Tag: Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-03-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of any studies that have been conducted in the UK about integrating the cultivation of trees, crops and livestock on the same agricultural area, and of the conclusions of those studies.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Natural England commissioned a report from the Organic Research Centre and Abacus Organics considering the potential for agro-forestry options in the Countryside Stewardship scheme. The Land Use Policy Group commissioned an independent review of the evidence on agro-ecology including a consideration of agro-forestry, which was published in June 2015.

The Government has not yet made an assessment of these studies but officials will be exploring the evidence base for agro-forestry and how this measure might operate in practice within the Rural Development Programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-06-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the expenditure on soil research by all UK research councils in each year since 2006.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The annual spend on research related to soil science through the Research Councils is provided in the table below.

Financial Year	Spend
2005-06	£13.3M*
2006-07	£16.9M*
2007-08	£19.7M*
2008-09	£15.4M*
2009-10	£17.3M*
2010-11	£24.1M
2011-12	£20.6M
2012-13	£24.2M
2013-14	£31.2M
2014-15	£20.8M
2015-16	£45.1M

*Data is not available for the Arts and Humanities Research Council prior to 2010-11.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2015-12-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to vote in the affirmative at the 7 December plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly on (1) Resolution L13 Taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations, and (2) Resolution L.37 Humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

At the UN First Committee in November, the UK voted against the Resolutions “L13 Taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations” and “L37 Humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons”. As the text of the resolutions has not changed between the First Committee and the General Assembly plenary, we do not anticipate changing our vote.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-03-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the only current option for English farmers who wish to plant trees with CAP support is to have forestry as a separate enterprise on their holding, with densities of around 400 trees per hectare, rather than integrate the trees into their arable or livestock areas in a less dense planting.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

English farmers can plant trees with Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support either to create woodland habitat under the forestry measure of the Rural Development Regulation or to deliver a range of benefits such as landscape or the provision of nesting and habitat for farm wildlife under its agri-environment measure. Both these measures are available to farmers and other land managers as part of the Countryside Stewardship scheme. Tree-planting options do not require a minimum density (or number) of trees to be planted except when used to create new woodland.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-06-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many soil research projects have been completed for which it has provided funding, and how the findings were translated into practical measures that could be applied at farm level, in each year since 1997.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Since 1997, Defra and its predecessors have funded 445 soil research projects, the findings of which are translated into practical measures that can be applied at farm level in a number of ways, including testing of measures as part of the research, reviews of the evidence base feeding into the development of farmer guidance or direct knowledge transfer as part of the research project.

The table below denotes the number of completed soil research projects funded by Defra and its predecessors in each year since 1997:

1997	40
1998	44
1999	26
2000	28
2001	34
2002	22
2003	26
2004	21
2005	18
2006	29
2007	15
2008	23
2009	24
2010	29
2011	17
2012	18
2013	12
2014	10
2015	9

In addition since 2005-6, the first year for which data is available, Research Councils have funded 614 soil research projects.

The table below denotes the number of soil research projects funded by the Research Councils that have completed, by financial year, going back to 2005-06. Data for before that year is not available as the information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

2005-6	59
2006-7	62
2007-8	92
2008-9	57
2009-10	68
2010-11	82
2011-12	70
2012-13	26
2013-14	45
2014-15	29
2015-16	24

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2015-12-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many pregnant women, new mothers, and children under four have applied to the Healthy Start scheme in each year since that scheme started.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The specific information requested is not available as the Healthy Start Issuing Unit records numbers of applications, rather than numbers of individuals claiming, and an individual or family can make more than one claim for Healthy Start within a year.

The following table outlines the number of applications received each year since the scheme was started and is made up of the number of claims/applications per year.

The Healthy Start Scheme initially started in Devon and Cornwall and was rolled out United Kingdom-wide in November 2006.

Financial Year	Number of applications/claims
2005-06	2,445	Healthy Start Scheme introduced initially in Devon and Cornwall
2006-07	104,920	Extended United Kingdom wide in November 2006
2007-08	197,388
2008-09	298,077
2009-10	338,113
2010-11	316,711
2011-12	320,043
2012-13	316,277
2013-14	271,244
2014-15	226,805
2015-16 (Up to 15 November)	132,633

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-03-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what practical examples of agroforestry have been visited by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs staff in England, and what assessment they have made of whether, in the light of the fact that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have recently included agroforestry options into their rural development schemes, doing so would be an effective measure for England.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Officials from Defra and Natural England have recently visited an example of agro-forestry near Peterborough funded in part from organic and agri-environment measures in Environmental Stewardship.

This was a very positive and valuable visit. Officials will be exploring the evidence base for agro-forestry and how this measure might operate in practice within the Rural Development Programme. However, the budget for Pillar 2 is finite and funding agro-forestry may have opportunity costs for other measures.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-06-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many undergraduate courses leading to a formal qualification are provided in (1) soil biology, (2) soil chemistry, and (3) combined soil biology and chemistry, and how many students were enrolled in each course at the beginning of the 2015–16 academic year.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

Information on enrolments at UK Higher Education Institutions is collected and published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), and the latest academic year for which data are available is 2014/15.

The Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) is the classification of subjects used by HESA. Soil biology and Soil chemistry are not separate subject classifications in the JACS system; the closest classification is Soil science.

The latest data for 2014/15, suggest there were fewer than 10 full-person equivalent undergraduate students studying Soil science at a single UK Higher Education Institution – the University of Aberdeen.

Soil science has a Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) code of F770. This is a detailed level code and some universities may occasionally allocate students to more general codes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2015-12-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what further steps they plan to take to improve the diet of pregnant women and new mothers.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Parents receive health and lifestyle advice, including advice on diet, weight control and physical activity, from their health visitor as part of the Healthy Child Programme.

For parents, the Government provides online advice on maternal nutrition via the NHS Choices website and the Start4Life website.

The Your Pregnancy and Baby guide on NHS Choices includes information about a healthy diet in pregnancy. Start4Life produce a range of information booklets with advice for parents, including Healthy Habits for Baby and You which provides information and advice on eating healthily and exercise in pregnancy.

The Government’s statutory Healthy Start scheme aims to provide a nutritional safety net to the most nutritionally vulnerable pregnant women, new mothers and children under four years old in low income families. The scheme provides vouchers for basic healthy foods (milk, fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables) and infant formula milk. This encourages healthy eating the scheme covers approximately half a million pregnant women, new mothers, and children under four years old in low income families throughout the United Kingdom.

We currently have no plans to extend the current dietary advice given to pregnant women and new mothers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-03-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advice they have received about the benefits of agroforestry in other European countries for soil conservation, biodiversity, productivity and the reduction of flooding.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Evidence and advice on agro-forestry is summarised in the Land Use Policy Group commissioned study “The Role of Agroecology in Sustainable Intensification (2015)” which reviewed the evidence on productivity, soils, biodiversity, etc. from other European countries (notably France and Germany) and North America.