Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Lord Kamall on 5 January 2022 (HLWS503), how many patients to date have been licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority as eligible for mitochondrial donation treatment in the UK; how many embryos in total have been produced using (1) pronuclear transfer, and (2) spindle-chromosomal complex transfer; and how many embryos have been transferred to uteri pursuant to (a) pronuclear transfer, and (b) spindle-chromosomal complex transfer.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that 32 patients have been licensed as eligible for mitochondrial donation treatment in the United Kingdom. The following table shows how many embryos have been produced during mitochondrial donation treatment and how many embryos have been transferred to uteri pursuant to clinical application in the UK of (a) pronuclear transfer and (b) spindle-chromosomal complex transfer.
| Pronuclear transfer | Spindle-chromosomal complex transfer |
Embryos produced during mitochondrial donation treatment1 | 317 | 0 |
Embryos transferred | 24 | 0 |
Source: HFEA
Notes:
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on the Action Plan for Animal Welfare; and when she plans to publish a consultation on the keeping of caged farmed animals.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have delivered an ambitious legislative programme since the publication of the Action Plan, which will deliver significant improvements for animals in the UK and abroad. We are firmly committed to maintaining our strong track record on animal welfare and to delivering continued improvements, both in the course of this Parliament and beyond.
Our recent announcement on delivering the measures in the Kept Animals Bill through single measure Bills will help us to deliver two further commitments in the plan, including the ban on live exports. These are our key priorities. We do not consider the time is right to consult on cage reforms, being mindful of the challenges the sectors are facing. The market is already driving the move away from using cages for laying hen production. The proportion of eggs that come from caged hens has steadily decreased from 47% of total throughput in Q4 2017, to 21% in Q1 2023.
We continue to work with the sector to maintain and enhance our high standards. The Government’s animal welfare priorities for its Animal Health and Welfare Pathway include supporting producers to transition away from confinement systems.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish a consultation on the use of cages for farmed animals.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have delivered an ambitious legislative programme since the publication of the Action Plan, which will deliver significant improvements for animals in the UK and abroad. We are firmly committed to maintaining our strong track record on animal welfare and to delivering continued improvements, both in the course of this Parliament and beyond.
Our recent announcement on delivering the measures in the Kept Animals Bill through single measure Bills will help us to deliver two further commitments in the plan, including the ban on live exports. These are our key priorities. We do not consider the time is right to consult on cage reforms, being mindful of the challenges the sectors are facing. The market is already driving the move away from using cages for laying hen production. The proportion of eggs that come from caged hens has steadily decreased from 47% of total throughput in Q4 2017, to 21% in Q1 2023.
We continue to work with the sector to maintain and enhance our high standards. The Government’s animal welfare priorities for its Animal Health and Welfare Pathway include supporting producers to transition away from confinement systems.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients have been licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority as eligible for mitochondrial donation treatment in the UK; how many embryos have been produced using (a) pronuclear transfer and (b) spindle-chromosomal complex transfer; and how many embryos have been transferred to uteri pursuant to (a) pronuclear transfer and (b) spindle-chromosomal complex transfer.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) have advised that 32 patients have been licensed as eligible for mitochondrial donation treatment in the United Kingdom. The following table shows how many embryos have been produced during mitochondrial donation treatment and how many embryos have been transferred to uteri pursuant to clinical application in the UK of pronuclear transfer and spindle-chromosomal complex transfer.
| Pronuclear transfer | Spindle-chromosomal complex transfer |
Embryos produced during mitochondrial donation treatment | 317 | 0 |
Embryos transferred | 24 | 0 |
Source: HFEA, 2023
Notes:
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of avian influenza on food (a) prices and (b) availability.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to the unprecedented challenges the industry has faced in the past few years.
The UK egg and poultry industries operate in an open market. The value of poultry products and egg commodities is established by those in the supply chain. The impact of avian influenza on the price of food products has been limited with the increases experienced recently by these sectors related to a range of other factors, primarily due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In the UK, there have been 186 cases of Avian Influenza (AI) since 1 October 2022. 155 of these have been in England and all have been of the HPAI H5N1 strain. Since 1 October 2022, 5.3 million birds have died or been culled and disposed of for disease control purposes. With approximately, 20 million birds slaughtered every week for human consumption, the impact on the availability of poultry and eggs due to AI has therefore been limited.
We continue to keep the market situation under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group and our on-going and regular engagement with sector stakeholders.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the economic impact of avian influenza on the poultry sector and what support her Department provides to (a) poultry farmers and (b) others affected.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are aware that the ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza has created challenges for poultry and egg producers. To support poultry producers and others affected by this unprecedented outbreak, on the 28 October 2022 Defra announced new support for the poultry industry to assist farmers and producers with the impacts of avian influenza. This includes a change to the existing avian influenza compensation scheme allowing us to provide swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures and give earlier certainty about entitlement to compensation.
We also introduced market support measures to assist businesses impacted by avian influenza. These included allowing seasonal poultry producers to slaughter birds, freeze them and then sell them as defrosted products during the period 28 November to 31 December 2022 and concessions to the labelling of free-range eggs from poultry housed under avian influenza mandatory housing measures for longer than the 16-week period for which an automatic derogation applies.
We continue to monitor the impacts of avian influenza on the poultry and allied sectors.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
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 plans to support egg producers (a) affected by avian influenza and (b) generally.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to the unprecedented challenges the industry, including the egg sector, has faced in the past few years.
Defra has been working closely with the egg sector and has acted where appropriate in response to the recent unprecedented avian Influenza (AI) outbreak. We announced changes to the AI compensation scheme on 28 October 2022 by allowing compensation to be paid for farmers from the outset of planned culling rather than at the end. This allowed Defra to provide swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures and give farmers earlier certainty about entitlements to compensation. We also granted a concession to the marketing standards rules for the labelling of free-range eggs from poultry that have been housed under an AI Prevention Zone with mandatory housing measures for longer than the 16-week period for which an automatic derogation applies. More widely, the Government has put in place a number of measures which the egg industry has been able to access, including cuts to VAT and fuel duty and support through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
In December 2022 I hosted an egg industry roundtable which brought together representatives of the egg supply chain from across the UK. The Roundtable focused on addressing the challenges that the sector had been facing due to the increase in input costs caused by the war in Ukraine. The meeting was productive with a clear willingness from all parties to address issues affecting the supply chain.
At the recent No 10 Food Summit, I announced that we would be undertaking a supply chain fairness review of the egg sector.
We continue to keep the egg sector under constant review including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group and our ongoing regular engagement with sector stakeholders.
Asked by: Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using powers under Section 20 and 21 of the Agriculture Act 2020 to make a declaration of exceptional market conditions for the poultry and eggs sector.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We recognise that the agriculture industry, including the poultry and eggs sectors, has faced a number of challenges over the last year, particularly in relation to the increase of input costs as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, our assessment is that the conditions for intervention under Section 20 or Section 21 of the Agriculture Act are not currently met, not least because input costs are now falling.
We continue to closely monitor the situation in each sector through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group and via regular, on-going sector stakeholder engagement.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the contract between BFS Group Ltd and Leidos Supply Ltd for the supply of food to British armed forces personnel throughout the UK, what proportion of eggs used by BFS Group in the service of that contract over the course of financial year 2022-23 were sourced from within the UK.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
All of the eggs used by BFS Group in the service of the contract for the supply of UK Deployable Food in financial year 2022-23 were sourced from the UK.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the contract between BFS Group Ltd and Leidos Supply Ltd for the supply of food to British armed forces personnel throughout the UK, what proportion of eggs used by BFS Group in the service of that contract over the course of financial year 2022-23 were (a) free range eggs, (b) barn eggs and (c) colony-laid eggs.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Information on the proportion of eggs used by the BFS Group in the service of the contract for the supply of UK Deployable Food in financial year 2022-23 is not held. From April 2022 to December 2022 all of the eggs supplied were colony eggs. Free range eggs were introduced in January 2023 for National Training Estate Prime sites supporting Operation INTERFLEX and the Royal Navy. From March 2023 free range eggs were introduced across all sites.