Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 link between developing Parkinson’s disease and the use of the paraquat pesticide; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government’s first priority with regard to pesticides is to ensure that they will not harm people or pose unacceptable risks to the environment. A pesticide may only be placed on the market in Great Britain if the product has been authorised by our expert regulator, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), following a thorough risk assessment
It has been illegal to sell or use paraquat in the UK since 2007. HSE has therefore not carried out a recent risk assessment.
HSE is aware that several studies have been undertaken investigating associations between exposure to paraquat and Parkinson’s disease. HSE is not aware that a causal link has been demonstrated.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment the Government has made of the potential role played by paraquat in the cause of Parkinson’s Disease.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government’s first priority with regard to pesticides is to ensure that they will not harm people or pose unacceptable risks to the environment. A pesticide may only be placed on the market in Great Britain if the product has been authorised by our expert regulator, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), following a thorough risk assessment
It has been illegal to sell or use paraquat in the UK since 2007. HSE has therefore not carried out a recent risk assessment.
HSE is aware that several studies have been undertaken investigating associations between exposure to paraquat and Parkinson’s disease. HSE is not aware that a causal link has been demonstrated.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 establish a Chilterns National Park; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The duty to consider areas for National Park designation lies with Natural England, which then makes an order to be confirmed by the Secretary of State. Natural England announced its current designation programme in 2021, which includes considering a variation to extend the boundary of the existing Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Natural England is also undertaking a strategic England landscape assessment to identify areas which may have potential for future National Park AONB designation, as well as places for alternative landscape action.
Natural England has no current plans to designate the Chilterns AONB as a National Park.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of (a) the requirement for and (b) the suitability of sites available for provision of new water reservoir capacity in Thames Valley; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency’s National Framework for water resources, published in 2020, identified that between 2025 and 2050 around 3,435 million additional litres of water per day will be needed for public water supply. Of this total, around half is required for the South East of England.
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water for customers, efficiently and economically. Statutory water resources management plans show how companies will continue to meet this duty and manage water supply and demand for at least the next 25 years. In their plans, water companies must consider all options, including demand management and water resources infrastructure.
Collaborative regional water resources groups and water companies are preparing their water resources plans for consultations during 2022. Thames Water and Affinity Water will formally consult publicly on their draft water resources management plans at the end of 2022. At the planning consent stage, further consultation of any proposed water resources infrastructure will be required.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 it his policy that all chalk streams are to designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
SSSI designations aim to generate a representative network and the international importance of Great Britain for chalk streams means they are already well-represented in the SSSI series. Our Nature Recovery Green Paper [published on 16 March] explores how the current protected sites system in England could be improved to better promote nature recovery, particularly in relation to our commitments to protect 30% of land by 2030 and ensure species recovery.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has taken steps to review the corpus of retained EU law and other UK regulations for the purposes of (a) identifying potential negative impact on (i) trade and (ii) competition and (b) prioritising for change those for which a potential negative impact is identified; what estimate he has made of the time it will take to complete such a review; and whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to implement changes identified.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Prime Minister announced on 31 January that the Government is taking steps to ensure that any retained EU law on the UK statute book meets the UK’s priorities for unlocking growth and is tailored to the needs of the UK.
Defra is fully engaged with the Government’s work to amend, replace or repeal all the retained EU law that is not right for the UK. Defra has an important role to play in that process.
Along with other Government departments and the Brexit Opportunities Unit, we are currently taking stock of our retained EU law. We will then publish information on retained EU law, in line with the Government commitment.
This work is planned to support the development of the ‘Brexit Freedoms’ Bill, also announced on 31 January. This bill will mean that retained EU law can be more easily amended or removed.
My department is committed to making the most of our new-found freedoms outside the EU in Defra policy areas. An effective, ambitious programme of regulatory reform is critical to making that happen.
Where suitable and necessary we are prioritising this reform and our legislative plans to deliver this will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on delivering public payments for public goods since the passing of the Agriculture Act 2020.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We are working in partnership with farmers to design our three future schemes that reward farmers and land managers for producing public goods: The Sustainable Farming Incentive; Local Nature Recovery; and Landscape Recovery.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive will pay farmers for actions they take, going beyond regulatory requirements, to manage their land in an environmentally sustainable way. In 2021 we launched the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot and received over 900 applications. The first agreements have started and will run until 2024. In 2022 we will start to roll-out the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme and intend to expand the scheme over the next 3 years. In December 2021 we published information on the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme - including indicative standards and payment rates. We are also continuing to develop the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway in partnership with farmers and experts, including surveying 300 farms to understand where animal welfare can be improved on farm. In 2022 we will start to roll-out core elements of the pathway and will launch the Annual Health and Welfare Review.
The Local Nature Recovery scheme will pay for actions that support local nature recovery and deliver local environmental priorities; making sure the right things are delivered in the right places. We are currently developing the scheme and plan to make an early version of the scheme available to a limited number of people in 2023 as part of our plans for testing and rolling out the scheme. We will then roll out the scheme across the whole country by the end of 2024.
Landscape Recovery will support the delivery of landscape and ecosystem recovery through long-term, large-scale projects, including projects to restore wilder landscapes in places where that's appropriate, large-scale tree planting and peatland restoration projects. We will pilot Landscape Recovery between 2022-24 through initiating at least 10 large-scale projects.
We recently published a summary of what we’re learning from our programme of test and trials, where more than 3,000 people are leading projects to test ideas and are being used to develop the schemes.
We have also launched the Farming Innovation Pathways competition for research and development within UK Research and Innovation’s Transforming Food Production programme to develop farm-focused innovations. We increased funding for the programme to £14.5 million due to high demand and quality research projects across farming sectors; projects started from October 2021.
We have in addition:
Throughout this time, we have been at the agricultural shows, taking part in Q&A sessions with farmers, and engaging through our regular engagement groups as part of our ongoing dialogue with farmers and other interested parties.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has commissioned independent research on the potential dangers arising from trifluoroacetic acid that has leaked into the environment.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has no current plans to commission independent research on this topic. Evidence tells us that the primary source of trifluoroacetic acid in the environment is believed to be through atmospheric oxidation of the CFC-replacement gases, HCFC-123 and HFC-134a, though various fluorochemicals have the potential to degrade to trifluoroacetic acid.
Trifluoroacetic acid is one of a group of thousands of substances collectively called poly- and per-fluorinated substances (PFAS), which are highly persistent in the environment. As a group they are being considered under a risk management options analysis under UK chemical regulation (UK REACH). The Environment Agency also considered Trifluoroacetic acid as part of its priority and early warning system for chemicals.
My Department has had no discussions with the German Federal Environment Agency regarding their reports on trifluoroacetic acid but is aware of its monitoring approach.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 (a) is in discussions with the German Federal Environment Agency to obtain further information on that Agency's reports of leakage of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) into German water supplies from heat pumps and air conditioning and (b) has made an assessment of whether those reports of leakage of TFA into German water supplies have implications for the Government’s plans with regards to heat pumps.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has no current plans to commission independent research on this topic. Evidence tells us that the primary source of trifluoroacetic acid in the environment is believed to be through atmospheric oxidation of the CFC-replacement gases, HCFC-123 and HFC-134a, though various fluorochemicals have the potential to degrade to trifluoroacetic acid.
Trifluoroacetic acid is one of a group of thousands of substances collectively called poly- and per-fluorinated substances (PFAS), which are highly persistent in the environment. As a group they are being considered under a risk management options analysis under UK chemical regulation (UK REACH). The Environment Agency also considered Trifluoroacetic acid as part of its priority and early warning system for chemicals.
My Department has had no discussions with the German Federal Environment Agency regarding their reports on trifluoroacetic acid but is aware of its monitoring approach.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 cost of prohibiting the use of modern refrigerants including unsaturated hydrofluorocarbons in heat pumps, and replacing them with natural refrigerants such as ammonia, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Unsaturated hydrofluorocarbons, also known as hydrofluoro-olefins (HFOs), are used increasingly in products and equipment such as heat pumps as replacements for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) due to their much lower Global Warming Potential.
HFCs are powerful greenhouse gases and their use is being phased down under legislation. We are reviewing that legislation to see whether we can go further in support of the UK’s net zero target. As part of the review, we will assess the availability, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness of all alternatives to HFCs, including HFOs and natural refrigerants.