Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many waste transfer sites with an environmental permit in the North East of England have been in breach of the requirements of their permit in the last five years and if he will publish the reasons for the breaches in those permits.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Environment Agency does not record permit breaches in a way which enables it to report on the total number of waste transfer stations which have been in breach of their permit requirements in the last five years.
The table below provides a breakdown of the number of breaches of permits at waste transfer stations in the North East of England in the last five years and the reasons for the breaches to those permits. Poor performing sites may have multiple condition breaches recorded in one visit.
Description of condition breach | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
a1 Specified by permit | 10 | 18 | 25 | 28 | 26 |
b1 Infrastructure-engineering for prevent. of emissions | 4 | 9 | 24 | 20 | 14 |
b2 Infrastructure-closure and decommissioning | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
b3 Infrastructure-site drainage engineering | 13 | 6 | 17 | 7 | 7 |
b4 Infrastructure-containment of stored materials | 6 | 16 | 29 | 29 | 29 |
b5 Infrastructure-plant and equipment | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
c1 General Management-staff competency/training | 3 | 10 | 26 | 20 | 19 |
c2 General Management-management systems | 14 | 44 | 45 | 50 | 46 |
c3 General Management-materials acceptance | 7 | 12 | 13 | 23 | 27 |
c4 General Management-storage, handling etc | 33 | 49 | 65 | 56 | 38 |
d1 Incident Management-security | 7 | 13 | 13 | 3 | 1 |
d2 Incident Management-accidents/emergency. planning | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
e1 Emissions-air | 0 | 6 | 4 | 2 | |
e2 Emissions-land and groundwater | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
e3 Emissions-surface water | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
e4 Emissions-sewer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
e5 Emissions-waste | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
f1 Amenity-odour | 10 | 19 | 9 | 3 | |
f2 Amenity-noise | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
f3 Amenity-dust/fibres/litter etc | 6 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 13 |
f4 Amenity-pests/birds/scavengers | 17 | 29 | 7 | 11 | 5 |
f5 Amenity-deposits on road | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
g1 Mon & Records-emissions and environment | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
g2 Mon & Records-records of activity/site diary/etc | 2 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 10 |
g3 Mon & Records-maintenance records | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
g4 Mon & Records-reporting and notification. to Agency | 7 | 32 | 226 | 100 | 104 |
Total | 145 | 286 | 518 | 395 | 354 |
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many waste transfer sites in the North East which accepted waste in 2016 had complaints investigated by (a) the Environment Agency and (b) local authority environment health departments on (I) all environmental issues, (ii) excessive noise, (iii) odour, (iv) dust and (v) fly infestation.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
The Environment Agency (EA) received 6 complaints relating to waste transfer stations in the North East in 2016. Of these, one complaint related to odour and four complaints related to fly infestation. None of these complaints related to excessive noise or dust. The EA investigates and responds to all formal complaints.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs does not hold data on the number of complaints which have been investigated by local authorities.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to reply to the letter of 21 November 2016 from the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West on Monument Park, Pattinson Road, Waste Site Cluster.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
I replied to the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland on 20 December 2016.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which Departments have adopted the Government buying standards for food catering services since 18 August 2016.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government Buying Standard for Food and Catering Services (GBSF) was initially published in 2011 and is mandated for procurement of food and catering services by all central government Departments as part of the Crown Commercial Service Facilities Management framework.
This Government has also committed to implement in central departments the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach as set out in the Plan for Public Procurement of Food and Catering Services published in July 2014. Defra officials are working with leads in other Departments to raise awareness and understanding, and ensure uptake in forthcoming contract renewals.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect on the labelling of sugar in food products of the UK exiting the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK will continue to have all of the rights, obligations and benefits that membership brings, up until the point we leave the EU. The Food Information Regulations 2014 regulate food labelling. These Regulations implement the EU Food Information to Consumers Regulation 1169/2011. The Government is currently considering future arrangements for existing EU legislation in preparation for the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
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 is taking to ensure the Government meets its commitments in the 2011 Natural Choice White Paper on (a) removing barriers to learning outdoors and (b) increasing the ability of schools to teach outdoors.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Government has taken various steps to meet the Natural Environment White Paper’s commitments relating to learning outdoors.
These include new guidance from the Health and Safety Executive and the Department for Education to help address perceived barriers, reduce burdens and to make it easier for schools to take pupils on trips. We have part-funded the Natural Connections initiative to provide support and advice for teachers, children and parents interested in learning outdoors. This demonstration project, involving around 200 schools, was established in 2012 and runs to 2016.
We have continued to support Open Farm Sunday and have funded farmers in agri-environment scheme agreements providing educational visits to farms by schoolchildren up to the age of 16. More than 300,000 schoolchildren participated in educational visits to farms in agri-environment schemes in 2014.
We also established the Pupil Premium, which schools can use to support outdoor learning in the natural environment.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what length of waterbodies is being removed from the current round of river basin management planning; and what assessment her Department has made of the effects on wildlife of removing those waterbodies.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Under the EU Water Framework Directive, ‘water bodies’ are the geographical units used to report the current quality of the water environment and set legally binding water body objectives. They are used in reporting progress to the European Commission on the implementation of the Directive.
There are minimum size criteria for the size of water body that must be included in the plan. The updated river basin management plans that the Environment Agency will submit to the Secretary of State for her approval in the autumn will contain about 29,200 miles of river water bodies. This is approximately 1200 fewer miles of river water bodies, excluded because of their small size, than in the current river basin management plans.
While the smaller river water bodies will not be reported in the plans, they are important and provide many benefits for people and wildlife. The laws protecting the quality of the water environment and the wildlife it supports apply to all rivers, regardless of whether they are in the river basin management plan.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of (a) her Department's staff and (b) staff working for companies contracted by her Department who are paid less than the Living Wage are (i) women and (ii) men.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Core Defra has no direct employees paid less than the living wage.
There are currently 4 temporary staff from employment agencies who are paid less than the UK Living Wage and employed outside London, and 3 in London paid less than the London Living Wage. These numbers can change at any time.
There are 215 people paid less than the UK Living Wage employed on 2 major contracts, arranged by the core Department and working across the network. There are 40 people working in London and paid less than the London Living Wage.
Information on the breakdown of gender and ethnicity of these people and the proportion they represent is held by the contractors and not core Defra and is only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of (a) her Department's staff and (b) staff working for companies contracted by her Department are paid less than the Living Wage.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Core Defra has no direct employees paid less than the living wage.
There are currently 4 temporary staff from employment agencies who are paid less than the UK Living Wage and employed outside London, and 3 in London paid less than the London Living Wage. These numbers can change at any time.
There are 215 people paid less than the UK Living Wage employed on 2 major contracts, arranged by the core Department and working across the network. There are 40 people working in London and paid less than the London Living Wage.
Information on the breakdown of gender and ethnicity of these people and the proportion they represent is held by the contractors and not core Defra and is only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of (a) her Department's staff and (b) staff working for companies contracted by her Department who are paid less than the Living Wage are (i) white British and (ii) from an ethnic minority background.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Core Defra has no direct employees paid less than the living wage.
There are currently 4 temporary staff from employment agencies who are paid less than the UK Living Wage and employed outside London, and 3 in London paid less than the London Living Wage. These numbers can change at any time.
There are 215 people paid less than the UK Living Wage employed on 2 major contracts, arranged by the core Department and working across the network. There are 40 people working in London and paid less than the London Living Wage.
Information on the breakdown of gender and ethnicity of these people and the proportion they represent is held by the contractors and not core Defra and is only available at disproportionate cost.