Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report entitled Emission Factors for Domestic Solid Fuels Project - Work Package 1 Report, published on 3 January 2024.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We continue to undertake regular monitoring of emission sources of air pollutants to inform future policy. The results from Work Package 1 of this project are preliminary. An assessment of the implications for policies will be considered after the project is complete.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
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 inform people entering the UK of the dangers of bringing in meat from areas affected by African swine fever.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra, together with the devolved administrations, pig industry and veterinary bodies, has been working on a communications campaign to raise awareness of the risks of the introduction of African swine fever (ASF) to the UK and what can be done to reduce the risk of entry into the UK pig herd or feral wild boar populations. Messaging has targeted key audiences including transport operators, tourists to specific regions, and other people returning from affected regions. Additionally, we have been speaking to both professional and backyard pig keepers about the dangers and risk of ASF, to encourage best practice and ensure disease prevention.
We have also run a targeted communication campaign to raise awareness of the particular risks of bringing pork products into the UK from affected areas, including the emphasis on the importance of safely disposing of any unwanted pork products.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what additional resource has been allocated to UK border force to (a) provide communications to the public on and (b) increase surveillance of imported meat products from areas affected by African swine fever.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra is working with Border Force to focus communications on passengers travelling through ports and airports when returning to the UK from the EU and Asia. We are in the process of developing a set of communications that will be distributed across UK ports and airports informing people of the disease risk and asking that they do not bring personal pork imports into the UK. These messages will be communicated through a combination of posters, leaflets, and social media.
Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency routinely provide UK Border Force with information and risk assessments on countries where there is a heightened risk of animal diseases such as African swine fever. The information is used to target the specially trained sniffer dogs to detect illegally imported meat and high risk products of animal origin. Defra is currently working with UK Border Force to improve this intelligence sharing and targeting.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
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 economic assessment of the potential effect of African Swine Fever being identified in the UK on (a) the public purse and (b) pig producers’ incomes.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has estimated that the economic effect of a reasonable worst case scenario outbreak of African Swine Fever could cost the UK up to £90 million at 2019 prices. This total estimate includes costs to the industry of up to £85 million, which reflects the lost value of animals from culling, movement bans and trade restrictions, and costs of up to £5 million for the Government for disease control activities.
While this estimate represents an informed assessment of the potential impact of an outbreak, exact costs would be determined by a large number of factors including geographic location, the husbandry system, epidemiology of the outbreak and whether wildlife was involved.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government has plans to strengthen biosecurity arrangements on imported meat products after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our high biosecurity standards are of critical importance to the UK and we are committed to ensure those standards are maintained when we leave the UK.
As a member of the European Union we share standards of biosecurity with other Member States. This has facilitated the free movement of these goods between member states.
In the short term those standards will not change. Therefore, to ensure minimum disruption at the borders, we will not introduce new import controls on these goods imported from the EU.
To ensure we remain vigilant, we will require advance notification of imports of high-risk food and feed from the EU. This includes products of animal origin and high-risk food and feed not of animal origin. The Food Standards Agency will be in a position to monitor those notifications so that in the event of a food incident occurring involving imported food or feed, it will be able to respond effectively to safeguard public health by swiftly identifying the point of entry to the UK and the spread of a problem. We will also be reviewing our imports regime once we leave the EU.
For imports from countries outside the EU we will maintain the current controls and consignments of animal products will continue to be required to enter at Border Inspection Posts for veterinary checks. Notification will be required using the UK Import of Products, Animals and Food and Feed System. These controls will also apply to products of animal origin that come from outside the EU but travel through the EU before arriving in the UK.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to allocate funding to small and medium-sized enterprises to meet the (a) cost of replacing commercial vehicles that are no longer compliant with and (b) other costs arising from the implementation of Clean Air Zones.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
In July 2017, the Government published the UK Plan for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations and announced a £255 million Implementation Fund for 28 local councils to accelerate their air quality plans in order to achieve compliance with legal NO2 limits as soon as possible. Where these local plans identify Clean Air Zones as the appropriate measure the Implementation Fund will be available to cover associated implementation costs.
The Government has also announced £220 million for the Clean Air Fund, which will allow these local authorities to apply for funds to mitigate the impact of their plans on local businesses.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
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 merits of recent proposals to strengthen flood defences in the Humber Estuary.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The proposals for flood defence improvement projects on the Humber Estuary are being considered as part of the six-year capital investment programme, which will be published with the Autumn Statement.
The Environment Agency is also reviewing the Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy, which will consider future investment needs across the estuary. It will take account of data gathered following the east coast tidal surge of December 2013.