Written questions by Norris.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Health and Safety Executive report entitled, Agency Opinion on the Annex 15 Dossier on the Proposal for a Restriction, published in December 2024, when his Department will publish its response.

Defra has received HSE’s final opinion on a proposed UK REACH Restriction on lead in ammunition and we are assessing their proposals. Given the need to work through the detail of HSE’s proposal a decision is expected in the summer due course. This decision will be taken with the consent of the Devolved Governments of Scotland and Wales.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help mitigate flood risks in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

As a category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act the Environment Agency has supported Bath and North East Somerset Council at various events to develop resilient communities in North East Somerset and Hanham. As a responding agency, the Environment Agency (EA) has been involved with protecting residents from various weather events such as Storm Bert in 2024. This included operation of ea assets, warning and informing residents and coordinating responses and recovery with their professional partners. The ea is working to create a River Avon vision with partners for the Netham to Twerton Corridor to support the Government’s sustainable growth agenda and enable the restoration of nature and resilient communities faced with flooding and climate change. The EA has a successful programme of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) for isolated properties at risk of flooding. In North East Somerset and Hanham installation of PFR at properties in Swinford, Hanham and Chew Magna has been completed. In addition, the EA has an ongoing project to understand flood risk in the Siston and Warmley catchment. As part of their asset management role, they have just completed urgent tunnel lining repairs to the Siston flood relief tunnel.

Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to the Health and Safety Executive's report entitled Agency Opinion on the Annex 15 Dossier on the Proposal for a Restriction: Lead in Ammunition, published on 13 December 2024.

Defra has received the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) final opinion on a proposed UK REACH Restriction on lead in ammunition and we are assessing their proposals. Given the need to work through the detail of HSE’s proposal a decision is expected in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on tackling water pollution in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

The Environment Agency (EA) inspected over 50% of the Wessex Water assets in this Constituency between April 2024 and March 2025. Inspections are prioritised according to environmental sensitivity, such as sites that impact bathing waters, conservation designations or where data shows high spill rates. The EA will more than double its water company inspections this year.

Food and Rural Affairs, what his plans to tackle wildlife crime are in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects all wild birds and some wild animals in England and Wales. There are strict penalties in place for anyone who commits an offence under this and other wildlife legislation. Where any wildlife is harmed illegally the full force of the law should apply to proven perpetrators of the crime. Defra supports the valuable work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU). Defra is providing £424,000 for the NWCU in 2025-2026. The NWCU helps prevent and detect wildlife crime by obtaining and disseminating intelligence, undertaking analysis which highlights local or national threats and assisting law enforcers with investigations. The NWCU has also provided training to police officers across the UK, including three officers in Avon and Somerset Police. This training reflects the National Police Chiefs' Council wildlife crime strategy and provides comprehensive training in UK wildlife crime priorities and emerging trends. Additionally, the NWCU has supported Avon and Somerset with ten wildlife crime cases since January 2024.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress his Department has made on helping tackle cases of adverse events in dogs which have been administered Librela.

Librela Solution for Injection for Dogs is an authorised injectable veterinary medicinal product containing the active substance bedinvetmab. It is indicated for the alleviation of pain associated with osteoarthritis in dogs. We continue to actively monitor the reported adverse events in dogs that have been administered Librela.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many trees he expects to be planted in the Western Forest by the end of (a) 2025, (b) 2030, (c) 2035 and (d) 2040.

The Western Forest has been selected as the first new national Forest in 30 years. The Western Forest is working with the National Forest Company to implement their plans. It is aiming to plant 20 million trees across the West of England by 2050. The forests target for end 2025 is 50 hectares of tree cover and contributing to 2,500 hectares by 2030. As planting density varies dependent on the type of woodland created or site-specific factors, we cannot accurately predict the number of trees to be planted by specific milestones.

Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timeline is for launching a consultation on the phasing out of the use of cages for farm animals.

I refer the Hon. Member to the reply previously given to the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole, Vikki Slade, on 29 April 2025, PQ 47556.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take with the farming sector to ensure high standards of welfare for farmed animals kept in cages and other close confinement systems.

This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation. The Department is engaging with key stakeholders as part of the development of our overarching approach to animal welfare. We will be outlining more details on this in due course. The Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare Grant was recently offered to commercial laying hen and pullet keepers in England. It supports these farmers to improve the health, welfare, and productivity of their flocks through access to £22.6 million in grants towards the cost of upgrading their housing. Applications closed on 18 September 2024, and all applicants have been contacted to notify them of next steps. The use of cages and other close confinement systems for farmed animals is an issue which we are currently considering very carefully.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with authorities responsible for local nature recovery strategies on the land use framework consultation.

The consultation on Land Use in England is underway and the outcome will inform the publication of a Land Use Framework planned for later this year. Many of the authorities responsible for Local Nature Recovery Strategies were involved in discussions that informed the proposals and questions in the Land Use Consultation During the consultation period, Government officials will be consulting with a wide range of respondents, including authorities responsible for Local Nature Recovery Strategies.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on planting trees along new roads.

The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) pheasants and (b) partridges were imported for shooting in 2024.

See the below table showing the number of Partridges and Pheasants imported into Great Britain in 2024. We cannot confirm whether the purpose of these imports was for hunting, as this is not recorded on the Import of products, animals, food and feed (IPAFF) system. SpeciesNumber of animalsPartridges455,194Pheasants487,488Total 942,682 This information is drawn from external IPAFF systems not directly controlled by the department.

Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on meeting the UK's obligations under the (a) United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 10 and (b) Paris Agreement.

The 2015 Paris Agreement, Article 7 established the global goal on adaptation. At COP28, the UK adopted the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience and agreed to launch a two-year work programme on indicators related to those targets. Defra is working to meet these targets alongside other Government departments. The UK has a Paris Agreement aligned, ambitious and credible Nationally Determined Contribution target to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% by 2035, compared to 1990 levels, excluding international aviation and shipping emissions. The UK submitted its first UNFCCC Biennial Transparency Report in December 2024, detailing the UK’s mitigation efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and support for developing countries to tackle climate change. The UK over-achieved against the first, second and third carbon budgets. We will deliver an updated Plan in due course out to the end of Carbon Budget 6 in 2037 with full detail of policy packages for all sectors.

Food and Rural Affairs, how many prosecutions there have been for slaughterhouses in England not having CCTV in the last five years.

All approved slaughterhouses in England must have CCTV systems installed as required by the Mandatory Use of Closed-Circuit Television in Slaughterhouses (England) Regulations 2018. There have been no prosecutions for slaughterhouses in England for not having CCTV in the last five years. Where non-compliances with the legislation are identified the Food Standards Agency will apply their enforcement hierarchy, from verbal and written warnings to enforcement notices and referral to the Crown Prosecution Service for prosecution.

Food and Rural Affairs, what animal welfare protections exist for farmed animals at slaughterhouses.

The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 and assimilated Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing set out extensive requirements to protect the welfare of animals at slaughterhouses. Official Veterinarians of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are present in all approved slaughterhouses to monitor and enforce these animal welfare requirements. The FSA has a zero-tolerance policy to animal welfare breaches and will take appropriate action where these occur.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the RSPCA on animal cruelty at RSPCA-approved abattoirs.

The Department engages regularly with the RSPCA on a range of animal welfare topics.

Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timetable is for publishing a response to the Fairer Food Labelling consultation, which closed in May 2024.

A public consultation on fairer food labelling was undertaken between March and May 2024 by the previous Government. This sought views on proposals to improve and extend current mandatory method of production labelling. The consultation also sought views on whether new rules should be introduced on country-of-origin labelling. We are now carefully considering all responses before deciding on next steps and will respond to this consultation in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the outcomes of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16); and what steps he is taking to help achieve those outcomes.

The UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) was the first opportunity for Parties to take stock of the progress made in implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted at COP15. 27 important decisions were taken at COP16, including relating to climate change, health, and the marine environment. The decision adopted on digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources agreed the modalities for operationalising the multilateral benefit sharing mechanism for the use of DSI, and this has the potential to generate new financial resources for nature restoration globally. At the same time, the Government remains disappointed that COP16 concluded before it was possible to reach an agreement on the strategy for mobilising more international finance for nature, and we look forward to resuming discussions on this critical issue as quickly as possible.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the import of (a) beef, (b) lamb and (c) mutton through the free trade agreement between the UK and Australia on UK farmers.

This Government's commitment to farmers and the vital role they play, remains steadfast. We will never forget that farmers are the beating heart of our great country. It is their hard work that puts food on our tables and stewards our beautiful countryside. The Government's estimate of the potential economic impact of the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) can be found in the published Impact Assessment (IA), and suggests that gross output could be reduced by around 3% for beef and 5% for sheepmeat. Since the FTA came into force on the 31st May 2023, imports from Australia have not yet reached the levels estimated in the IA. Australia continues to focus on geographically closer markets and used 20% of its sheepmeat quota and 8% of its beef quota in 2023 since the FTA has been in force.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help mitigate the risk from Asian hornets to bees.

Contingency action has been taken against the Yellow-Legged Hornet (YLH) since the first GB incursion in 2016. Contingency action is delivered on the ground by the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Bee Unit (NBU). The NBU have located and destroyed 1-4 nests each year since 2016. However, in 2023 72 nests were located and destroyed. Genetic analysis of hornet samples is carried out to inform the response for the following year. From the analysis of samples from 2023, some areas were identified where there was a risk that hornet queens may have been released, overwintered and created new nests in the spring. In 2024 the NBU carried out spring trapping at these locations and caught a small number of lone hornets. Results from analyses of these hornets provided evidence that hornets had overwintered. However, this is not considered to be evidence of YLH being established in GB. From August 2024 the NBU have been responding to credible sightings of YLH and as of 7th October 2024, have located and destroyed 19 YLH nests. Raising awareness is a key aspect of the response, allowing swift and effective action to be taken to stamp out the threat posed by Asian hornets.