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Dogs: Animal Breeding | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Tue, 21/03/2017 - 00:00

Last month, the Government published its Next Steps document which set out proposals for modernising the licensing of the breeding and selling of dogs in England. The Government proposes that anyone breeding and selling three or more litters of dogs in a twelve month period will need a licence. The majority of responses to our earlier consultation supported this proposal which strikes the right balance between being reasonable to enforce, providing a proportionate response and helping to target regulatory effort on those breeders producing dogs on a commercial basis.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Migrant Workers | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Tue, 21/03/2017 - 00:00

All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Work Experience | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Tue, 21/03/2017 - 00:00

Defra does not retain details centrally on the number of work placements in the Department and to identify the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

European Maritime and Fisheries Fund | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Mon, 20/03/2017 - 00:00

Defra officials will be working with the Department for Exiting the EU to look at future policies for fisheries. We will continue to work closely with relevant industry and other key stakeholders to develop these new arrangements. As part of this work consideration will be given to support provided to the fisheries community.

European Maritime and Fisheries Fund | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Mon, 20/03/2017 - 00:00

The UK was allocated €243 million in the current programme for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), with €45 million for enforcement, €52 million for data collection, €19 million for aquaculture and €127 million for other investments. The Government has guaranteed access to these funds up until the point we leave the EU.

Agriculture | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Mon, 20/03/2017 - 00:00

The Government has guaranteed that the agricultural sector will receive the same level of funding that it would have received under Pillar 1 of the Common Agricultural Policy until the end of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework in 2020. No decisions have yet been taken about how that budget will be managed in the period between the UK leaving the EU and 2020.

Fish | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Mon, 20/03/2017 - 00:00

The information requested on the total value of trade in fish and fish products (excluding fish oils, fish flour and meals) taken from the information collected by HM Revenue and Customs is given in the table below, for the ten years of 2006 to 2015 inclusive. Comparable data for trade in 2016 is not yet available.

Value of UK trade in fish and fish products (£million - exc. Fish oils and fish flour and meals)

Imports into the UK From:

Exports from the UK to:

EU

Non-EU

Total imports

EU

Non-EU

Total exports

2006

556.1

1365.5

1921.6

790.9

153.0

943.9

2007

621.7

1372.2

1993.9

805.8

176.3

982.0

2008

665.4

1544.6

2210.1

824.8

184.7

1009.4

2009

644.5

1532.7

2177.2

899.6

266.5

1166.1

2010

699.0

1555.7

2254.7

1010.8

335.0

1345.7

2011

802.9

1755.7

2558.6

1054.6

409.4

1463.9

2012

799.0

1771.0

2570.0

937.4

406.5

1343.9

2013

848.8

1908.2

2757.0

972.1

488.2

1460.3

2014

849.1

1888.7

2737.8

1014.2

552.0

1566.3

2015

842.6

1830.4

2673.0

921.1

416.3

1337.3

Agriculture | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Thu, 16/03/2017 - 00:00

We will continue to work closely with the Devolved Administrations as well as stakeholders in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – seeking to benefit from shared learning in order to achieve our vision of building a world leading food and farming nation.

The views of the devolved nations will play an important part in helping shape our preparations for exit and achieving arrangements that work for all parts of the UK.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Scotland | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Thu, 16/03/2017 - 00:00

We will seek to agree a UK approach to the negotiations and ensure we get the best possible deal for the whole of the UK. We have committed to carefully considering any proposals the devolved administrations put forward. The Secretary of State visited Edinburgh in February to meet with Ministers from all the Devolved Administrations to give them every opportunity to have their say as we form our negotiating strategy.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Staff | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Thu, 16/03/2017 - 00:00

Defra is amongst those Government departments whose work is most closely linked to and impacted by EU activity, legal frameworks and funding. In terms of work arising from the UK’s vote to leave the EU, some 80% of Defra’s work is framed by EU legislation and a quarter of EU laws apply to Defra’s sectors. Many roles across the Defra group are now supporting EU exit-related work, either directly or indirectly.

As with all departments, Defra’s work programmes and recruitment plans are continually kept under review ‪to ensure we are appropriately staffed to deal with the task at hand. The resourcing of EU Exit work is a key priority of the Department and will be subject to on-going assessment. Staffing resources will be deployed flexibly across the entire Defra agenda, including work on our farming and fisheries policy.

Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Thu, 16/03/2017 - 00:00

In 2016 more than 29,000 cattle were compulsory slaughtered in England due to the discovery of bovine TB following surveillance testing. On average six reactors are found and slaughtered from testing where bovine TB is detected in a herd. As the comprehensive bovine TB testing surveillance regime ensures most bovine TB incidents are detected at an early stage, it is very rare for cattle herds to be fully slaughtered for bovine TB control reasons in England. There have been four such cases in England in the past five years.

Year of incident

Herd size

2016

60

2015

0

2014

130

2013

0

2012

122 & 25

Pet Travel Scheme: Dogs | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Thu, 16/03/2017 - 00:00

There has been a marked increase in popularity of the Pet Travel Scheme in GB. In 2014 APHA issued 80,274 new pet passports to their official veterinarians, 119,704 in 2015 and 95,449 in 2016.

Fisheries: EU Law | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Wed, 15/03/2017 - 00:00

All Government Departments are currently reviewing the EU laws that apply in their policy areas and how our withdrawal from the EU will affect the operation of those laws. The Government will set out the content of the Great Repeal Bill and its implications in due course.

We are currently analysing all EU fisheries legislation. No decision has yet been made on the extent to which the EU legislation governing the Common Fisheries Policy will be incorporated into domestic law.

Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Wed, 15/03/2017 - 00:00

Compensation for cattle which are compulsorily slaughtered for the purpose of controlling bovine TB in England is based on the actual market prices for 51 categories of bovines. Therefore, the total gross expenditure on compensation is the best measure of the value of those cattle, had they not been affected by the disease.

Total gross expenditure on compensation over the last five full financial years is set out below:

Financial year

Total gross expenditure for cattle compulsorily slaughtered for the purpose of controlling bovine TB in England (£m)

2011/12

31.6

2012/13

33.6

2013/14

31.2

2014/15

29.6

2015/16

29.7

Food Labelling | Westminster Hall debates

Tue, 14/03/2017 - 11:22

I begin by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Julian Sturdy) on securing this very important debate. He is known for campaigning on these issues and, as he said, as a straight-talking Yorkshireman. In fact, I shall be visiting Yorkshire this Thursday and look forward to lots of straight talking about the future of agriculture policy.

This is a very important issue. UK consumers spend £200 billion on food, drink and catering services each year. Consumer confidence is key to the integrity of the supply chain, and that is more important in food than in anything else. As my hon. Friend pointed out, existing regulations are largely set out in the food information for consumers regulation, which dates from December 2014. It sets out in quite a bit of detail mandatory labelling requirements for the name of the food, the list of ingredients, ingredients causing potential allergy or intolerance, the quantity of specific ingredients or groups of ingredients, net quantity of the product, the use-by date, any special storage conditions, the name and address of the food business operator, the country of origin, instructions for use where required, alcoholic strength and nutrition declarations. That is a fairly comprehensive set of regulations. The UK helped to shape those regulations at UK level, but when we leave the EU we will take our position again on Codex, which is the UN body that tries to set standards internationally and is increasingly influential in this area.

On leaving the EU, there will be an opportunity to do things differently, to improve things and to introduce clearer labelling in some areas. However, it is also important that we have continuity; we do not want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. That is why in the first instance the great repeal Bill will put all our existing regulations pertaining to food labelling and all other aspects on a legal footing in UK domestic law. There will then be opportunities over time to revisit things.

While I appreciate that this was not a major focus for my hon. Friend, we are looking at whether we can have some kind of mutual recognition of existing protected food names. That will be important for European countries seeking recognition in the UK as well. We are looking at whether we could use trademark regulations to develop brands in other areas.

My hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) mentioned Angus beef. There is another issue with Angus beef, which is that it is not always—or indeed, rarely—from a pedigree Angus animal; it is usually from one crossed with a dairy animal. We will have the opportunity, through trademark regulations and other intellectual property law, to develop brands for pedigree native beef breeds, for instance, which we are looking at.

I want to talk predominantly about country of origin labelling, which was the focus of my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer. As he pointed out, since April 2015 country of origin labelling has been required for fresh and frozen meat from pigs, sheep, goats and poultry. It has been required for fresh beef since 2003 and for certain fish products since 2000. As my hon. Friend knows, we have campaigned for the extension of mandatory country of origin labelling to cover some dairy products. The European Commission has always resisted that, arguing that it is too complex for processed products. Our view is that it might not be possible for all dairy products but would certainly be possible for some, such as butter and cheese, where it is relatively easy to identify country of origin. Once we leave the EU, there will be an opportunity to look at strengthening mandatory labelling in that area, if that were the view of the Government of the day.

My hon. Friend mentioned the fact that beef sometimes is not born, raised and slaughtered in the country of origin. My recollection of the regulations—I can double-check this—is that in the case of beef, for the label to state country of origin as UK the animal must be born, reared and slaughtered in the UK. For other meats, the animal must be reared and slaughtered in the UK. It is possible to say “slaughtered in the UK” if the animal is not born and reared here. The regulations cover this issue to some extent for fresh meat.

My hon. Friend also raised important issues about processed meats, which are more complex. A composite product such as a pizza might have vegetables on it from different parts of the country and might use flour from one country, meat from another or, indeed, meat from two countries. It is harder to put country of origin labelling on all processed meats.

There has been a growing tendency for other foods to be labelled voluntarily with their country of origin. For example, the vast majority of lightly processed meat products, such as bacon and sausages, already have country of origin labelling as part of a voluntary scheme, but it gets harder with some of the more complex products. I am always open to strengthening transparency for consumers. If there is a way of going further, beyond the issues we have highlighted previously in the case of dairy, we can look at that.

My hon. Friend mentioned method of production labelling. There are some very good voluntary schemes, such as the RSPCA Assured scheme, which recognises high standards of animal welfare, as well as the British Lion eggs and Red Tractor schemes. We are keen to encourage those further.

I want to touch on a couple of other points. My hon. Friend the Member for North Swindon (Justin Tomlinson) raised the issue of slightly dubious farm name brands used by supermarkets. That is a difficult area. While those cannot mislead, there are cases where, for instance, a brand celebrates a product of a particular standard. I have heard some people complain about the Duchy Organic label because the products are not always produced on Duchy farms; in fact, they rarely are. It nevertheless is an important organic standard that has recognition. This is a difficult area. Labels are not allowed to mislead people, but I accept that some labelling is in a slightly grey area.

My hon. Friend the Member for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow) talked about online shopping. We are discussing that with the National Farmers Union; it may be one way we can avoid voluntary principles. We have had a very good debate, and I will take on board these points.

Question put and agreed to.

Sitting suspended.

Badgers | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Tue, 14/03/2017 - 00:00

No direct comparison between the effectiveness of cage trapping and controlled shooting has been made. A combination of cage trapping and controlled shooting is the most efficient approach to obtain the required 70% population reduction to ensure disease control benefits.

The numbers of badgers removed by cage trapping and controlled shooting in the cull areas in 2016 was published in December 2016.

Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Tue, 14/03/2017 - 00:00

In August 2016 the Government published its badger control costs for 2013 -2015. These can be found on the GOV.UK website under Bovine TB Government badger control costs 2015.

The costs for the 2016 badger control operations are still to be finalised and will be published later this year.

Slaughterhouses: Animal Welfare | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Tue, 14/03/2017 - 00:00

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 20 January 2017, PQ UIN 59926

Zoos: Animal Welfare | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Written Answers

Tue, 14/03/2017 - 00:00

The Zoo Licensing Act 1981 sets out comprehensive licensing and inspection requirements for zoos. Responsibility for administering these requirements rests with local authorities, which undertake annual inspections to ensure that zoos have sufficient levels of animal welfare.

Defra supports this by setting out minimum standards that zoos are expected to meet, via the Secretary of State’s Standards of Modern Zoo Practice, and by maintaining a list of qualified zoo licensing inspectors who undertake periodical inspections of zoos for local authorities. These inspectors are competent to inspect animals in zoos and to advise on their management and on their welfare. Where there are concerns, local authorities have powers to impose conditions and to take further action where necessary.

Defra has also established a Zoos Expert Committee, which provides UK Ministers with independent technical advice, with a focus on the role of zoos in conservation, education and scientific research and on the operation and implementation of the zoo licensing system in the UK