Tag: Kerry McCarthy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Government’s priorities are for the next round of negotiations on CAP.

George Eustice

The European Commission’s current focus is on simplification of the CAP. UK Ministers are pressing the Commission and other Member States to be more ambitious in this exercise in order to reduce burdens and costs to farmers and administrators.

Our priorities for the next round of CAP reform were set out in our manifesto. Our aim is to deliver a new agricultural policy which is simpler, which contributes to productivity and growth in the farming industry and which also delivers for the environment and improves animal welfare.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to monitor the disease status of badgers within cull areas.

George Eustice

Testing of badgers between 1998 and 2005 via the Randomised Badger Culling Trial and Road Traffic Accident surveys provided evidence of the typical prevalence of TB in badgers in areas of high incidence of TB in cattle. TB was found in around one third of all badgers in these areas.

We are considering the case for a cost-effective method of testing badgers within cull areas in order to assess the impact of the current policy on badger TB prevalence.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many apprenticeship starts in the food and farming sector her Department estimates there will be in each of the next five academic years.

George Eustice

We aim to treble the number of apprenticeships started annually in food and farming from about 6,000 now to 18,000 by 2020. Defra will work closely with the Apprenticeship Delivery Board and the National Apprenticeship Service to support employers in the sector to engage successfully with apprenticeships. The introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017 is expected to provide an opportunity for growth in apprenticeships.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many businesses in (a) Cumbria, (b) Lancashire and (c) Yorkshire have accessed the Environment Agency’s Climate Ready Support Service in each year since it was set up.

Rory Stewart

The Environment Agency does not have figures for the number of businesses accessing the Climate Ready Support Service. The Service has, however, enabled hundreds of organisations across England to understand their climate risk and take action to reduce it through a wide range of different initiatives. For example, the Climate Ready Business Resilience Health Check tool has been accessed online by 8000 businesses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which organisations have received public grant funding from her Department in each of the last five years; how much grant funding each organisation received; and what the purpose of each such grant was.

George Eustice

A list of grants by organisation for the last five years (2011-16 inclusive) will be placed in the Library. It is not possible to identify the actual amount each organisation received related to each listed grant without incurring a disproportionate cost to the department, therefore an average value has been apportioned to each requested financial year from the total grant value.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) expressions of interest and (b) applications Natural England has received for a badger control licence; and what the timetable for decisions is on applications received.

George Eustice

Natural England has received (a) 21 expressions of interest; and (b) 8 applications for badger control licenses. Decisions will be announced before the start of each year’s badger control operations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many disguised stun weapons have been seized at the UK border in each year since 2011-12.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

We are able to identify seizures of stun weapons from our last data sets, but can not easily identify those which have been disguised. In order to obtain this information, we would have to examine individual records to establish which stun guns were disguised.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2016 to Question 44687, on trapping, which animal welfare experts were consulted on trap designs and the decision to delay implementation; and for what reason the DOC trap does not meet the Agreement on International Humane Trapping standards.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

The Government uses the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Wildlife Management Centre for advice on trap humaneness.

Of the species currently covered by the Agreement on International Humane Trapping standards (AIHTS), the stoat is the only species regularly and widely trapped in the UK using spring-traps.

When we implement the AIHTS for stoat, the most widely used spring-trap (Fenn type) will no longer be approved for use against stoats. To address this issue, Defra aims to implement the AIHTS as soon as is practically possible, but to use a permitted transition provision to allow delayed implementation of the agreement for stoats whilst a suitable compliant design is identified.

The Fenn type trap is a run-through trap designed to trap animals as they travel through their usual pathways across the landscape.

The DOC trap meets the required standards but it is only permitted for use as a blind end baited trap. A significant disadvantage of baited traps, such as the DOC, is that stoats will avoid entering baited traps when there is an abundance of preferred food available. These conditions coincide with peak trapping effort to protect game birds and other ground nesting species.

This has led the Government to conclude that the DOC is not a suitable alternative to the Fenn type trap.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the cost of (a) completing the network of Marine Conservation Zones and (b) creating a blue belt around British Overseas Territories.

George Eustice

Responsibility for Marine Conservation Zones is devolved, the answer below relates to Marine Conservation Zones being established in the Secretary of State’s waters: English inshore waters (within 12 nautical miles) and the offshore waters (beyond 12 nautical miles) off England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

We are designating Marine Conservation Zones in tranches; for each tranche costs are estimated in Impact Assessments accompanying their consultation and then designation. Equivalent annual costs to business for the first tranche were estimated upon their designation to be £0.5 million, with £1.7 million annual costs for the public sector. Equivalent annual costs to business for the second tranche estimated when they were consulted on were £0.18 million, with £1.924 million annual costs for the public sector, these estimates will be updated when this second tranche is designated. We have not yet estimated the costs for the third and final tranche, costs estimates will be provided when this tranche is consulted on.

The Blue Belt of marine protection around the Overseas Territories will encompass a broad range of new and enhanced marine protection measures across different Territories.The British Indian Ocean Territory and South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands have already declared Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), with funded enforcement measures. For Pitcairn and Ascension Island, work is in hand to develop cost-effective monitoring and enforcement solutions for future MPAs. For the other Overseas Territories, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office is at an early stage of working with the Territories to scope what further marine protection measures are desirable and scientifically justified.Identifying any additional cost requirements to support this initiative is part of this scoping exercise.[1]

[1] Information provided by Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to fund co-ordination of the seabird census planned for 2016.

Rory Stewart

The Chancellor announced budgets for all Government Departments covering the Spending Review period (2016/17 to 2019/20) on 25 November 2015. Defra is currently deciding how this translates into internal allocations for both the core Department and its Network Bodies.