Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
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 an assessment of the adequacy of the due diligence process used by her Department when awarding financial grants.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All parts of Defra group are required to follow the Government Grants Functional Standard, including undertaking fraud risk assessments, due diligence checks and performance monitoring of grant awards. Proportionate but effective controls are implemented for all schemes to prevent and detect fraud and error. Control results are extrapolated using statistical methods to estimate the level of irregularity for a number of the departments most significant grant schemes. The National Audit Office reports on the regularity of scheme expenditure in its audits of the accounts of Defra group and its arm’s length bodies.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on what date was the last confirmed positive case of bovine tuberculosis in badgers in Hampshire.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Surveillance for TB in badgers has not taken place in Hampshire for many years. To address this evidence gap Defra funded the ‘Southern Edge Area RTA survey’ where, in collaboration with the University of Nottingham, we are carrying out post-mortem investigation of badgers found dead on the roads, including in Hampshire. Results will be available in due course, once final analysis has been carried out. Badgers removed under licence in cull operations, including those in Hampshire, are not routinely tested for TB.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of disposable vapes on the environment; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the ban on single-use plastics to cover disposable vapes.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are aware that the use of disposable vaping products has increased substantially in recent years and are considering the implications of this trend on the environment. While there is no immediate plan to ban disposable vapes, we will consult on policies aimed at driving up levels of separate collection of electric and electronic waste, including vaping devices, as part of the review of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations, later this year. Their packaging could also be captured under our reformed packaging extended producer responsibility regime.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
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 the study entitled Magnetic and microscopic investigation of airborne iron oxide nanoparticles in the London Underground published in Scientific Reports on 15 December 2022, what discussions she has had with the Secretaries of State for Transport and Health and Social care and the Mayor of London about (a) the potential impact of the detected Fe-oxide particles on passenger health; and (b) implementing the reduction recommendations.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local Air Quality Management in London is devolved to the Mayor of London.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
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 an assessment of the implications for her policy on the timing of the badger cull in Hampshire of the report by the Animal and Plant Health Agency entitled Year End Descriptive Epidemiology Report: Bovine TB in the Edge Area of England 2021 County: Hampshire; and if she will take steps to end the badger cull in Hampshire before 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are committed to achieving official freedom from Bovine TB for England by 2038 and intensive badger culling in areas where badgers are an important factor in spreading disease to cattle has been an important part of this
We licenced the intensive cull areas this year, and plan to gradually build government-supported badger vaccination and surveillance. Badger culling would remain an option where epidemiological assessment indicates that it is needed.
The descriptive epidemiology report for each county in the Edge Area is published annually, and available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
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 bring forward proposals to increase the Environment Agency's minimum civil fine for each breach of the rules by water companies to £250 million.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Following your announcement as Secretary of State for Defra in October, Defra is preparing a consultation on plans to increase the cap on fines the Environment Agency can impose on water companies for serious breaches of rules.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
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 Department's policy to improve environmental land management schemes by (a) reducing the number of schemes; (b) making schemes easier for farmers to access; (c) increasing payment rates; and (d) replacing outdated regulations.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are pressing ahead with our Environmental Land Management schemes. We are working closely with farmers, land managers and environmental groups to make sure our schemes contribute to our ambitious outcomes on the environment and support a thriving farming sector. We will set out more detail soon.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
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 is taking steps to help tackle the illegal wildlife trade.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The United Kingdom is taking steps to help protect endangered animals and plants from poaching and illegal trade to benefit wildlife, local communities and the economy, and protect global security.
HMG has committed over £46 million between 2014 and 2022 on work to directly counter illegal wildlife trade (IWT), including through the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. Our actions include: training border force agents and building capacity through the British military to train rangers and disrupt poaching in targeted African countries; developing behaviour change campaigns to discourage purchases of wildlife products; supporting legislative reform to increase penalties and conviction rates for wildlife crime; and helping communities to protect the wildlife they rely on for their livelihoods.
We are also contributing £250 million to the Global Environment Facility between 2018-2022, which includes the world's biggest fund for tackling IWT, the Global Wildlife Programme (GWP), supporting IWT projects across 32 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In June this year, at the Stockholm +50 meeting, Lord Goldsmith announced the UK Government’s pledge of £330m to the eighth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF8) covering the period 2022 – 2026. The GEF8 replenishment delivered a record breaking $5.33bn with a 46% increase in biodiversity funding. This includes the Wildlife Conservation for Development programme which will combat Illegal and High-Risk Wildlife Trade through a supply-chain approach to curbing poaching, disrupting trafficking, and reducing demand for illegal, unsustainable, and high zoonotic-risk wildlife within and between countries.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
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 he has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the environmental merits of brownfield regeneration rather than development on green field sites.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not recently had such discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Government supports the re-use as far as possible of suitable brownfield land for housing and other development needs over development on green field sites. We have announced further measures to support regeneration of brownfield land in our ‘Planning for the future’ policy paper dated 12 March 2020. Planning practice guidance also recognises that some brownfield land is of high environmental value, providing habitats for protected or priority species and other environmental benefits.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential effect of naming people responsible for fly-tipping on rates of that offence; and if he will issue guidance to local authorities to encourage them to name offenders.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Fly-tipping is unacceptable wherever it occurs and tackling this crime is a priority for the Government. We therefore welcome suggestions and initiatives being explored by enforcement agencies to tackle this unacceptable crime.
The role of central Government is to enable and support local action: providing a clear legal framework of rights, responsibilities and powers, setting national standards and, where possible, making sure that the costs of dealing with fly-tipping issues are passed to those responsible for causing the problem.
The Government is committed to encouraging local solutions for local problems. This is particularly relevant in tackling fly-tipping, which requires a local approach, tailored to the characteristics of the area and the community in which the problem occurs. The naming of fly-tipping offenders is not current Government policy and, given our commitment to encouraging local solutions to reflect local circumstances, it is not for central Government to assess or publish national guidance promoting a single approach.
However, building on a commitment in our Resources and Waste Strategy, Defra is developing a toolkit to tackle fly-tipping. The toolkit will include examples of existing good practice to prevent fly-tipping, as well as advice and guidance on how local authorities can set up and run effective fly-tipping partnerships and share intelligence. We encourage local authorities to provide evidence and share details of successful initiatives with Defra, and the toolkit could in the future therefore include reference to the naming of those responsible for fly-tipping, alongside a number of other initiatives that are being used throughout England.