Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
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 adequacy of the level of provision of sanitary bins for men experiencing incontinence in (a) male public toilets and (b) other public spaces.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government encourages local authorities to consider such provision in public toilets to support those with this need but does not have powers to compel the provision of sanitary bins in public toilets. I would encourage the hon. Member to raise the issue locally.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
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 10 July 2023 to Question 192826 on Public Lavatories: Men, how her Department encourages local authorities to consider the provision of sanitary bins in public toilets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities are best placed to determine bin provision locally. Our Binfrastructure guidance sets out a strategic approach local authorities can take to tailor their bin provision to the characteristics of the area and the community they serve. I am committed to working across government to explore where potential improvements can be made.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
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 taken steps to encourage local authorities to help businesses managing domestic seating waste containing persistent organic pollutants.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency are working to ensure that items of waste containing POPs are treated in a way that destroys the POPs content, thus eliminating the risk they pose to human health and the environment. Items of waste containing POPs cannot be landfilled, recycled, or prepared for reuse; the POP content must be incinerated to destroy the POPs.
The Environment Agency is working to bring local authorities and the waste sector into compliance with these requirements. Core guidance on how to comply with this legislation was published on GOV.UK when this legislation was introduced in 2016 and 2019. The Environment Agency and Defra have been working with stakeholders, including local authority representatives, from early 2021, to help them prepare to comply. This engagement will continue as the Environment Agency activity develops. Additional guidance on how to manage waste upholstered domestic seating has been in development with stakeholders since winter 2021. This was issued to local authorities and their contractors in August 2022 and published on GOV.UK on 19 December 2022. The Environment Agency will continue to maintain and update this guidance as needed.
The Government recognises that this is particularly challenging for some local authorities due to their geography and infrastructure. In December 2022 the Environment Agency published three Regulatory Positions (temporary conditional relaxations) designed to help local authorities manage their transition to compliance. Where there is local disruption to waste management services, the Environment Agency are rapidly engaging with local authorities and local waste operators to understand the barriers to compliance and how they can support resumed services.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
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 taken recent steps with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce the rate of suicide of men in the farming community.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Each and every suicide is a tragedy, with a devastating impact on families and communities and we are committed to doing all we can to prevent them.
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues about a range of issues and we continue to work together across Government, and with experts, to review our plans and ensure they are fit for the future.
We are investing an additional £57 million in suicide prevention by 2023/24 through the NHS Long Term Plan. Through this, all areas of the country are seeing investment to support local suicide prevention plans and the development of suicide bereavement services.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government plans to take to reduce the use of plastics during the remainder of the UK's COP presidency.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling plastic pollution was a priority before our COP presidency, and will continue to be after it concludes. The single-use carrier bag charge has led to a 95% reduction in the consumption of these bags in the main supermarkets- and earlier this year we extended it to all retailers. We are consulting right now on plans to go further, and extend restrictions on single-use plastics to plates, cutlery and expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers. In April 2022, we will introduce the plastic packaging tax – significantly incentivising plastic recycling. The world-leading Environment Act will allow us to do more still – with Extended Producer Responsibility schemes to ensure polluters pay, Deposit Return schemes to cut littering and boost plastic bottle recycling, and Consistent Collections to make recycling plastic, and other materials, easier for householders. Taken together, this is an exciting and comprehensive package of measures to make a real and lasting difference.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What steps his Department is taking to promote the consumption of British meat.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We want people at home and abroad to be lining up to Buy British. Our farmers produce high-welfare, high-quality meat and we are committed to supporting them. Our new farming schemes will offer the opportunity to move towards a more pastural system, producing higher quality meat that is reared in a sustainable way.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
What steps his Department is taking to promote the development of environmentally friendly pesticides to help support the domestic farming of rapeseed.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The consultation on the National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides outlines how the Government will support the development of nature-based solutions, low toxicity methods, and biopesticides, in line with the principles of Integrated Pest Management.
In partnership with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, Defra is funding field trials for Integrated Pest Management in oilseed rape.
Defra also supports research on the genetic improvement of rapeseed to increase resilience to pests.