Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 impact of puppy yoga on animal welfare.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra maintains strong working relationships with key animal welfare organisations and sector groups. These relationships ensure that the department is kept abreast of developments in the pet sector especially where there is evidence of an emerging welfare issue.
Where appropriate, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (the 2006 Act) can be used to protect the welfare of animals in such settings as puppy yoga classes. The 2006 Act makes it an offence for anyone responsible for an animal to cause it unnecessary suffering, or to fail to provide for its welfare in line with current best practice.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with Ofwat on the enforcement of regulations relating to storm overflows.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra ministers meet with Ofwat regularly to discuss a range of environmental delivery priorities for water companies, including Storm Overflows. This includes, for example, quarterly meetings with the chair and CEO of Ofwat to discuss performance of the sector and Ofwat enforcement, including on the use of Storm Overflows.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 she has made of the adequacy of Ofwat's enforcement powers in relation to water companies.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Last year, Ofwat levied penalties of £132 million against 11 water companies, which is being refunded to customers this year. Additionally, Ofwat has also opened a major enforcement investigation into 6 water companies regarding their compliance at sewage treatment works.
The Government has backed steps to strengthen Ofwat’s enforcement powers. In March 2023, Ofwat were able to strengthen its ability to stop water companies making dividend payments if the company’s financial resilience is at risk thanks to powers provided in the Environment Act 2021. This also enables Ofwat to take enforcement action against companies that don’t link dividend payments to their performance for customers or the environment, or those failing to be transparent about their dividend pay-outs.
Furthermore, in May this year government trebled Ofwat’s enforcement capacity with an additional £11.3m increase in funding.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many horses were recorded entering the UK via (a) Dover and (b) other ports in each year from 2016 to 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Port | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Birkenhead | 6 | 0 | 0 |
Cairnryan | 45 | 10 | 3 |
Dover | 6672 | 8465 | 3497 |
Fishguard | 100 | 243 | 100 |
Folkestone | 743 | 1550 | 644 |
Harwich | 488 | 601 | 341 |
Holyhead | 7993 | 9485 | 4742 |
Hull | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Immingham | 13 | 3 | 12 |
Killingholme | 101 | 112 | 41 |
Liverpool | 0 | 9 | 2 |
Newcastle | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Newhaven | 3 | 37 | 3 |
Pembroke | 597 | 952 | 411 |
Portsmouth | 673 | 1197 | 464 |
Other | 1058 | 939 | 215 |
Total | 18,492 | 23,607 | 10,475 |
The data provided is in respect of GB imports only.
We do not hold data on the port of entry into GB prior to 1 January 2021 as this information is not available on TRACES NT System.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 3 July to Question 191412 on Electronic Cigarettes: Waste Disposal, if her Department will collect information on the number of wildfires potentially caused by disposable vapes.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
My officials are working closely with those in the Department for Health and Social Care, who have published a call for evidence on the impacts of vaping, including on the natural environment. We will publish the findings in due course.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 3 July 2023 to Question 191411 on Electronic Cigarettes: Waste Disposal, whether she plans to collect data on the potential harms of disposable vapes to animals.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
My officials are working closely with those in the Department for Health and Social Care, who have published a call for evidence on the impacts of vaping, including on the natural environment. We will publish the findings in due course.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information the Government holds on the number of wildfires potentially caused by disposable vapes.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are aware that the use of disposable vaping products has increased substantially in recent years and are considering the implications of this trend for the environment. While we do not currently hold information on the number of wildfires caused by disposable vapes, my officials are working closely with those in the Department for Health and Social Care, who have recently launched a call for evidence on the impacts of vaping, including on the natural environment. We will use the responses to this to help gather our evidence base, which will in turn inform any future policy interventions to mitigate these impacts.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 risks to animals of exposure to disposable vapes.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are aware that the use of disposable vaping products has increased substantially in recent years and are considering the implications of this trend for the environment. While we do not currently hold information on the potential risks to animals from exposure to disposable vapes, my officials are working closely with those in the Department for Health and Social Care, who have recently launched a call for evidence on the impacts of vaping, including on the natural environment. We will use the responses to this to help gather our evidence base, which will in turn inform any future policy interventions to mitigate these impacts.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 5 June 2023 to Question 186538 on Animal and Plant Health Agency: Port of Dover, if she will provide a breakdown of the animals detained by the Animal and Plant Health Agency in the last 12 months by (a) species, (b) port and (c) reason for detention; and how many and what proportion of those animals were (i) leaving and (ii) entering the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Animals leaving GB will be checked at their point of entry into the EU or the Rest of the World country. The data provided is for animals detained following an inspection when entering GB for the period from 1 May 2022 to 31 May 2023.
Animals can be detained for the following reasons:
Dogs
DOGS | Dover | Coquelles | Folkestone | Harwich | Not specified | Total Detention Reason |
RIO &TARP | 16 | 2 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 33 |
RIO & WIT | 55 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 73 |
RIO Only | 89 | 31 | 17 | 0 | 10 | 147 |
TARP Only | 25 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 35 |
WIT & TARP | 37 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 58 |
WIT, TARP & RIO | 38 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 59 |
WIT Only | 19 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 46 |
Total at Port | 279 | 84 | 60 | 4 | 24 |
|
Cats
CATS | Dover | Coquelles | Folkestone | Total Detention Reason |
RIO & TARP | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
RIO & WIT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
RIO Only | 3 | 9 | 0 | 12 |
TARP Only | 14 | 1 | 0 | 15 |
WIT & TARP | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
WIT, TARP & RIO | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
WIT Only | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Total at Port | 25 | 10 | 2 |
|
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 answer Question 186536 tabled by the hon. Member for Penrith and the Border on 23 May for answer by 5 June 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A response was published on 19 June 2023.