Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he made an assessment of the potential merits of providing support to small scale fleets that follow a seasonal fishery and will not achieve the 30 per cent of landings value required by the Pollack compensation scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The direction given was to support those businesses that have been most impacted by the bycatch-only TAC this year. As there is finite funding available, the pollack compensation scheme is focused on providing funding to vessel owners whose income is mainly derived from pollack and who made at least 30% of their reported landings income in 2023 from pollack.
Pollack fishers who are not eligible for compensation are still able to apply for grant funding from the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme, which provides funding on a first come first served basis.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Pollack compensation scheme, whether he made an assessment of the potential merits of compensating for shore-based supply chain losses as part of that scheme.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The direction given was to support those vessel owners that have been most impacted by the bycatch only TAC this year. As there is finite funding available, the pollack compensation scheme is focused on providing funding to vessel owners whose income is mainly derived from pollack and who made at least 30% of their reported landings income in 2023 from pollack.
Shore based businesses, though not eligible for compensation, are still able to apply for grant funding from the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme, which provides funding on a first come first served basis.
Written Evidence Apr. 22 2024
Inquiry: Intergovernmental Relations: The Civil ServiceFound: 1 For areas such as animal health, plant health, agriculture trade, fisheries and the future relationships
Apr. 22 2024
Source Page: I. List of ministerial responsibilities. 88p. II. List of non-ministerial departments and executive agencies. 22p. III. Letter dated 19/04/2024 from Alex Burghart MP to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding documents for deposit, and copying them for deposit in the House libraries. 1p.Found: Technology Responsible Minister: Julia Lopez MP Chief Executive: Dean Creamer 9CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENT, FISHERIES
Apr. 22 2024
Source Page: The six-monthly report on Hong Kong: 1 July to 31 December 2023. 37p.Found: substantive negotiations on Investment Facilitation for Development, as well as its ratification of the fisheries
Apr. 22 2024
Source Page: I. List of ministerial responsibilities. 88p. II. List of non-ministerial departments and executive agencies. 22p. III. Letter dated 19/04/2024 from Alex Burghart MP to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding documents for deposit, and copying them for deposit in the House libraries. 1p.Found: Treasury (Government Whip) The Rt Hon Mark SPENCER MP Minister of State (Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 had recent discussions with his counterpart in Northern Ireland on the number of skilled workers employed in the Northern Irish fisheries industry.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government believes that every role in the fishing industry in Northern Ireland requires a wide variety of skills. The most recent statistics from the Marine Management Organisation’s Sea Fisheries Statistics 2022 show that the fishing industry in Northern Ireland employed 799 people, all of whom are skilled.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much his Department spent in the last 12 months on (a) in-work and (b) other training on (i) coastal restoration, (ii) the protection of coastal and marine ecosystems, (iii) monitoring, (iv) enforcement and (v) sustainable recreation; how much he plans to spend on each of those areas in the next 12 months; and whether his Department employs apprentices.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The requested information on training spend is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Core Defra Marine and Fisheries staff and employees of Defra’s marine Arm’s Length Bodies undertake a range of training and learning and development (L&D) opportunities covering a wide range of topics including coastal restoration and the protection of marine ecosystems, monitoring, enforcement, and sustainable recreation. Training is delivered through a range of means, including for example on the job learning, attending courses, peer to peer learning, conferences or talks, membership of professional bodies/learned societies, reviewing literature and mentoring. There is no mechanism through which we can give a specific amount that will be spent on those areas in the next 12 months. Every civil servant is supported to undertake L&D and expected to undertake the training necessary to their role. Detailed records are not kept at a corporate level on specific training.
The department does employ apprentices. As at March 2024 Defra Group currently has 880 active apprentices.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he last met representatives of the (a) National Farmers Union and (b) National Pig Association UK; and what the results of those discussions were.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State regularly meets with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). In the last month he has met with the NFU President, Tom Bradshaw, during a visit to Dartmoor to discuss the Government’s response to the Fursdon Review. He also met with the NFU’s Deputy President, David Exwood, during a Farm Tenancy Forum in March to discuss the implementation of Kate Rock’s tenant farming review.
As the Minister of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries, I also have frequent engagement with the pig sector and officials meet with representatives of the National Pig Association on a regular basis.
Report Apr. 19 2024
Committee: Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee)Found: Title Draft Sea Fisheries (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) (Amendment