Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using insect protein in pelleted chicken and pig feed.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Animal feed legislation permits the use of insects in animal feed, however, its use is subject to the requirements of both the Animal by Product (ABP) and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) Regulations which restrict the use of certain feeds.
In the United Kingdom it is currently permissible to use live invertebrates as chicken or pig feed as they do not fall within the scope of these controls, but pellets are currently not permissible in Great Britain. The potential merits and uses for insect protein as a livestock feed (including for chickens and pigs) is currently being considered by Government.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 take steps to reduce the cumulative costs of vet health checks and employing export and import agents for companies selling live insect eggs to the EU.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Animal and Plant Health Agency does not charge exporters for Export Health Certificates. Official Veterinarians operate in a private market and will charge exporters for certification. Decisions on the use of import and export agencies remain commercial matters for traders.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help remove trade barriers for UK-based companies exporting live insect eggs to EU countries.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) chapter of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement puts in place a framework that allows the UK and the EU to take informed decisions to reduce their respective SPS controls, with a commitment to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade. It is in both the UK’s and the EU’s interests to use this framework to reduce or streamline SPS checks where possible, ensuring that they are proportionate to the biosecurity risks.
The trade in live insects where they are not for human consumption is subject to national rules, meaning the individual importing country sets the requirements in an SPS context. If they are for human consumption, then this is an EU harmonised area and is subject to the EU’s harmonised import controls. The UK has secured listing from the EU to export insects for human consumption and the relevant Export Health Certificate is available via EHC Online.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 takes to ensure that at least one official from his Department is present during all (a) meetings and (b) phone calls relating to Government business between Ministers and third parties.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Ministers holding meetings or phone calls on Government business are routinely accompanied by a private secretary or other official, in line with the expectations of paragraph 8.14 of the Ministerial Code.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his Department’s process is for (a) recording and (b) keeping minutes of all meetings relating to Government business.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Formal, structured meetings are usually minuted. However, not all meetings need to be minuted. It is expected that the general guidance that departments give to their staff will help officials make judgements as to what meetings need to be minuted, noting their Civil Service Code obligation to ‘keep accurate official records.’
Specific procedures are in place for external meetings involving Ministers. These are publicly available and can be found in the Guidance on the management of Private Office Papers.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the value of contracts given by (a) his Department and (b) the Food Standards Agency to Randox since 2010.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Records of Government contracts above £10,000 in central government and £25,000 in the wider public sector are published on Contracts Finder:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department spent on (a) communications, (b) advertising and (c) marketing in (i) the UK, (ii) England, (iii) Northern Ireland, (iv) Scotland and (v) Wales in each month from August 2020 to December 2020.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Cabinet Office publishes expenditure on COVID-19 and other national campaigns on a rolling monthly basis on GOV.UK as part of routine government transparency arrangements.