Domestic bonfires are not illegal but local authorities discourage the burning of garden waste that can cause considerable localised air pollution, potentially causing both a nuisance and health impacts to the local community and surrounding biodiversity. Local authorities are responsible for investigating smoke from bonfires brought to their attention under Section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act, 1990. For a bonfire to count as a statutory nuisance it must unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of a home or other premises, injure health or be likely to injure health.<\/p>
<\/p>
If they agree that a statutory nuisance is happening, has happened or will happen in the future, councils must serve an abatement notice (usually on the person responsible). This could result in an unlimited fine if the recipient does not follow the rules of the abatement notice. It could also result in prosecution and an additional fine if found guilty in a Magistrates Court.<\/p>
<\/p>
At this present time, we are not planning any new measures restricting bonfires. Government guidance on the rules about garden bonfires is available at: https://www.gov.uk/garden-bonfires-rules<\/a>.<\/p> <\/p> Additionally, to improve awareness among householders, Defra have created a practical guide titled \u2018Smoke Control Areas: Do you know the rules?<\/em><\/a>\u2019 and we encourage local authorities to distribute these. This advises householders that they should not burn treated wood such as fence panels as this can emit harmful fumes and toxic pollutants. It also advises that they should be considerate towards their neighbours when lighting bonfires and should always take care not to cause a smoke nuisance. Further materials encouraging people to burn better and reduce harmful emissions can be found at https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/burnbetter/<\/a>.<\/p>"}
, "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4522", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Rebecca Pow"}
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, "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2023-01-31T17:41:15.72Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
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, "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Environment, Food and Rural Affairs"}
, "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Environment, Food and Rural Affairs"}
, "date" : {"_value" : "2023-01-24", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Fires: Regulation"}
, "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"}
, "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"}
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], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislation to introduce additional regulations on bonfires to help address the environmental risks posed by those fires.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4621", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Darren Jones"}
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, "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Darren Jones"}
], "uin" : "131331"}
, {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1436693", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs"}
], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1436693/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : " As a core part of our commitment to leave the environment in a better state than we found it, the Environment Act will set a new legally binding target to halt the decline of species abundance by 2030. We will shortly be publishing a Green Paper to look at how we can drive the delivery of that target, including through our sites and species protections.<\/p> <\/p> The Government continues to support a wide range of successful and ongoing reintroductions and translocations for raptors such as hen harrier to southern England. To support the reintroduction of white-tailed eagle, in 2021 Natural England issued a licence for a ten-year project to release the species at a site in Norfolk. Defra also provided funding to support the Isle of Wight white-tailed eagle reintroduction project led by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, as well as the support provided through the involvement of Forestry England. The project aims to reintroduce up to 60 eagles to the Isle of Wight over a five-year period.<\/p> <\/p> As a result of decades of conservation work including reintroductions and increased protections, many birds of prey such as the red kite, marsh harrier and white-tailed eagle have been helped off the UK Red List for birds. We will shortly be establishing an England Species Reintroductions Task Force to provide a collective evidence-based view on potential species for conservation translocation and reintroduction in England.<\/p> <\/p>"}
, "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4522", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Rebecca Pow"}
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, "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Environment, Food and Rural Affairs"}
, "date" : {"_value" : "2022-02-28", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Birds of Prey: Nature Conservation"}
, "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"}
, "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"}
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], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the reintroduction of (a) the white-tailed sea eagle and (b) other endangered raptor species in the East of England.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4769", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Daisy Cooper"}
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, "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Daisy Cooper"}
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, {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1272141", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government"}
], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1272141/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : " Tackling homelessness and rough sleeping in all its forms is a key priority for this Government and we have taken huge steps this year, working with local authorities and their partners to protect vulnerable rough sleepers during the pandemic. The \u2018Everyone In\u2019 campaign has supported over 29,000 vulnerable people, with over 10,000 in emergency accommodation and nearly 19,000 provided with settled accommodation or move on support.<\/p> We have also put in place bespoke support for local authorities through our Homelessness Advice and Support Team, which includes dedicated youth homelessness advisor roles that have a commitment to work with local authorities to proactively promote positive joint working across housing authorities and children\u2019s services, offering training, advice and support to all local authorities.<\/p> This year we have provided £90,000 to St Basil\u2019s to fund Youth Voice, a training scheme for 40 young homeless people across the country. Youth Voice includes the Youth Homelessness Parliament which provides insight and advice to government on issues affecting young homelessness people.<\/p>"}
, "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4487", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Kelly Tolhurst"}
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, "date" : {"_value" : "2020-12-17", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Homelessness: Coronavirus"}
, "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"}
, "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"}
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], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people aged 16 to 25 have become homeless since the start of the covid-19 outbreak in March 2020.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4436", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Cat Smith"}
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, "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Cat Smith"}
], "uin" : "131331"}
, {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/856165", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Transport"}
], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/856165/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : " The Government has announced an end to the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040, and a key element of the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge in the Industrial strategy is our long term mission to see every new car and van being effectively zero emission by 2040. The Department will provide more details shortly on the actions we are taking to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution from road vehicles dramatically, and to bring about our ambition for a future where every road vehicle has zero emissions at the tailpipe.<\/p> <\/p> For diesel cars and vans the relative efficiency of diesel engines compared with petrol engines results in improved fuel economy and lower greenhouse gas emissions per kilometre than from petrol equivalents. Whilst real-world emissions of nitrogen dioxide from current diesel cars and vans are at present typically substantially higher than their petrol equivalents, the UK has led the calls for action at a European level to ensure that manufacturers now have to limit emissions of nitrogen dioxide in a wide range of real-world driving conditions, and not just against laboratory test limits.<\/p> <\/p>"}
, "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3991", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Jesse Norman"}
}
, "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Hereford and South Herefordshire"}
, "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Jesse Norman"}
, "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-03-13", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-03-13T16:14:54.833Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
]}
, "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "27"}
, "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Transport"}
, "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Transport"}
, "date" : {"_value" : "2018-03-06", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Motor Vehicles: Carbon Emissions"}
, "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"}
, "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"}
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], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of diesel-fuelled vehicles to meet carbon emissions targets.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4616", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Rosie Duffield"}
}
, "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Canterbury"}
, "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Rosie Duffield"}
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