Tag: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are reviewing their decision to exclude small businesses from the Flood Re insurance package.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

While we recognise the difficult challenges that some small businesses could face in areas of high flood risk, we are not currently aware of evidence that there is a systemic problem with the availability of commercial flood insurance.

We have, however, committed to work with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and other stakeholders to monitor the insurance market for small businesses. We are keen to work across Government, and with a range of business interests, to better understand the nature and extent of any problem that might exist.

The ABI have assured us that the insurance industry will continue to provide insurance to small businesses on a competitive basis.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the National Food Crime Unit’s annual budget is allocated to investigating serious crimes.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) is initially focusing on establishing the scale and nature of food crime in the United Kingdom at a strategic level through developing intelligence sharing relationships across the law enforcement community and with the food industry. This will also enable the Unit to instigate investigative interventions by law enforcement partners and local authorities to identify and disrupt specific instances of food crime. The NFCU’s budget is directed towards fulfilling this primary intelligence function.

Intelligence analysts within the Unit have just completed the first ever Food Crime Annual Strategic Assessment (FCASA), which will be published soon. The FCASA sets out the Unit’s developing understanding of food crime in the UK and will drive its work to ensure resources are focused where the threat to consumers and other interests is the greatest.

At the end of this year, the Food Standards Agency will review progress on food crime, in line with Professor Elliott’s recommendations following the horsemeat incident. This review will inform decision-making about the Unit’s future form and function.

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.