Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 officials in his Department have had with representatives of (a) Thames Water and (b) local authorities in west London on Thames Water's proposed planning application for the Teddington direct river abstraction.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Thames Water has a statutory duty to consult with local authorities and water regulators on its Water Resources Management Plan, a long-term strategy for securing water supplies. The plan is further assessed by Government and water regulators before it can be finalised. The Teddington Direct River Abstraction (DRA) is part of this plan, and following robust review, the Secretary of State issued a direction on 22 December 2023 confirming the project is nationally significant.
However, this does not indicate that a Development Consent Order (DCO), which is required before construction can proceed, is more or less likely to be approved. When a DCO application is made, local authorities will have a key role in providing a local perspective on the proposals.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce the amount of non-recyclable shoes in landfill waste in England.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Textile waste was identified as a priority in the Resources and Waste Strategy and we outlined our proposals for dealing with it in Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste which was published in July. Our current focus is on clothing and other flat textiles such as towels and bedding. However, the Government is supportive of initiatives which promote keeping products in use for longer. We want to prolong the lives of the materials and goods that we use and move society away from the inefficient ‘linear’ economic model of ‘take, make, use, throw’.
Furthermore, we set an ambition in our Resources and Waste Strategy to send less than 10% of municipal waste to landfill by 2035. As a result of active diversion of municipal waste from landfill over the last two decades, only 8.1% of local authority collected waste was sent to landfill in 2021/22. This equates to a 90% reduction by weight since 2000/01 when 79% of municipal waste was sent to landfill.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the potential cost to the public purse of the proposal to move the herbarium from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew to Reading.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The proposal to move the herbarium from the site at Kew to Reading is at a very early stage and so an estimate of the potential cost has not yet been made by Defra. Such an estimate will be developed at the appropriate stage and in line with the usual processes.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has received representations from officials at Kew Gardens on the proposal to move the herbarium from Kew.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra officials, as well as ministers, have regular interactions with Kew relating to their work and forthcoming initiatives. The Director of Royal Botanic Gardens Kew has asked to meet with the Secretary of State to discuss a range of issues including the proposals relating to the herbarium. This meeting has not yet taken place.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many vets are employed by her Department; and how many were employed in each year since 2018.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The department does not hold employee profession information. It does hold an individual’s work area, and since 2018 to present there are no employees in veterinary roles in the core department.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she has taken to increase the number of vets trained in England.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Luton North on 6 July 2023, PQ 191960.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the number of vets available to carry out veterinary checks on the imports of animal products arriving in the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
GB Border Control Point (BCP) operators are required to provide sufficient on-site staff, including Official Veterinarians where necessary, to carry out required import checks. BCP designations are only granted where there is evidence that vet capacity will meet demand. BCPs are also regularly audited by the Animal and Plant Health Agency to ensure they continue to have the correct levels of staffing to deliver import controls on products of animal origin.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many registered vets are there who are qualified to carry out import checks on animal products arriving in the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Official Veterinarians (OVs) are used by both the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and Port Health Authorities to carry out checks on imports that are required of them, and some of that OV resource is recruited on a contractual basis. We do not hold data for the number of registered OVs in the UK able to perform such functions. However, Border Control Post (BCP) designations are only granted where there is evidence that vet capacity will meet demand. BCPs are also regularly audited by APHA to ensure they continue to have the correct levels of staffing to deliver import controls on products of animal origin.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of commercial loans for businesses in the poultry sector.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to the unprecedented challenges the industry has faced in the past few years.
The UK poultry industry operates in an open market and commercial loans are a matter for individual businesses.
The British Business Bank works with lenders to offer a range of debt and equity products to support UK businesses including those in the food and agricultural sectors.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the financial impact on reptile owners of the changes proposed to regulations by her Department on the health risk of importing reptiles from the EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Live animals are inherently high risk. They cannot be kept in sealed containers and some of them pose not only a potential animal health risk but also a risk for the environment in the case of non-native species or invasive pests and a risk to the trade on endangered species (for example reptiles).
Movements of reptiles from Europe currently benefit from a transitional period during which reptile importers have free movement that applied prior to EU exit. As set out in the draft Target Operating Model, later in 2024 we expect all checks on reptiles (except pet animals) to be carried out at a live animal Border Control Post (BCP), as they become operational. Defra has not made any financial impact assessment on imports of reptiles.