Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to take steps to extend food labelling regulations to smaller businesses.
Answered by Mark Spencer
All food sold on the UK market must comply with food labelling rules. Existing food labelling regulations provide the rules businesses must follow, setting out the mandatory labelling requirements for prepacked food, including information necessary to keep consumers safe and prevent misleading practices.
Small businesses providing products locally may be exempt from a small number of non-safety related requirements. This includes the requirement to provide a nutrition declaration on prepacked foods.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 make an assessment of the potential merits of banning the sale of disposable barbecues.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The public are encouraged to always behave responsibly when using products which have a fire risk.
There are no plans to prohibit the sale of disposable barbeques or sky lanterns at this time, and there are existing powers available that limit the use in certain places.
Current 'Byelaw' legislation allows for local authorities to restrict the use of disposable barbecues in parks and public spaces. These are steps that Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council among others have already taken. The Government encourages all local authorities to use these existing powers to take similar steps if they feel it necessary.
There are also existing powers in legislation which can be used to regulate and prohibit the lighting of fires on access land in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and National Parks. The New Forest and Peak District National Park Authorities have already banned the use of disposable barbecues within their boundaries and have successfully collaborated with several retailers to remove disposable barbecues from a great many stores.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 a recent assessment of the implications for its policies of reports of potential adulteration of honey sold in the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer
All honey on sale in the UK must comply with the Honey (England) Regulations 2015, with equivalent legislation applying across Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This legislation sets out detailed specifications for composition, labelling, and quality criteria.
The Government takes any type of food fraud very seriously, including honey adulteration.
We are working closely with Food Standards Agency to follow-up on recent reports in an EU survey where a small number of exported honey samples exported via the UK were flagged as suspicious for adulteration with added sugars. We will act immediately if we find any wrongdoing as part of the investigation. Honey is a complex natural product and analysis to determine if honey has been adulterated can be challenging. The Government has a programme of research dedicated to verifying honey authenticity which is actively working to provide information and guidance to those carrying out monitoring and enforcement checks on honey, to protect consumers and legitimate businesses.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has he made of trends in the level of adulterated honey imported into the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Government takes any type of food fraud very seriously, including honey adulteration. Defra works closely with enforcement authorities, the Food Standards Agency, and the National Food Crime Unit on investigating any fraud issues raised to ensure honey sold in the UK is not subject to adulteration, meets our high standards and maintains a level playing field between honey producers.
Honey is a complex natural product and analysis to determine if honey has been adulterated can be challenging. The Government has a programme of research dedicated to verifying honey authenticity which is actively working to provide information and guidance to those carrying out monitoring and enforcement checks on honey, to protect consumers and legitimate businesses. We are working closely with Food Standards Agency to follow-up on recent reports in an EU survey where a small number of exported honey samples were flagged as suspicious for adulteration with added sugars. We will act immediately if we find any wrongdoing as part of our investigation.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 tackle the poaching of (a) jaguars and (b) endangered animals.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The UK is committed to protecting endangered animals and plants from poaching and illegal trade to benefit wildlife, local communities and the economy while protecting global security. As part of this commitment, we are increasing our funding and will invest a further £30 million between 2022 and 2025 to directly counter poaching and the illegal wildlife trade. Through Defra’s grant scheme, the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, we are funding practical projects to protect endangered species – including jaguars - and reduce poverty in developing countries. This includes a project that aims to tackle the poaching of jaguars by targeting the illegal jaguar teeth trade in Bolivia by expanding local intelligence networks. Further information on Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund projects is available here: https://iwt.challengefund.org.uk/.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 she has taken to progress legislative proposals to promote the welfare of kept animals; and what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of making legislative provision to require visual checks on imported pets.
Answered by Mark Spencer
HM Government published its wide-reaching and ambitious Action Plan for Animal Welfare on 12 May 2021, setting out current and future work on animal welfare. Now that we have left the EU, we are making significant changes to domestic law through the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, bringing in legislation to further protect the welfare of pets, farmed and kept wild animals in Great Britain.
The Kept Animals Bill was reintroduced to the House of Commons in May 2022 and will progress to Report stage as soon as parliamentary time allows. The Bill allows us further to protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation. We recognise there is strong support for the Bill from all sides of the House and we have been actively working with hon. Members, Peers and our partners to make sure that the reforms work effectively.
We already operate one of the most rigorous and robust pet travel checking regimes in Europe. All non-commercial dogs, cats and ferrets entering Great Britain on approved routes (every route other than Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Crown Dependencies) under the Pet Travel rules undergo 100% documentary and identity checks by authorised pet checkers.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency works collaboratively with Border Force and other operational partners at ports, airports and inland, sharing intelligence to enforce the Pet Travel rules, disrupt illegal imports, safeguard the welfare of animals and seize non-compliant animals.
We have no plans to introduce further visual checks.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 help prevent outbreaks of avian flu.
Answered by Scott Mann
We advise all bird keepers that high standards of biosecurity should be maintained as good practice for the health and welfare of their birds, and that they must remain vigilant and report immediately to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) any suspicion of avian influenza in their birds.
Good biosecurity is an essential defence against diseases such as avian influenza and is key to limiting the spread of avian influenza in an outbreak. In light of evidence of escalating findings of avian influenza in wild birds and cases in poultry and other captive birds, an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) was declared on 31st August 2022 in Cornwall, Devon, Isles of Scilly and part of Somerset and remains in force until further notice. In this area it is a legal requirement for all bird keepers (whether they had pet birds, commercial flocks or just a few birds in a backyard flock) to follow strict biosecurity measures to limit the spread of and eradicate the disease. Definitive requirements are set out in the regional AIPZ Declaration, and biosecurity guidance and a biosecurity self-assessment checklist have been published by Defra to assist all bird keepers in instigating and maintaining good biosecurity, including compliance with the mandatory AIPZ measures which, together with further updates on the latest avian influenza situation, can be found via GOV.UK/Bird-flu.
The need for a national AIPZ or further regional AIPZs with or without mandatory housing measures will be kept under regular review as part of HM Government’s work to monitor and manage the risks of avian influenza. Any decisions on when to reintroduce a national or further regional AIPZs will be based on risk assessments containing the latest scientific, ornithological evidence and veterinary advice.
When avian influenza is confirmed in poultry or other captive birds, swift and humane culling of birds on infected premises coupled with good biosecurity is used to prevent the amplification of avian influenza and subsequent environmental contamination and to reduce the risk of disease spread from infected premises. In addition, disease control zones are put in place surrounding the infected premises. Within these zones the movement of birds and things associated with their keeping, e.g. poultry litter, are restricted to prevent the spread of disease. Disease control zones are only lifted when all disease control activities and surveillance within the zones are successfully completed.
In addition, alongside HM Government’s continued investment in the National Reference Laboratory and APHA’s Weybridge site, earlier this year we launched an eight-strong consortium that received £1.5 million in funding to develop new strategies to tackle avian influenza outbreaks. This research will help build our understanding in a number of key areas, including why the current virus strains have formed larger and longer outbreaks and understanding transmission and infection in different bird populations.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 potential merits of seabird conservation in preventing outbreaks of avian influenza in UK seabird populations.
Answered by Scott Mann
The United Kingdom’s seabirds are an important part of our natural heritage, and we continue to support actions to address the range of threats they are facing. We recognise the significant threat posed by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to the United Kingdom’s seabird populations and the role conservation can play in increasing the resilience of seabird populations in the face of avian influenza outbreaks.
Defra has commissioned Natural England to assess the vulnerability of seabird species in light of the pressures they are facing and to propose actions to address them. We will work closely with stakeholders to understand the best way to implement and prioritise these actions in early 2023.
Defra is working with Joint Nature Conservation Committee to establish an Advisory Group to advise, recommend actions and develop guidance on minimising the impact of HPAI on wild bird populations in England and Wales and recovering populations.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 take steps to develop an urgent response plan to respond to outbreaks of avian influenza.
Answered by Scott Mann
Effective animal disease control is one of Defra’s key priorities. Defra’s approach to avian influenza disease control is set out in the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain supported by the Mitigation Strategy for Avian Influenza in Wild Birds in England and Wales and in line with the Contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases of animals in England and the UK contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases of animals. Defra’s disease control measures seek to contain the number of animals that need to be culled, either for disease control purposes or to safeguard animal welfare. Our approach aims to reduce adverse impacts on the rural and wider economy, the public, rural communities and the environment (including impact on wildlife), while protecting public health and minimising the overall cost of any outbreak. Current policy reflects our experience of responding to past outbreaks of exotic animal disease and is in line with international standards of best practice for disease control.