Tag: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are considering banning the routine use on farms of antibiotics classified by the World Health Organisation as critically important for treating bacterial infections in people.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The legislation that controls veterinary medicines and medicated feed within the EU is currently under revision. To reflect the rising threat of antibiotic resistance the new proposed frameworks set out additional controls on antibiotics. This includes a ban on the routine preventative use of antibiotics, including those classified as critically important, something the UK supports.

Negotiations on the frameworks are expected to continue until late 2017. There are no plans to significantly revise or amend the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 until the Commission’s work on the review of legislation has been completed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-09-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of a report from the Institute of Global Food Security that 25 per cent of samples of oregano tested are contaminated, what discussions they are having with food retailers to ensure that the public can have confidence in the labelling of food products.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Food labelling rules require that information provided about food must not mislead the consumer. Food business operators are responsible for ensuring that labelling complies with the law. The law is enforced by local authorities which set their own policies.

The Food Standards Agency is aware of the oregano sampling exercise earlier this year, which revealed that of seventy-eight samples, nineteen were also found to contain olive or myrtle leaves. Levels ranged between 21% and 69%.

Guidance on the Authenticity of Herbs and Spices, an industry best practice guide developed by representatives from the British Retail Consortium, the Food and Drink Federation, the Seasoning and Spice Association, and the FSA was published on 7 June.

The guidance represents the culmination of a strand of work the FSA undertook together with industry after the recall of a number of products early in 2015 following the discovery of undeclared almond protein in cumin and paprika. The FSA provides advice on supply chain verification and understanding vulnerabilities, as well as on sampling, inspection and testing.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider introducing stronger sentencing powers against those involved in illegal dog fighting.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Government recognises the seriousness of offences involving illegal animal fights. We will look to increase the maximum sentence when a legislative opportunity arises.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage coffee chains to recycle paper coffee cups.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Paper coffee cups are captured under the Packaging Waste Regulations. The UK meets its packaging waste recovery and recycling targets through a market-based approach. Packaging producers who put more than 50 tonnes a year of packaging materials on the market, and have an annual turnover of more than £2 million, are required to recover and recycle a proportion of their packaging waste. As a result most major coffee chains pick up a financial obligation to recycle their packaging waste, including paper coffee cups, through this mechanism.

Defra is also working with campaigners and industry to develop a National Litter Strategy for England.

In addition, we are aware of many major chains who are taking their own action to incentivise environmentally friendly behaviour, for example by offering a discount on drinks if customers bring their own reusable cups.

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 tackle the increase in human campylobacter cases, caught from infected poultry, which are proving to be resistant to the key antibiotic ciprofloxacin.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major public health concern and a global challenge. The United Kingdom Government has established a 5 year AMR strategy (2013-2018) which sets out our actions to slow the development and spread of AMR. A copy of the UK Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2013 to 2018 is attached.

The Government supports industry initiatives on the responsible use of antibiotics, such as those implemented by the British Poultry Council, who introduced a voluntary ban on the use of cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones in poultry in January 2012. This action will in the long-term help reduce the development of resistance in bacteria including campylobacter in poultry.

Campylobacter is the leading cause of infectious intestinal disease in people in the UK and poultry meat is considered to be the main source of these infections. To address this, the Food Standards Agency has worked closely with industry in reducing campylobacter levels in chicken and is tackling this issue throughout the food chain; this has included improved biosecurity measures on farm, interventions such as blast surface chilling or additional heat steps during processing, the introduction of leak-proof packaging at retail and advice for consumers on safe handling of raw chickens within the home. These approaches are expected to reduce the number of campylobacter infections in humans.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-09-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether there are sufficient obligations on local authorities to inspect food production companies, and on retailers, to ensure that no food crime or mislabelling is occurring.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Food labelling rules are set at European Union level and provide a framework for mandatory information to be provided on food labels as well as ensuring that food information is not misleading. This Government has pressed for better information for consumers during negotiations relating to food labelling in Europe.

Food businesses are responsible for ensuring their products are safe and accurately labelled. The Government backs this up with risk-based checks carried out by local authorities. In addition, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs develops validated testing methods under its Food Authenticity programme to check for mis-description and fraud. These methods are used by public analysts and local authorities to support food law enforcement.

The majority of food law enforcement is delegated to local authorities throughout the United Kingdom who carry out checks of food businesses in their area to ensure compliance with food safety, traceability and labelling requirements. To support this, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) makes funding available to UK Enforcement Authorities for sampling and surveillance of food to help ensure risk-based, targeted checks on food products throughout the food chain.

The Government has set up the National Food Crime Unit to increase the capacity to identify, disrupt and prevent food crime. It does this in part by developing intelligence packages and passing these either to the police service or to a local authority to take forward the investigation.

Measures to co-ordinate food standards enforcement across Local Authorities are kept under continual review by the FSA to improve effectiveness of delivery, working with local authorities and trading standards professional bodies.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to revisit their plans for improving air quality in London in the light of evidence that several sites in London have already breached annual pollution limits for 2016.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The air quality plan published on 17 December last year sets out how, through a range of measures, London will achieve compliance with legal pollution limits for nitrogen dioxide by 2025. The plan states that the Government will keep the delivery of London measures under review and will take further action if progress is insufficient.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Food Standards Agency achieved its target of halving the incidence of campylobacter food poisoning in 2015.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Although progress continues to be made, the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) agreed target with industry to reduce the numbers of the most contaminated birds at the end of slaughter to less than 10% by 2015 was not met. However, given the interventions expected to come on stream within industry, the FSA Board agreed to roll the target to 2016, when it is expected that the target will be met. If the target is met, then a decrease of around 50% in the number of human cases of campylobacteriosis would be expected.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what submissions they have made to the European Commission’s review of the licence of glyphosate.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Pesticide active substances, such as glyphosate, must be approved at EU level before products containing them can be authorised for sale and use in a Member State. The approval decision is based on an assessment of the risks to people and to the environment and is subject to regular review to ensure that current standards continue to be met. The scientific assessment is led by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and decisions are made by the European Commission through a comitology process.

UK experts participated fully in the EFSA review of glyphosate and agree with its overall conclusion that this active substance meets the standards for approval. The Government has therefore been clear to the Commission that we support the continuing approval of glyphosate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-09-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 3 April (HL7210), how much surplus food is now being redistributed from supermarkets; and what action they are taking to increase the proportion of food redistributed to charities.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) published its Food Surplus and Waste Quantification report in May this year. This estimates that 5,000 tonnes of surplus food was redistributed by the UK retail sector last year.

WRAP has established a Redistribution Working Group under Courtauld 2025 to share best practice and help identify and overcome barriers to redistributing food. This Working Group met for the first time in July this year. All of the major retailers are carrying out initiatives aimed at increasing store-level redistribution, or looking at how to maximise distribution from distribution centres or make it easier for their suppliers to redistribute surplus food.