Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the UK’s exit from the EU on trends in the cost of exporting food to the EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Trade and Continuity Agreement provides businesses tariff and quota free access to the EU market, provided that these goods meet ‘Rules of Origin’ requirements.
UK businesses must comply with customs procedures when exporting food. These procedures include Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) border controls as well as technical regulations, standards and conformity assessments. Not enough time has passed to robustly assess the trend in these costs.
In 2023, the UK exported £14.0 billion of Food, Feed and Drink to the EU. This represents a nominal increase of 0.3% compared to 2018, but 19% lower than 2018 after adjusting for inflation.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 bring forward legislative proposals to ban cat and kitten smuggling.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As outlined in our 2021 Action Plan for Animal Welfare, the Government has an ambitious agenda for animal welfare and conservation reforms, which we are taking forward during this Parliamentary session. We will continue to introduce and support legislative and non-legislative reforms where possible.
We are aware that Selaine Saxby MP has introduced a Private Members’ Bill on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of dogs, cats and ferrets. In accordance with Parliamentary convention, the Government will set out its formal position on this Bill when it receives its Second Reading.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 it her policy to bring forward cat breeding regulations similar to those in Scotland.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (the Regulations), anyone in the business of breeding and selling cats as pets needs to have a valid licence issued by their local authority. Licensees must meet strict statutory minimum welfare standards which are enforced by local authorities who have powers to issue, refuse, vary or revoke licences.
Defra has been working on a post-implementation review of the Regulations in line with the requirements of the Regulations’ review clause. This review considers whether the Regulations have met their objectives, and where there could be scope to further improve the protections they provide to breeding cats and their offspring. The review will be published soon.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of banning the import of fur.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues about a wide range of issues, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 increasing the speed of reforms to the (a) packaging waste recycling note and (b) packaging waste export recycling note systems.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government Response to both the consultation on extended producer responsibility for packaging published in March 2022 and the consultation on reforms to the Packaging Waste Recycling Note (PRN) and Packaging Waste Export Recycling Note (PERN) System published in October 2022 set out a number of measures to improve the operation of the system. These included enhanced reporting requirements for accredited reprocessors and exporters, the introduction of an operator competence (‘fit and proper person’) test and additional requirements on exporters to evidence that packaging has been received at overseas reprocessing sites and recycled. These reforms will be introduced in our new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations, which currently are out for consultation. The Government will keep the operation of the system under review and consider other measures as necessary to ensure its effective operation.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 extended producer responsibility for packaging scheme (a) is designed in cooperation with industry, (b) is effective and (c) keeps additional costs to (i) businesses and (ii) consumers to a minimum.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recently took the decision to defer the introduction of extended producer responsibility for packaging by 12 months having considered feedback from stakeholders and current economic pressures. This additional time will be used to further engage with industry and local authorities on the operational design of elements of the scheme including the scheme governance, administration arrangements and the fees and payments model. This also provides more time for businesses to prepare and to adapt to the new data reporting requirements and for Government to consult on the draft Regulations that will implement extended producer responsibility providing further opportunity for stakeholder feedback. I want to ensure the scheme is effective, delivers improvements to local authority packaging waste services and provides value for money to obligated businesses.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 (a) consulting widely on the design of the Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers, (b) improving kerbside recycling and (c) increasing glass remelt targets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
UK Government, Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland consulted in 2019 and 2021 on the detail of introducing a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In January 2023 we published the government response to the 2021 consultation, setting out policy decisions and next steps for introducing the scheme (link here). There was strong support, with 83% of consultation responses supporting the introduction of a DRS.
Defra is working closely with devolved administrations and industry to support successful DRS delivery across the UK.
Regarding kerbside recycling, following support at public consultation, new section 45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as amended by the Environment Act 2021) stipulates that all local authorities in England must make arrangements for a core set of materials to be collected for recycling from households. This core set includes: paper and card; plastic; glass; metal; food waste and garden waste. These materials must always be collected separately from residual waste so that they can be recycled. Commencement dates will be set out in regulations in due course.
In the Government response to the consultation on Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility published in March 2022 we set out our intention to increase the glass remelt target to 80% by 2030.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 incentivise investment in infrastructure for climate resilience and adaptation.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Investment in infrastructure resilience is delivered through both public and private funding. The third National Adaptation Programme sets out in detail how each infrastructure sector is approaching the challenge of climate resilience, now and in the future, including the way in which regulatory frameworks drive investment in climate resilience.
Where the Government has concerns about the level of investment in resilience we have acted swiftly. For example, through the recent Plan for Water we have accelerated £2.2 billion of investment in measures to secure a resilient, clean and plentiful supply of water now and in the future. The 2023 Green Finance Strategy also contains a range of initiatives to help drive increased private financial flows into environmental outcomes, including climate adaptation.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 publish a response to her Department's consultation on the Commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into Great Britain, which closed on 16 October 2021.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We are carefully reviewing the feedback gathered from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, and a summary will be published in due course.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 will consult with the animal welfare sector on pet smuggling measures; and whether he will include cats and kittens in pet smuggling proposals.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
In Autumn 2021 we consulted on further proposed changes to the rules governing the commercial and non-commercial movement of cats, dogs and ferrets into Great Britain.
We are carefully reviewing the feedback from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders in the animal welfare sector and a summary will be published in due course.