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1144895

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Environment Protection
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to remain closely aligned with the EU regulatory framework on (1) environmental protection, and (2) food safety standards.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL17729
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2019 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.</del></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The EU Withdrawal Act 2018 will ensure all existing EU environmental law continues to operate in UK law. We will then have the opportunity, over time and with parliamentary scrutiny, to ensure the legislative framework delivers our aim to be the first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than we inherited it. We have no intention of weakening our current environmental protections as we leave the EU. We will deliver a Green Brexit, where environmental standards are not only maintained but enhanced. </ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial"> </ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The UK has world leading standards of food safety and quality, backed by a rigorous legislative framework. We will maintain these high standards once the UK leaves the EU. When we leave the EU, we will keep our existing UK legislation, and the EU Withdrawal Act will convert EU law into UK law as it applies at the moment of exit. Leaving the EU does not change the Government’s commitment to ensuring that our food remains safe and what it says it is.</ins></p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 09/09/2019 16:30:09 question first ministerially corrected 02/10/2019 10:12:04 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble previous answer version 135358 answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1144898

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Food and Water: Rationing
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have for rationing to prevent potential food and water shortages post Brexit.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL17732
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2019 answer text <p><del class="ministerial">It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.</del></p><p> </p><p><ins class="ministerial">Defra is the lead Government department for food and water in Her Majesty’s Government and these sectors are two of the 13 Critical National Infrastructure Sectors in the UK. The food and water sectors are making detailed preparations for all eventualities as we prepare to leave the EU, and rationing will not be implemented.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The UK’s high degree of food security is built on access to a range of sources including strong domestic production and imports from other countries. This will continue to be the case when we leave the EU whatever the circumstances. The UK Government has well established ways of working with the food industry. Defra Ministers and officials meet regularly with the food industry, who are experienced in dealing with scenarios that can affect food supply, to support contingency planning by the industry as we prepare to leave the EU.</ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">We are confident that no deal will not have an impact on water supply. We have been working closely with water companies, chemical suppliers, regulators and the devolved administrations on contingency planning, and companies are well advanced in their preparations to make sure they can meet their statutory responsibility to maintain services. It will be the case that our water will continue to be safe and of the same quality customers expect when we leave the EU. </ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The food and water sectors are engaged with Local Resilience Forums to ensure effective delivery of these sectors at the local level.</ins></p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 09/09/2019 16:33:37 question first ministerially corrected 03/10/2019 15:49:36 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble previous answer version 135356 answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1124055

	registered interest
	date	30/04/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Marine Management Organisation: Recruitment
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have plans to increase the number of marine enforcement officers in the UK fishing industry after Brexit.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL15437
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/05/2019 answer text <p>An increase in control and enforcement capability has taken place in preparation for the UK as a whole becoming an independent coastal state. Control and enforcement is a devolved matter, and devolved administrations are taking their own approach to control and enforcement at levels they feel appropriate for their waters.</p><p> </p><p>In England, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and Defra have enacted their plans to improve control and enforcement, enabling greater human and technological resources to be deployed now and when required in future. The MMO approach has included recruitment of additional marine enforcement officers. They are undergoing extensive training to become warranted in enforcement. Their responsibilities will include inspection of vessels and auction halls, surveillance, intelligence gathering, and educating and informing the fishing industry about potential changes to the law. They will focus on applying regulations to vessels, in port and at sea, from any flagged state that enters English waters.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 10/05/2019 12:40:35 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1124895

	registered interest
	date	07/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Biodiversity
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to remain closely aligned with the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy after Brexit; and if not, what plans they have to implement a long-term post-Brexit strategy on biodiversity.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL15570
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to ensuring that, when the UK leaves the EU, our existing environmental protections are maintained and, where possible, enhanced. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act ensures that the whole body of existing EU environmental law, including the Habitats and the Wild Birds Directives, continues to have effect in UK law following our departure from the EU.</p><p> </p><p>The EU Biodiversity Strategy implements commitments to halt biodiversity loss agreed in 2010 by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.</p><p> </p><p>Biodiversity policy is devolved in the UK. In England, those same international commitments to halt biodiversity loss are implemented through the Biodiversity 2020 Strategy and related documents such as the National Pollinator Strategy.</p><p> </p><p>In the 25 Year Environment Plan, we committed to developing a new strategy for nature to replace Biodiversity 2020. Our intention is to publish this strategy in early 2021 to take forward the new international commitments for biodiversity, in particular the new global biodiversity framework, to be agreed under the Convention on Biological Diversity, in 2020. It will also set out in more detail how we intend to take forward the ambitions for nature in the 25 Year Environment Plan.</p><p> </p><p>Under the new strategy, the Government will continue to work towards, among other things, clean, safe, healthy, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas; and on land, restoring 75% of our protected sites to favourable condition by 2042 and establishing a Nature Recovery Network. The Nature Recovery Network will expand and connect wildlife rich habitat by developing landscape scale partnerships to manage land in a way that supports the recovery of our much loved wildlife.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 20/05/2019 16:09:40 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1130259

	registered interest
	date	05/06/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Agriculture: Subsidies
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the timescale of their plan for UK farming subsidies after Brexit.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL16120
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/06/2019 answer text <p>The Health and Harmony Consultation closed on 8 May 2018. Over forty thousand responses were received from a wide range of people including farmers, environmental and food/farming related organisations and the general public. All responses have been analysed and are being used to inform our policies on future farm support.</p><p> </p><p>The Government published its policy response on 14 September setting out a future for food, farming and the environment in a green Brexit, together with reports on its analysis of the impacts of removing direct payments and economic rationales for future government intervention.</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s assessment was to adopt a gradual transition from the current approach to the new, avoiding a cliff-edge for farm businesses - noting the negative experiences in New Zealand when rapid changes were adopted. Our proposals therefore outline a 7 year transition period.</p><p> </p><p>We are applying reductions to Direct Payments in a fair way, with higher reductions initially applied to amounts in higher payment bands. All farmers will see some reductions from the start of the transition. We plan to begin making these reductions in 2021, with the final year for Direct Payments being 2027. We believe that this approach balances the views of those who feel recipients of the highest payments should initially face higher reductions, with the strong calls for the reductions to be shared amongst all farmers from the start of the transition and in a way that prepares the industry for change. The transition period also needs to be long enough to give farmers sufficient time to adapt and prepare for the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme, which starts in 2024.</p><p> </p><p>The ELM National Pilot, starting in late 2021, will assess the end to end operability and deliverability before the scheme is rolled out in 2024. This will allow us to identify and refine any issues or barriers that occur in practice. We are working closely with a range of agricultural and environmental stakeholders to collaboratively design the new scheme, and to test and trial new approaches and investigate innovative mechanisms for the delivery of environmental outcomes.</p><p> </p><p>Defra recognises the challenges around the uncertainty and outcome of the timing of leaving the EU. It is planning for every contingency to ensure a smooth departure from the EU, including detailed ’no deal’ plans.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 14/06/2019 11:32:45 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1138301

	registered interest
	date	10/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Water Companies: Pollution Control
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that water companies meet targets set by the Environment Agency to reduce pollution by 2020.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL17098
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/07/2019 answer text <p>The Environment Agency (EA) regularly tracks water company performance and was concerned that sufficient improvements were not being made to meet our targets prior to this year’s poor results.</p><p> </p><p>In response to these results, the EA is taking action and there will be:</p><p> </p><ul><li><p>An increased number of audits and inspections.</p></li><li><p>Requests for companies to produce root cause analysis reports for serious pollution incidents in order to learn from them.</p></li><li><p>Requests for each company to produce a pollution reduction plan signed off at Chief Executive Office (CEO) level which they will be accountable for.</p></li><li><p>Requests for the companies to share good practice proactively as an industry wide response to the problems we are facing.</p></li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p>In addition, in July 2019, the EA has set up a new ‘Improving Water Company Performance’ programme which will tighten regulation to encourage water companies to meet their environmental targets. It is extensive and we anticipate it will take some time to deliver fully.</p><p> </p><p>The programme will include:</p><p> </p><ul><li><p>Enhancing the EA’s regulatory tools, including more and better quality inspections, audits and greater use of technology to remotely monitor operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week.</p></li><li><p>Maximising the use of enforcement and sanctions powers to ensure they act as a powerful deterrent.</p></li><li><p>Updating the Environmental Performance Assessment for the 2021-2025 period to include a broader range of measures with tightened standards where appropriate.</p></li><li><p>Working with Ofwat to develop greater links between environmental performance and financial penalties and incentives.</p></li><li><p>Improving our regulation of sewage sludge treatment and disposal to ensure it is sufficiently robust to protect against emerging risks such as chemicals, antimicrobial resistance and micro-plastics.</p></li></ul><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 24/07/2019 11:50:45 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1144897

	registered interest
	date	04/09/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Animal Welfare
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce legislation that recognises animals as sentient beings after Brexit.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL17731
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2019 answer text <p>The UK is a world leader in animal welfare. The Government is committed to making any necessary changes required to domestic law in a rigorous and comprehensive way to ensure animal sentience is recognised after the UK leaves the EU. Defra is continuing to engage closely with stakeholders and other Government departments to further refine its policy on animal sentience. We will continue to consider carefully what other tools, processes, and mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure the animal sentience requirements are delivered by the Government effectively in practice.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 09/09/2019 16:31:52 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1146348

	registered interest
	date	25/09/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	White Fish: North Sea
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of climate change on North Sea cod losing sustainability status.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL17843
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2019 answer text <p>In its most recent advice, the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) assesses that the North Sea cod stock has been subject to both increased fishing pressure and reduced recruitment levels. This combination of effects has led to the reduced stock status. There is no clear cause of the low recruitment in 2018 although a number of factors including the size of adult spawning stock and environmental variability are known to affect recruitment success. The Government is committed to ensuring our fish stocks are healthy and UK fisheries management is sustainable for future generations.</p><p> </p><p>The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification is an industry led initiative to reassure consumers as to the sustainability of the fish they eat. This is not organised nor administered by the Government, but by the MSC.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 08/10/2019 14:20:35 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1148091

	registered interest
	date	02/10/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Eggs: Imports
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to make the duty-free import of eggs conditional upon animal welfare requirements.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL18019
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2019 answer text <p>It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 08/10/2019 16:32:39 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1151689

	registered interest
	date	22/10/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Peatlands
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the environmental impact of the drying of peatlands in the UK.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL326
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2019 answer text <p>This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.</p><p> </p><p>The Government recognises that healthy wet peatlands have many positive environmental benefits, including flood mitigation, terrestrial carbon storage for mitigating climate change, providing habitat for rare wildlife and water purification and regulation.</p><p> </p><p>The BEIS Emissions Inventory for UK Peatlands, published in April this year, estimates that annual greenhouse gas emissions from degraded (including drained) peatlands in England are approximately 11 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e).</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 05/11/2019 17:39:36 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick