Tag: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what national resources are available to track and apprehend gangs selling illegally imported puppies to buyers across the UK.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

We are aware that some unscrupulous individuals are illegally importing pet animals with the intention of selling them on arrival in the UK. The Government takes the issue seriously and we are committed to working with relevant agencies and other non-government organisations to tackle this illegal trade. National resources engaged in this work include the transport companies (or their agents) who ensure compliance with the pet travel scheme, staff at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) who monitor and regulate the import of animals, and Local Authorities who enforce legislation where illegally imported pets are discovered. The APHA actively shares intelligence it gathers relating to abuse of the pet travel rules with Local Authorities and other EU Member States. This enables further investigation and follow up action to take place. Defra and the APHA have also provided practical support to multi-agency collaborative enforcement action. For example, in April last year, we assisted with the ageing of young puppies during ‘Operation Bloodhound’, which resulted in several penalty notices and cautions being issued.

The illegal trade is ultimately driven by demand for cheap, pedigree puppies. The Government has published guidance to outline steps that prospective pet owners should take to avoid buying an illegally imported pet. The Government is currently consulting on a number of proposals to update the laws on the breeding and selling of dogs. The proposals include requiring anyone who breeds more than two litters of puppies a year to be licensed. An exemption from local authority licencing is proposed where a business is regulated by a body accredited by the UK Accreditation Service to certify, at a minimum, the legally-required welfare licence conditions. The consultation ends on 12 March.

Defra recognises the problems that can arise from the on-line advertising of pets for sale. In recent years, the Department has been working closely with and supporting the Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG) – which is a grouping of animal welfare charities, veterinary experts, animal keeping interests and the pet industry. Working with PAAG, we have been able to encourage six of the main on-line pet advertising sites to adopt minimum standards for adverts and to remove those that do not meet the standards. With PAAG’s help and the cooperation of six key on-line sites, over 130,000 inappropriate adverts for animals were removed over a 12-month period in 2014/15. We continue to work with PAAG to encourage more on-line sites to sign up to the minimum standards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-04-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to repeal any existing statutory animal welfare codes.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Government intends to retain all existing statutory animal welfare codes and is working with interested parties to ensure our guidance continues to help farmers comply with our high welfare standards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-09-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will pay the outstanding payments to farmers affected by storms Eva and Desmond last December.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

More than 1,000 applications for funding under the Farming Recovery Fund have been approved by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).

Farmers have until the end of December 2016 to carry out the restoration work and then submit a claim for payment to us. RPA aims to process and made payments within a month of receiving a fully completed claim.

To date the RPA has received 358 claims for payment and 268 of these have been paid.

RPA is waiting for the remaining 750 claims to be submitted, the majority of which are expected in October and November.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2015-11-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to make it cheaper and easier for food businesses to donate surplus food to charities rather than dispose of it via anaerobic digestion.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

We have taken action to ensure that more surplus food is redistributed to people before being put to any other use through our voluntary agreements with the grocery and hospitality sectors. If surplus food cannot be prevented, the next best option is to ensure it is redistributed for human consumption. Signatories to the Courtauld Commitment, which includes UK retailers and food manufacturers, have reported a 74% increase in food redistribution between 2012 and the end of 2014 and we expect it to increase further.

In January this year the Secretary of State for Defra and the Minister for Civil Society brought together key players from retail, food manufacturing and redistribution organisations to agree new actions to further increase levels of food redistributed. A working group is driving this forward to waste less and redistribute more. The Group is developing a partnership model to provide a consistent framework for providers and recipients of surplus food to reach agreement on working together. Research has also been commissioned from the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which will identify where and why waste and surpluses occur in the food chain to identify what action can be taken to increase waste prevention and redistribution.

There will always be some unavoidable food waste. The Government’s Anaerobic Digestion Strategy is in place to reduce the amount of organic material going to landfill and drive the waste that is produced into energy recovery or recycling.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to extend the post-vaccination wait period for puppies entering the UK from three weeks to six months.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The requirement for vaccination against rabies prior to movement into the UK from other European Union Member States and certain other low risk countries is set out in of Regulation (EU) No 576/2013, the Pet Travel Regulation. The Regulation requires effective rabies vaccination prior to movement. This means that dogs must be a minimum of 12 weeks of age before being vaccinated against rabies as there is a risk that vaccination at a younger age may provide ineffective protection. The requirement for 21 days to elapse between vaccination and movement is to allow rabies immunity to develop. These rules were amended on 29 December 2014 and included an increase in the minimum age at which a dog could be vaccinated. We are not aware of any plans by the Commission to bring forward proposals to further amend the rules and we have no plans to seek an amendment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to control the live exports of horses from the UK that are falsely declared to be exported for leisure purposes but where the true intention is for slaughter and human consumption.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Government is aware of concerns about horse exports and has been working closely with welfare charities on this issue and in particular on improving intelligence gathering. When reports are received by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) that horses are being exported other than for the declared purpose, or are being inappropriately transported, APHA will investigate and will take appropriate enforcement action. This may include suspending transporters.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-09-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to use further interventions to prevent the spread of Koi herpesvirus disease which kills common and ornamental carp.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Government recognises the importance of protecting the UK from fish diseases including koi herpesvirus (KHV) disease which can have serious effects on our native fish population, angling waters and aquaculture industry.

We have strong control measures in place to identify and constrain outbreaks of KHV. This includes an annual surveillance programme in fish farms; the prohibition of the movement of live fish from KHV infected sites, both farm and fishery; and, restrictions on angling in affected waters during disease outbreaks. We will continue to apply these control measures robustly to prevent spread of the disease. In addition we support research into KHV transmission routes and will review our options for interventions as new scientific information becomes available.

KHV is most likely transmitted through the movement of live fish and it has also been demonstrated that angling equipment such as keep nets may spread infection. Defra has been working closely with the Angling Trust on the Check, Clean, Dry campaign to support good practice in the angling community, and with the Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association to highlight the importance of not releasing pet fish into the environment.

Last year we published the aquatic animal health strategy for England setting out our approach and activities to protect and improve aquatic animal health over the next five years. This includes looking at the use of new technologies to improve disease surveillance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2015-11-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are encouraging supermarkets to abandon strict cosmetic specifications for farm products that result in edible food being wasted.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Government, through the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), is working with food manufacturers and retailers, including all the major UK supermarkets, to meet targets to reduce food waste from the grocery supply chain under the Courtauld Commitment. Signatories have reported a 7.4% reduction in supply chain waste between 2009-2012, with interim results for Courtauld 3 showing a further 3.2% reduction by 2014.

WRAP has worked with supermarkets and consumers to support acceptance and use of ‘imperfect’ fruit and vegetables. Work is also in progress with signatories, trade bodies and redistribution organisations to build a better understanding of the amounts and causes of waste in the supply of food and drink. WRAP is currently brokering a new agreement, Courtauld 2025, which will build on this progress.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 2 February (HL5437), when an announcement will be made about the funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit from April 2016 onwards.

Lord Bates

A decision on funding the National Wildlife Crime Unit beyond March 2016 will be made shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions for food fraud in the form of meat substitution there were in each of the last three years.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Local authorities are responsible for prosecuting meat species substitution offences. Generally, these prosecutions are taken forward under regulations relating to the labelling and mis-description of food, rather than under fraud legislation. The Food Standards Agency has taken on the task of compiling a register of successful food law prosecutions and is just completing the first year of data collection on local authority food prosecutions. However, it does not hold definitive data on prosecutions for offences of this nature in the last three years.