Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the cost is of culling badgers in Devon since the beginning of the cull.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Badger culls are industry led and the cost of delivering them has been met by participants. The additional costs to Defra have related to licensing, monitoring and policing for public safety.
Badger control costs are published annually on GOV.UK and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-government-badger-control-costs.
Badger control costs for 2023 will be published in due course.
Whilst a breakdown of costs by individual county is not available, police costs are available on individual force websites. Costs for Devon and Cornwall Police can be found at: https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/police-forces/devon-cornwall-police/areas/about-us/about-us/transparency-and-financial-information/badger-cull-costs/.
On 30 August, the government announced the start of work to refresh the Bovine TB strategy for England, to end the badger cull by the end of this parliament and drive down disease to save cattle and farmers’ livelihoods. This will be undertaken in co-design with farmers, vets, scientists and conservationists, ensuring a refreshed strategy continues to be led by the best scientific and epidemiological evidence and advice.
Further details can be found on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-end-badger-cull-with-new-tb-eradication-strategy.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 increase the population of wild beavers.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government supports species reintroductions where there are clear benefits for nature, people and the environment. All reintroductions in England are expected to follow the Code for Reintroductions and other Conservation Translocations. We will continue to work with Natural England to develop our approach to beaver reintroductions in England.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 plans to provide grant funding to support the modernisation of the fishing industry.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Decisions on future funding for the fishing industry will be taken through the Spending Review processes and in light of Government priorities, including food security, protecting nature and growing the economy.
Food security is national security, and a sustainable fishing industry is an important part of that. Decisions on future funding for the fishing industry will be taken through the Spending Review processes. Discussions on the opportunities and challenges facing the industry over the last two months have been helpful in gaining an understanding of what other types of support or Government action may be appropriate. These discussions will continue.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 (a) providing additional Government funding and (b) co-funding with fishing groups to help improve the development of fisheries management plans.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Decisions on future funding for the fishing industry will be taken through the Spending Review processes and in light of Government priorities, including food security, protecting nature and growing the economy.
Food security is national security, and a sustainable fishing industry is an important part of that. Decisions on future funding for the fishing industry will be taken through the Spending Review processes. Discussions on the opportunities and challenges facing the industry over the last two months have been helpful in gaining an understanding of what other types of support or Government action may be appropriate. These discussions will continue.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 take steps to introduce incentives to replace older fishing vessels with fuel-efficient alternatives.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Decisions on future funding for the fishing industry will be taken through the Spending Review processes and in light of Government priorities, including food security, protecting nature and growing the economy.
Food security is national security, and a sustainable fishing industry is an important part of that. Decisions on future funding for the fishing industry will be taken through the Spending Review processes. Discussions on the opportunities and challenges facing the industry over the last two months have been helpful in gaining an understanding of what other types of support or Government action may be appropriate. These discussions will continue.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 take steps to provide grant funding for the refurbishment of (a) fishing ports and (b) processing infrastructure.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Decisions on future funding for the fishing industry will be taken through the Spending Review processes and in light of Government priorities, including food security, protecting nature and growing the economy.
Food security is national security, and a sustainable fishing industry is an important part of that. Decisions on future funding for the fishing industry will be taken through the Spending Review processes. Discussions on the opportunities and challenges facing the industry over the last two months have been helpful in gaining an understanding of what other types of support or Government action may be appropriate. These discussions will continue.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 hold discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the potential merits of amending visa rules for fishing crew to provide additional (a) employment and (b) welfare rights.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Government understands that there are labour shortages across our seafood sectors, and ensuring sufficient labour availability in critical sectors is a Defra priority. The welfare of workers is of utmost importance to this Government as we look to build a coherent approach to skills, migration and labour market policy.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 plans to take to promote British seafood (a) domestically and (b) abroad.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
This Government will tirelessly promote high-quality seafood from all parts of the United Kingdom, both at home and abroad. As part of the UK Seafood Fund DEFRA and its partners in the Department for Business and Trade and in Seafish have delivered the Seafood Exports Package. Since 2022 the Package has invested £1m over 3 years to support UK businesses to attend international seafood trade shows, take part in trade missions, and leverage help from in-market specialists in key target markets to connect with buyers. The Package is now in its final year, and any future extensions of this work will be considered as part of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 plans to take to help improve the quality of bathing water around Britain's shores.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
During the bathing water season, the Environment Agency (EA) will carry out a sampling programme at the 451 designated bathing water sites in England to provide robust monitoring of water quality. The EA will also have action plans with clear objectives for every designated bathing water that is classified ‘poor’ or is at risk of being so.
Targeted action and partnership working can have a significant positive impact on bathing water quality and the EA will work with partners, water companies and local communities to improve and protect water quality.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill also delivers on our manifesto commitment to put water companies under tough special measures by strengthening regulation and begin the work of cleaning up our rivers, lakes, bathing waters and seas.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 take steps to ensure water quality monitoring data is published all year round.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Act places monitoring duties on the water industry to improve transparency and reduce harm from sewage discharges. As outlined in Section 82, the Continuous Water Quality Monitoring programme will require water companies to continuously measure the quality of water upstream and downstream of their storm overflows and sewage disposal works.
In addition, the Government’s Water (Special Measures) Bill will require independent event duration monitoring of all sewage outlets, to support greater scrutiny of water company activity.