Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to (a) amend the Clean Air Act 1993 or (b) repeal that Act and include its provisions in the primary legislation proposed in the Government’s Clean Air Strategy.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
On 18 July the Prime Minister announced that the Government will bring forward the first Environment Bill in over 20 years. This will incorporate a range of issues including improving air quality and builds on the vision set out in our 25 Year Environment Plan. As we develop these proposals, we will consider the best way to reform the existing legislative framework.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
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 effect of disease on trees.
Answered by George Eustice
Tree health risks are systematically assessed through the publically available UK Plant Risk Register (approximately one third of the nearly 1000 pests and diseases on the register are forestry pests and diseases), risks are reviewed monthly and prioritised for actions such as surveillance. Forestry Commission carry out aerial and ground based surveillance on priority risks to tree health, including Phytophthora ramorum, oak processionary moth, ash dieback and the results are published on the Forestry Commission website.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many fly tipping prosecutions there were in (a) 2016 and (b) 2017; and how much was raised in fines from such prosecutions in each of those years.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
In 2015-16 there were 2,135 prosecutions by local authorities for fly-tipping offences with a total of £677,000 raised in fines. In 2016-17 the figures were 1,571 prosecutions and £723,000 in fines. 98% of prosecutions result in a conviction. Additionally in 2015-16 there were 36,000 fixed penalty notices issued for fly-tipping offences which increased to 56,000 in 2016-17.
The statistics are published annually by Defra and are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fly-tipping-in-england
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the White Paper on agriculture will contain specific provisions for protecting and supporting British horitculture.
Answered by George Eustice
The Environment Secretary has set out his intention to publish a consultation paper on the future of domestic agriculture policy later this spring.
The paper will set out our proposals for the future of agriculture and the opportunities for all sectors, including horticulture. We look forward to receiving consultation responses from across industry in due course.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on establishing a Central Equine Database since the closing of his Department's consultation, Consultation on changes to the identification of equines, published in Aril 2017.
Answered by George Eustice
Usability testing has been successfully completed. Defra’s supplier is working closely with Passport Issuing Organisations (PIOs) to prepare and import their historical passport records into the Central Equine Database, with two thirds of PIOs having now provided data. Enforcement bodies including Local Authorities and the Food Standards Agency are able to search records and the database will be fully operational for PIOs by Spring.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which local authorities breached legal air quality limits in the last year.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Defra assesses compliance against EU air quality limit values for 43 regional zones and agglomerations across the UK. The compliance assessment is contained in the annual compliance reports which are accessible on the UK-AIR website: uk-air.defra.gov.uk. We do not hold compliance data at local authority level.
Air quality data from Defra’s national monitoring network is routinely published on the UK-AIR website and can be searched by location. In addition, many local authorities monitor air quality at local level and make this data available.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that the UK complies with the Medium Combustion Plant Directive by December 2017.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
We recently consulted on proposals to transpose the Medium Combustion Plant Directive (MCPD). We are proposing to amend the current England and Wales environmental permitting regime to implement the MCPD which will be transposed into law by December 2017.
New plants will be required to comply with the MCPD emission limits by 20 December 2018. Existing plants with a rated thermal input >5MW will be required to comply by 1 January 2025 whilst existing plants with a rated thermal input
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
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 potential merits of deploying low nitrogen oxide fuel cell generators in inner cities.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
While Defra has not carried out a specific assessment regarding the deployment of low nitrogen oxide fuel cell generators in inner cities, the Government welcomes the development of lower emissions technologies and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has recently provided innovation funding to a project developing a low temperature solid oxide fuel cell that would be suitable for deployment in cities. Defra has also recently consulted on regulations to reduce emissions from high nitrogen oxide generators.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many additional civil servants her Department has employed since 23 June 2016.
Answered by George Eustice
The number of additional staff the Department has employed on both fixed term and a permanent basis since 23 June 2016 until 23 January 2017 is 215.
This figure includes internal transfers and Civil Servants from Other Government Departments.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
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 take steps to publicise better the 2014 findings of the Committee on Toxicity as far as they relate to the health effects of exposure to organophosphates.
Answered by George Eustice
The 2014 findings of the COT review on the health effects of the exposure to organophosphates is in the public domain and can be found on the COT’s website: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140909095303/http:/cot.food.gov.uk/cotstatements/cotstatementsyrs/cotstatements2014/cotstatorg.