Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
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 meet representatives from the UK mechanical recycling industry to discuss government support for the industry.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Collection and Packaging Reforms – Simpler Recycling, Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) and a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) – will help stimulate investment in recycling services across the UK.
In addition, Defra is working across Government to pinpoint any further interventions necessary to stabilise the sector and set it up for success.
The Minister for Nature convened a roundtable with industry earlier this year and senior officials chaired a roundtable with representatives from the recycling industry in September. Government continues to consider how best to engage the sector.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) halal and (b) kosher slaughterhouses have operated in the UK in each year since 2020, by local authority area.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The number of slaughterhouses carrying out slaughter using the halal or shechita methods is not routinely recorded, as no specific approval from the Food Standards Agency is required to use these methods. However, the FSA’s most recent slaughter sector survey showed that in February 2024: for cattle, there were 4 slaughterhouses that used the Shechita method and 4 that used the non-stun halal method; for sheep, there were 5 that used the Shechita method and 12 that used the non-stun halal method; for meat chickens, there were 4 slaughterhouses that used the Shechita method and 10 that used the non-stun halal method. Additionally, some slaughterhouses also utilise the stunned halal method too.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of mandating the labelling of (a) halal and (b) kosher products.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are no regulations that require the labelling of halal or kosher meat, but the Government expects industry to provide consumers with information on which to make an informed choice about their food. Any information provided on the method of slaughter must be accurate and not misleading to the consumer.
We will consider the potential role of method of production labelling reform as part of the ongoing development of the Government’s wider animal welfare strategy.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) halal and (b) kosher slaughterhouses have been investigated for violations of (i) food safety and (ii) animal welfare standards in each year since 2020.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Food Standards Agency does not have data on the number of halal or kosher slaughterhouses investigated for violations of food safety or animal welfare standards.
The Food Standards Agency does not categorise slaughterhouses as either ‘halal’ or ‘kosher’. No specific approval is required to use these methods and so the slaughterhouses producing kosher or halal meat are not routinely recorded.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of (a) food safety and (b) animal welfare standards in (i) halal and (ii) kosher slaughterhouses.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No specific food safety or animal welfare assessments have been made of slaughterhouses using halal or kosher slaughter methods.
Animal welfare at time of killing legislation sets out the main requirements to protect the welfare of animals when being slaughtered. There are additional rules that apply when animals are slaughtered by either the Jewish or Muslim method to ensure that animals are spared avoidable pain, suffering, or distress during the slaughter process. Similarly, food hygiene legislation sets out the hygiene requirements for approved slaughterhouses regardless of the method used.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
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 protect the domestic beet sugar industry from (a) tariff and (b) non-tariff barriers.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Government has made clear commitments to uphold our standards in trade deals and protect our sensitive sectors. The recently agreed trade agreement with India will fully exclude sugar from the UK's tariff reductions. We will continue to do what is right for the UK sugar sector in our trade policy.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
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 1 May 2025 to Question 41542 on Packaging: Recycling, which stakeholders his Department plans to engage with to discuss changes to the Package Recovery Note system.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We intend to seek views from all those who may impacted by any of the proposed changes, including producers, compliance schemes, waste management companies, local authorities and reprocessors and exporters of packaging waste.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether all (a) glass, (b) steel, (c) aluminium and (d) PET drinks containers are subject to reporting and payment of Extended Producer Responsibility as there is no exemption for Wales under EPR Regulation 11.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, Deposit items of a relevant deposit scheme are exempt from reporting, recycling and disposal fee obligations.
Prior to the introduction of a relevant deposit scheme, steel, aluminium, and PET drinks containers are subject to data reporting and recycling obligations but not disposal fees. Provided that a deposit scheme comes into operation in at least one part of the UK by 1 January 2028, steel, aluminium and PET drinks containers will not be subject to disposal fees in any part of the UK. However, if a deposit scheme is not in operation in any part of the United Kingdom by 1 January 2028, liable producers of steel, aluminium, and PET drinks containers will also pay disposal fees for this packaging.
Glass drinks containers are subject to the full range of pEPR obligation and liable producers are obliged to pay disposal fees for this packaging.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with Natural England on the potential impact of issuing a GL43 on the shooting season this year.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In considering the issue of GL43 for this year’s shooting season, Defra took into account Natural England’s statutory advice, noting that the national transmission risk status of avian influenza in wild birds continues to be very high. This included a recommendation to exclude the Lundy Special Area of Conservation (SAC) from the scope of the licence and to include an additional licence condition, requiring best practice biosecurity measures to be undertaken and recorded when managing gamebirds, and those records be produced if requested by a wildlife inspector. The licence was published on 2 May.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing support to the homegrown sugar industry in fast-tracking trials to help tackle Virus Yellows disease.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
This Government acknowledges the critical role of sugar beet farmers in the UK's sugar production and their ongoing contributions to the agricultural sector.
This Government recognises the challenge posed to sugar beet growers by Virus Yellows (VY), and we strongly support the industry-led work to develop more sustainable alternative controls for the aphids that spread these diseases. This includes Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques such as novel companion crops, and the development of new pest resistant varieties using both traditional and precision breeding techniques. These novel control methods, alongside new active substances such as Flupyradifurone – approved this year – will ensure that sugar beet growers have the tools they need to address VY.
The government is committed towards achieving crop resilience, especially in the sugar beet sector, to support Britain’s food security and nature’s recovery. Defra collaborates with the British Beet Research Organisation on IPM initiatives, with plans to observe their IPM trials in the coming Spring.
As part of this, the Government remains fully committed to enhancing crop resilience and is progressing legislation to activate precision breeding in England.