Tag: George Hollingbery

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with her Irish counterparts on the management of sea bass stocks.

George Eustice

I met the Irish Minister in the margins of the European Union Agriculture and Fisheries Council of 15-16 December to discuss key fisheries items on the Council agenda including management of sea bass stocks.

Under longstanding Irish national measures to protect bass stocks their commercial fishing vessels are not permitted to land bass for sale, which means a degree of discarding of bass by-catch from mixed fishing activity will occur. I have not, however, seen the Bass Discards report published by the Irish Bass Group.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea since the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on 15 December 2014; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice

At the meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 15-16 December 2014 the UK took fully into account the scientific advice provided beforehand by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what reports she has received on the Irish government’s policy for the management of sea bass stocks in their territorial waters.

George Eustice

I met the Irish Minister in the margins of the European Union Agriculture and Fisheries Council of 15-16 December to discuss key fisheries items on the Council agenda including management of sea bass stocks.

Under longstanding Irish national measures to protect bass stocks their commercial fishing vessels are not permitted to land bass for sale, which means a degree of discarding of bass by-catch from mixed fishing activity will occur. I have not, however, seen the Bass Discards report published by the Irish Bass Group.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of French recreational sea bass anglers on the management of sea bass stocks.

George Eustice

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has had no recent discussions with representatives of the French recreational sea bass anglers on the management of sea bass stock.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of minor developments which will be built in the next five years; and what assessment he has made of in which towns and cities the greatest numbers of such developments will be built.

Brandon Lewis

We now have a locally-led Planning system. As a result the Department does not hold projections of future planning applications, nor does it publish forecasts of housing completions. However the National Planning Policy Framework requires local planning authorities to identify, update annually and publish a deliverable five year housing land supply. Local planning authorities are expected to report on progress on delivery of new homes through their Authority Monitoring Reports.

In addition, the Department publishes official statistics on planning applications including those on minor sites, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-applications-statistics

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has received the report Bass Discards published by the Irish Bass Group; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice

I met the Irish Minister in the margins of the European Union Agriculture and Fisheries Council of 15-16 December to discuss key fisheries items on the Council agenda including management of sea bass stocks.

Under longstanding Irish national measures to protect bass stocks their commercial fishing vessels are not permitted to land bass for sale, which means a degree of discarding of bass by-catch from mixed fishing activity will occur. I have not, however, seen the Bass Discards report published by the Irish Bass Group.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the (a) time taken and (b) cost of dredging operations undertaken by the Environment Agency was in the (i) 2012-13 and (ii) 2013-14 financial years in each operational area; and what the expected benefits of such operations were.

Dan Rogerson

Dredging is not identified as a separate category within the Environment Agency’s budget allocations or work recording systems, as it is often carried out at the same time as other channel activities. It is included within the broader category of ‘conveyance’ on which the Environment Agency spent around £45 million and £32 million in total in 2012/13 and 2013/14 respectively. The Environment Agency carries out conveyance work, including dredging, where it cost effectively reduces flood risk to people and property. The Environment Agency estimate that, on average, conveyance work provides about £7 of reduced flood damages for every pound spent. Dredging can provide other benefits, such as land drainage and navigation.

The funding spent on conveyance in each operational Environment Agency area was:

	2012/13	2013/14
Environment Agency Area	Total Allocated (£M)	Total Allocated (£M)
Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire	1.03	0.56
Cumbria and Lancashire	3.77	1.75
Derbyshire Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire	2.31	2.27
Devon and Cornwall	2.77	1.31
Essex Norfolk and Suffolk	3.96	1.07
Greater Manchester Merseyside and Cheshire	4.41	4.47
Hertfordshire and North London	4.48	3.40
Kent and South London	3.95	3.12
Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire	3.26	2.86
Northumberland Durham and Tees	1.11	1.73
Shropshire Herefordshire Worcestershire and Gloucestershire	1.07	1.39
Solent and South Downs	2.01	2.10
Staffordshire Warwickshire and West Midlands	1.27	1.42
Wessex	2.01	1.38
West Thames	4.12	1.60
Yorkshire	3.43	1.82
Grand Total	44.95	32.27

We do not hold information on the time it took for each of the dredging operations to be undertaken.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what reports she has received on the Irish government’s views on a total ban on commercial fishing for sea bass.

George Eustice

I met the Irish Minister in the margins of the European Union Agriculture and Fisheries Council of 15-16 December to discuss key fisheries items on the Council agenda including management of sea bass stocks.

Under longstanding Irish national measures to protect bass stocks their commercial fishing vessels are not permitted to land bass for sale, which means a degree of discarding of bass by-catch from mixed fishing activity will occur. I have not, however, seen the Bass Discards report published by the Irish Bass Group.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on how many occasions the Environment Agency has (a) issued warnings and (b) brought prosecutions as a result of dredging or channel maintenance activities in each of the last three years; on how many occasions referrals were made to the police following such activities; and which rivers were affected in each such case.

Dan Rogerson

The Environment Agency has a range of enforcement and sanction options that it can employ against those undertaking dredging or channel maintenance works incorrectly.

Environment Agency officers do issue warnings and, where appropriate, make referrals to the police. However, the Environment Agency does not hold statistics on this centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with her French counterparts on that country’s policy on management of sea bass stocks.

George Eustice

I met the French Minister in the margins of the European Union Agriculture and Fisheries Council of 15-16 December 2014 to discuss key fisheries items on the Council agenda, including policy on management of sea bass stocks. My officials have met recently with counterparts from a number of Member States, including France, and with the European Commission to discuss this issue.