Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
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 has plans to create a separate UK chemical database as a result of the UK’s departure from the membership of the European Chemical Agency.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
On the 1 January, legislation to bring EU REACH into UK law came into force. This means that businesses wishing to sell or distribute chemicals domestically now need to comply with UK REACH as part of our domestic chemicals regulatory framework
UK REACH retains the fundamental approach and core principles of EU REACH, including the core principle of “no data no market”. This means that businesses that wish to access the GB market will need to supply relevant data to the Health and Safety Executive in order to support the registration of a substance.
Under EU REACH, data is owned by individual businesses and industry consortia. For GB businesses who do not own the data they need, obtaining it is a matter of commercial negotiation between themselves and the businesses that do hold that information. Industry has some time to make these arrangements. This is because we have put in place provisions for the deadlines for the full submission of data to underpin registration dossiers to be staggered, according to the quantity and hazard profile of a substance, over a period of 2, 4 or 6 years from 28 October 2021.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
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 obtain data from REACH on previously tested chemicals.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
On 1 January, legislation to bring EU REACH into UK law came into force. This means that businesses wishing to sell or distribute chemicals domestically now need to comply with UK REACH as part of our domestic chemicals regulatory framework
UK REACH retains the fundamental approach and core principles of EU REACH, including the core principle of “no data no market”. This means that businesses that wish to access the GB market will need to supply relevant data to the Health and Safety Executive in order to support the registration of a substance.
Under EU REACH, data is owned by individual businesses and industry consortia. For GB businesses who do not own the data they need, obtaining it is a matter of commercial negotiation between themselves and the businesses that do hold that information. Industry has some time to make these arrangements. This is because we have put in place provisions for the deadlines for the full submission of data to underpin registration dossiers to be staggered, according to the quantity and hazard profile of a substance, over a period of 2, 4 or 6 years from 28 October 2021.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
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 9 June 2020 to Question 54850 on Wine: Imports, what assessment he has made of the (a) financial and (b) other costs for (a) EU wine exporters, (b) UK wine importers and (c) UK wine consumers of the introduction at the end of the transition period of full VI-1 import certificates for wine imported into the UK from the EU.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Government has not conducted an assessment of the financial or other costs of introducing VI-1 import certificates for wine imported into the UK from the EU at the end of the transition period.
The Government recognises that businesses need time to make the necessary adaptations to meet the requirement for import certification on wine imported to Great Britain from the EU and we are therefore legislating to delay the introduction until 1 July 2021.
Defra officials are working closely with UK industry to ensure we have the capability to meet the equivalent EU requirement being introduced on 1 January 2021.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
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 9 November 2020 to Question 109198, what plans the Government has to bring forward legislative proposals for the requisite (a) easements and (b) exemptions for wine imports; what quantities of imports those provisions are planned to apply to; and what the Government’s timeframe is for bringing forward those proposals.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The legislation which postpones, to 1st July 2021, the introduction of wine certification for imports of EU wine to Great Britain, is being laid on 29th December 2020 and will come into effect at the end of the transition period. This is in addition to the previously legislated for easement allowing imports of wine to Great Britain from non-EU countries to continue using the EU VI-1 form.
A number of exemptions to these certification requirements were included in the legislation setting out the certification requirements, adopted under the EU Withdrawal Act. These exemptions included wine shipments that do not exceed one hundred litres, small shipments of wine sent from one private individual to another and wine imported for trade fairs.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the UK scampi market is planned to re-open as part of the easing of covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Up to April this year, retail sales of scampi are, year on year, up in 2020. Noticeably higher sales in March may reflect consumers buying frozen products to prepare for Covid-19-related movement restrictions. Reduced demand from the UK food service sector and export markets has had a notable impact on the Nephrops market. Whilst there are some small signs of recovery as EU Nephrops markets reopen, prices remain subdued. Defra continues to work with the seafood industry across the UK, and with the Devolved Administrations and Seafish, to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on trade, and to support the sector through these challenging times.
That support includes providing £10 million of funding to the sector in England through the Fisheries Response Fund and the Domestic Seafood Supply Scheme. The Fisheries Response Fund, worth £9 million, has provided grants of up to £10,000 for eligible catching and aquaculture businesses to help cover fixed-costs. The £1 million Domestic Seafood Supply Scheme is supporting projects to help develop the infrastructure necessary to get fish from the catching & processing sectors to consumers, creating new opportunities and improving market resilience.