Tag: Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 9 March 2023.

• His Majesty The King will visit the Animal and Plant Health Agency today in Weybridge.
• Staff and scientists to be congratulated for their work combatting the avian influenza outbreak in the UK and support with Ukrainian refugee pet travel.
• Weybridge is renowned for its specialist research and laboratory facilities, and its world-leading animal and plant health science and disease control capabilities.

His Majesty The King will today (Thursday 9th March) visit the Animal Plant and Health Agency (APHA) in Weybridge to congratulate scientists and staff for their work in combating the largest-ever avian influenza outbreak in the UK.

There have been over 330 cases of avian influenza confirmed across the country since October 2021.

APHA’s world-leading scientists and staff have played vital role in supporting avian influenza diagnostics and disease control. Their work to tackle the outbreak helps protect animal and public health but also supports our international trading relationships.

His Majesty The King will undertake a full tour which will involve briefings on some of most difficult animal health diseases the world faces including avian influenza and bovine TB as well as plant health challenges including invasive non-native species. He will visit dedicated specialist research laboratories to see genome mapping and a mosquito laboratory where he will learn about APHA’s vector-borne disease (VBD) programme.

Ahead of attending the visit, Lord Benyon, Minister for Biosecurity, Marine and Rural Affairs, said:

“The Animal and Plant Health Agency has a long-standing reputation for excellence in the field of biosecurity and the work it does to protect the UK from animal diseases, which in turn supports our economy and food security.

“I’m pleased we can use today to showcase our specialist world leading facilities.”

Also ahead of attending the visit, Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Christine Middlemiss said:

“Today’s visit really is about recognising the last 18 months of remarkable work and the APHA staff who have worked day in and day out to help control and manage the spread of avian influenza.

“The scale of avian influenza outbreaks across the UK and Europe has been unprecedented and our response has been underpinned by the world-leading science and disease control work carried out at Weybridge.”

David Holdsworth, Chief Executive Officer of APHA, said:

“APHA staff work tirelessly day in day out to protect the UK, its people and economy from the growing biosecurity threats we face. They have faced a relentless battle against Avian Influenza over the last two years. So I am pleased to welcome His Majesty The King to Weybridge to meet with APHA staff from Scotland, Wales and England and see first-hand the incredible work they do.

“I am proud to showcase our world-leading scientists, field teams and staff and the role they play in protecting the country.”

The Government is committed to the strongest possible standards of protection against animal diseases and is investing in the long-term future of the Weybridge facility, including £1.4bn of funding for the Science Capability in Animal Health Programme. The investment is in recognition of the vital work APHA does to contribute to our economic and food security.

Alongside the Government’s continued investment in the Avian Influenza National Reference Laboratory and APHA’s Weybridge site, Defra and the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council (BBSRC) fund an eight-strong consortium ‘FluMap’ led by APHA that received £1.5 million in funding to develop new strategies to tackle avian influenza outbreaks.

His Majesty The King will also meet APHA staff who were instrumental in helping those fleeing from Ukraine to safely bring their pets into the UK. APHA staff worked tirelessly to enable Ukrainians to bring much loved family pets with them to the UK while keeping the country safe from diseases such as rabies.

The UK has some of the highest biosecurity standards in the world. We have taken swift action to protect poultry from the threat of avian influenza. Avian Influenza Prevention Zones (AIPZs) are in force across the UK with additional mandatory housing measures in force in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These enhanced biosecurity measures which apply to all bird keepers have been vital in successfully protecting flocks across the country from avian influenza.

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 7 March 2023.

Defra to consult on registration rules for bird keepers in Great Britain.

• Views sought on new registration rules for all bird keepers in Great Britain.
• New rules would require all bird keepers to register their birds and update information annually.
• Proposal is part of government action to tackle avian influenza.

Proposals to require all poultry keepers to officially register their birds were launched by the government today (7 March) as part of efforts to tackle avian influenza.

The new rules would apply to all keepers, no matter how many birds they have. At present only those who keep 50 birds or more are required by law to do so. They would also be required to update their information on an annual basis.

By registering their birds with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), keepers will ensure they receive important updates such as any local avian influenza outbreaks and information on biosecurity rules to help protect their flocks from the threat of avian influenza.

This will enable the government to communicate with bird keepers quickly, to manage potential disease outbreaks, such as avian influenza, and limit the spread.

The new rules would cover owners of backyard flocks, birds of prey and pigeon fanciers, but would not affect pet birds kept entirely inside a domestic dwelling, such as a parrot or budgie kept in a cage indoors which never leaves the property other than to visit a vet or another short-term period.

In a joint statement the Chief Veterinary Officers from England, Scotland and Wales said:

“These proposals will enable us to have a full picture of the number and location of birds kept across Great Britain and make it easier to track and manage the spread of avian disease.

“This information will also help inform future risk assessments and maintain our commitment to continually building our extensive avian influenza research portfolio.”

British Poultry Council Chief Executive said:

“We welcome this consultation as a means of ensuring the GB poultry register is fit to support Government and industry efforts in mitigating the ongoing impacts of avian influenza. Registering your poultry is an effective way of monitoring and controlling the spread of disease to protect the national flock. We, as ever, urge all poultry keepers to remain vigilant for signs of avian influenza in their birds.”

The consultation proposals take forward the recommendation from the 2018 Dame Glenys Stacey Review and lessons identified from the 2021/2022 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreak and previous HPAI outbreaks.

Bird keepers will need to provide information including their contact details, the location where birds are kept and details of the birds (species, number and what they are kept for).

A 12-week joint GB-wide consultation will run until 31 May.

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 7 March 2023.

Defra to consult on proposed measures to ban industrial sandeel fishing within UK waters.

Kittiwakes, puffins and razorbills are some of England’s most treasured seabirds that could benefit from proposed measures to ban sandeel fishing, Defra has announced today (Tuesday 7 March).

The announcement comes ahead of a new BBC wildlife documentary Wild Isles, presented by Sir David Attenborough, that will explore how ecosystems and habitats support wildlife around the UK, including the importance of sandeels for our puffin population.

Sandeels are small, eel like fish that are a vital food source to vulnerable seabirds, commercially important fish species such as haddock and whiting, and sea mammals including seals and whales.

Yet sandeel numbers are under pressure from industrial fishing in the North Sea. Without effective management measures, this threatens marine ecosystems and poses a risk to the breeding success and population resilience of UK seabirds – most notably, kittiwakes.

According to experts at Natural England, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, seabird abundance could increase within 10 years as a result of the full banning of industrial sandeel fishing in UK waters.

Defra has today launched a consultation on proposed management measures for sandeel fishing within English waters, with the aim to reduce further negative impacts on important marine biodiversity.

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said:

Britain’s seabirds are beautiful to observe and a treasured part of our coastal environment and their existence and ways of life are crucial to the wider health of our marine ecosystems.

This consultation is an important step in securing their protection and delivering our commitment in the Environment Improvement Plan to halt the decline of nature and allow wildlife to thrive”.

Katie-jo Luxton, Director for Conservation at the RSPB said:

This is huge news for the UK’s efforts to save our iconic seabirds. Decades of increasing ‘human-induced’ pressures in our busy seas have left our seabirds in a precarious state, and a ban on industrial trawling for sandeels would throw our most threatened seabirds a lifeline in the face of mounting pressures in our seas.

This is a crucial moment; after last year’s devastating outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu and with major new offshore energy developments planned, there is an urgent need to build the resilience of our seabird colonies as well as helping to rebuild the overall health of the North Sea for all marine wildlife. Defra are to be congratulated in coming forward with this consultation, which is a vital first step in securing the UK-wide ban our seabirds need.

The consultation, which will run for 12 weeks until 29 May, builds on the government’s commitments as part of the Environmental Improvement Plan to bring a halt to the decline in our biodiversity and allow wildlife to thrive. Under the plan the government will protect 30% of our land and sea for nature and will launch a new multi-million pound Species Survival Fund targeted at protecting our rarest species, from red squirrels to grey seals.

This follows the historic agreement of a global deal for nature reached by the UK and nearly 200 countries at the UN Biodiversity summit last year.

It builds on the work the government is already doing to provide enhanced protections for our marine environment, including the designation of the first three Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) in English waters by July this year.

Highly Protected Marine Areas will complement the existing network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) already covering 40% of English waters. The Environmental Improvement Plan also sets targets to drive the recovery of our marine protected areas and the species and habitats within them.

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 3 March 2023.

The Environment Secretary calls for countries to join together to halt and reverse the loss of nature and protect at least 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030.

Countries around the globe must join together, raise ambition and act faster to protect and restore nature on both land and sea, Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey has said on World Wildlife Day (3 March).

Following the historic agreement reached at the UN Biodiversity summit last year, the Environment Secretary is attending the Our Ocean conference where she will work with other countries to make this the decade we halt and reverse the loss of nature and protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030. She will also acknowledge the effectiveness of established tools such as CITES convention that celebrates 50 years of protecting endangered species today.

Building on commitments outlined in the Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan launched last month and progress to protect nature on land, the UK is this week announcing vital funding to boost marine conservation efforts worldwide, fight climate change, and support vulnerable coastal communities.

The UK has renewed support through its ambitious £500 million Blue Planet Fund to protect and restore important marine habitats such as mangroves, coral reefs and seagrasses that play a key role in the fight against climate change. This includes an additional £24 million to the Global Fund for Coral Reefs, and the UK becoming the first donor to the Blue Carbon Action Partnership, committing £4 million to support countries unlock and mobilise finance to protect and restore blue carbon ecosystems.

The Environment Secretary has also announced £45 million to the new ‘Blue Tech Superhighway’ project. From community-led fisheries management enabling local communities to set and monitor their own catches; new seawater farming systems working with species more resilient to warmer waters; through to pioneering approaches to reduce food waste, this investment will support small-scale fishers and aquaculture farmers improve their climate resilience, sustainability and incomes. The project will also encourage collaboration between countries across Asia and Africa to scale action.

This comes as the UK announced it will provide £1.5 million to the Asian Development Bank’s new Blue Pacific Finance Hub to support climate resilient, sustainable blue economies for Pacific Small Island Developing States including developing circular economies to reduce plastic waste and improved fisheries management.

The Environment Secretary, Thérèse Coffey said:

It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of stepping up our efforts to bolster the resilience of the marine environment and, in turn, the economies and communities that depend on it.

At the UN nature summit in Montreal, we made a commitment to manage our whole ocean sustainably and set a target to protect at least 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030. The UK is leading, co-leading, and supporting global coalitions of ambition to drive forward this mission, and I urge countries to come together to deliver coordinated, impactful action on the ground.

She also urged more countries to join forces to tackle the scourge of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, one of the most serious threats to the world’s ocean which equates to approximately 11-19% of reported global fisheries production and leads to losses of roughly $10-23.5 billion in value. IUU fishing undermines efforts to conserve fish stocks, damages marine ecosystems, impacts global food supply chains and threatens coastal communities whose livelihoods rely on sustainable fishing.

The UK, US and Canada launched the world’s first global alliance to tackle IUU fishing last year, with members sharing data and tools to monitor and crack down on this pervasive issue. This builds on progress under the UK-led Blue Belt Ocean Shield programme which uses innovative surveillance techniques to tackle illegal practices in over 4.3 million square kilometres of waters around the UK Overseas Territories.

Since its launch, the Alliance has grown to 16 members, with Norway, Iceland and Korea recently coming onboard. More members will sign up at the Our Ocean conference today, including the EU, Panama and New Zealand.

Thérèse Coffey said:

For too many communities, the threat of IUU fishing looms year after year, as they bear the brunt of the instability and violence that accompanies this serious, organised, transboundary crime.

For marine species, the impact can be devastating and this has a catastrophic effect on the lives of the hundreds of millions of people who depend on fisheries for their livelihoods.

So, we need to accelerate our efforts and scale up. That is a priority for us in the UK –  something we are addressing by improving import controls, sharing more data on vessels, identifying those who profit from IUU fishing, and holding them to account.

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 1 March 2023.

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 28 February 2023.

Reporting requirements for the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for packaging come into force today.

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 28 February 2023.

Oxfordshire water contamination “reckless failure” – judge.

Thames Water has been fined £2million after raw sewage polluted two Oxfordshire streams, killing almost 150 fish. The sewage also flooded a nearby garden.

Judge Peter Ross, at Oxford Crown Court on 21 December, ruled the incident in 2015 as a high-end, category three harm offence.

Numerous failures in the management of a sewage pumping station operated by the company led to sewage created by two villages emptying into two brooks leading to the River Evenlode, a tributary of the River Thames, for up to 24 hours.

Judge Ross found Thames Water were “reckless” in polluting Idbury and Littlestock brooks at Milton-under-Wychwood, near Chipping Norton, on 8 and 9 August 2015.

Environment Agency officers were quickly on site, discovering the entire local population of almost 150 bullhead fish had been killed by the toxic waste along a 50-metre stretch of water.

A member of the public reported dead fish in Idbury brook to the Environment Agency. A backlog of raw sewage was forced into the water from a sewer pipe that couldn’t hold it. Sewage also escaped from a manhole and onto a residential front garden.

The court heard Thames Water disregarded more than 800 high-priority alarms needing attention within four hours in the six weeks before the incident. Another 300 alarms were not properly investigated, all of which would have pointed out failures with the pumping station. One alarm was deliberately deactivated during a night shift.

Investigations by the Environment Agency revealed Thames Water was aware the pumping station failed several times in the 12 months up to and including the incident in August 2015.

Robert Davis, who led the investigation for the Environment Agency, said:

This incident was foreseeable and avoidable. Thames Water didn’t recognise the increased risk to the environment, ignoring or failing to respond adequately to more than 1,000 alarms.

These streams are normally a haven for kingfishers, grey herons, brown trout and other fish and invertebrates. Sewage poured into the water for 24 hours, having a terrible impact, killing fish and other water life.

We hope this prosecution sends a loud and clear message that the Environment Agency will not accept poor operation, management and maintenance of sewage pumping stations. Where we have evidence of offending and serious pollution incidents like here, we will take appropriate action to bring polluters to justice.

Judge Ross said Thames Water was ‘reckless’ by taking an unacceptable level of risk with the environment. It allowed the sewage pumping station to operate with no automatically available standby pump for around 10 months in the year prior to the pollution.

Environment Agency officers discovered other information and data highlighting repeated problems with the pumping station in the year before the pollution, which Thames Water failed to report to the Environment Agency.

Judge Ross ordered Thames Water to pay full costs of £79,991.57. The company pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges of breaching environmental law.

N.B. In the days following the hearing in 2018, judge Ross reduced the £2m fine to £1.8m after directing Thames Water to pay the remaining £200,000 to three local charities, the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, the Evenlode Catchment Partnership and the Wychwood Project.

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 28 February 2023.

Government today announces three Highly Protected Marine Areas will be designated by July 2023.

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 27 February 2023.

The Great Britain Invasive Non-Native Species strategy sets out enhanced vision on prevention, eradication and management of invasive non-native species.

A new action plan to protect Great Britain’s biodiversity, ecosystems and economy from the growing risks posed by invasive non-native species will be unveiled by Defra today (27 February), in partnership with the Scottish and Welsh Governments.

Non-native species are one of the top five drivers of biodiversity loss globally with new figures showing an estimated cost to the British economy of £1.84 billion per year. There are currently around 2000 non-native species in Britain with 10-12 new species establishing themselves every year.

They disrupt habitats and ecosystems, prey on or out-compete native species, spread disease and interfere with the genetic integrity of native species

Climate change is expected to increase the risks from new non-native species due to more frost-free winters and increased flooding events. Habitats that are suffering for degradation may also be more vulnerable to invasion and disease, increasing the risk to biodiverse natural habitats.

The newly updated Invasive Non-Native Species Strategy sets out a new framework for tackling the existing and growing threat posed  non-native species with a commitment to reduce establishments of non-native species by at least 50 per cent compared to 2000 levels, in line with the internationally agreed CBD Target 6 on Invasive Alien Species.

This follows work to date to mitigate invasive species. Since 2015 we have eliminated the American Bullfrog from Great Britain and there are successful eradication programmes in place for the Ruddy Duck and Topmouth Gudgeon, a type of freshwater fish.

Preventing, eradicating and managing invasive non-native species will underpin the delivery of the strategy domestically with enhanced alignment across Great Britain and with other biosecurity regimes, such as plant health.

Specific actions include increased capacity for inspections at the border and post-border, further assessment of the most high-risk routes and mechanisms for the introduction and spread of Invasive Non-Native Species and further improvements to our rapid response systems.

Lord Benyon, Minister for Biosecurity, said:

Invasive species threaten the natural world and our economy. Today’s announcement demonstrates this Government’s unwavering commitment to protecting against these species, for the immediate benefit of the country and future generations.

Through coordinated actions across Great Britain to prevent the arrival of new non-native species and tackle the impacts of those established – we can minimise the potentially devasting environmental and economic impacts these species cause. A vigilant public can also play a key role and report any suspicious sightings of new invasive species to ensure it is accurately identified.

Scotland’s Biodiversity Minister Lorna Slater said:

This refreshed strategy will enable continued collaboration between the devolved governments to tackle the spread of invasive species and the harms these can cause to native wildlife, our natural environment and even our economy. It will complement our new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, which recognises invasive non-native species as a major driver in biodiversity loss and sets out the actions we are pursuing to control and eradicate them.

Here in Scotland we are also funding a number of large-scale projects to control invasive species through our Nature Restoration Fund as well as developing a range of measures aimed at tackling established INNS such as Rhododendron, whose spread is a major threat to native woodlands including Atlantic Rainforest.

Minister for Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths said:

I welcome the launch of this strategy. Invasive non-native species can pose a significant threat to our environment, and this threat is likely to be increased by climate change. The strategy sets out actions to help protect biodiversity, people and the economy from invasive non-native species.

This strategy delivers on commitments set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan to deliver a refreshed Invasive Non-Native Species Strategy. It follows the publication of the Plant Biosecurity Strategy last year which set out a five-year vision for plant health, consisting of an action plan to secure national biosecurity, protect native species and drive economic growth.

The strategy also emphasises the collective role and responsibilities we all have in upholding high standards of biosecurity, for example by cleaning equipment that has been used in one environment before moving it to another, and the importance of choosing and planting the right plants and trees in our gardens to avoid the spread of invasive non-native species. The public can report any suspicious sightings of new invasive species via iRecord, which is a tool to bring together wildlife sightings from many sources, so that they can be checked by experts and made available to support research and decision-making. These messages align with long running UK Government awareness raising campaigns: ‘Check Clean Dry’ and ‘Be Plant Wise’.

The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 20 February 2023.

The Climate Change Hub was launched by Defra, Forest Research, Scottish Forestry and Welsh Government today.