In 2016/2017, Natural England received Grant In Aid funding to support 43 posts to provide the wide range of mapping services required for NE’s duties - from mapping the England Coastal Path to marine designated areas. Natural England received funding of £157,000 in 2016/2017 for the licensing of mapping products, and also access Ordnance Survey map data through the Public Sector Mapping Agreement which is funded by the UK government centrally. In addition to dedicated mapping personnel, staff across Natural England are able to access and use maps and spatial data in their work. This includes staff handling mapped information from Environmental and Countryside Stewardship applicants and agreement holders and also accessing Rural Land Register farmland map information maintained by RPA. Natural England also provides open access to maps and spatial data to individuals and organisations outside of NE through the Magic web service.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for York Central on 31st January 2017, 61557. Circus animals licenced to perform in circuses are licensed under the Welfare of Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses (England) Regulations 2012.

The UK is committed to continuing to participate fully in the work of the International Whaling Commission following our exit from the EU. We will maximise the opportunities afforded us from exiting the EU while maintaining the close and important relationships we have with EU Member States party to the Convention. We will ensure that the UK remains a strong and influential voice and continues to be at the forefront of championing efforts to improve conservation and welfare outcomes for cetaceans globally.

The UK Chief Veterinary Officer has published his advice that the outcome of the 2016 badger culling operations indicates that industry-led culling can deliver the level of effectiveness required to be confident of achieving disease control benefits.

The UK Chief Veterinary Officer’s advice can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-chief-veterinary-officers-advice-on-the-outcome-of-the-2016-badger-culls

We, and other Departments, are working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union on all aspects of exiting the European Union. This is to build a detailed understanding of how withdrawal will affect domestic policies and to coordinate policy work across Government.

Defra is very aware that migrant workers from other EU countries will be one of the complex issues that will have to be resolved as part of our exit negotiations and future relationship with the EU. We are now focused on making sure that all our policies are delivering for the UK and to grow our world-leading food and farming industry.

The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme was closed in 2013 on the advice of the Migration Advisory Committee. The Government keeps the position under review.

Until we have left, the UK will remain a member of the EU with all of the rights and obligations that membership entails, and employers in the agricultural and food processing sectors are free to continue to recruit EU workers to meet their labour needs.

The Common Agricultural Policy’s Greening requirements, which include the crop diversification rule, were implemented in 2015.

As we prepare to leave the EU, we are looking at removing the rules that are unnecessarily burdensome, focusing instead on what works best for the UK. We want to free our farmers to grow more, sell more and export more British food, whilst upholding our high standards for the environment and animal health and welfare.

The Government will bring forward legislation in the next session that, when enacted, will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and ensure a functioning statute book on the day we leave the EU. This ‘Great Repeal Bill’ will end the authority of EU law and return power to the UK.

All Government departments are currently reviewing the issues and opportunities arising from exit, including any requirements for legislation in addition to the Great Repeal Bill.

The Government will bring forward a White Paper on the Great Repeal Bill in due course that provides more detail about our approach. We will ensure it is published in time to allow Parliament sufficient time to digest its contents in advance of introduction of the Great Repeal Bill in the next session.

Once we have left the EU, maintaining the UK’s high standards of food safety will remain a priority.

Information about the socio-economic background of staff in my department is not held centrally and is therefore not available.

As at 31 December 2016, the proportion of Senior Civil Servants in the Department who are a) men, b) female, c) disabled & e) BAME, are as follows:

a) Men – 59%

b) Female – 41%

c) Disabled – ***

e) BAME – ***

This response covers only those officers who have declared their diversity and to protect the confidentiality of individual employees, percentages based on 5 or fewer individuals are not reported and shown as ***.

Diversity data is collected from Defra employees through voluntary self-declaration. However, for reasons of anonymity it is not possible to provide a breakdown in the answer as the numbers are too small to report.

Defra does not collect data on educational background or socio-economic status.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (of strain H5N8) has been circulating in Europe since the autumn of 2016. There have been 10 confirmed cases in poultry in the UK and several findings in wild birds.

As part of our Department’s continued measures to control and eradicate H5N8, a new Avian Influenza Prevention Zone was put in place on 28 February. This zone continues to require that all keepers of poultry and captive birds observe heightened biosecurity requirements regardless of their location. Subject to these measures being put in place, the majority of keepers will no longer be required to house their birds.

Within England, there are some areas that are at a higher risk of H5N8 due to their proximity to substantial inland or coastal bodies of water where wild waterfowl collect. The identification of these areas was based on expert advice in regards to the latest veterinary and ornithological data and has been reviewed by leading experts. In these Higher Risk Areas, which will cover around 25 per cent of poultry premises, mandatory housing or the full range netting of outside areas will be required. This may temporarily result in the loss of Free Range status for keepers in these areas unless they apply netting of range, rather than housing.

During this unprecedented period of high risk, the Secretary of State has taken a decision which is based on the best scientific and veterinary advice in order to control disease and protect our poultry industry. Effective disease control will always be Defra’s priority: disease outbreaks cause birds to suffer, damage businesses and cost the UK taxpayer millions. No significant disruption to the supply of Free Range eggs after 28 February is anticipated.

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.

The Department has set up an EU Exit Programme led by a Director General to identify and coordinate work stemming from EU Exit across the Defra group. EU exit work is currently undertaken in all policy directorates in the Department, and in some corporate services areas. It is not possible to give an accurate figure of FTE civil servants working on the programme, given its extensive impact, nor to give a discrete figure regarding budget allocations to EU Exit.

This government has a manifesto commitment to push for high animal welfare standards to be incorporated into international trade agreements.

The UK Government has made no specific assessment of the economic cost to the UK of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing either globally or in the West Indian Ocean. IUU poses a threat to the economic livelihood for many countries with consequences for the marine environment. The UK fulfils its IUU obligations to prevent trade in illegally caught fish by prohibiting the import of fish from countries, identified by the European Union, as not supporting sustainable fisheries.

In 2009, prior to the implementation of the regulation, the European Commission commissioned an evaluation report on the expected impacts of the EU IUU Regulation on third countries. This report aimed to help third countries and the EU access the training requirements to implement this measure successfully, and is available at

https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/sites/fisheries/files/docs/body/iuu_consequences_2009_en.pdf.

When it leaves the EU, the UK will control access to fisheries in the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone and will manage those waters in accordance with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Anyone may bring forward a prosecution under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the Government does not intend to change that position.

In the light of public criticisms of its role, the RSPCA set up the Wooler Review, which made 33 recommendations which the RSPCA have already assessed and considered for action. We believe that the RSPCA should be given the opportunity to implement the recommendations of the Wooler Review and demonstrate its commitment to responding to the concerns that have been raised.