Baroness Hayman of Ullock: My Lords, the NFU has asked the Government to identify opportunities to increase our market share of foods we can produce sustainably, including a commitment to source 50% of food into the public sector from British farms. Public procurement can support our food producers, so what are the Government doing to support farmers through procurement?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce safeguards to ensure that, under their Border Target Operating Model, there can be no interference with consignments which enter the UK via the Port of Dover prior to inspections being carried out at the Sevington inland border facility.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: My Lords, I start by thanking the Minister for his introduction and saying how impressed I was to watch him pouring a glass of water at the same time: he is clearly channelling his feminine side by doing two things at once. These draft regulations, as we have heard, propose to introduce minimum standards for the contracts that businesses use when purchasing milk from dairy farmers. We fully...
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of funding to local authorities to implement the simpler recycling reforms that were announced in October 2023.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of requiring weekly food waste collections on rural councils.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to introduce a phase-out of pesticides in public, urban spaces under local authority control, as has been done in countries such as Luxembourg.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (1) does not weaken domestic pesticide standards in terms of active substance approvals or maximum residue levels, and (2) does not undermine the precautionary principle with regards to pesticides.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: My Lords, we know that there is a fast-growing global market for human-specific technologies. The size of that global market in 2023 was around $2 billion, so it is huge. Does the Minister have any views on the economic potential of human-specific technologies for the UK as a leader in this field?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they are having with representatives from the metals recycling industry about the importance of the free and fair trade of scrap steel.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government what is their timetable for consulting on activity regulations under the Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: My Lords, the delay in the publication of the strategy is disappointing. Previously, the Minister has assured us that we would be seeing it “shortly”. It is interesting that “shortly” has now become “before the Summer Recess”. I thought I would look up the definition of “shortly” in the Cambridge dictionary; it is “soon”. The example given is: “We will shortly be...
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty’s Government when they will lay the forest risk commodity regulations under Schedule 17 to the Environment Act 2021 to prevent the importing of goods responsible for illegal deforestation, and what consideration they have given to the merits of widening the scope in include all deforestation.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: My Lords, we understand the importance of getting these measures right and of working with partners to ensure they have the greatest possible impact. However, waiting more than two years after the passage of the Environment Act is a choice. The Minister knows there is appetite for regulation, including in the financial services industry, where separate commitments have been made. What does...
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government how many unlicensed metal recyclers have been prosecuted in the past (1) three years, (2) five years, and (3) 10 years; and what steps they are taking to increase the number of prosecutions.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government who holds responsibility for tackling unlicensed metal recyclers between the different police services and local authorities.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the chemicals strategy.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the metals recycling industry regarding the impact of introducing a fixed-rate deposit return scheme on the recycling rates of aluminium.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have assessed the impact of mandating the sorting of co-mingled materials collected from households on increasing recycling rates under the Simpler Recycling policy.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: To ask His Majesty's Government whether payments to farmers in England to rewet upland peat are sufficient (1) to offset management costs and provide income to the farmers, and (2) to ensure levels of restoration activity that are consistent with short-term and long-term targets.