in composites separately. This includes species from the Congo Basin which are then processed into timber products in a third country and exported to the UK. Those who trade in timber and timber products after they have been placed on the market are required to keep records of who they buy timber products from and any traders they sell them to. This enables timber and timber products to be traced along the supply chain.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards is appointed by Defra to enforce the regulations in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, checking that appropriate records are maintained by traders and operators and ensuring that the due diligence systems of operators are fit for purpose.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
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 reduce UK coastal sea pollution.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Government is committed to leading efforts to protect the marine environment, including from pollution.
The UK Marine Strategy Part 3, published in December 2015, sets out a comprehensive list of actions the UK Government is taking to reduce contaminant concentrations in the marine environment. We are currently updating the document and aim to publish an updated UK Marine Strategy Part 3 in 2022, outlining the programmes of measures that will continue to move us towards Good Environmental Status in our seas. Existing measures include various pollution reduction requirements for emissions and discharges from industry, and measures for coastal waters that are set out in the River Basin Management Plans.
The Government has made tackling harm from storm overflows a priority and we are the first Government to take concerted action to tackle this historic infrastructure issue. Earlier this year the Government published a new draft set of strategic priorities for the water industry's financial regulator, Ofwat. In this publication, the Government set out its expectation that water companies take steps to "significantly reduce the frequency and volume of sewage discharges from storm overflows." The Environment Act then placed this direction on a statutory footing, setting a duty for water companies to achieve a progressive reduction in the adverse impacts of discharges from Storm Overflows. Defra intends to set out the level of ambition expected by this in due course.
The UK Government is also tackling pollution from waste at its source. The Resources and Waste Strategy for England, published in December 2018, sets out our plans to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste, working towards our 25 Year Environment Plan target to significantly reduce, and where possible to prevent, all kinds of marine plastic pollution.
Given the trans-boundary nature of the marine environment, we work closely with other countries to tackle pollution, such as with those who share our seas through the OSPAR Convention. The UK also contributes to and implements the obligations of several global initiatives, including the London Protocol and the London Convention, to protect the marine environment from mercury, persistent organic pollutants, hazardous wastes, hazardous chemicals, pesticides and marine litter and their impact on our precious marine spaces.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, further to the Answer of 19 July to Question 30326, if he will make an assessment of the compatibility of the 30% recycled plastic content criterion in the plastic packaging tax with the Government's commitment to all plastic packaging on the market being recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The world-leading Plastic Packaging Tax that is set to be introduced in April 2022 will increase demand for recycled plastic by encouraging the use of recycled plastic content in the manufacture of plastic packaging, addressing concerns raised by stakeholders that a lack of market demand for recycled plastics has held back recycling.
Our proposed collection and packaging reforms that will help us work towards our milestone of all plastic packaging placed on the UK market being recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025 are complementary to the tax. These include a Deposit Return Scheme for beverage containers, a requirement for a core set of materials to be collected from households and businesses for recycling and extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging. Packaging EPR will incentivise producers to make better design choices and to use plastic packaging that can be recycled or re-used. Collectively, these proposals will increase the supply of good-quality material for recycling, including for plastic packaging with recycled content. We have recently closed consultations on each and are analysing the responses and evidence submitted by consultees.
Our work towards achieving our plastic packaging commitment and the Plastics Packaging Tax are complementary measures and hence further assessment of the compatibility of the 30% recycled plastic content criterion and the commitment is not needed.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
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 protect and restore grasslands in the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Species-rich grasslands are vital for biodiversity and their retention and management can play an important part in safeguarding carbon stores. Domestic biodiversity policy is devolved in the UK and so this response relates to England only.
Our 25 Year Environment Plan marked a step change in ambition for nature, and we are already putting in place new legislation and new investment to meet this ambition. Our Environment Bill requires a new, historic legally binding target to be set to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. A domestic 2030 species target will not only benefit our species but the actions necessary to deliver it will also help to drive wider environmental improvements.
The Bill also introduces Local Nature Recovery Strategies which will identify priorities and opportunities for nature recovery and help drive investment and action to expand, improve and connect habitats, including grasslands, and establish a Nature Recovery Network.
We are committed to protecting 30% of our land for biodiversity. Our Sites of Special Scientific Interest protect our most important grasslands, and provide a wide range of other benefits including flood control, water purification, and carbon storage.
We are introducing three new environmental land management schemes which will support farmers and land managers to deliver a range of environmental benefits. These schemes will reward sustainable farming practices, reducing carbon emissions, creating and preserving habitat, including grasslands, and making landscape-scale environmental changes.
We have also invested in nature restoration to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change and to safeguard green jobs, for example through our £80m Green Recovery Challenge Fund. Plantlife’s ‘Meadow Makers’ project, which was awarded over £700,000 in the first round, is restoring 500 hectares of species-rich grassland at 100+ sites across seven landscapes.
The Government will publish a Green Paper before the end of the year which will set out our approach to driving nature recovery in England and provide the primary vehicle for developing and engaging on our future plans and proposals.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the prevalence of unregulated horse breeding in the UK; and whether he plans to bring forward (a) legislative or (b) regulatory proposals on tackling equine overbreeding.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
To promote responsible ownership, there is clear guidance available to educate and remind horse owners of their responsibilities to provide for the welfare needs of their animal. The statutory Code of Practice for the Welfare of Horses, Ponies, Donkeys and Their Hybrids makes clear that you should consider buying or rehoming a youngster before taking the decision to breed. The foal’s individual future must also be considered before breeding from your equine, and the code highlights the UK’s overpopulation problem at the time of publication. The Code can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/700200/horses-welfare-codes-of-practice-april2018.pdf
Further information on responsible breeding is available to the public, including World Horse Welfare’s “Need to Breed” initiative which can be found here: https://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/advice/management/do-you-need-to-breed.
The Government considers that the key issue at stake here is how well equines are cared for after they have been born, and existing protections address this. We continue to engage closely with key stakeholders in the equine sector about these issues. The Government currently has no plans to introduce additional legislation or regulation specifically relating to breeding levels themselves.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
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 Trashed: How the UK is still dumping plastic waste on the rest of the world, published by Greenpeace on the 17 May 2021, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the UK’s plastic footprint.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We acknowledge the concerns raised by Greenpeace in its report and agree that there is a need to take action on plastic pollution. The Government's 25 Year Environment Plan sets out our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042. In December 2018, we published the Resources and Waste Strategy, which sets out how we want to achieve this and move towards a circular economy and keep resources in the system for as long as possible. We know more needs to be done, and for the most problematic plastics we are going faster - which is why we have committed to work towards all plastic packaging on the market being recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025.
The UK Government also has a manifesto commitment to ban exports of plastic waste to non-OECD countries. Defra has commissioned research to have a better understanding of plastic waste recycling capacity in the UK and OECD member countries, and this research will be key to the development of policy options to implement the manifesto commitment. We currently plan to consult before the end of 2022 on options to deliver the proposed ban.
On 24 March 2021, we launched a second consultation regarding our specific proposals to reform the current packaging producer responsibility scheme and on introducing Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging. We want producers to take greater responsibility for the packaging they place on the market. To do this we will make them pay the full net costs of collecting and managing packaging when it is no longer used and becomes waste. This will encourage businesses to think carefully about how much packaging they use and design. It will also encourage businesses to use packaging that is easily recyclable and encourage greater use of reusable and refillable packaging. Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging will see producers’ fees varied (‘modulated’) to account for certain criteria, including recyclability. Producers who use easily-recyclable packaging will pay less than those who use hard-to-recycle, or unrecyclable, packaging. Producer fees will also be used to cover the costs of national consumer information campaigns on recycling packaging waste.
On 24 March 2021, we launched a consultation on our proposals for a deposit return scheme for drinks containers in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The introduction of a deposit return scheme is aimed at increasing the recycling and reprocessing of materials and reducing the incidence of littering. A deposit return scheme for drinks containers will see a refundable deposit added to the price of a drink, which people can reclaim when they return their empty drinks containers to a specified return point. We know that well-run deposit return schemes in other countries can collect over 90% of the drinks containers placed on the market, which can be then sent for recycling.
On 7 May 2021, we launched a consultation on our proposals for consistency in household and business recycling in England. We want to make recycling easier and ensure that there is a comprehensive, consistent service across England. This will help to reduce confusion with recycling, ensure that there is more recycled material in the products we buy, and that the UK recycling industry grows.
These consultations have now closed and we are currently analysing the responses.
We have made significant progress on reducing other single-use plastic products. In October 2020, we introduced measures to restrict the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds. The single-use carrier bag charge, which has led to a 95% reduction in the use of single-use carrier bags by the main supermarkets, has been increased to 10p and extended to all retailers to encourage customers to bring their own bags to carry shopping and reduce the volumes of single-use plastic being used. We will continue to review the latest evidence on problematic products and materials to take a systematic approach to reducing the use of unnecessary single-use plastic products, including problematic packaging materials. However, we must think carefully about introducing bans and other policy solutions to avoid unintended consequences. Impact assessments for future bans on single-use plastics will continue to assess the potential for substitution to single-use items made of other materials, to ensure that any ban really is a sustainable approach.
The Government has put together a package of over £100 million for research and innovation to tackle the issues that arise from plastic waste. £38 million was set aside through the Plastics Research and Innovation Fund, the last funding competition of which opened in June 2020. The Resource Action Fund included £10 million specifically to pioneer innovative approaches to boosting recycling and reducing litter. The Government has also announced £60 million of funding through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, alongside a £150 million investment from industry, towards the development of smart, sustainable plastic packaging (SSPP), which will aim to make the UK a world leader in sustainable packaging for consumer products. Two SSPP funding opportunities have been open for bids in 2021: the SSPP Demonstrator Round 2 and the SSPP business-led research and development competition.
To note, waste and environmental policy is a devolved area and therefore devolved administrations are taking their own approach.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
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 potential merits of including other single-use materials in the planned deposit return scheme for plastic bottles.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have recently closed a second consultation on introducing a deposit return scheme for drinks containers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and are analysing the responses to the consultation, with a view to publishing a government response in due course. The government response will include a final decision on the scope and materials to be included in the deposit return scheme. An impact assessment for the introduction of the scheme will also be published.
Any packaging materials not included within the scope of a deposit return scheme will be included under the reformed packaging producer responsibility regime to ensure equitable treatment of packaging materials, which would then be collected through kerbside recycling collections.