Every parliamentary written question tabled by Alex Mayer this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 101–120 of 125 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the potential impact of rain conditions on (a) food supplies and (b) the economy in each year since 2010.
The UK agricultural sector is highly resilient and adaptable and operates in an open market with the value of commodities established by those in the supply chain. We have seen evidence of this particularly in recent years following global events such as ...
Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the impact of drought conditions on (a) the economy and (b) food supplies in each year since 2010.
The UK agricultural sector is highly resilient and adaptable and operates in an open market with the value of commodities established by those in the supply chain. We have seen evidence of this particularly in recent years following global events such as ...
Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on its commitment to launch a four-country tree planting task force.
Defra has been engaging with the Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive on the establishment of a Tree Planting Taskforce.
Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to use the Government's tree planting programme to help tackle (a) flooding and (b) upper catchment management of rivers.
Defra recognises the role tree planting has to support the management of England’s rivers. Defra works with the Forestry Commission, Natural England and the Environment Agency to ensure tree planting is appropriately targeted. Defra supports a number of p...
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department had made of the potential merits of producing an animal protection strategy.
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation. We will be outlining more detail in due course.
Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will take legislative steps to ensure all domestic insurers offer Build Back Better policies.
I hosted a roundtable in September 2024 with leaders from the insurance industry, as well as experts in research and development. At this event, the importance of Build Back Better was stressed to the insurance industry and all providers were encouraged t...
Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will take steps to help ensure that all domestic insurers signed up to the Build Back Better flood insurance scheme offer those provisions across all their products.
I hosted a roundtable in September 2024 with leaders from the insurance industry, as well as experts in research and development. At this event, the importance of Build Back Better was stressed to the insurance industry and all providers were encouraged t...
Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in European countries on mitigating the spread of the Ips typographus tree pest.
Ips typographus is present in most of continental Europe, where it is not a regulated pest. In recent years, large populations have built up across western and central Europe causing extensive damage and mortality of spruce trees. Beetles routinely caught...
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help increase tree planting along riverbanks.
Defra recognises the role tree planting has to support the management of England’s rivers. Defra works with the Forestry Commission, Natural England and the Environment Agency to ensure tree planting is appropriately targeted. Defra supports a number of p...
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to end the sale of live decapod crustaceans.
The Government is committed to an evidence-based approach to improve welfare standards for decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs. My department is continuing to engage with stakeholders and seeking to address evidence gaps to inform future policy de...
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish best practice guidance for the transport of live decapod crustaceans.
The Government is committed to an evidence-based approach to improve welfare standards for decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs. My department is continuing to engage with stakeholders and seeking to address evidence gaps to inform future policy de...
Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the damage caused by the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle to trees in (a) Central Bedfordshire and (b) the UK.
The eight-toothed spruce bark beetle is a quarantine pest of spruce tree species and is not native to the UK. The Forestry Commission have a nationwide surveillance programme in place to monitor for incursions of this pest, which spreads naturally from Eu...
Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the Faroese Minister for Fisheries on cetacean hunts.
The UK strongly opposes the hunting of all cetaceans other than some limited activities by indigenous people for clearly defined subsistence needs. The UK reaffirmed its strong support for the global moratorium on commercial whaling at the September Inter...
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help people adapt their homes to mitigate against the risk of flooding.
Property flood resilience measures, such as airbrick covers and flood resilient materials, can ensure that new and existing homes are resilient to risks from flooding. The Environment Agency’s Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Framework provides consultancy...
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will hold discussions with Ofwat on the potential merits of (a) employees and (b) bill payers being made members of the Boards of water companies.
On 11 July 2024, the Secretary of State announced consumers will gain new powers to hold water company bosses to account through new customer panels. For the first time in history, customers will have the power to summon board members and hold water execu...
Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timetable is for the next reviews of the (a) National Adaptation Programme and (b) strategy for climate change adaptation reporting.
The Climate Change Act 2008 requires the Secretary of State to produce a National Adaptation Programme in response to the Government’s most recent Climate Change Risk Assessment, on a five-yearly cycle. The third National Adaptation Programme was publishe...
Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of mandating country-of-origin labelling for fish products originating from the Faroe Islands.
A public consultation on fairer food labelling was undertaken between March and May 2024. This sought views on proposals to improve and extend current mandatory methods of production labelling and looked at country of origin for a range of products includ...
Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a single reporting mechanism for fly-tipping incidents.
Local authorities are often best placed to tackle local issues such as fly-tipping, and incidents can be reported to them by visiting the local authority's website. Individuals can get help on identifying the relevant local authority webpage at https://ww...
Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of instances of fly tipping in Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard constituency in each year since 2010.
Local authorities are required to report fly-tipping incidents and enforcement actions to Defra, which the department have published annually since 2012, at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/env24-fly-tipping-incidents-and-actions-taken...
Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the impact of fireworks on (a) domestic and (b) wild animals.
A number of animal welfare and veterinary organisations provide advice and guidance to enable people to minimise the impacts of fireworks on animal welfare. Users of fireworks should be aware of animals in the neighbouring area and use them responsibly. As a matter of best practice, those organising displays should give neighbouring owners plenty of advance notice of the fireworks display and should ensure that fireworks are not set off near livestock or horses in fields, or close to buildings that house livestock.