The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in the Egyptian government on the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hugh Robertson
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), discussed the Muslim Brotherhood with former Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy on 14 May.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-07-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to co-ordinate with the devolved administrations to plan for the effects of an ageing population.
Norman Lamb
Health and care is generally a devolved issue for the devolved administrations. Nonetheless, the Department works with the devolved administrations on matters of mutual interest, including the effects of an ageing population.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will discuss with his counterparts in Egypt and Libya lessening the threat along the borders of those countries caused by terrorist networks in Libya.
Hugh Robertson
The National Security Adviser visited Egypt on 10-11 June and Libya on 16 June, and discussed the situation on the Libyan-Egyptian border with the then Egyptian Foreign Minister Fahmy and Libyan PM Al Thinni. We will continue to discuss means to lessen the threat along Libya’s borders with the Government of Libya and those of neighbouring states.
The UK is providing direct support to strengthen Libya’s borders. We have a Border Security Adviser embedded with the Libyan Border Security HQ, and provide four UK experts to the EU Border Assistance Mission in Libya (EUBAM), including the Deputy Head of Mission. The UK’s Defence Advisory Training Team provides advice and training to the Libyan Ministry of Defence and institutions, including the Border Security Force.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-07-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to put in place a media campaign to educate the public about alternatives to antibiotics.
Jane Ellison
The Department is working with other Government departments to coordinate implementation of the Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy including improving public and professional understanding and awareness.
Public Health England (PHE) is leading on work to improve public knowledge, attitudes and behaviours in relation to antimicrobial resistance in collaboration with partners across the health and social care sector in England.
PHE is coordinating work on European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) for England. EAAD is a European initiative which takes place on 18 November each year and aims to promote prudent antibiotic use among professionals and the public.
PHE are also working with the Department to explore the potentional for additional targeted media work.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will take steps to encourage more tourists to visit Egypt.
Hugh Robertson
The decision on whether to travel to Egypt, or any other country, is for each individual to make. The purpose of Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Travel Advice is to help individuals make an informed decision. We advise anyone considering visiting Egypt to read the FCO Travel Advice before travelling.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-07-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to support the establishment of charities that support people with learning disabilities working in communities throughout the UK.
Norman Lamb
Government departments do not establish charities, but do work with a wide range of organisations which are led by, represent or support disabled people, some of which are registered charities.
The Government is committed to enabling disabled people, including people with learning disabilities, to fulfil their potential and play a full role in society.
The Department for Work and Pensions is working with Mencap and the British Institute for Learning Disabilities to look at improving employment support for people with learning disabilities. Disabled People’s User Led Organisations (DPULOs) are run by and for disabled people. They have an important role in changing perceptions, giving disabled people a stronger voice, and providing peer support in areas such as social care, financial services, employment and volunteering. The Government is working to help strengthen existing disabled people’s user led organisations and help develop new ones. DPULOs in the United Kingdom have received funding for 178 projects from the DPULO programme; 13 of which are specifically for people with learning disabilities and a further 129 deal with a range of disabilities, including learning disabilities.
We will continue to work with all partners, including the voluntary sector, to change the culture and practice of services in order to improve the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities, including their employment.
The speech made by Jim Shannon, the DUP MP for Strangford, in the House of Commons on 31 October 2022.
It is a pleasure to speak in this debate and to follow the hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (Dr Hudson). He brings much knowledge to the debate and I thank him for sharing that with us.
I welcome the Bill and I declare an interest, as I must, as a member of the Ulster Farmers Union and a farmer in Northern Ireland. The Bill will bring great benefits, not just to England but to the whole United Kingdom. In my earlier intervention, I mentioned the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which I will touch on later. I welcome the Minister’s response.
I live among farmers, who are incredible people. They love their animals and the job they do. They are very efficient. Near me, they have high-quality dairy herds, beef cattle, lamb, pork and poultry. My farmers want the best, and that is what I want for Northern Ireland. It is no secret that Northern Ireland’s high-quality produce is some of the best in the world and is much envied. Northern Ireland leads the way, but we want to be part of the Bill. The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, however, does not enable us to do the same as the farmers here.
As the Member for Strangford, a strong agricultural constituency, legislation to unlock new technologies to boost food production, support farmers and grow more productive crops is certainly of great interest to me and those I represent—my neighbours across Strangford and across Northern Ireland. As always, one of my first ports of call was to see what the farmers thought about it. They were clear and quickly explained to me that gene editing is different from GM and gives us an opportunity to be more efficient and farm better. It does not result in the introduction of DNA from other species and creates new varieties similar to those that could be produced more slowly by natural breeding processes. It will potentially provide a greater yield and better farming practices.
Crucially, precision breeding technologies will help to develop foods with direct benefits to the public, such as products of better quality, increased nutritional value and a longer shelf life. Those are things that we are all striving for and we should all try to make those ambitions happen, so the technology can only be a good thing as long as it is safe and has farmer buy-in. From my discussions with farmers, it clearly has that buy-in.
We must be realistic and say that farmers have been gene editing for generations but did not have a fancy name for it; they knew it as splicing. I am old enough to remember my grandmother splicing the peas and beans to make bigger and better varieties of peas and beans. That goes back to the ’60s—it was not yesterday—but even in those early days, perhaps my grandmother was a bit of a pioneer in doing such things. Today we do not call it splicing but genetic technology. That is a much fancier name, and much greater, because it is about more than that, which is why the Bill is important. Through trial and error, science has allowed us to go to the next level, yet we must be mindful of the difficulties that can come by decimating the wonderful structure of nature that God has put in place. I believe that the Bill provides safety and security, and a way forward to UK food security.
A fortnight ago, I had the opportunity to meet a constituent, Stephen Alexander, who keeps 130 Dexter cattle—an almost-unique herd across Northern Ireland. He takes 60 acres of land at Orlock in North Down, he has some land at home in Greyabbey, and he takes other land just down the road. He made a deal with the National Trust, which was that he would not use fertilisers or bring anything new on to the land—it all had to be natural; the grass was natural—which was quite unique. Along with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister Edwin Poots and others, I had a chance to see how that works. It does work: it is an organic farm in every sense of the word, yet all the cattle are exceptional.
That is another reason why it is essential to bring in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill as a matter of urgency. As Edwin Poots outlined:
“The introduction of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill in England will not apply to Northern Ireland. The Protocol requires alignment to EU rules so gene-edited crops developed in England under the Bill”—
that we could take advantage of in Northern Ireland—
“would not be available for cultivation in Northern Ireland.”
We need parity of opportunity and of legislation. When the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill returns to this House from the other place, we need to see that we will have that opportunity.
The fact is that for any British gene-edited crops we would have to apply to the European Food Safety Authority for approval before they could be sent to Northern Ireland, which imports, among other things, grain for animal feed. Even then, the crops could still be banned by Dublin, and that is what this really is: the EU and Dublin, with their hand—their dead hand—upon us on many occasions. That would present a fresh headache in ensuring the affected plants did not cross that invisible Irish border.
It is clear that while this Bill is a stand-alone one, the fingerprints of European intransigence are all over it. I again make the point that it is not this Bill, but the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, whenever it comes back, that will give us in Northern Ireland the same chance as the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill. I would ask the House and the Government to reinstate their support for us whenever the Bill, which I think is going through the other place tomorrow, comes back to us.
As someone who loves the land and always supports the farmers, I trust those who have farmed for generations when they say that this is an enhanced version of splicing and that there is a need to be open to all possibilities. I say the Bill is the right way to go to ensure that the facility is there and so suits the farmers and food producers, and allows Northern Ireland to play a crucial and important role to advance our markets across the world. It will also ensure that we can grow and provide more jobs and a stronger economy, and that we can determine this for ourselves, rather than have the unelected EU, with no Northern Ireland voices, dictating our food security and farming practices.
That is my bid for the Minister about what has been brought here tonight. I really do support this, and I think it is the right thing to do. I will say in advance that amendment 4—perhaps the Minister can clarify this for me at the end, if possible—while it has been put forward by the Labour Opposition, has I believe been done in the best possible sense. I understand that the Minister’s colleague, the hon. Member for Crawley (Henry Smith), was going to put forward something similar, and we were apt to support that. So if the Opposition move amendment 4, which would ensure that the Secretary of State takes into account animal welfare in relation to Northern Ireland, that is the one on which we will probably disagree with the Minister, unless clarification can be given to us. However, on everything else, I fully support the Minister and the Government as they bring this Bill forward.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-03-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of which countries in Africa (a) have the highest incidence of illegal killing of wildlife and (b) have the largest illegal trade in wildlife with China.
George Eustice
As a Party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the UK supports work to monitor the illegal killing of wildlife. My Department has provided £270,000 since 2009 to support the CITES Secretariat to undertake such work, including the MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants) project and ETIS (Elephant Trade Information System).
In response to assessments made of illegal killing, the CITES Secretariat has identified the following African counties as primary source countries for ivory: Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United Republic of Tanzania. Assessments have also shown that illegal killing poses a significant threat to rhinoceros populations, particularly in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
These countries are taking action under CITES, such as producing National Ivory Action Plans, but many are going beyond this. For example,Botswana, Chad, Ethiopia, Gabon and Tanzania announced the Elephant Protection Initiative at the London Conference in February. This initiative aims to secure new funding from private and public sources for the implementation of the African Elephant Action Plan. Other recent developments include Gabon announcing plans to impose new penalties for poachers and traffickers, and Ethiopia committing to destroying its ivory stockpiles.
Further knowledge is needed about the trafficking of the products of poaching of wildlife from source countries to consumer countries, particularly in Asia. The Declaration adopted at the recent London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade took an important step forward in relation to this, with over 40 countries agreeing to undertake further assessment, initially over the next twelve months, of the markets and dynamics of the illegal wildlife trade, and the progress made in combatting it.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women have been charged with child sex offences but not convicted in each of the last three years.
Simon Hughes
The proportion of offenders given custody for sexual offences has increased since 2003.
The number of female defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty or not guilty at all courts for sexual offences against children, in England and Wales from 2008 to 2012 (the latest data available), can be viewed in the table.
Court Proceedings data for calendar year 2013 are planned for publication in May 2014
Charging data is not held by the Ministry of Justice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-04-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on whether the use of shellfish supplements increases life expectancy.
Jane Ellison
The Department does not hold any information on whether the use of shellfish supplements increases life expectancy.