Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to take steps to (a) reduce the cost and (b) simplify processes for applying to take a dog on holiday to an EU country.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The pet health and documentary requirements for pet travel to the EU are set out under the EU Pet Travel Regulations. The UK is listed as a ‘Part 2’ third country under those regulations. We are continuing to seek agreement from the European Commission on awarding GB ‘Part 1’ listed status and recognition of the UK’s tapeworm-free status.
Achieving these would alleviate a number of pet travel rules for all travellers, including the need for an Animal Health Certificate for each trip to the EU. We see no valid animal health reason for these not to be granted.
The costs of completing and issuing an Animal Health Certificate are commercial decisions, set by individual veterinary practices.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effects of raw sewage discharges on local economies.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra has not carried out a formal assessment specifically on the effects of raw sewage discharges on local economies. However, our published impact assessment acknowledges and describes the potential scale of benefits attributable to widespread improvements in coastal bathing water condition or preventing its deterioration.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
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 take steps to bring into force section 83 of the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We’ve been consistently clear that the failure of water companies to reduce sewage discharges is unacceptable.
In August, HM Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history. This plan set strict new targets that will see the toughest ever crack down on sewage spills and will require water companies to secure the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. Our plan will protect the ecology of our rivers and seas, and the public health of our water users for generations to come.
HM Government also put forward a raft of new laws to significantly reduce the use of storm overflows through the Environment Act, including the duty to reduce the adverse effects of discharges from storm overflows. The Environment Act placed new monitoring duties on the water industry to take action to improve transparency around the use of storm overflows. These duties will significantly improve transparency by making it a legal requirement for companies to provide discharge data to the Environment Agency and to make it available in near real time to the public. When we published our plan in August, we committed to bringing forward legislation to implement these duties in 2023.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if the Government will bring forward legislation to implement the Landscapes Review’s recommendations to reform the purposes, duties and governance of England’s National Parks and AONBs in this Parliament; and when those legislative proposals will be introduced.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government published its response to the Landscapes Review on 15 January. A consultation on implementing our response to the review ran for 12 weeks until 9 April. We received over 15,000 responses to our consultation, which we are currently analysing, and will respond in due course. Bringing forward legislation to implement our response to the review will be subject to securing parliamentary time.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
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 publish the compilation of evidence that underpins the Benyon Review and Nature Recovery Green Paper.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The initial proposals set out in the Nature Recovery Green Paper are based on publicly available evidence and advice from our experts. The purpose of the Green Paper consultation is to gather views and evidence that will enable us to develop policies to secure nature’s recovery.
Alongside the Nature Recovery Green Paper, we published a summary of the Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) Review Working Group's findings, as well as guidance on regulation 9 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. The summary of findings of the HRA Working Group set out how the working group approached their review, the principles which guided the review, and how they sought evidence. It provides the background to chapter 3.2.1 of the Nature Recovery Green Paper, which reflects its findings. We are not currently planning to publish further evidence underpinning the Nature Recovery Green Paper or the HRA review led by Lord Benyon.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Independent - Canterbury)
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 recommendations of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report entitled Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit Report: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, what steps he plans to take to ensure that there are sufficient resources for statutory agencies to improve their ability to investigate and prosecute offences related to wildlife crime.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
We welcome this report and the fact that it recognises the UK’s global leadership in fighting wildlife and forestry crime. We invited the UN to undertake this analysis and we are proud to be the first G7 country to request this assessment.
There is always more we can do to tackle wildlife crime and we will carefully consider all of the UN’s recommendations – including those relating to the resourcing of statutory agencies – to help us build on the positive progress we have already made. While many of the resourcing recommendations fall outside of Defra’s remit, progress has already been made in response to this report, for example with Border Force increasing numbers in their team specialising in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Since 2016 Defra and the Home Office have jointly contributed approximately £300,000 annually to the National Wildlife Crime Unit, which monitors and gathers intelligence on wildlife crime and aids police forces in their investigations when required.