Tag: Greg Knight

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what research her Department has commissioned or carried out into the welfare of intensively-farmed dairy cattle which spend the majority or all of their lives indoors.

George Eustice

The Department funded a 3 year project in 2008 entitled “AW1026: A study to investigate the management and welfare of continuously housed dairy cows.”

The final report has been published on our website and is available at the following link:

http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&ProjectID=15761&FromSearch=Y&Publisher=1&SearchText=AW1026&SortString=ProjectCode&SortOrder=Asc&Paging=10#Description

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will require restaurants and take-away food outlets selling meals described as fish to specify the species of fish the dish contains.

George Eustice

There are no plans to require restaurants and take-away food outlets to specify the fish species being offered for sale. However this information should be available to the owners or managers of these establishments, so they could let their customers know which fish they are buying if they are asked.

The general provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990, General Food Law Regulation 178/2002, and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 make it an offence to label or present food in a false or misleading way. A failure to adequately describe or label fish species in a food may constitute an offence under these rules.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will require road safety and information on the dangers of the highway to be taught to all children in all schools as part of the national curriculum.

Edward Timpson

Schools can choose to teach about road safety in their personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) lessons and the non-statutory programme of study for PSHE education includes road safety, cycle safety and safety in the community.

The government expects all schools to teach PSHE and made this expectation clear in the introduction to the national curriculum. It is for schools to tailor their PSHE programme to reflect the needs of their pupils.

Schools may wish to use the resources provided by organisations such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), which offer a range of materials to help schools and teachers incorporate road safety education into lessons and school activities. ROSPA’s resources are available free on their website: http://www.rospa.com/road-safety/resources/free/teachers/

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects work on the electrification of the railway line between Hull and Selby to begin.

Stephen Hammond

Feasibility work on the project continues. Subject to further development and implementation funding and confirmation of the business case the scheme’s promoter, First Hull Trains, anticipates that certain physical works could commence in 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of recent changes to safety checks in slaughterhouses on the risk of diseased meat entering the food chain undetected; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

The Food Standards Agency advises that the new procedure for pig meat inspection will better protect consumers from foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella. It reduces the amount of routine carcase handling and incision carried out by officials that contributes to the risk of microbiological contamination on carcases and offal. This is in line with a 2011 scientific opinion from the European Food Safety Authority.

Under the new procedures, all pigs will continue to be inspected by an official veterinarian whilst they are alive, and their carcases and offal will be visually inspected by an official meat inspector or veterinarian after slaughter. Any abnormalities that indicate possible animal health, public health or welfare issues will be further investigated and removed before meat can be declared fit for human consumption.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2014-04-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what funding the UK has given (a) directly and (b) indirectly to the European Space Agency in each of the last five years; what that funding was for; and what assessment he has made of the benefits arising from that funding to the UK.

Mr David Willetts

Direct UK funding of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been as follows:

2009/10: £242.8m

2010/11: £231.1m

2011/12: £232.0m

2012/13: £207.6m

2013/14: £267.5m

In addition, national expenditure averaging £20M a year has been expended within the UK to build and operate scientific instruments carried on spacecraft of ESA. The funding to ESA has been used to contribute to missions and technology in the fields of space science and exploration, Earth observation for science and applications, telecommunications and broadband delivery, access to microgravity facilities for life and physical sciences, space weather, navigation technologies, human spaceflight and weather monitoring. As well as resulting expenditure in the UK due to the just retour principle, wider benefits have accrued in new scientific knowledge; and improved delivery of public services.

ESA is the primary route for Government R&D space investment. Several economic analyses of investment impact have been undertaken, drawn together in BIS Economics Paper No3[1]. The UK Space Agency (part of BIS) undertakes a biennial survey of the size and health of the UK space industry[2] showing growth from £3.4B turnover in 1999/2000 to £9.5B in 2011, reflecting the results of sustained investment as well as the growth of the market.

The UK Space Agency monitors contracts that return back to UK industry from our ESA subscriptions and also monitors where R&D work has positioned UK industry for success in larger operational contracts.

A UK R&D investment of £15M for the Astrium E3000 Spacecraft through the ESA telecoms programme (‘ARTES’) was more than matched by industry and resulted in the award of 41 spacecraft contracts worth over £600M to UK industry, an un-discounted ROI of over thirty. Analysis has shown that the return on investment from UK ARTES programmes ranges from 2 to 30 with an average of 6:1. The UK Space Agency also works with the OECD to pool analysis of benefits from space funding as reflected in the OECD Handbook on Measuring the Space Economy[3].

The scientific programmes of ESA directly contribute to UK academic excellence. The ‘Wakeham Review of Physics'[4] reported to government that in terms of impact (citations) in the space sciences, the UK “is second to the USA and well separated from the following pack”. Data from satellites such as ESA’s Cryosat 2 have directly informed the IPCC 5^th Assessment on climate change[5].

An example of a public service benefit space investment is the weather forecast. The MetOffice (also part of BIS) has undertaken analysis showing that satellites have made the greatest impact in improving weather prediction among available observing techniques[6] “accounting for 64% of short-range global forecast error reduction”. Of all the nine data sources used, the new European Metop satellite has made the largest single impact: “about 25% of the total impact on global forecast error reduction”.

[1]http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file54519.PDF

[2] http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/ukspaceagency/docs/industry/size-and-health-report-oct-2012.pdf

[3] http://www.oecd.org/futures/oecdhandbookonmeasuringthespaceeconomy.htm

[4] http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/RCUK-prod/assets/documents/reviews/physics/review.pdf

[5] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/

[6] http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/9/m/FRTR562.pdf

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance he has given local authorities on ensuring that road safety is not compromised by street lighting being switched off; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis

Street lighting plays an important role in road safety, as well as ensuring the personal safety of pedestrians.

As I stated in my answer to the rt. hon. Member for Leeds Central, (Hilary Benn), on 13 May 2014, Official Report, Column 535-536W, there is no prescriptive Whitehall guidance on street lighting, and any assessment will depend on local circumstances and local views. In addition, Manual for Streets, while out of date in certain areas (e.g. on parking and density), contains some useful guidance on getting the balance right when providing street lighting, taking into account the different issues around safety, crime prevention, street clutter and light pollution. It can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/manual-for-streets.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect on air quality of the escape of methane and other gases from disused mine workings in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire; and if he will make a statement.

Dan Rogerson

The Coal Authority is responsible for dealing with reported cases of escaped gases from disused mine workings, including monitoring concentrations where necessary. Consequently, Defra has made no assessment of the impact on air quality of the escape of methane and other gases from disused mine workings.