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1690928

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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	Agricultural Products: Northern Ireland
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what checks or compliance procedures are required for the movement of agri-intermediate goods or inputs, such as grain for animal consumption, from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
tabling member printed	Lord Dodds of Duncairn
uin	HL2647
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/04/2024 answer text <p>The arrangements for moving plants and plant products for production, such as animal feed, are set out in detail on the GOV.UK pages covering movements into and out of Northern Ireland. That includes details of the unfettered access for Northern Ireland goods to the whole UK market, as well as the support services available under the Trader Support Service and the Movement Assistance Scheme for movements into Northern Ireland from Great Britain. In relation to these movements, it should be noted that animal feed for use on premises located in Northern Ireland benefits from a wide-ranging sectoral exemption that enables it to be classified as ‘not at risk’.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 12/04/2024 09:47:30 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

1690929

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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	Trees: Northern Ireland
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government which species of tree are currently prohibited from being moved from Great Britain to Northern Ireland for planting in Northern Ireland.
tabling member printed	Lord Dodds of Duncairn
uin	HL2648
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2024 answer text <p>All information on high-risk plants, including the latest information on the plants’ dossiers and those where the bans have been lifted, can be found at the ‘Plant Portal’ on gov.uk. The Government continues to proactively engage with industry to understand where further action is needed and prepare and submit dossiers for scientific assessment.</p><p> </p><p>Through the Windsor Framework, we have already lifted the ban on the most urgent eleven priority species, these being European beech, English oak, Sessile oak, Norway Maple, Japanese maple, Sycamore maple, Field Maple, Crab apple, Common apple, Hawthorn and two types of privet (wax leaf and delavey).</p><p> </p><p>The ban on common hazel will be lifted soon, which will be followed by another seven species that industry has prioritised. We will continue to work with industry to identify further species as needed.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 06/03/2024 17:44:22 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

1690930

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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	Livestock: Northern Ireland
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what are the current requirements regarding the re-tagging of livestock born in Great Britain and being moved to Northern Ireland.
tabling member printed	Lord Dodds of Duncairn
uin	HL2649
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/03/2024 answer text <p>Following work with the livestock sector, an easement negotiated by the Government with the European Commission means that cattle, sheep, or goats that already have UK tags that are moving to Northern Ireland from Great Britain do not now need to be reidentified in Great Britain with either a new pair of ‘GB’ tags or have a third ‘GB’ export tag added. Farmers are now able to move them with their existing 'UK' tags. DAERA website guidance advising keepers that these animals had to be identified with GB tags before they are moved to NI has been removed.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 12/03/2024 14:23:37 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

1690938

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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 and horticulture: Subsidies
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what is the number of full time equivalent personnel employed by DEFRA to administer farming and horticultural grants and subsidies in England on the latest date for which figures are available.
tabling member printed	Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts
uin	HL2657
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/03/2024 answer text <p>The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.</p><p> </p><p>Defra’s Grants Hub data does not hold a ‘Farming &amp; Horticulture’ flag so it would not be possible to quickly pull together a list of schemes in scope of this question.</p><p> </p><p>Manually reviewing the schemes and deciding if they fit or not, without a standard definition of what counts as ‘Farming &amp; Horticulture’, would require a degree of personal judgement and therefore yield some inaccuracy. It would then be necessary to validate the list with teams to ensure they are ‘Farming &amp; Horticulture’ grants.</p><p> </p><p>From experience of similar requests, this would push the cost to disproportionate (ie greater than the HMT-set limit of £850 for a PQ answer).</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 12/03/2024 14:24:36 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	1651 label Biography information for Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts

1690939

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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: Employment
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what is the number of (1) farmers, and (2) their direct employees, for the latest date for which figures are available.
tabling member printed	Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts
uin	HL2658
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2024 answer text <p>Farmers are defined here as full time and part time principal farmers, business partners, directors and spouses. All other agricultural workers are defined here as regular employees, salaried managers and casual workers who were working on the holding on 1 June 2023.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Agricultural workforce in England in 2023</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>2023</strong></p></td><td><p><strong> </strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Farmers</p></td><td><p>178,696</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>All other agricultural workers</p></td><td><p>113,705</p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total agricultural workforce</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>292,401</strong></p></td><td><p><strong> </strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Notes</p><p>(a) Commercial holdings are those registered with the Rural Payments Agency for payments or livestock purposes and with significant levels of farming activity (as recorded in responses to the Defra June Survey of Agriculture or the Cattle Tracing System). Holdings are only included if they have more than five hectares of agricultural land, one hectare of orchards, 0.5 hectares of vegetables or 0.1 hectares of protected crops, or more than 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1,000 poultry.</p><p> </p><p>Full data series for agricultural workforce are published <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/agricultural-workforce-in-england-at-1-june" target="_blank">here</a> for England. A copy is attached to this answer.</p><p> </p><p>Similar figures for the UK are available at gov.uk.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 06/03/2024 17:43:55 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller attachment 1 file name PQ HL2658 attachment Agricultural Workforce in England.xlsx title Agricultural Workforce, England
tabling member	1651 label Biography information for Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts

1690941

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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	Dogs
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what rules exist for pet owners wishing to take their dog on holiday (1) from England to Northern Ireland, and (2) from England to Scotland.
tabling member printed	Baroness Hoey
uin	HL2660
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/03/2024 answer text <p>The detail on the movement of pets from Great Britain to Northern Ireland can be found on the website of the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.daera-ni.gov.uk%2Farticles%2Ftravelling-pets&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cpqteam%40defra.gov.uk%7Cb3de0181f2f14d9d49c208dc42a2735f%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C638458512693167129%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=PgI%2BsGTAP6jFntD8Q%2Be0EjJpQrlRIZm%2F4gu0UWX3goI%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/travelling-pets</a>. A copy is attached to this answer.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 14/03/2024 11:56:14 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller attachment 1 file name HL2660 attachment - Travelling with Pets _ DAERA.pdf title Travelling with Pets - DAERA
tabling member	210 label Biography information for Baroness Hoey

1690948

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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: Ethnic Groups and Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with civil society groups about the disproportionate impact of air pollution on (1) people living in poverty, and (2) ethnic minority communities.
tabling member printed	Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
uin	HL2667
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2024 answer text <p>The Government recognises there is more to do to protect all people in our society and the environment from the effects of air pollution. This is why we are taking the significant and wide-ranging action to drive improvements to air quality as set out in our Environmental Improvement Plan 2023.</p><p> </p><p>As part of the Air Quality Information System (AQIS) review, officials engaged in a series of semi-structured interviews with civil society groups with the aim of learning directly from groups who either: (1) have first-hand experience communicating messages about air quality directly to communities; or (2) represent communities that may be disproportionately impacted by air pollution. The insights from these interviews will be incorporated into the AQIS recommendations which will be published in summer 2024.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 01/03/2024 11:32:07 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	4297 label Biography information for Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

1690954

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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	Cereals: Production
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support UK farmers to increase the production of wheat, barley, oats, and other cereals.
tabling member printed	Baroness Kennedy of Cradley
uin	HL2673
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/02/2024 answer text <p>Our fantastic British farmers are world-leaders and carefully plan their planting to suit the weather, their soil type, and their long-term agronomic strategy.</p><p> </p><p>It is not Government policy to determine which crops farmers should prioritise to include in their crop rotation, but we will continue to support farmers, so they can make the right decisions for them and the productivity of their land.</p><p> </p><p>At the NFU conference, the Government announced a range of measures to boost productivity and resilience in the farming sector, including the largest ever grant offer for farmers in the coming financial year, expected to total £427 million. This includes doubling investment in productivity schemes, bolstering schemes such as the Improving Farming Productivity grant, the Water Management grant, the adding Value grant. Lastly the Farming Equipment and Technology fund can fund productivity items from a specified list of equipment, including eligible drills, fertiliser applicators, and grain dryers, which is due to open in the coming weeks.</p><p> </p><p>Defra’s Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) on Wheat, Oilseed Rape and Pulses crops aim to improve the main UK crops by identifying genetic traits to improve their productivity, sustainability and resilience. Across the GINs we have already successfully identified genetic traits that have improved resilience to climate change and common pests and diseases, and we are working with breeders to incorporate these traits into elite UK crop varieties.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 29/02/2024 14:43:04 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	4303 label Biography information for Baroness Kennedy of Cradley

1690955

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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	Cattle: Methane
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the reduction of methane in the cattle sector.
tabling member printed	Baroness Kennedy of Cradley
uin	HL2674
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/03/2024 answer text <p>Achieving the net zero target is a priority for the Government. The Net Zero Growth Plan and Environmental Improvement Plan set out a range of specific commitments to further reduce emissions from agriculture. To deliver towards these we are developing a range of measures through the Agriculture Act and our farming policy, all with the aim of enabling farmers to optimise sustainable food production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.</p><p> </p><p>Defra considers that Methane Suppressing Feed Products (MSFPs) are an essential tool to decarbonise the agriculture sector. In England, our objective is to establish a mature market for these products, encourage uptake and mandate the use of MSFPs in appropriate cattle systems as soon as feasibly possible and no later than 2030. We are committed to working with farmers and industry to achieve this goal, and in early March will convene the inaugural meeting of a Ministerial-led industry taskforce on MSFPs.</p><p> </p><p>In 2023, Defra launched the second round of the Slurry Infrastructure Grants in England, offering £74 million to farmers to improve their slurry stores. As a condition of the grant, farmers are required to cover slurry stores with impermeable covers to minimise ammonia and methane emissions. The grant can also be used for projects which aid methane recovery (the grant does not fund the methane recovery element itself).</p><p> </p><p>The Environment Agency has published a corresponding <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/collecting-storing-and-upgrading-biogas-from-on-farm-manure-and-slurry-rps-259/collecting-storing-and-upgrading-biogas-from-on-farm-manure-and-slurry-rps-259" target="_blank">regulatory position statement</a> (RPS 259, copy attached), which sets out a clear regulatory framework to allow methane capture from slurry under suitable circumstances.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 04/03/2024 12:24:53 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller attachment 1 file name PQ HL2674 attachment RPS 259 - GOV.UK.pdf title HL2674 Attachment - RPS 259
tabling member	4303 label Biography information for Baroness Kennedy of Cradley

1690956

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
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: Skilled Workers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what their latest assessment of the agriculture industry’s ability to attract skilled staff.
tabling member printed	Baroness Kennedy of Cradley
uin	HL2675
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/02/2024 answer text <p>The Government encourages all sectors to make employment more attractive to domestic workers in the United Kingdom through offering training, careers options, wage increases and to invest in increased automation technology. Defra is working closely with industry and across the Government to make sure there is a long-term strategy for the food and farming workforce.</p><p> </p><p>In 2022, the Government commissioned an independent review of labour shortages in the food supply chain. It considered how automation, domestic labour and migrant labour can contribute to tackling labour shortages, following a survey of businesses across the food chain and a series of round-table meetings. The report was published on 30 June 2023. The government is considering the 10 recommendations from the report and will respond shortly.</p><p> </p><p>Enabling an innovative, productive and competitive food and farming industry which invests in its people and skills to drive growth is a key priority for the Government. Attracting bright new talent into agricultural and horticultural careers and having a skilled workforce in place is vital for the future of UK food and farming. By raising awareness of agriculture as an exciting and attractive career path, people will understand the opportunities available to them in the farming and land management industry.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 29/02/2024 14:42:25 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
tabling member	4303 label Biography information for Baroness Kennedy of Cradley