Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 air quality levels across the Shipley constituency.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Local authorities take the lead on monitoring levels of air pollution within their boundaries. City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council (CBMDC) was one of eight local authorities directed in October 2018, as part of the supplement to the 2017 UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Concentrations, to develop a local plan to tackle identified NO2 exceedances, following a Government-funded targeted feasibility study conducted by the council. This study identified persistent long-term exceedances of legal NO2 limit values in and around the city centre including the Shipley area, and that without further action CBMDC would not be compliant with legal NO2 limits until 2027.
Following approval of its plan early this year, CBMDC was subsequently directed and funded to introduce a charging Clean Air Zone in late 2021 that will cover the city centre, Canal Road corridor, Shipley and Saltaire, enabling CBMDC to achieve compliance by 2022.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with smokeless fuel manufacturers in the last two years; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
During the Government’s consultation on cleaner domestic burning of solid fuels and wood, Defra officials engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including smokeless fuel manufacturers.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many meetings in his Department (a) Ministers and (b) officials have held with the Coal Merchants’ Federation in the last two years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Over the course of the consultation on cleaner domestic burning of solid fuels and wood, the Government has engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including a number of trade organisations representing the coal industry. One meeting was held at official level with the Coal Merchants’ Federation. There have been no Ministerial meetings with this organisation.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the potential reduction in emissions that will result from the phasing out of coal and wet wood for domestic heating from February 2021; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government recently published its response to the consultation on using cleaner domestic burning of solid fuels and wood, which included proposals for the regulation of the sales, distribution and marketing of bituminous coal and wet wood sold in units of up to 2m3 and restricting the sale of manufactured solid fuels with a sulphur content greater than 2%. A full impact assessment was published alongside the Government response and is available on the GOV.UK website. This analysis estimates the following cumulative emission reductions between 2020 and 2030: 91.53kt of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), 24.9kt of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and 430kt of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/air-quality-using-cleaner-fuels-for-domestic-burning
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to reduce the amount of wet wood (a) sold and (b) burnt in England for domestic heating; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government response to the consultation on cleaner domestic burning of solid fuels and wood was published on 21 February 2020. This outlines plans to restrict the sale, distribution and marketing of wet wood. The proposed policy will require suppliers of wood sold in volumes below 2m3 to have their product tested and certified to show that its moisture content is below 20%, those supplying wood in volumes greater than 2m3 will be required to provide their customers with instructions for seasoning wet wood, which will be accompanied by a warning advising that the wood is not suitable to be burnt without appropriate drying. Further to this, retailers of wood in volumes below 2m3 will be required to store it in a way that ensures its moisture content is kept below 20%.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's press release entitled, Government takes bold action to cut pollution from household burning, published on 21 February 2020, what the evidential basis is for the statement that manufactured solid fuels are cheaper than house coal; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Defra recognises that on face value, manufactured solid fuels (MSFs) are more expensive than coal, however, we are also aware that MSFs burn more efficiently than coal. Recent tests have found that coal is actually more expensive than MSFs when energy efficiency is taken into account. These tests suggest that coal burned on an open fire is more expensive per unit of heat output in all areas of England compared to the cheapest MSF fuel. The full results of the fuel efficiency tests have been published on gov.uk and can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 took to mark International Men's Day on 19 November 2019.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Every year International Men’s Day offers an opportunity to highlight how outcomes for men and boys can be improved and the important work going on every day to address this. Defra group marked the day through a webinar available to all staff entitled “Why We Need International Men’s Day”. This shared key information and work underway to address these issues. Other webinars included topics such as “Being a 21st Century man”, “Managing mental ill health from a male perspective” and “Raising boys”. The day concluded with a panel Q and A session comprising senior managers, the webinar presenters and the lead of the Women’s Network.
In addition to International Men’s Day, in November Defra group celebrated Carers’ Rights Day which also supports men with caring responsibilities. As part of the ‘Movember’ campaign we highlighted men’s health issues, from cancer to suicide prevention, and the Cancer and Mental Health Networks encouraged employees to support this initiative. More widely across Defra group we promote other gender-based initiatives, such as marking International Women's Day in March.
On an ongoing basis, we continue to support flexible working and shared parental leave for all employees across Defra. This gives men as well as women the opportunity to manage their work-life balance and take time away from the workplace to be with their new children.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with her Irish counterpart on that Government's consultation on the regulation of domestic burning of solid fuels and peat; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Secretary of State has not had discussions with her Irish counterpart on the Irish Government’s consultation.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 publish a revised impact assessment before the Government publishes its response to the consultation on cleaner domestic burning of solid fuels and wood; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
We intend that a revised impact assessment will be published alongside our response to the consultation on the cleaner burning of solid fuels and wood in the near future.