Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 to ensure that the labelling on products containing palm oil specifies whether that palm oil was produced sustainably.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra is committed to supporting the implementation of deforestation-free supply chains for key commodities, including palm oil. We are a signatory to the Amsterdam Declarations and have endorsed the New York Declaration on Forests which support a fully sustainable palm oil supply chain from 2020. We are also a member of Tropical Forest Alliance 2020; a public-private co-operation working to help organisations achieve their deforestation-free commitments.
In 2012 Defra published the UK Statement on the Sustainable Production of Palm Oil; which was signed by trade associations, NGOs and Government. The 2017 review notes that signatories have achieved a high level of success in delivering the Statement’s ambition of working towards 100% sourcing of credibly certified sustainable palm oil by the end of 2015. There are no plans to implement a separate policy requiring products containing palm oil to be labelled to specify sustainable production.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 people employed by her Department are from other EU countries.
Answered by George Eustice
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
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 encourage the adoption of low emission zones in urban areas.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
In December 2015 the Government announced that it would require five cities (Birmingham, Derby, Leeds, Nottingham and Southampton) to implement a Clean Air Zone.
A Clean Air Zone defines an area where targeted action is taken to improve air quality and where resources are prioritised and coordinated to deliver improved health benefits and support economic growth in the urban environment. As such, a Clean Air Zone can encompass and go beyond the access controls typically associated with Low Emission Zones to promote both behaviour change and the transition to a low emission fleet.
I am proactively engaging with local authorities to ensure that local and central government work together in the best possible way to improve air quality through the adoption of Clean Air Zones and other measures.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the Government meets the air pollution targets set out in the EU's 2008 Ambient Air Quality Directive.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, Tom Brake, on 27 February 2017, PQ UIN 64339.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what meetings Ministers of her Department have had with the Department (a) for Transport and (b) of Health on meeting the air pollution targets set out in the EU's 2008 Ambient Air Quality Directive.
Answered by Baroness Coffey
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of Ministerial discussions are not routinely disclosed. Defra Ministers and officials regularly meet with their counterparts in the Department for Transport and the Department of Health to discuss a range of issues of mutual interest, including Government plans to improve air quality. The Clean Growth Inter-Ministerial Group also meets regularly and helps to coordinate and drive forward Government policy on air quality.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times the National Wildlife Crime Unit has assisted police in wildlife crime investigations in (a) London and (b) the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Stockton North, Alex Cunningham, on 17 November 2015, PQ UIN16012.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people have been convicted of offences under (a) section 1, (1), (b), section 2, (c) section 3 and (d) section 8 of the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 in each of the last four years; and how many of those convicted were fined the maximum amount stipulated for those offences.
Answered by Rory Stewart
There were no convictions under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 or Article 3 of the Seal Products Regulations 2010 in England and Wales from 2011 to 2014. Therefore no fines were issued.
However, this relates to prosecutions where these offences were the principal ones. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. Therefore, the figures may not fully reflect the number of offences committed under legislation to protect seals.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people have been convicted of offences under Article 3 of the Seal Products Regulations 2010 in each of the last four years; and how many such people were fined the maximum amount stipulated for that offence.
Answered by Rory Stewart
There were no convictions under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 or Article 3 of the Seal Products Regulations 2010 in England and Wales from 2011 to 2014. Therefore no fines were issued.
However, this relates to prosecutions where these offences were the principal ones. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. Therefore, the figures may not fully reflect the number of offences committed under legislation to protect seals.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people have been convicted of offences under (a) section 1(1), (b) section 2, (c) section 3 and (d) section 8 of the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 in each of the last four years; and how many such people were fined the maximum amount stipulated for those offences.
Answered by Rory Stewart
There were no convictions under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 or Article 3 of the Seal Products Regulations 2010 in England and Wales from 2011 to 2014. Therefore no fines were issued.
However, this relates to prosecutions where these offences were the principal ones. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. Therefore, the figures may not fully reflect the number of offences committed under legislation to protect seals.