Tag: Lord Greaves

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-01-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment have they made of the rate and extent of the spread of Japanese Knotweed in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world where it is not native.

Lord De Mauley

We are aware that Japanese knotweed is widespread across many parts of the world; recent information (from the CABI Compendium, part funded by Defra) suggests it is found in 35 countries outside its native range. Following its introduction to the UK in the early 1800s, Japanese knotweed was first recorded in the wild in 1886. Its initial spread was slow. By 1930 it was present in 73 hectads (i.e. 10km x 10km squares) in the British Isles; by 1986 it had spread to 948 hectads and it is now present in approximately 2,879 hectads.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-01-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the rate and extent of the spread of Lyme disease in (1) the United Kingdom, (2) other parts of the European Union, and (3) other parts of the world.

Earl Howe

Public Health England monitors laboratory-confirmed Lyme disease (also known as Lyme borreliosis) in England and Wales, devolved administrations of Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate local arrangements in place.

The rate of laboratory-confirmed Lyme borreliosis and its regional distribution in England and Wales has not changed significantly in recent years, data for 2013 will be published shortly.

Assessment of Lyme borreliosis in other European Union (EU) countries is co-ordinated by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Reporting systems and criteria are not standardised throughout EU countries and this data is not routinely collected by ECDC. Therefore as an assessment of Lyme borreliosis using routinely collected data across the EU is not available.

Reporting of Lyme borreliosis worldwide is co-ordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) based on the heterogeneous reporting systems and criteria adopted by individual countries.