The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will provide an update on the mission-led business review.
Mr Rob Wilson
The mission-led business review is in progress. We are reviewing the evidence gathered through the call for evidence and regional events and working with the advisory panel in order to publish findings in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that people who violate the law on protected birds of prey are prosecuted.
Dr Thérèse Coffey
Defra Ministers have received a number of representations, including from Members of this House on behalf of their constituents, highlighting their concerns about illegal persecution of birds of prey such as the hen harrier and wildlife crime more generally.
The Government takes wildlife crime very seriously. All wild birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, with strong penalties for committing offences against birds of prey and other wildlife. All incidents of wildlife crime should be reported to the police.
Raptor persecution is a UK wildlife crime priority and has a taskforce led by a senior police officer to develop a plan to prevent crime, gather intelligence on offences and enforce against it. It focuses on the golden eagle, goshawk, hen harrier, peregrine, red kite and white tailed eagle.
The National Wildlife Crime Unit, which Defra funds jointly with the Home Office, monitors and gathers intelligence on illegal activities affecting birds of prey and provides assistance to police forces when required.
It is a matter for the prosecuting authorities to ensure those who commit such offences receive the appropriate penalties as set out in law.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department spent on (a) temporary agency staff, (b) consultants, (c) non-payroll staff, (d) administration and (e) marketing and advertising (i) in 2014-15 prices and (ii) as a proportion of her Department’s expenditure in each year since 2010-11.
George Eustice
The Department’s expenditure is audited and published each year. Annual reports and accounts for each of the last five years are available here:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-report-and-accounts-2010-11
www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-report-and-accounts-2011-to-2012–6
www.gov.uk/government/publications/defra-annual-report-and-accounts-2012-to-2013
www.gov.uk/government/publications/defras-annual-report-and-accounts-2013-to-2014
www.gov.uk/government/publications/defras-annual-report-and-accounts-2014-to-2015
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2015-12-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what timetable she proposes for deciding on the funding allocation to the National Wildlife Crime Unit from March 2016.
Rory Stewart
The Government has committed to providing funding to help secure the National Wildlife Crime Unit until at least the end of March next year.
With the Spending Review concluded, Defra is now looking at what this settlement means in terms of the detailed allocation of its budgets. Ministers will be making decisions about the funding of the NWCU beyond March as part of this process and will confirm the funding position as soon as possible in the new year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-01-28.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the impact of the proposed changes to the Landfill Communities Fund on the number of community projects supported by that Fund each year.
Damian Hinds
The Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) is a tax credit scheme into which landfill operators contribute voluntarily. The government does not generate estimates for the number of projects supported by the scheme each year. ENTRUST, the regulator of the LCF, publishes information about projects funded by the scheme. This information is available on their website at:
http://www.entrust.org.uk/environmental-bodies/project-search/
Further information on the impact of the changes to the LCF announced at Autumn Statement 2015 is set out in Reform and value of the Landfill Communities Fund. This document can be found here:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-03-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to ensure the UK meets (a) the EU target to 50 per cent of municipal waste by 2020 and (b) the proposed EU target to recycle 65 per cent of such waste by 2030.
Rory Stewart
The UK recycling rate has increased from 11% at the turn of the century, to 44.9% now. This progress is thanks in large part to the hard work of Local Authorities and householders.
The Government is committed to meeting the 2020 EU recycling target of 50% of household waste.
Local Authorities are best placed to determine the most appropriate waste collection and recycling services in their areas and we work with them and the Waste and Recycling Action Programme (WRAP) to promote best practice.
I have asked WRAP to look at what further measures can be taken to improve recycling rates and, in particular the benefits and opportunities there are from having greater consistency in the materials collected and collection systems to enable Local Authorities to recycle more, and to make it easier for householders to put the right materials in the right bin.
The UK is still assessing the implications of the proposed recycling targets for 2030.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish her Department’s Spending Review Settlement letter from HM Treasury.
George Eustice
The Spending Review settlement for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was presented to the House on 25 November 2015, as part of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015. Further details of Defra’s spending priorities for 2015-2020 are set out in its Single Departmental Plan published on 19 February 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what criteria Natural England uses to assess applications for badger cull licences; and when such decisions on such applications will be announced.
George Eustice
Natural England assesses badger control licence applications using guidance issued under section 15(2) of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 (NERC). The guidance can be found at:
Decisions on this year’s licence applications will be announced before the start of badger control operations.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans that the national litter strategy will include beach and aquatic litter.
Rory Stewart
The Litter Strategy for England will focus on three key themes: education and awareness; punishing offenders; and better cleansing and litter infrastructure, which should lead to a reduction in the amount of litter reaching local areas, including our beaches and the aquatic environment. To develop the Litter Strategy we are working with a range of interested stakeholders, including representatives from the Marine Conversation Society, Thames21 and the Canal and Rivers Trust.
The UK Marine Strategy Part Three, published in December last year, sets out the actions we are taking to improve the marine environment. It covers measures that contribute to reducing the sources of marine litter, including sources of beach and aquatic litter, and to remove what has already reached our beaches and aquatic environment. Actions related specifically to UK beaches include Defra-funded beach cleaning schemes on priority beaches.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-07-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the appropriateness of the application of the CITES Annex 1 listing to elephants; and what assessment she has made of the potential effect of that listing on the domestic trade in ivory.
Rory Stewart
All proposals for the 17th Conference of Parties (CoP17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are currently being assessed against the established scientific criteria for listings set out in the Convention. Where justified by the scientific evidence, the UK will advocate further protection to support the survival of endangered species. This includes in negotiations with the Member States of the EU to ensure that our positions on proposals are taken into account before the final negotiating position for the EU and its Member States is agreed.
If the elephant uplisting proposal is successful at CoP17, it will prohibit international, commercial trade in ivory apart from in exceptional circumstances. The commercial use of ivory would generally be prohibited domestically, subject to certain exemptions, such as for worked, older pre-Convention items.