Written Question
Tuesday 24th May 2022
Asked by:
Robert Goodwill (Conservative - Scarborough and Whitby)
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 make it his policy to not support industrial fishing for sandeel in English waters, on a similar basis to the policy of the Scottish Government, as part of the upcoming publication of the Joint Fisheries Statement.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
We are concerned about the impacts on the marine ecosystem by the removal of forage fish by industrial fishing. Following a recent call for evidence, Defra is presently working with others, including the Devolved Administrations, to develop a management strategy for industrial fishing in UK waters. We will consult on the introduction of any new measures in English waters.
Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 25 Apr 2022
Hunting
"I thank the hon. Lady for giving way; she is my co-conspirator on bringing Great British Railways to York for its headquarters. Does she agree that it is possible—perfectly possible—and reasonable to hunt within the law, using trail hunting, and that therefore, although we condemn a situation in which the …..."Robert Goodwill - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 25 Apr 2022
Hunting
"The hon. Lady is being very generous in giving way again. Does she agree that if she had her way, then—given that foxhounds do not make good family pets—thousands of foxhounds up and down the country would have to be destroyed humanely, because the hunts could not afford to keep …..."Robert Goodwill - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 25 Apr 2022
Hunting
"Does the Minister agree that it is rather ironic that the Labour party campaigned against the privatisation of the Forestry Commission because it wanted public access to its land, and now it is saying that people should not have access to that land to carry out a perfectly legal activity?..."Robert Goodwill - View Speech
View all Robert Goodwill (Con - Scarborough and Whitby) contributions to the debate on: Hunting
Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 25 Apr 2022
Hunting
"No one has mentioned in the debate the important economic impact that legal hunting has in rural communities. The farriers, the horse breeders, the people who service the horse boxes—a whole variety of people—rely on legal hunting for their incomes and livelihoods. If we were to ban trail hunting more …..."Robert Goodwill - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 21 Mar 2022
Badger Culling
"If we had a vaccine that allowed us to differentiate between a vaccinated animal and an infected animal, that policy would stand up. However, until we have that vaccine, the only alternative is to continue culling, which has proven successful in getting on top of the disease in areas such …..."Robert Goodwill - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 21 Mar 2022
Badger Culling
"Would the hon. Gentleman agree that, if one looks at New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland, where culling the wildlife vector was so effective, we can see how the policy is based on clear science and clear examples, from other countries around the world, of how effective it can …..."Robert Goodwill - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 21 Mar 2022
Badger Culling
"May I share my disappointment that the oral vaccine that DEFRA was keen to roll out proved too unpalatable were it to be made abrasive enough for it to work on the badger, and now we are stuck with having to trap and vaccinate badgers? Unfortunately, some badgers are too …..."Robert Goodwill - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Mon 21 Mar 2022
Badger Culling
"May I remind the Minister that in North Yorkshire we have very healthy badgers and very healthy cattle? Contrary to what many people think, the badger is not an endangered species; indeed, I think that in our part of North Yorkshire there are probably four or five times as many …..."Robert Goodwill - View Speech
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Written Question
Monday 28th February 2022
Asked by:
Robert Goodwill (Conservative - Scarborough and Whitby)
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 he has made of the proportionality of the plant health regulatory regime for the import of seeds, plants and trees; and whether he has plans to revise that regulatory regime.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
High plant health and biosecurity standards keep harmful pests and diseases, like Xylella fastidiosa, out of the UK, benefiting both the horticultural trade and the environment in the long term. The UK has some of the highest plant health and biosecurity standards in the world, and we have been clear we will not compromise on these standards. They are integral to supporting and protecting the horticultural industry overall as well as sustaining our food supply and natural environment.
The UK Plant Health Risk Group is continuously reviewing risks to plant biosecurity and identifying actions needed to mitigate the most significant threats. These include keeping our regulatory regime up to date, carrying out focused surveillance and inspections, contingency planning, research, and awareness raising as well as identifying areas where intervention would not be helpful or justified.
Since plant health controls on high-priority plants and plant products imported from the EU to GB were introduced on 1 January 2021, 94 interceptions of harmful organisms have been made, which all had the potential to lead to a damaging outbreak in GB.
In addition, more than 300 other instances of non-compliance have been identified.
These cases demonstrate the importance of effective import controls to safeguard commercial plant production; protect food supply and avoid the serious impacts on our natural environment which pest/disease outbreaks can lead to.
We have recently consulted on a permanent system of import checks and frequencies which will deal with imports from EU Member States and other third countries consistently.
This system is based on technical assessments of risk and retains the default position of 100% inspections for imported plants and trees. However, it also considers cases where a lower percentage of checks can be adopted for certain categories of plants where there is an identifiable lower risk (examples could be annual plants, because they are short lived, or house plants, because they are kept indoors).
The consultation closed in early 2022 and we expect to update stakeholders on the outcome of this consultation in March.