Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
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 is taking steps to help support small businesses with importation fees on goods from the EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Border Target Operating Model aims to provide a more proportionate and streamlined regime to support businesses of all sizes while maintaining high levels of biosecurity and public health protection.
The improvements to import processes brought about by simplification, digitisation and more sophisticated use of data will benefit all traders importing SPS good to the UK.
Furthermore, Trusted trader schemes will be piloted throughout 2024 and, following successful pilots, trusted trader schemes will be open to businesses that can demonstrate they meet the necessary requirements. These schemes aim to minimise burdens and provide benefits to businesses, consumers and government and reduce costs (including running costs).
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Animal Welfare (Electronic Collars) (England) Regulations 2023 will come into force on 1 February 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains committed to banning the use of electronic training collars controlled by hand-held devices that deliver an electric shock to cats or dogs in England. Parliamentary business will be announced in the usual way.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
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 an assessment of the environmental impact of (a) meat and (b) dairy cows.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra recognises the contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution made by the livestock and dairy sectors. However, while food choices can have an impact on pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, well managed livestock also provide environmental benefits such as supporting biodiversity, protecting the character of the countryside and generating important income for rural communities. British farming helps provide for the nutritional needs of a growing population, and grazing livestock can produce food on land that would not be suitable for cropping.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
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 an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to regulate the rehoming of dogs.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Action Plan for Animal Welfare sets out our reform programme, including proposals for the licensing of animal sanctuaries and rescue and rehoming centres for cats, dogs and horses. Defra has been engaging with rescue and rehoming organisations to understand their views and the possible impacts of regulating the sector. Any proposals to bring forward licensing regulations will be subject to a consultation.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
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 potential merits of providing support to pet owners for the cost of (a) spaying and (b) neutering their pets.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Defra has no plans to provide financial support to pet owners for spaying or neutering their pets. We are aware that some animal charities have been offering support for this.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the illegal breeding of (a) cats and (b) dogs.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
This Government takes the issue of low-welfare and illegal breeding of puppies and kittens very seriously. Significant steps have already been taken to improve and update the laws in England to crack down on unscrupulous breeders who breed purely for financial greed at the expense of animal welfare.
Under The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, commercial dog breeders and pet sellers, who sell puppies or kittens they have bred themselves, need to have a valid licence from their local authority. Licensees must meet strict statutory minimum welfare standards which are enforced by local authorities who have powers to issue, refuse, vary or revoke licences. It is an offence to breach a license condition or carry on a licensable activity without a license and Local authorities are afforded powers to prosecute such cases. We are in the process of reviewing these regulations and will report in the Autumn.
Defra’s Petfished national communications campaign raises awareness of issues associated with low-welfare and illegal supply of pets. The campaign provides a list of red flags for buyers to look out for when searching for a pet online. More information can be found here: https://getyourpetsafely.campaign.gov.uk/
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of vets.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department have several initiatives to help increase the number of vets in the UK. We have established a Veterinary Education and Future Capacity Steering Group, involving representatives from across the profession, as well as Government officials. We are developing a range of short and long-term policy options to increase current capacity. This includes work collectively to improve retention within the profession, strengthen our domestic pipeline by ensuring our education system is sustainable and that we have balanced approach to overseas recruitment.
Alongside this, the new veterinary schools opening at Harper Adams & Keele, the Scottish Rural College, University of Central Lancashire & the University of Aberystwyth will ensure that there are more UK qualified vets entering the profession in the next few years. Defra is also considering legislative options, when parliamentary time allows, to help better enable the wider veterinary team including veterinary nurses and other allied professionals to help loosen the burden on the practising vet and allow more rewarding careers for the sector.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the smuggling of cats into the UK.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Criminal offences already exist for cats brought into this country in breach of current import requirements.
In Autumn 2021 we consulted on further proposed changes to the rules governing the commercial and non-commercial movement of cats, dogs and ferrets into Great Britain.
We are carefully reviewing the feedback from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, including Cats Protection, and a summary will be published in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress her Department has made on vaccinating badgers to tackle the spread of bovine tuberculosis.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have undertaken government-funded badger vaccination in several areas where four-year intensive badger culling has ended and are continuing to bolster our capability to deploy even more badger vaccination in post-cull areas from this year.
Defra has provided financial support for a 5-year project in East Sussex to support delivery of vaccination over 250 squared kilometres. The project is in its third year and provides a template for future large-scale badger vaccination approaches. Cage-trapping and vaccination training courses continue to be streamlined to make them less time-consuming and more accessible, with further funding to develop an e-learning platform this year. In June 2022, we launched a new simplified licence for vaccinating badgers, significantly reducing the administrative burden for those who are trained to undertake this activity.
We have also applied a new subsidy to the BadgerBCG vaccine. This cuts the cost of the vaccine by almost 50%, making it more accessible to vaccination groups. This, and other initiatives will make it easier and should encourage more farmers, landowners, and other groups to get involved in badger vaccination.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of increased covid-19 restrictions abroad on people's access to food in UK supermarkets in the coming weeks.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response, and it is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. Access to a range of diverse supply chains helps to ensure that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather, disease, or the imposition of Covid-19 restrictions by exporting countries does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Defra have well established ways of working with the food retailers and across Government including the Devolved Administrations to monitor risks that may arise, including from increased Covid-19 restrictions in other countries. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.