Following the announcement on 24 February of a more targeted approach, most egg producers in England can now let their birds outside, provided they meet the additional biosecurity measures that we have put in place. Producers in the higher risk areas can market their eggs as free-range if they come from birds which meet all the other requirements for free-range and are allowed into fully-fenced areas which are fully covered by netting. A number of retailers have said that they remain committed to their free range egg producers and will continue to support them during this time. On this basis, we do not anticipate any significant disruption to sales. We will continue to monitor market developments in conjunction with the industry.

Pursuant to the answer of 6 March 2017 to question 65555, the number of Senior Civil Servants that were employed by Defra as at 31 December 2016 was 77.

The Government continues to undertake a range of analyses to inform the UK’s position for the upcoming EU exit negotiations. We are determined to get the best possible deal for the UK in our negotiations to leave the EU, which allows frictionless trade in goods and services and the opportunity to reach new agreements with countries around the world.

Our horticultural sector produces a wide range of excellent, healthy products. The sector continues to innovate and use new technologies which have enabled it to take advantage of market opportunities both at home and overseas. The Government is keen to work with the horticulture sector to build on this success and help it flourish.

The Government has no plans to limit the currently authorised uses of glyphosate. Like all pesticides, glyphosate is subject to restrictions to ensure that its use will not harm people or have unacceptable effects on the environment. UK experts agree with the recent assessment of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that the use of glyphosate does not raise safety concerns.

Since its introduction in January 2013, only two circuses have been licensed under the Welfare of Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses (England) Regulations 2012.

Costs to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) for the day-to-day administration of the licensing scheme are covered by the application fee payable each year by a circus. The application fee is set at £389.36. For the period 2013 to 2017, APHA have received £3,893.60 in applications fees from the two licensed circuses.

Costs of inspections under the licensing scheme are also paid for by licensed circuses. Inspection fees are set at £72.53 per hour and inspectors can also claim reasonable travel and subsistence costs. For the period 2013 to date, the total costs of inspections incurred by the two licensed circuses are £23,555.76.

The Basic Payment Scheme payment window runs from 1st December to 30th June each scheme year. Since January 2016 the Rural Payments Agency has paid £5075m outside of the Basic Payment Scheme payment window and £2,430m within.

Defra’s Guidance to Natural England (NE) on licences to kill or take badgers for the purpose of disease control published in 2011 specified a duration of 6 weeks. In 2015, to increase the likelihood of achieving a significant reduction of the badger population and thereby disease control, Defra consulted on giving provision to NE to keep the duration of the cull period under review, without specifying in the licence an initial limit on its duration.

In December 2015, Defra published updated Guidance to this effect. The duration of the cull period must achieve a balance between sufficient intensity to achieve disease control and what is realistically deliverable by a cull company.

Under EU regulations, full responsibility for animal welfare and food safety in slaughterhouses rests with business operators who must meet legislative requirements in terms of slaughterhouse design, layout and equipment. Business operators are responsible for ensuring that the welfare needs of the animals in their care are met.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA)’s’s key functions in England and Wales include monitoring the hygienic production of meat and ensuring animals are protected prior to and during slaughter. The FSA issues certificates of competence for slaughterers and other operatives working with animals, making sure they have the right training and competence for the types of animals they are handling and the duties they are carrying out. The FSA also enforces legislation relating to animal welfare at slaughter. This work is carried out on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England, and the Welsh Government in Wales. In Northern Ireland, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development carries out this function.

All official controls in the UK for food and feed production and animal health and welfare are subject to external audit by the EU Commission’s Food and Veterinary Audit division.

The Government has guaranteed that the agricultural sector will receive the same level of funding that it would have received under Pillar I of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) until the end of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework in 2020. The last payment window in this Multi-Annual Financial Framework will be that which opens on 1 December 2019 and runs until 30 June 2020.

We will be announcing details of future domestic agricultural policy as soon as possible in order to provide certainty for farmers

The Basic Payment Scheme payment window runs from 1st December to 30th June each scheme year. Since January 2016 the Rural Payments Agency has paid £5075m outside of the Basic Payment Scheme payment window and £2,430m within.

In true Men in Black style residents and readers of this blog must totally forget a previous post on a pre-app for development of Shute Lane/Harbour Rd. It did not happen.

It did not happen as you should not know this pre-app was being discussed and how I as the local Councillor should not have informed the public about this. Well, this is according to the applicant, who sent me a rather curt email (which I replied to) me that I had somehow ‘breached what is normal practice by placing a pre-application in the public realm and in doing so, you have deliberately prejudiced further discussion.’

The trouble with this is the applicant failed to ‘tick the’ confidential box in the pre-app, therefore, by the rules, a pre-app is a public document and as the local Cornwall Councillor I am well within my rights of keeping the public informed. It was also on the public planning portal…

However, I must now ask you to forget this pre-app as the applicant has now ‘ticked’ the confidential box and this pre-app is no longer a public document. So you MUST forget it.

If an application does indeed come forward, you MUST all act very surprised as you have not seen it before. The following pictures are a figment of your imagination and you have just dreamed it.

Thank you…

The Government’s Budget is one of those announcements where people take a sharp intake of breath in anticipation of the pain it will inflict. We all know those who smoke and drink will from the announcement pay more.

So how will this Budget affect education and children’s social care? The Chancellor has announced a one-off fund of £320m will be made for the creation of 140 new free schools, 30 of which form part of the 500 already pledged to be created by 2020. These new free schools could in areas where they are not need, whereas this money could be better spent on improving/expanding existing schools that are in dire need of money.

This announcement of new schools is where the Government introduces its plan for expanding Grammar School or providing new Grammar Schools – or as they should be called selective education (which does not actually improve outcomes, especially for the most vulnerable or on Free School Meals).

Another worry is the Government has also said that free school transport will be extended to all children who receive free school meals and who attend a selective school. Yet they have not said if this extra costs will be met by the Government. I expect, in reality, it will be the local authority who will have to find the money to pay for this. How will this work? What happens if the nearest selective school is many miles away and is not their nearest designated school? That impacts on Admission as well as Home to School Policy

There will be a £216m investment to rebuild and refurbish existing schools. Seems a lot of money, but it is not; as to put it in perspective and show how little it will really mean for schools, Cornwall has a  school maintenance backlog that tops over £90m because of historic under-funding. So £216m million is not going to go far split between England and Wales’ local authorities.

In an interesting move, and what  could potentially be a good idea, the Government has provided an extra £500m for vocational and technical education, as an alternative to A-levels (T-levels). This is in a bid to train more skilled workers and boost the economy. However, this is not a new idea and has been around under a different name.

Maintenance loans will be made available for students pursuing technical education at
higher levels. Though there are no real details on how this will be run.

There is news for tax-free childcare for children under 12 providing up to £2,000 a year for each child: and from September 2017 the free childcare offer will double from 15 to 30 hours a week for working families with 3 and 4 year olds worth up to £5,000 for each child. The latter has already been announced and was subject to a campaign in Cornwall to change the funding amounts.

Yet there was no news on the Governments Funding Formula….

Defra works on the development of an oral bovine TB vaccine for badgers in partnership with the Irish and French governments, as well as the Devolved Administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland. This is through the form of a joint project board. The study in Ireland, which involved the administering of vaccine directly to anaesthetised badgers, contributed to that partnership work. Work is now being done in preparation for a further study by Defra’s Animal and Plant Health Agency later this year to assess the protection from infection that may be achieved through consumption by badgers of a candidate oral vaccine in bait, the results of which will help determine the extent to which such a vaccine may play a part in national TB programmes.

There are two medicines authorised for use in the UK containing oxalic acid for treating Varroa in bees.

The decision on whether to develop and market a veterinary medicine is a commercial one for those pharmaceutical companies wishing to invest the necessary capital.

In order to extend or change a licence for a medicine, the pharmaceutical company marketing it must provide sufficient data in support of the change to demonstrate that the product will remain safe and effective.

Core Defra did not incur any expenditure in respect of iPads and tablets in financial years 2012-13 to 2014-15. In 2015-16, spend was £5,400, and in 2016-17, spend to 28 February 2017 totalled £44,090.

Expenditure on paper is recorded on the Department’s finance system under the general heading of ‘Stationery and Printing’, along with all other stationery purchased. Identification of spend specifically on paper, as opposed to other items of stationery, could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.

We, and other Departments, are working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union on all aspects of exiting the European Union.

The Departmental procurement spend since 2010 is set out in the table below.

2010-2011

2011-2012

2012-2013

2013-2014

2014-2015

2015-2016

398,693,030

346,033,392

352,275,296

382,613,452

401,165,784

382,030,970

UK taxpayers support the agricultural sector in variety of ways: through the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), spending on agricultural research and development, including the Agri-tech Strategy, and indirectly through wider programmes such as on skills development. The benefit of each pound spent on the Agri-tech Strategy was estimated to be £9 (BIS Evaluation Plan 2016)[1]. The estimated benefit, on average, for funds spent in England under Pillar 2 of the CAP is over £3 per pound spent according to the Rural Development Plan for England Impact Assessment 2015[2], but less than £1 per pound spent for Pillar 1 according to a report on implementation of CAP in England in 2013[3]. As a result of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union there is a real opportunity to improve returns to taxpayer support for agriculture.

[1] BIS Evaluation Plan 2016

[2] The Rural Development Programme for England, 2014 to 2020: Final Impact Assessment (2015)

[3] Implementation of CAP reform in England 2013

There are 61 full time equivalent staff currently employed in Defra’s communications directorate, which includes internal communications, digital communications, speechwriting, public information campaigns, communications strategy and media relations. The estimated pay cost for communications staff for the past ten years is listed below. This cost includes salaries, National Insurance and pension contributions. This amount has fluctuated as the composition of the communications directorate within Defra has changed over time in response to departmental priorities.

Year

FTE

Total Pay £

2006/07

161

9,105,815

2007/08

118

6,741,240

2008/09

117

6,751,627

2009/10

118

6,878,114

2010/11

115

6,770,956

2011/12

101

6,006,733

2012/13

110

6,608,068

2013/14

105

6,371,415

2014/15

99

6,068,014

2015/16

55

3,405,171