Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
Whether he plans to maintain food and drink standards after the transition period.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
This Government is committed to upholding our high environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards as we leave the EU. The EU Withdrawal Act will transfer all existing food safety provisions, including existing import requirements, onto the UK statute book after the Transition Period. These requirements include a ban on using artificial growth hormones in domestic and imported products, and set out that no products, other than potable water, are approved to decontaminate poultry carcasses.
Our manifesto is clear that in all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards.
We are already engaging with the agricultural sector as part of our trade discussions and we will continue to work closely with the National Farmers’ Union and other relevant stakeholders across the food chain to understand the concerns about the impact of new trade deals, as well as the opportunities. The Government has in place a range of stakeholder groups to feed into our policy development on trade. These include the Strategic Trade Advisory Group, the Agri-Food Expert Trade Advisory Group and various supply chain groups.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to create a new statutory definition of animal sentience.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has committed to bringing in new laws on animal sentience. Any necessary changes required to domestic legislation will be made in a rigorous and comprehensive way after the transition period and will be brought forward when Parliamentary time allows. Defra is currently assessing how best to support Government departments in considering the welfare needs of sentient animals when they are developing and implementing Government policy.
Defra engages with a wide range of stakeholders on a number of animal welfare issues, including animal sentience.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to bring forward legislative proposals on the importation of (a) cat, (b) dog and (c) seal fur after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
There are EU regulations which ban the importation of cat and dog fur and seal products including fur. The Government will bring forward legislation in the next session that, when enacted, will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and ensure a functioning statute book on the day we leave the EU. This ‘Great Repeal Bill’ will end the authority of EU law and return power to the UK. The Bill will convert existing European Union law into domestic law, wherever practical.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) humaneness and (b) effectiveness of badger culls since 2013.
Answered by George Eustice
The approach Defra takes to monitoring the effectiveness and humaneness of the badger control policy, including the Chief Veterinary Officer’s advice, can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
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 the Answer of 3 March 2016 to Question 29007, what recent estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of the badger culls in 2016.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra published an updated badger control policy value for money assessment on GOV.UK in August 2016, including estimated costs to government per licensed area.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
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 conclusions of the report led by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology published in Nature Communications on 16 August 2016, entitled Impacts of neonicotinoid use on long-term population change in wild bees in England; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by George Eustice
We consider new studies on neonicotinoids, including the recent study led by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, carefully, drawing on advice from the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides as well as from government experts. The Government remains committed to ensuring that pesticides are not authorised if the scientific evidence shows they pose unacceptable risks to the environment.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
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 conclusions of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's assessment of the neoniocotinoid imidacloprid, published on 6 January 2016.
Answered by George Eustice
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has published a “Preliminary Pollinator Assessment to Support the Registration Review of Imidacloprid”. The Agency aims to produce the final assessment at the end of 2016. The preliminary assessment indicates a risk to honey bees from uses of imidacloprid on cotton and some uses on citrus. Risks from use on a number of other crops were low and a shortage of data meant that the risks from use on other crops were uncertain.
The US assessment cannot be read across to the UK situation as there are many differences in the crops, methods of applying the pesticide and environmental conditions.
The European Food Safety Authority has begun a scientific evaluation of the risk to bees from imidacloprid, as well as two other neonicotinoids (clothianidin and thiamethoxam). The UK will participate fully in that review.