Tag: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-05-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in their application to the EU Solidarity Fund for flood relief, and when they anticipate the first payments from that fund will be made.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Government submitted an initial UK application to the European Union Solidarity Fund on Friday 26 February. We are in the process of refining our cost estimates and figures, and I will update Parliament once the application is finalised.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-01-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the membership and terms of reference of the group established to carry out their national flood review.

Lord Bridges of Headley

A National Flood Resilience Review will be led by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Letwin and include the Government’s Chief Scientist, Defra, DECC, DCLG, HMT and the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency and the Met Office.

We will look afresh at how we calculate flood risk, in light of recent events. This will see Government updating ‘worst case scenario’ planning, considering the future impacts of climate change.

Work is already underway and we are testing the resilience of our critical infrastructure, including electricity substations, water treatments plants and telecoms. We have committed to keeping the public informed of progress, and will be providing an update in the coming months, and will publish findings from the review in the summer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-03-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of co-mingled recycling collection in the light of the recycling target of 50 per cent of municipal waste by 2020.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Local authorities are best placed to determine local collection arrangements. From January 2015, under the Waste (England and Wales) (amendment) Regulations 2012, waste collection authorities were required to collect separately paper, plastic, glass and metals unless it is not necessary in order to provide high quality recyclates or its not technologically, environmentally or economically practicable to do so.

As part of a wider study by WRAP to assess the factors influencing the recycling performance of local authorities it was concluded that very little certainty could be applied in establishing a difference in recycling performance between dry scheme types where schemes were collecting the same set of dry recyclable materials. This analysis considered data reported by local authorities for the year 2012/13 and the report is available on WRAP’s website.

With input from WRAP, Defra has considered a number of options for achieving higher recycling rates and this work has assumed a range of collection approaches as reflected by current practice. The work being taken forward to identify opportunities for greater consistency in recycling collections provides a further opportunity to consider the effectiveness of collection options in terms of contribution to national recycling rate, quality of material collected and cost effectiveness. This work will be reported on later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-05-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to strengthen the labelling of milk products to show country of origin.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

In 2011, Defra facilitated a set of industry principles on country of origin labelling. These principles ensure that the vast majority of milk and dairy products sold at retail in Britain are clearly labelled with their country of origin. We are continuing to work with the food industry to explore what more can be done to increase origin labelling, as well as in the EU to push for EU-wide mandatory origin labelling for milk and dairy products.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the World Health Organization research showing that eating processed meat increases the risk of cancer.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The World Health Organization published its conclusions on the carcinogenicity of eating red and processed meat on 26 October. The detailed evaluations will be published in the future; until these are available, we cannot assess them in detail.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-01-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the future viability of the Thames Barrier will be considered as part of the National Flood Resilience Review.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The viability of the Thames Barrier has been extensively reviewed, and conclusions were published in 2012. This Review will focus on updating our climate modelling and stress-testing the nation’s resilience to flood risk.

We will make appropriate decisions on next steps using any new evidence that comes out of that work.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-03-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to review and propose simplification of household waste and recycling collection across the UK.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Defra and the Waste and Resource Action Programme are working with local authorities and other waste management stakeholders to develop a vision and business case for greater consistency in the way materials are collected for recycling. This will set out the benefits that could be achieved for householders, local authorities, reprocessors and others. The vision is to be published in the summer and will include proposed models for more consistent arrangements for collection of recyclable materials.

The broad aims for this work are to help local authorities to reduce costs; improve the quality and quantity of materials collected and to improve householder engagement and participation in recycling through reducing confusion and inconsistency and providing opportunities to improve communications.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-09-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people were convicted of food crime following the horsemeat scandal in 2013.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The City of London Police investigation into how food products became adulterated with horsemeat led to three men being charged with fraud offences on 26 August 2016.

The charges follow a complex international criminal investigation that saw the City of London Police, which is the National Policing Lead for Fraud, working in partnership with the Food Standards Agency and Crown Prosecution Service, as well as law enforcement agencies from across the United Kingdom and Europe.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advice they are giving to consumers about the health risks of eating processed meat.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Public Health England’s advice is that, on average, people should be eating no more than 70 grammes of red and processed meat a day. People who eat a lot of these meats are at higher risk of bowel cancer than those who eat small amounts. Therefore, people who eat more than 90 grammes of red or processed meat a day are advised to cut down.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-01-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions have taken place with the Welsh Government about the benefits of the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and in particular about a duty on all public bodies to carry out sustainable development being adopted across the UK.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

None.

The Government is strengthening environmental protection by developing a 25 year framework for a healthy, diverse and resilient natural environment. We are also supporting the delivery of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in the UK and will continue to take a leading role in championing the SDGs internationally.

We recognise the inter-dependent nature of our economy, environment and communities. Government Departments will continue to consider and seek to improve the impact on all three areas when developing their policies in line with HMT’s Green Book Guidance.