Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what long-term plans the Government has to protect and maintain the English coast.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Coastal Local Authorities are responsible for developing Shoreline Management Plans which provide a long term framework to manage the risk of coastal change to people and the environment. These plans are overseen by the Environment Agency to ensure a joined up approach to the management of the coastline and that decisions made in one area take account of the impacts on another.
Over the next six years the Government will be investing over £1bn to better protect homes and businesses from coastal flooding and erosion in England.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 introduce legislative proposals to amend existing fly tipping offences to make it possible to attribute group responsibility or culpability to ensure local authorities can take enforcement action when illegal encampments fly tip on public land.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Tackling fly-tipping is a priority for the Government. Our manifesto sets out our plans to give councils the power to issue fixed penalty notices for small-scale fly-tipping, as well as reviewing the existing fixed penalty notices for littering.
These steps will build on other action we have taken, including working with the Sentencing Council to strengthen its Guideline for sentencing for environmental offences, which came into force on 1 July last year; making it easier for vehicles suspected of being involved in waste crime to be stopped, searched and seized; and continuing working in partnership with others through the Defra-chaired National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to promote and disseminate good practice in the prevention, reporting, investigation and clearance of fly-tipped waste.
Local Authorities already have enforcement powers to prosecute individuals who transport and dispose of waste illegally. There are no plans to amend fly-tipping offences to attribute group responsibility or culpability.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 introduce legislative proposals to prevent supermarkets from throwing away food after it has passed its best-before date.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Government favours a voluntary approach to the prevention of food waste, including the redistribution of surplus food to feed people. A law focused on the redistribution of surplus food from supermarkets would not resolve the barriers to redistribution. Less than 2% of overall food waste is from supermarkets, so our approach is to work with the whole supply chain through the voluntary Courtauld Commitment.
Action under the Courtauld Commitment has contributed to a 15% reduction of household food waste between 2007 and 2012 and a reduction of 7.4% in supply chain food waste between 2010 and 2012. The amount of food redistributed in the UK under the Commitment doubled between 2011 and 2013.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to maintain the ban on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides.
Answered by George Eustice
Decisions on the approval of pesticide active substances are made at European level. Since December 2013, three of the five currently approved neonicotinoids are not permitted for use on a wide range of crops considered “attractive to bees”. A number of other uses remain permitted under the EU approval. The restrictions currently in place for neonicotinoids are not time-limited.
The European Commission gave an undertaking to commence a review of the science on neonicotinoids by the end of May 2015. This process has now commenced. Companies have provided further studies and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has invited any party to submit relevant data, including published studies, by 30 September 2015.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has conducted trials in gassing of badger sets to control the spread of tuberculosis in cattle.
Answered by George Eustice
Research into alternative methods for dealing with the risk of M. bovis from badgers (e.g. sett-based culling methods and non-lethal methods) is underway. This includes investigations into the potential use of gas as a sett-based means of humane culling.
These tests for the potential use of carbon monoxide will not involve badgers.