Written questions by Ballinger.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to limit the import and sale of fur produced from unethical practices overseas.

As set out in the Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy, Defra will publish the results of the previous government’s call for evidence on the fur trade and publish and consider carefully the report from our independent expert Animal Welfare Committee on the responsible sourcing of fur. Building on this evidence, Defra will bring together a working group on fur, with involvement from both industry experts and those who support restrictions on the trade in fur, to explore concerns and the different ways in which they could be addressed.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support local authorities to tackle persistent cases of fly-tipping in the West Midlands.

Local councils are responsible for tackling fly-tipping in their area and have a range of enforcement powers to help them do so. These include fixed penalty notices of up to £1000, seizing and crushing of vehicles and prosecution action. We encourage councils to make good use of their enforcement powers and are taking steps to develop statutory fly-tipping enforcement guidance to support councils to consistently, appropriately and effectively exercise these existing powers. We are also conducting a review of council powers to seize and crush vehicles of fly-tippers, to identify how we could help them make better use of this tool.In our manifesto we committed to forcing fly-tippers to clean up the mess that they have created. We will provide further details on this commitment in due course.In the meantime, Defra continues to chair the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group through which we work with a wide range of stakeholders, such as local authorities and the Environment Agency, to share good practice on preventing fly-tipping. Various practical tools are available from their webpage which is available at: https://nftpg.com/

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of commissioning research into the impact of firework noise on animal welfare.

The Government is continuing to engage with animal welfare stakeholders, businesses, consumer groups and charities on the impacts of fireworks, to inform any future action.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of reducing the maximum noise level for consumer fireworks from 120 to 90 decibels on the welfare of (a) horses and (b) other animals.

The Government is continuing to engage with animal welfare stakeholders, businesses, consumer groups and charities on the impacts of fireworks, to inform any future action.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she has taken to help limit the impact of fireworks on (a) pets, (b) livestock and (c) other animals.

The Government is continuing to engage with animal welfare stakeholders, businesses, consumer groups and charities on the impacts of fireworks, to inform any future action.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the (a) value for money and (b) effectiveness of weekly food waste recycling collections by local authorities.

A value for money assessment was made in the Simpler Recycling impact assessment available here: The Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2025, published in December 2024. The effectiveness of weekly food waste recycling collections by local authorities will be made in the Resources and Waste Policy Programme Evaluation, which we expect to be published around 2029.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure food allergy labels are visible and legible; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a minimum type size.

The UK maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels, whether that be mandatory or voluntary, so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy. The availability and accessibility of essential food information to all consumers is vitally important. It is already a requirement that food information must be easily visible, clearly legible, and where appropriate indelible, in addition to there being a required minimum font size for mandatory information. Additionally, if a prepacked or prepacked for direct sale food contains one of the 14 major allergens as an ingredient then this must be emphasised in the ingredients list so that it clearly stands out from the other ingredients.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to protect grouse and their habitats.

There are two native species of grouse in England, red and black grouse. Black grouse are of conservation concern because of a long-term decline in their numbers due to a combination of factors including predation, climate change and changes in agricultural practices. As with all wild birds, red and black grouse are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. The Game Act, 1831 applies a close season to both species to ensure hunting is sustainable. However, there is a long-standing voluntary moratorium on the hunting of black grouse due to their long-term decline. Typical habitat for both species is peatland, heathland and moorland. We are committed to protecting these nature-rich habitats through promoting sustainable land management and restoration practices. These habitats are included in the Government commitment to deliver our legally binding biodiversity target to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042. The Government’s Nature for Climate Fund is also enabling peatland restoration and native woodland planting which will provide benefits for both species of grouse.