Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential (a) economic and (b) environmental impact of mandatory food waste reporting in Battersea.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The 2022 public consultation on improved food waste reporting by large food businesses in England included an Impact Assessment which assessed the economic and environmental impacts of the of the voluntary and mandatory approaches to reporting. These assessments were made at the national level. No regional or local assessments have been made.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will commission a statutory inquiry into alleged dumping of raw sewage by the water industry.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has been consistently clear that the volume of sewage discharged by water companies into our waters is unacceptable, and they must significantly reduce how much sewage they discharge as a priority.
Our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan sets stringent targets for water companies to reduce the use of storm overflows and will drive the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £60 billion capital investment over 25 years.
Furthermore, the Government is working to hold the water industry to account on a scale never seen before.
Our regulators, the Environment Agency (EA) and Ofwat, have launched the largest criminal and civil investigation into water company sewage discharges ever, at over 2200 treatment works, following new data coming to light as a result of increased monitoring.
The EA will continue to investigate and take action against any water companies that are suspected of breaching legal requirements in line with their enforcement and sanctions policy.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to what timescale her Department is working to bring forwards measures from the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill through other legislative means.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 20 June 2023 we launched a consultation on the proposed licensing scheme for private primate keepers in England and the draft standards for care and management of primates. We will be taking forward other measures in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill individually through other means during the remainder of this Parliament. Parliamentary business will be announced in the usual way.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 6 June 2023 to Question 187162 on Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, by what other means her Department plans to take forward measures in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill individually.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 20 June 2023 we launched a consultation on the proposed licensing scheme for private primate keepers in England and the draft standards for care and management of primates. We will be taking forward other measures in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill individually through other means during the remainder of this Parliament. This will be a combination of legislative and non-legislative approaches where appropriate. Parliamentary business will be announced in the usual way.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 6 June 2023 to Question 187162, what other means her Department plans to use to take forwards the provisions of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will be taking forward measures in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill individually through other means during the remainder of this Parliament. This will be a combination of legislative and non-legislative approaches where appropriate. Parliamentary business will be announced in the usual way
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish the impact assessment for the Deposit Return Scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra published the first impact assessment on DRS in 2019 and a subsequent update to the consultation analysis with a further iteration to the consultation impact assessment was published in 2021. The 2021 consultation impact assessment can be found at: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environment/consultation-on-introducing-a-drs/supporting_documents/Impact%20Assessment.pdf.
A final Impact Assessment will be published in alignment with the next phase of the DRS work to allow us to update the analysis to accurately reflect what is set out in the Government response with the most recent data available.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 help ensure that the Deposit Management Organisation takes into account the challenges facing small producers.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In our 2021 consultation response, we set out the DRS scheme administrator (the Deposit Management Organisation) should consider the size of the producer when setting the producer fees. We will continue to review the impact on small businesses and consider further mitigations or support they might need as we move into implementation. Through relevant DRS sub-groups my officials engage with a wide range of stakeholders, and that includes small businesses such as small producers and small retailers.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to review the impact of the Deposit Return Scheme in England, Wales and Northern on small businesses.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In our 2021 consultation response, we set out the DRS scheme administrator (the Deposit Management Organisation) should consider the size of the producer when setting the producer fees. We will continue to review the impact on small businesses and consider further mitigations or support they might need as we move into implementation. Through relevant DRS sub-groups my officials engage with a wide range of stakeholders, and that includes small businesses such as small producers and small retailers.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 has made an assessment of the potential merits of excluding products that sell fewer than 5,000 containers a year from the Deposit Return Scheme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In our 2021 consultation response, we set out the DRS scheme administrator (the Deposit Management Organisation) should consider the size of the producer when setting the producer fees. We will continue to review the impact on small businesses and consider further mitigations or support they might need as we move into implementation. Through relevant DRS sub-groups my officials engage with a wide range of stakeholders, and that includes small businesses such as small producers and small retailers.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many incidents of livestock worrying by dogs were (a) reported, (b) investigated and (c) resulted in charges in England in 2022.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government takes the issue of livestock worrying very seriously, recognising the distress this can cause farmers and animals, as well as the financial implications. Individual police forces record the number of incidents of livestock worrying per year and Defra does not hold a central record.