Lord Benyon: The UK regularly raises the need for dialogue and political solution to all Ethiopia's conflicts. On 11 August, the British Embassy Addis Ababa coordinated a statement with US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, condemning the violence in Amhara. Since the outbreak of conflict His Majesty's Ambassador to Ethiopia has reiterated this message to the Regional President of Amhara and senior...
Lord Benyon: The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) is currently undertaking the second 5-year review of its Marine Protected Area (MPA). The review is considering the effectiveness of the current MPA measures, including whether the underpinning scientific research and monitoring is sufficient, particularly in light of climate change, and whether effective monitoring and...
Lord Benyon: The Government has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to help tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. We ran a consultation from 3 December 2021 to 11 March 2022 to seek views on the details of regulations that will implement the Environment Act provisions, to ensure that these are designed effectively. The Government published a summary...
Lord Benyon: Across two rounds of our fly-tipping grant scheme, we have awarded nearly £1.2 million to help more than 30 councils purchase equipment, such as CCTV, to tackle fly-tipping at known hot-spots. Round one has seen good results; for example, Durham County Council has seen a reduction in fly-tipping of over 60% in the areas where CCTV was installed onto existing lighting columns. A selection of...
Lord Benyon: Fixed penalties provide local authorities with an effective and visible way of quickly responding to environmental crimes, where prosecution may not be proportionate. Local authorities must set fixed penalties for litter and fly-tipping from within ranges specified in law. If a penalty level is not set by the authority then a default penalty level will apply. We believe local authorities...
Lord Benyon: No assessment has been made. The Environment Agency assesses the presence of many chemicals in the environment, but has very limited data for chemicals in soil and the potential impacts on individual species. Saponins are a very broad and diverse group of compounds with biosurfactant and biopesticide properties and with many applications including some personal care products. The Environment...
Lord Benyon: We are continuing to build our evidence base on the fur sector, which will be used to inform any future action on the fur trade. This includes commissioning the Animal Welfare Committee to explore current responsible sourcing practices in the fur industry. Any future measures would be subject to consultation.
Lord Benyon: We set out how we will deliver outcomes for food, farming and the environment through our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes in an update in January. This can be found at Environmental Land Management (ELM) update: how government will pay for land-based environment and climate goods and services. This includes our plans to expand and refine the schemes to contribute more to our...
Lord Benyon: The Government acknowledges the devastating impact Storm Babet and Storm Ciarán have had on householders and businesses and sympathises with those affected. The Environment Agency has been inspecting assets that may have been impacted. As of Wednesday 22 November, the Environment Agency have conducted almost 12,000 inspections – these inspections are in response to both storms. During...
Lord Benyon: No recent discussions have been held with EU member states regarding the introduction of legislation to ban fur farming or fur sales. We are continuing to build our evidence base on the fur sector, which will be used to inform any future action on the fur trade. This includes commissioning the Animal Welfare Committee to explore current responsible sourcing practices in the fur industry.
Lord Benyon: The Government has already taken significant steps to tackle plastic pollution (e.g. microplastics), including restricting the supply of several single-use plastics through introducing a plastic packaging tax from April 2022; restricting the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds; and preventing billions of plastic microbeads from entering the ocean...
Lord Benyon: The Environment Agency (EA) has introduced a new long-term ‘river surveillance network’ monitoring programme for rivers to give a national overview of the state of England’s rivers. It does not replace the Water Framework Directive compliant monitoring which will still continue. This network is a key part of the ‘Natural Capital and Ecosystems Assessment’ which will provide a...
Lord Benyon: Defra, the Environment Agency and the UK Health Security Agency have a joint research programme on antimicrobial resistance in the environment. This includes examination of potential drivers of selection for antimicrobial resistance in environmental organisms. So far, this work has concentrated on the effect of antimicrobials and biocides so has not examined the additional role of...
Lord Benyon: The Government published its Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) (see attached) in July 2023. This marked a step-change in the Government’s approach to climate adaptation, putting in place an ambitious programme of decisive action for the next 5 years to address each of the 61 climate risks and opportunities in its Third Climate Change Risk Assessment. NAP3 builds on our work...
Lord Benyon: We are disappointed that the Hunting Trophies Bill failed to progress in the House of Lords in the previous session, in spite of overwhelming support from MPs for our proposals. We are committed to delivering on our manifesto pledge to ban the import of hunting trophies and will continue to explore ways to bring this forward.
Lord Benyon: All cetaceans are fully protected in UK waters under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations. In the UK, it is an offence to deliberately disturb, harm, capture or kill wild cetaceans. We are not aware of any cetaceans being caught illegally in UK waters in 2022. The UK introduced new rules in 2021 making it mandatory under fishing vessel licence conditions for fishers to...
Lord Benyon: We do not anticipate making raw footage available to the public. How remote electronic monitoring (REM) data would be reviewed would depend on the data objectives for that fishery. We consulted on the data objectives in our recent consultation on REM in English waters. We are considering responses to this consultation and will publish a response in due course.
Lord Benyon: Our recent consultation on remote electronic monitoring (REM) in English waters proposed a phased approach to the expansion of REM. This would begin with volunteers in priority fisheries and then become mandatory for all vessels in those fisheries. In this consultation we also sought views on the timeline and other implementation issues. We are considering consultation responses and will...
Lord Benyon: Our current expectation is that we will have sufficient volunteers to expand the use of remote electronic monitoring (REM) in 2024. In our recent consultation on REM in English waters, we proposed the establishment of steering groups. Among other things, these would enable us to develop our approach with stakeholders across relevant fisheries. This could include looking at alternatives if...
Lord Benyon: The Government recognises that the UK’s environmental (or ornamental) horticulture sector plays a crucial role as part of the ‘green economy’ and is aware that the priorities of the sector align with many of the environmental goals in the Environmental Improvement Plan. Ornamental horticulture is in scope of the majority of competitions in the Farming Innovation Programme. Under this...
