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 Baroness Prentis of Banbury
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.
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 implications for his policies of Climate Assembly UK's report entitled The path to net zero.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government welcomed and thanked the Climate Assembly UK for their report. The Government has been working closely with the Climate Assembly UK since it was first commissioned. The Climate Assembly UK’s recommendations demonstrate strong public support for the Government’s intention to deliver net zero and build back greener. Initiatives like the Climate Assembly UK play an important role in helping develop policies that are achievable and fair. The Government is looking closely at the Climate Assembly UK report’s findings and departments will consider them in plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The Government will publish a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy ahead of COP26, setting out the vision and policies to reach net zero. This will address many of the themes set out in the Climate Assembly UK report, including those where Defra is responsible.
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 plans he has to redistribute a greater proportion of the UK's fishing quota to under 10 metre vessels and UK-owned sustainable fishing fleets; and what steps he will take to prevent overfishing by large fleets after the transition period.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The allocation of quota to the fishing industry is a devolved matter. In England, our policy is set out in the 2018 White Paper, Sustainable Fisheries for Future Generations. This explains that we will continue to allocate our existing share of quota in the same way. This provides certainty for the fishing industry. However, we also said we would develop and trial new methods for allocating any additional quota we secure after leaving the Common Fisheries Policy. In England, we are working with industry and other stakeholders to do this in a way which benefits the whole fleet, including under 10 metre vessels.
The fisheries objectives set out in the Fisheries Bill, along with the legally binding Joint Fisheries Statement and Fisheries Management Plans, collectively reaffirm our commitment to achieving sustainable fishing and protecting the marine environment. In addition, all foreign vessels granted access to fish in UK waters following the Transition Period will need to abide by UK rules including those on sustainability.
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 his Department is taking to tackle the effect of ocean acidification; and what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations from the Ocean Acidification Research Programme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate has stated, increasing emissions of carbon dioxide will result in greater levels of ocean acidification. The most effective way to reduce the impacts of climate change and acidification on our ocean is to reduce emissions. The UK Government has therefore set a legally binding target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
From 2010-16, Defra partnered with the Natural Environment Research Council and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to invest £12.4 million in the UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme. This programme provided baseline data on ocean acidification for UK seas and supported the development of long-term monitoring strategies. The outputs from this ground-breaking initiative contributed evidence which has fed into the cross-Government Climate Change Adaptation programme and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5th Assessment Report. The UK has also supported the inclusion of ocean acidification monitoring in the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and through other international policy initiatives.
In 2018, building on the UK Ocean Acidification programme, Defra’s Science Advisory Council reviewed the national monitoring and assessment programmes for ocean acidification and provided advice on where the UK could contribute to global monitoring. As a result of this we have now established the North East Atlantic Ocean Acidification Hub in the UK which forms part of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network. This Defra-funded hub acts as the European regional centre on monitoring and research. An Ocean Acidification Hub workshop was held in London in 2019 to foster collaboration and share information on ocean acidification monitoring and modelling across communities, to encourage and ease the data-submission process via the Global Ocean Acidification Portal, promote best practices and build capacity for further training.
We also recognise the importance of global research collaboration and have joined the Commonwealth Blue Charter Action Group on Ocean Acidification, sharing our knowledge and science with our international partners.
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, which (a) towns and (b) cities recorded the highest levels of air pollution in the last two years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
An annual assessment of air pollution in the UK is published on the UK-AIR website at the following URL: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/annualreport/index. Assessments for previous years can also be found at this URL.
For the purposes of air quality monitoring and assessment of compliance, the UK is covered on a region-by-region basis within each report. Results are detailed in Section 4 of each annual assessment.