Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 (a) ensure the preservation of existing hedgerows and (b) encourage the creation of new hedgerows.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
Hedgerows are one of the most important ecological building blocks in our farmed landscape. They maintain the distinctive character of our countryside and provide crucial habitats and food for wildlife.
Legal protection for hedgerows in England and Wales is provided by the Hedgerows Regulations 1997.
These regulations prohibit the removal of most countryside hedgerows (or parts of them) without first seeking approval from the local planning authority. It determines whether a hedgerow is ‘important’ because of its wildlife, landscape, historical or archaeological value and should not be removed.
A local authority also has the power to impose enforceable planning conditions on a developer to protect hedges or trees assessed as being worthy of retention, which might otherwise be harmed by construction or the new land-use. Land managers in receipt of Basic Payment Scheme payments are also required to protect hedgerows on their land.
Agri-environment schemes such as Countryside Stewardship fund the management and planting of hedgerows to deliver recognised benefits for wildlife, landscape, and the historic environment. Hedgerow management is one of the most popular options within Countryside Stewardship.
Following our exit from the European Union the development of our new environmental land management schemes will continue to recognise the role and fund the management of hedgerows. The hedgerow standard, part of the new Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme, will pay farmers to plant more hedgerows, leave them uncut or raise the cutting height.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 Answer of 30 July 2019 to Question 280227 on Rodents: Gough Island, what (a) recent steps have been taken since 2019 and (b) are planned as part of the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund to eradicate non-native mice to protect the Tristan albatross on that island.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The UK Government has continued to provide support to RSPB for its programme to eradicate invasive non-native mice from Gough Island, to help save critically endangered seabirds such as the Tristan Albatross from extinction.
I am pleased to report that the RSPB has completed the eradication stage of the programme and will be continuing to monitor its impact.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 15 January 2021 to Question UIN 132840, what steps have been taken since the response to that question to seek views on making separate regulations in relation to private waste-water pumps similar to the Water Industry (Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers) Regulations 2011 concerning the adoption of those assets by sewerage companies; and what steps his Department plans to take to ensure publication of that consultation.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Since my Answer of 15 January 2021 to PQ 132840, my officials have established the timeline for taking forward the work to seek to implement Section 42 and to consider the question of supplementary regulations to adopt existing sewerage assets, such as private wastewater pumps, constructed since 2 July 2011.
We will be engaging with key stakeholders from May 2021. This will enable us to develop possible policy options with the necessary public consultation on those options and our assessment of costs and benefits for early 2022.
The consultation will be public and will be available on Citizen Space.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 29 October 2020 to Question 106951 on Water Industry (Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers) Regulations 2011, what (a) plans he has and (b) his timeframe is for completing that review.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
Further to my Answer of 29 October 2020 to PQ 106951, I have now reviewed the case for implementing section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
Section 42 implementation would cover the automatic adoption by sewerage companies of new, not existing, sewerage assets, constructed from the date of implementation.
This year, my Department will start the work necessary to implement section 42. Part of that work will include a consultation on our implementation approach as well as determining the timing for implementation.
Regarding existing sewerage assets, such as private waste-water pumps referenced in PQ 106951, the consultation will seek views on making separate regulations, similar to the Water Industry (Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers) Regulations 2011, concerning the adoption of those assets by sewerage companies.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
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 list the chemicals that have been banned from use in the UK as a result of EU legislation over the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
EU legislation requires that pesticides can only be sold or used if the active substance has been approved by the EU and the product containing it has been authorised nationally. Approval and authorisation depend on scientific assessment of risks to health and the environment. The assessment is based on the information available at the time and, if approval or authorisation is refused, it remains open for a fresh application to be made if new data addresses the safety concerns.
Information on approvals and on active substances that are no longer approved, can be found on the European Commission’s database at https://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/pesticides/eu-pesticides-database/public/?event=homepage&language=EN. Information on UK authorisations can be found on the Health and Safety Executive website at https://www.hse.gov.uk/pesticides/databases/index.htm. This does not include information about authorisations that have been withdrawn.
Companies that see limited sales from a pesticide can of course withdraw an active substance or product at any point. These cases cannot readily be identified from the databases.