Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether people travelling with assistance dogs to the EU will face disruption at EU borders at (a) train stations, (b) ports and (c) airports in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by David Rutley
The Government understands that assistance dog users, who have become familiar with the benefits of using the EU Pet Travel Scheme to travel to EU Member States, are concerned about the changes that could take place when the UK leaves the EU.
In any exit scenario owners of assistance dogs from the UK will still be able to travel to the EU with their animals. After exit we want owners of assistance dogs to be able to take their animals to the EU with the minimum of disruption.
If the UK leaves the EU without a deal and becomes an unlisted third country under the EU Pet Travel Scheme, assistance dogs would need to be microchipped and vaccinated against rabies, as now, but would also need to undergo a blood titre test to demonstrate that their rabies vaccination has been effective.
On 25 March 2019 Defra issued updated guidance on pet travel to Europe after Brexit, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pet-travel-to-europe-after-brexit. This advises of the contingency planning owners should consider to make sure their animals can travel to the EU in the scenario that the UK is not granted listed third country status under EU Pet Travel Scheme rules. The guidance advises owners to contact their vet at least four months before travelling to get the latest advice.
Defra has submitted an application for the UK to become a listed country under the EU pet travel regulations. Should the UK become a Part 1 listed country, there would be little change to the current arrangements, with only minor changes needed for documentation and, in most cases, no change for owners from what they currently need to do in terms of their animal’s health preparation. It is now for the EU Commission to consider our application for listed status.
We continue to work with assistance dog organisations to share the latest advice and guidance (in accessible formats) with their members. We will also work with carriers to ensure that assistance dog owners have the correct health preparation and documentation to enable them to enter the EU. When further information becomes available it will be published on GOV.UK. Email alerts on pet travel can be subscribed to at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications. We will also ensure that vets who issue pet travel documents have the most up to date information.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff in his Department who were transferred or seconded to work (a) in other departments or (b) on other departmental briefs on preparations for the UK to leave the EU, have since returned to his Department.
Answered by David Rutley
EU departure is an all-of-Government operation. The Department for Exiting the European Union is responsible for overseeing negotiations to leave the EU and establishing the future relationship between the UK and EU. The Department for International Trade works to secure UK and global prosperity by promoting and financing international trade and investment, and championing free trade.
Departments continually review workforce plans and reprioritise and assess changing needs, which includes identification and cessation of non-priority work where appropriate. We have accelerated our plans, and at the same time, the Civil Service as a whole is working to ensure that exit implementation is carried out to a high standard without impacting public service delivery across the whole of Government.
For Defra, information relating to all staff who have been transferred or loaned to another department since June 2016 is provided below. We are not able to confirm how many of these were related to exit roles as this information is not held.
We have interpreted the second part of the question relating to ‘other departmental briefs’ as those working on projects with or in other departments through any informal arrangement that is not a formal loan or secondment. Based on this interpretation, Defra does not hold this data and is unable to provide this information.
The information is from June 2016 – present.
Total number of staff transferred to another Government department (OGD) between June 16 – March 19 | 445 |
Number of staff transferred to an OGD who have since returned to Defra | 0 |
Total number of staff loaned to an OGD between June 19 – March 19 | 118* |
Number of staff loaned to an OGD who have since returned to Defra | 14 |
*This figure includes 30 loans where the end dates are between May 2019 and January 2022, and therefore we would not expect staff to have returned to Defra. All loans are generally for a period of two years.
We do not use the term ‘secondment’ to refer to Civil Servants moving between departments, instead we use the term ‘loan’. Therefore we have interpreted this question to refer to those who have moved to other departments on loans.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
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 whether the weedkiller RoundUp is a potential cause of cancer.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Like all pesticides, Roundup (a range of weedkillers containing glyphosate) is subject to strict regulation to ensure that its use will not harm people or have unacceptable effects on the environment.
The European Commission decided in December 2017 to approve glyphosate for continuing use until December 2022. The decision followed a scientific risk assessment by the European Food Safety Authority, which included a very close scrutiny of the evidence on whether glyphosate causes cancer. UK experts participated in that assessment and supported its conclusions.
All pesticide products, including Roundup, are tightly regulated by the Health and Safety Executive. They are only authorised for use if scientific data demonstrates that they will not harm people or have unacceptable effects on the environment.
We will continue to keep an active watch on the scientific evidence on glyphosate.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by David Rutley
HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:
This funding is to cover all exit scenarios, and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU.
Work on no deal exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other exit work. The department is preparing for all eventualities and the resources available to support preparations are kept under constant review.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to section 5.8.1 of the Clean Air Strategy published on 14 January 2019, when he will publish further detail on his proposals to use environmental permitting to tackle emissions from non-road mobile machinery.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
Non Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) can make a significant contribution to local air pollution, and so it is justified to bring in controls which enable a reduction in their emissions where required. We are currently considering what scope and stringency of controls would be appropriate and will consult on proposals in due course.