Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 consider the human health risks to (a) children and (b) adults of spot on pet treatments containing (i) fipronil and (ii) imidacloprid; and if he will take steps to address this.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Veterinary Medicinal Products (VMPs) undergo a thorough assessment by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) before they are authorised for marketing in the UK. This includes a product-specific user risk assessment that considers all those that may come into contact with the medicine, including adults and children. This assessment considers the identified hazards of the medicine, the likely exposure to adults and children when VMPs are used as recommended, and concludes on the likely risks to humans. The identified risks are mitigated using appropriate packaging and user safety warnings on the product information supplied with the medicines. Once authorised for marketing, pharmacovigilance reporting provides further data from use of these medicines in real-world situations, and these data are used to consider any changes required to reduce identified risks, such as updating the user safety warnings. All VMPs are authorised based on a Benefit: Risk assessment, which accounts for the therapeutic benefits to the treated animals, the potential for reduction of zoonotic diseases in humans, and the possible risks identified to humans and animals. The benefits must outweigh the risks before a product can be authorised and may be removed from the market if shown that this is not the case after authorisation.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 plans to introduce regulatory limits on the volume of water extracted out at sea, following the 2025 UN Ocean Conference.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to protecting the natural environment and will consider any relevant issues and options as they arise.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 is taking to reduce the time taken to process rural payments.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) understands the importance of cashflow for farmers and rural businesses. It makes payments for schemes and grants against published performance indicators and continues to look at opportunities to issue payments as promptly as possible.
Performance in relation to the financial year (1 April to 31 March) is reported each year within the RPA Annual Report and Accounts and will be published in the summer.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 plans to introduce a ban on the import of foie gras.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Government shares the British public's high regard for animal welfare and has made clear that the production of foie gras from ducks or geese using force feeding raises serious welfare concerns.
We have been clear that we will use our Trade Strategy to promote the highest food production standards.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with water companies on expanding the usage of community testing.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) engages with citizen science groups on a site-by-site basis regarding bathing waters along with water companies who do the same.
The EA uses citizen science data to provide supplementary insights. Citizen science initiatives focused on sewage and wider catchment pressures include Riverfly, The Big River Watch, Great UK WaterBlitz, and SmartRivers.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 hold discussions with the Exmoor National Park Authority on the suitability of change of use applications for pubs on Exmoor.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Planning permission is always required to change use of a pub, ensuring that local consideration can be given to any such proposals through the planning application process, in consultation with the local community. Defra cannot comment on individual planning cases.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average time was between a pollution discharge notification and a public bathing water quality warning being issued during the 2024 season.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) does not record the time between notifying a Local Authority of a pollution incident that may affect a bathing water and how long it then takes the Local Authority, who have the responsibility for notifications being put up at bathing waters, to relay this to bathers.
Discharges from water company assets are reported directly through their regional storm overflow maps as well as being collated and displayed in near real time via the National Storm Overflow Hub. The EA does not have records of what information Local Authorities choose to provide to bathers in response to this discharge information.
The EA provides information to bathers, via the Swimfo website, of any pollution incidents that may affect a bathing water. Operational procedures specify that duty officers receiving information on pollution incidents consider displaying these via Swimfo if they have the potential to affect a bathing water as part of the incident recording. When this is done Swimfo will display these warnings within a couple of minutes.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 is taking to help reduce the number of sewage discharges into waterbodies in Tiverton and Minehead constituency; and what steps he is taking to ensure that companies are accountable for those spills.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.
That is why we are placing water companies under special measures through the Water (Special Measures) Act. The Act will drive meaningful improvements in the performance and culture of the water industry as a first important step in enabling wider, transformative change across the water sector.
Storm Overflows are strictly regulated by the Environment Agency (EA). Where breaches are found, EA will not hesitate to hold companies to account.
The Tiverton and Minehead constituency is served by both South West Water and Wessex Water. As part of Price Review 2024 (PR24), which runs from 2025–2030, water companies will be delivering record levels of investment. This includes South West Water delivering £764 million and Wessex Water delivering £580 million of investment on storm overflows, continuous water quality monitoring, and event duration monitoring.
Beyond the Water (Special Measures) Act, we are also carrying out a full review of the water sector. The Independent Water Commission, led by Sir Jon Cunliffe, will make recommendations to shape further action to transform how our water system works and clean up our waterways for good. A public Call for Evidence closed on 23 April, with all interested parties invited to share their views. The review's final recommendations will be published and shared with the UK and Welsh Governments this summer.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 review the spread of tuberculosis in cattle on Exmoor.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Our Bovine TB Strategy is underpinned by robust routine and targeted testing of all cattle herds in England, restricting cattle movements from infected premises and detecting and removing all test positive cattle. This strategy is enhanced by statutory pre-and post-movement testing of cattle and slaughterhouse surveillance.
APHA produce regular analysis of the results of bovine TB epidemiology and surveillance in Great Britain in 2023, including those counties in the High Risk, Edge and Low Risk Area of England. This includes Devon and Somerset, in which Exmoor is located: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-epidemiology-and-surveillance-in-great-britain-2023
We have started work on a comprehensive new bovine TB eradication strategy to drive down TB rates to improve cattle and farmers’ livelihoods and to end the badger cull by the end of this parliament. Working closely alongside farmers, vets, scientists and conservationists to rapidly strengthen and deploy a range of disease control measures, we have also begun developing a new national wildlife surveillance programme. This will unlock a data-driven approach to inform how and where TB vaccines and other eradication measures are deployed.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 effectiveness of the reintroduction of pine martens project on Exmoor.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No assessment has been made of the effectiveness of reintroductions of pine martens project on Exmoor as the release of pine martens on Exmoor is yet to take place.
Devon Wildlife Trust, as part of their pine marten reintroduction project, have released pine marten on Dartmoor. These releases occurred in October 2024 and the Trust are closely monitoring the released animals through surveys, radio collars, camera traps and analysis of their faeces. Natural England, alongside NatureScot, provided guidance to the project throughout its development to ensure legal requirements in relation to licensing were met and full consideration of best practice were given (Reintroductions and other conservation translocations: code and guidance). This includes the requirements for detailed monitoring, evaluation and reporting of the projects results and impacts.
Natural England continues to liaise with the project to ensure best practice going forward.