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1400310

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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	Plastics
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of banning all non-essential single-use plastic in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Hampstead and Kilburn
tabling member printed	Tulip Siddiq
uin	99023
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2022 answer text <p>Plastic is an extremely useful material and when used in the right way and disposed of correctly, it can help us deliver the best environmental outcome. For example, we have seen how useful it can be for medical and clinical purposes as it is strong, flexible and light-weight. However, where the evidence supports the case, we will not hesitate to introduce bans and other measures to limit its use, as we have done with single-use plastic straws, stirrers, and cotton buds. Such an approach will continue to be applied to our upcoming policy measures, like our proposed ban of single-use plastic plates, cutlery and polystyrene food and drinks containers, to ensure we have the best overall impact on our natural environment.</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 12/01/2022 13:41:03 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
tabling member	4518 label Biography information for Tulip Siddiq

1400386

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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	Forests: North East
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the extent of damage to forest and wooded areas as a result of Storm Arwen in (a) Wansbeck, (b) Northumberland and (c) the North East.
tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
uin	98948
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2022 answer text <p>Using satellite imagery, Forest Research estimates that around 5,500 hectares of woodland was damaged by Storm Arwen. Of this, around 1,700 hectares was in England and most damage occurred in the North East. A map showing suspected areas of windblow is available to the public at <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwindblow-assessment-forestergis.hub.arcgis.com%2F&amp;data=04%7C01%7Csarah.irrobeh%40defra.gov.uk%7C939e4d7aad0c42103bd808d9d1e4af0b%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C637771602396532594%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&amp;sdata=ypcY7d1wLoozKDNQdY3B7%2Fm5W8SUyUZdkWZE3s85zfQ%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">https://windblow-assessment-forestergis.hub.arcgis.com/</a> and is being used to validate satellite imagery. A summary of this information will be made available in February.</p><p> </p><p>Forestry England is continuing to survey the forests it manages in Northumberland and the wider North East and it will be some time before the full extent of damage is known. There are no Forestry England woodlands within the Wansbeck constituency.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 14/01/2022 14:41:38 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1400387

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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	Tree Planting
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to ensure that the trees lost as a result of Storm Arwen are replaced.
tabling member constituency	Wansbeck
tabling member printed	Ian Lavery
uin	98949
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2022 answer text <p>Forestry is devolved and so this answer is for England only.</p><p> </p><p>Initial efforts have been focused on supporting the emergency services and utility providers in re-establishing essential networks and infrastructure with ongoing work to make sure impacted forests are safe for public access. It is estimated that it will take over a year to plan and implement the full recovery effort.</p><p> </p><p>A felling licence is not required to harvest trees that are no longer growing such as those that are blown over or snapped by the wind or are dead or dangerous. In some situations, this may lead to blown trees being cleared with no obligation for the owner to restock. In England, Defra and the Forestry Commission are investigating how regulation and incentives could be used to reduce the risk that there is a loss of tree cover or woodland area in these situations. Regulatory arrangements for clearing windblown trees vary between devolved administrations.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has committed to bring tree planting rates across the UK up to 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this parliament in May 2024. The England Trees Action Plan is supported by an intended £500 million from the Nature for Climate Fund. In the Net Zero Strategy, the Government also announced that it will boost the Nature for Climate fund with a further £124 million of new money, ensuring total spend of more than £750 million by 2025 on peat restoration, woodland creation and management.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 14/01/2022 14:45:28 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4139 label Biography information for Ian Lavery

1400392

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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	Public Footpaths
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many new footpaths his Department has created in England in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	98887
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2022 answer text <p>The Highways Act 1980 allows highway authorities to create a new right of way where it can be shown that there is a need for it. As such, local highway authorities have statutory duties to record public rights of way, these are kept at a local authority level and the relevant date for each public right of way can be found in the definitive map and statement. The department does not hold a record of what footpaths have been created in an individual year.</p><p> </p><p>However, our network of National Trails is managed centrally, and work is continuing to support this network and in particular to complete the England Coast Path. To date, Natural England has published proposals for more than 99% of the England Coast Path route, and over 450 miles is already open to the public. The table below shows the total mileage of England Coast Path opened in each of the last five years:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Miles opened</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017</p></td><td><p>44</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018</p></td><td><p>N/A</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019</p></td><td><p>94.5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>16.2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021</p></td><td><p>56.7</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 14/01/2022 14:42:20 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

1400405

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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	Air Pollution
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the timeline is for the public consultation on the Government's new PM2.5 targets.
tabling member constituency	Stoke-on-Trent Central
tabling member printed	Jo Gideon
uin	99086
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2022 answer text <p>We are preparing to launch a public consultation on proposed targets for reduction of PM<sub>2.5 </sub>early this year. Following the consultation, we will publish a Government response and then set the air quality targets in secondary legislation by 31 October 2022.</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 14/01/2022 17:11:24 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
tabling member	4817 label Biography information for Jo Gideon

1400407

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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	Air Pollution
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that people (a) living with asthma and lung disease and (b) who are most vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution are prioritised in the forthcoming pollution exposure reduction target.
tabling member constituency	Stoke-on-Trent Central
tabling member printed	Jo Gideon
uin	99087
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2022 answer text <p>We recognise the need to take action to reduce the impacts of air pollution on health and to particularly focus action on PM<sub>2.5</sub> - the pollutant of most significant harm to health.</p><p> </p><p>Alongside setting a new concentration target, a new population exposure reduction will help prioritise action that is most beneficial for public health and drive continuous improvement, even where concentration targets have already been met. We will be launching a consultation on the new targets early this year.</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 14/01/2022 16:53:32 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
tabling member	4817 label Biography information for Jo Gideon

1400454

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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 Supply
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to (a) mitigate the impact of increasing costs of food for consumers and (b) ensure that suppliers of food are adequately supplied.
tabling member constituency	Stockport
tabling member printed	Navendu Mishra
uin	99081
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/01/2022 answer text <p>Consumer food prices depend on a range of factors including food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, and Sterling exchange rates, all of which fluctuate over time. Some of these factors are influenced by our trading arrangements with other countries.    Most food sectors businesses (retail etc) are accustomed to fluctuations in supply chain costs so they do not necessarily translate into consumer price rises. Food prices are set individually by businesses and it is not for the UK Government to set retail food prices nor to comment on day-to-day commercial decisions by companies.</p><p> </p><p>The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Our high degree of food security is built supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 14/01/2022 14:05:47 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
tabling member	4811 label Biography information for Navendu Mishra

1400470

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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: Waste
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to enshrine Sustainable Development Goals pertaining to food waste into law.
tabling member constituency	City of Durham
tabling member printed	Mary Kelly Foy
uin	99069
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2022 answer text <p>The UK is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 target, which seeks to halve global food waste at consumer and retail levels by 2030. There is a programme in place to achieve this domestically including support for the Courtauld Commitment 2030 voluntary agreement with industry and consumer campaigns. Robust estimates of national food waste volumes are made periodically and used to monitor and report progress against the SDG 12.3 target. The Government has no plans to make this target legally binding.</p><p>Since 2007, action to reduce food waste in the UK has contributed to a reduction in post-farm gate total food waste between 2007 and 2018 of around 15% (1.7Mt). Excluding inedible parts, the reduction was 21%.</p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill grouped question UIN 97159 question first answered 11/01/2022 09:27:21 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
tabling member	4753 label Biography information for Mary Kelly Foy

1400568

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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	Pest Control
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make illegal the baiting of electric fences with honey and other substances designed to attract wildlife.
tabling member printed	Baroness Hodgson of Abinger
uin	HL5173
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/02/2022 answer text <p>In England, wildlife is protected by law through legislation such as the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.</p><p>Section 11 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 prohibits certain methods of killing or taking wild animals. Under subsection 2(c), a person will be guilty of an offence if they set in position any electrical device for killing or stunning, calculated to cause bodily injury to any wild animal included in Schedule 6 of that Act, such as badgers and hedgehogs. It is also an offence under regulation 45 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 to use electrical and electronic devices capable of killing or stunning, for the purpose of capturing or killing a European protected species, or for any of the protected species listed on Schedule 4 of those Regulations.</p><p>The Government has no current plans to introduce further legislation to prohibit conduct involving the 'baiting' of electric fences with honey and other substances designed to attract wildlife.</p> answering member printed Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park question first answered 03/02/2022 14:39:57 answering member 4062 label Biography information for Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
tabling member	4301 label Biography information for Baroness Hodgson of Abinger

1400578

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
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	Fly-tipping: Somerset
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 effects, if any, of the dumping of (1) disused vehicles, and (2) scrap metal, on Sites of Special Scientific Interest within the (a) Blackmore Vale Commons, and (b) Moors area, of Somerset.
tabling member printed	Lord Patten
uin	HL5183
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/01/2022 answer text <p>Natural England is not aware of, or currently investigating, any recent incidences on the Blackmore Vale Commons and Moors SSSIs.</p><p>Local authorities are responsible for keeping relevant land (land, which is open to the air, under the direct control of the authority, and accessible to the public with or without payment, as defined in the Environmental Protection Act 1990) clear of litter and refuse. Landowners are responsible for the land that they own.</p><p>Local and national park authorities (authorities) must remove abandoned vehicles from any land in the open air (including private land) and roads (including private roads). Authorities do not have to remove an abandoned vehicle if the cost of moving it from open land to the nearest convenient road is determined to be unreasonably high (for example, if special machinery is needed).</p><p>The Environment Agency has a role in circumstances where an incident may affect a watercourse and could potentially cause flooding or pollution. Both local authorities and the Environment Agency carry out investigations and can take enforcement action against fly-tipping.</p><p>If fly-tipping occurs on an SSSI, this would be investigated by Natural England and enforcement action taken if SSSI features have been damaged. Natural England can take enforcement action on the owner/occupier or third party who:</p><ul><li>Intentionally or recklessly damages the SSSI</li><li>Destroys any of the features of special interest</li><li>Disturbs wildlife for which the site was notified</li><li>Carries out list operation without consent.</li></ul> answering member printed Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park question first answered 20/01/2022 11:54:50 answering member 4062 label Biography information for Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
tabling member	1137 label Biography information for Lord Patten