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, in the context of rising prices for feed, fertiliser and fuel, if he will take steps to provide extra support with energy costs to farmers and crofters.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
While no national Government can control the global factors pushing up the cost of energy, we will continue to support British farmers and crofters.
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a price reduction to ensure that all businesses, including chemical companies, and other non-domestic customers are protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period. Non-domestic customers do not need to take action or apply to the scheme – support will automatically be applied to bills.
HM Government is also supporting businesses to improve their energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2030. This could deliver up to £6 billion in cost savings by 2030.
We have extended the Energy Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme by three years and more than doubled its budget.
We have also provided these sectors with broader support, bringing forward half of this year’s BPS payment as an advance injection of cash to farm businesses. Payments will be paid in two instalments each year for the remainder of the agricultural transition period.
We have issued statutory guidance providing clarity to farmers on how they can use slurry and other manures during autumn and winter. We have delayed changes to the use of urea fertiliser until spring 2023 and introduced new slurry storage grants to help farmers comply with the Farming Rules for Water, reducing dependence on artificial fertilisers.
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 his Department is taking steps to help address skills shortages in the red meat industry.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
HM Government supports a competitive red meat sector and we are working closely with industry to ensure there is a long-term strategy for the sector's workforce.
The Skilled Worker route is open to all those eligible who wish to come to the UK to work in a skilled job they have been offered, including butchers in the red meat industry. This is coupled with an emphasis on employers investing in, and training, the domestic workforce. Defra is working with industry and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to raise awareness of career opportunities within the food and farming sectors among the United Kingdom workforce. HM Government and industry have also established a new professional body for the farming industry: The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH). TIAH will enable the industry to drive greater uptake of skills, creating clear career development pathways, and promoting the sector as a progressive, professional, and attractive career choice.
As announced in the Government Food Strategy in June, HM Government has now commissioned an independent review which will consider how automation, domestic labour and migrant labour can contribute to tackling labour shortages in the food supply chain. The review will focus on farming, processing, and food and drink manufacturing as sectors which are critical for food production and food security.
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 take steps to tackle potential concerns that the consultation on the UK Environment Act lacked critical information and did not allow sufficient time for consultation.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is no additional evidence pack for the Nature Recovery Green Paper. The initial proposals set out in the Nature Recovery Green Paper are based on publicly available evidence and advice from our experts. Alongside the Nature Recovery Green Paper, we published a summary of the HRA Review Working Group's findings, as well as guidance on regulation 9 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.
The Nature Recovery Green Paper consultation was published on 16 March and will run for 8 weeks, closing on 11 May.
The evidence reports and impact assessments for the Environmental Targets consultation are currently undergoing final assurance. The length of the consultation response period will be extended to reflect the length of delay in publishing the underlying evidence reports.
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 progress his Department has made on reducing the use of plastics.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our target is to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste over the lifetime of the 25 Year Environment Plan, and we have already made good progress. We have introduced one of the world’s toughest bans on microbeads in rinse-off personal care products, reduced sales of single-use carrier bags by over 95% in the main retailers through the 5p charge, and, since 1 October this year, have banned the supply of plastic straws, cotton buds, and stirrers, with exemptions. And we will not stop there. Next year we will extend the carrier bag charge to all retailers and increase the minimum charge to 10p, consult again on the introduction of a deposit-return scheme for drinks containers, and, from 2022, will introduce a tax on plastic packaging containing less than 30% recycled content.
Our landmark Environment Bill includes a number of measures that will enable us to further tackle plastic waste. These include measures to impose charges on single-use plastic items and make producers cover the costs of collecting and managing plastic packaging waste.
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 his Department has taken to help ensure that the new online system for Export Health Certificates for meat products dispatched from the UK is able to meet demand; and what steps his Department has taken to ensure that that system is operational by the end of 2020.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Export Health Certificates (EHC) Online service has been available for trade with third countries since June 2020. It replaces the current manual process for applying for EHCs.
The 150 most frequently used third country EHCs (representing 80% of current throughput) are available via the EHC Online service. There will be further releases of third country EHCs on the online service before the end of 2020.
APHA plan to make EHCs for EU trade available via EHC Online from mid-October. This will offer traders visibility of the documentation they will be required to use at the end of the transition period.
The EHC Online service has been developed with the capability to meet future demand in export trade. Defra estimate that up to an additional 300,000 Export Health Certificates may be required annually to facilitate EU trade. The EHC Online system has been designed and stress tested to process transactions in excess of this.
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 his Department has taken to ensure that there will be sufficient numbers of qualified vets to inspect and sign off consignments of meat to be dispatched from the UK so that they can be issued an export health certificate after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government has increased the number of Official Veterinarians (OVs) holding the relevant qualification to certify exports of products of animal origin, including meat products, in Great Britain from approximately 600 in February 2019 to more than 1200 today. On 1 October 2020, we launched a new £200,000 funded training scheme to enhance OV capacity further. In parallel, we launched a £100,000 scheme to train Certification Support Officers (CSOs). CSOs can handle several preliminary and administrative tasks to prepare consignments for certification. This reduces the burden on OVs and Local Authority Certifying Officers. More than 100 CSOs have been authorised in GB to date.
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 take steps to ensure that the Government's new health mark scheme allows groupage of exports from the UK to the EU; and when he plans to inform businesses who sell fresh and frozen meat to EU countries of the details of that scheme.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
To help traders prepare for changes to export arrangements for animals and products of animal origin (POAO) from 1 January 2021, we are hosting a series of webinars from mid-October. Specimen Export Health Certificates and accompanying guidance notes for trade between Great Britain and the EU have been made available on the GOV.UK website, to enable exporters and certifiers to familiarise themselves with the detailed requirements.
A Groupage Export Facilitation Scheme was developed in consultation with industry to help facilitate the export of certain commodities with complex but stable supply chains, including composite products, meat products and meat preparations, for use from 1 January 2021.
The Food Standards Agency is finalising its new guidance to the food industry covering which health and identification marks should be used on POAO after the end of the Transition Period. We anticipate that this will be published shortly.