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Written Question
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Written Questions
Wednesday 14th February 2024

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

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 respond to Question 8086 tabled by the hon. Member for Bedford on 5 January 2024 on hornets.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

A response was published on 12 February 2024. I apologise for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.


Written Question
Hornets
Monday 12th February 2024

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

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 is taking steps to help eradicate Asian hornets from the UK before spring 2024.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In 2023 the National Bee Unit (NBU) – part of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) - located and destroyed 72 Asian hornet nests. The NBU has been taking action against Asian hornet since 2016 and has a fine-tuned response. They frequently find a nest within a day of an initial sighting being reported. Previously the highest number of nests the NBU had dealt with in one year was 4. Nevertheless, the NBU drew on further resources from wider APHA to provide an effective response to this unprecedented number of Asian hornet nests.

Asian hornet is inactive over winter, normally between November and March. During this period any new queens released from nests in the autumn hibernate. Only a proportion of these will survive and go onto create new nests in spring. Therefore, no further contingency action will be taken until the spring when the hornets start becoming active.

We are developing further plans for 2024 which will be announced prior to the spring. The NBU will continue to respond to credible sightings of Asian hornet and eradicate any nests that are located.


Written Question
Water Treatment
Monday 10th July 2023

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of working with (a) OFWAT and (b) water companies on (i) desalination and (ii) other sustainable water supply solutions.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra recently published its Plan for Water setting out the importance of ensuring a clean and plentiful water supply. The National Framework for water resources sets out in detail how the Government, regulators and regional groups, including water companies, will work together to improve water resources management. This includes reducing demand, halving leakage, developing new water supplies and moving water to where it is needed.

Earlier this year, regional water resources groups and water companies consulted on their draft water resources plans. These statutory plans set out how each company will secure water supplies sustainably for at least the next 25 years. Within their plans, water companies consider all options, including demand management and water resources infrastructure, such as desalination. The draft water resources management plans contain proposals for multiple new schemes by 2050, including 9 new desalination schemes, 9 new reservoirs, 11 new water recycling schemes, and several new internal and inter-company transfers to share resources.


Written Question
Textiles: Recycling
Thursday 8th June 2023

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

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 introduce a national textile recycling scheme.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government’s 2018 Resources & Waste Strategy for England identified textiles as a priority sector for action. Our ambitions to minimise textile waste will be outlined in the upcoming document Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste, which constitutes a new Waste Prevention Programme for England. We expect to publish this in summer 2023.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 23 Jun 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

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View all Mohammad Yasin (Lab - Bedford) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 23 Jun 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

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View all Mohammad Yasin (Lab - Bedford) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 23 Jun 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

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View all Mohammad Yasin (Lab - Bedford) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Written Question

Question Link

Thursday 28th April 2022

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

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 include glass in the deposit return scheme; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The full response to our consultation on a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will be published in due course.

However, as part of our response to the consultation on Extended Producer Responsibility, we announced any DRS in England and Northern Ireland would not include glass.

Concerns were raised that including glass in a DRS risked reducing the amount of glass available to remelt, whilst making reverse vending machines larger and more complicated, as well as causing extra risk to both shop staff and consumers.

Glass will be subject to regulation via Extended Producer Responsibility and continue to be recycled at the kerbside.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 01 May 2019
Environment and Climate Change

Speech Link

View all Mohammad Yasin (Lab - Bedford) contributions to the debate on: Environment and Climate Change

Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 02 Jul 2018
Pet Theft

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View all Mohammad Yasin (Lab - Bedford) contributions to the debate on: Pet Theft