Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
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 15 October 2018 to Question 177254 on Medical equipment: waste disposal, how many of the 155 permitted healthcare waste sites in England are hospitals.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Of the 155 permitted healthcare waste sites in England, 16 are located at hospitals.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many clinical waste operators there are in the UK.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Waste policy is a devolved matter and Defra only holds the information requested for England.
There are currently 155 permitted healthcare waste sites in England, run by an estimated 70 operators and subsidiaries. This includes 24 facilities which are permitted for the incineration of healthcare waste, run by 12 different operators.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) unannounced and (b) announced inspections the Environment Agency have undertaken at clinical waste operators in the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Environment Agency (EA) uses a range of methods to monitor waste site compliance, including audits, data reviews, and site inspections.
The table below shows the number of checks which the EA has undertaken for healthcare waste sites in England in each of the last four years. The EA does not centrally record numbers of announced and unannounced inspections, however the majority of inspections are unannounced.
Information for 2014 is not included because a new system for recording checks was introduced in 2015 and earlier information is not centrally recorded.
Year | Total no. of checks: | Of which site visits: |
2015 | 249 | 110 |
2016 | 261 | 119 |
2017 | 287 | 132 |
2018 (year to date) | 267 | 186 |
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many clinical waste operators there are in the UK.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Waste policy is a devolved matter and Defra only holds the information requested for England.
There are currently 155 permitted healthcare waste sites in England, run by an estimated 70 operators and subsidiaries. This includes 24 facilities which are permitted for the incineration of healthcare waste, run by 12 different operators.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) unannounced and (b) announced inspections the Environment Agency have undertaken at clinical waste operators in the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Environment Agency (EA) uses a range of methods to monitor waste site compliance, including audits, data reviews, and site inspections.
The table below shows the number of checks which the EA has undertaken for healthcare waste sites in England in each of the last four years. The EA does not centrally record numbers of announced and unannounced inspections, however the majority of inspections are unannounced.
Information for 2014 is not included because a new system for recording checks was introduced in 2015 and earlier information is not centrally recorded.
Year | Total no. of checks: | Of which site visits: |
2015 | 249 | 110 |
2016 | 261 | 119 |
2017 | 287 | 132 |
2018 (year to date) | 267 | 186 |
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
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 he has made of the adequacy of labelling for non-prepackaged fresh food.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We take the provision of information to consumers extremely seriously and it is essential that all UK consumers have complete trust in the food they are eating.
Defra is working closely with the Food Standards Agency and the Department for Health and Social Care to urgently review our approach to food labelling with the aim of strengthening the current allergen labelling framework. We are also holding talks with the Devolved Administrations to see what approach they may wish to take, as this is a devolved matter.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
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 his Written Ministerial Statement of 3 November 2017, whether the Multi-Agency Flood Plan Review will be completed at the end of May 2018; and what the timetable is for the review to be published.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I can confirm that the review has been published this month.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) regional climate change partnerships were funded by the Environment Agency’s Climate Ready Programme in 2015 and (b) regional climate change partnerships there were in 2017.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Environment Agency (EA)’s Climate Ready Support Service provided project funding to seven Regional Climate Change Partnerships (RCCPs) through a collaborative agreement with Climate UK, their umbrella organisation. The EA made direct payments to a further two RCCPs, which were hosted by the EA. In total, the Climate Ready Support Service funded projects in nine RCCPs.
The Climate Ready Support Service closed in March 2016 and the EA does not have any official data regarding the RCCPs beyond this point.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
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 undertake a consultation exercise on changes to the Local Air Quality Management framework.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra plans to consult this year on policy changes to the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) framework, to minimise bureaucracy and reporting burdens, shifting the focus to taking action to clean up local air through strong collaborative local partnerships; and driving stronger local action on reducing particulate matter emissions.
We will also encourage greater public transparency about local air quality to empower local citizens and their air quality decision-makers in their local communities, and provide stronger incentives for local authorities to use their tools and powers.
Asked by: Mary Creagh (Labour - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What recent assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the UK food industry.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK food industry is innovative and efficient and it is well placed to succeed in the future. Many EU countries such as Ireland, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Spain are highly dependent on access to the UK for their food exports since the UK is a large and attractive market. Depending on the nature of any final agreement, food companies from some of these countries may choose to relocate some of their production out of the EU and into the UK.