The Secretary of State has met the Welsh Minister for Agriculture on several occasions as we seek to ensure we get the best possible deal for the whole of the UK. We have committed to carefully considering any proposals that the devolved administrations put forward. Discussions on the issues are ongoing.

Civil Servants have to ability to work flexibly across government sites where there is a business need to do so. The issuing of all passes is controlled by the local Departmental Security teams who follow strict procedures and protocols. Information on the number of people holding security passes for other government departments who are granted access to Defra premises is not centrally recorded.

Defra has issued 7501 passes since 2011. Data for 2010 is no longer held.

Defra is currently unable to provide data on the number of Defra passes that are active.

This information is available in the ONS Public Sector Employment Statistics last published on 15 March 2017:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable

There have been the following number of prosecutions for fishing without a valid rod licence in each of the last five years:

Year

Number of prosecutions

2012

2,168

2013

1,880

2014

2,268

2015

1,798

2016

2,088

All of the above figures are from between 1st January and 31st December.

The Government has no plans to abolish the fishing rod licence. The income from the rod licence fee allows the Environment Agency to provide its fisheries service to rod licence holders.

The table below shows the Environment Agency sales figures of rod licences in each of the past five years:

Year

Rod licence sales (£ million)

2012/13

21.8

2013/14

21.6

2014/15

21.5

2015/16

21.1

2016/17

20.6

The rod licence year runs from 1st April to March 31st.

The fees the Environment Agency collects through rod licence sales are spent on providing a fisheries service to fishing licence holders. The Environment Agency’s fisheries functions, for which it has powers to collects licence fees, relate to maintaining, improving and developing salmon, trout, freshwater, and eel fisheries as specified in the Environment Act 1995.

Over the past three years rod licences have been issued through website sales, telesales, over the counter sales under a contract with the Post Office Limited and a small proportion have been sold through retained agents. It is estimated that the average administration cost for issuing a rod licence is approximately £1.62 per licence.

Since 1 March 2017, the Environment Agency has been providing the website sales and telesales elements in-house, in compliance with the Government Digital Services (GDS) standards. Over the counter services are still being provided by the Post Office but the Environment Agency has now ceased to sell through retained agents.

The Department has published research on the main drivers of changes to food prices which have been observed to be food commodity prices, currency exchange rates and oil prices. It will be changes to any, or a combination of these factors, that will bring changes to prices.

ONS statistics on food prices are published each month as part of the Consumer Price Index. In the most recent statistics published on 11 April, food prices had increased by 1.3% in the year to March 2017 following almost three consecutive years where food prices fell. Exchange rates and energy costs have been the key drivers of these changes.

The Government annually publishes Family Food, which draws on data from the Living Cost of Food Survey. This publication includes questions on household spend on food, including that by the lowest 20% income households, which has remained constant at around 16% for a number of years.

The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), developed by the Voices of the Hungry project of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is used to collect food security data in up to 150 countries under the Gallup World Poll. The Department for International Development supports this work financially and updated results will be published later this year by the FAO. We understand from the FAO that global FIES results will be launched in June, and the individual country level estimates, which are three-year averages, will be published in September.

Since 8 May 2015 two official documents and 12 official sensitive documents have been recorded as lost by Defra.

The most recent UK Production to Supply Ratio is 61% for all food and 76% for indigenous type food.

We do not predict future ratios given the uncertainty over the many dependent factors including global food commodity prices, exchange rates, climate and weather, as well as discrete factors such as plant and animal disease. However, the Government has a policy of supporting our food and farming industry so that we can grow more and sell more British produce.

The average amount of compensation paid, per animal, to dairy farmers whose cattle have been compulsory slaughtered for bovine TB for the last five years is shown in the table below. These include all reactors and contacts. It is rarely necessary to slaughter an entire herd.

Year

Average Value

2012

£1,205.33

2013

£1,181.03

2014

£1,151.47

2015

£1,066.74

2016

£936.54

The values in the table are for England only. Both the Scottish and Welsh Governments pay and record compensation payments separately to farmers who have had their animal’s compulsory slaughtered for bovine TB.

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

It is the responsibility of individual horse owners to ensure that their horses are identified and registered on the Central Equine Database. Local Authorities are responsible for enforcing these requirements.

Defra launched a consultation on 5 April 2017 to implement requirements relating to the identification and registration of equines and the new Central Equine Database. It is published at:

https://consult.defra.gov.uk/equine-id/revised-eu-rules-on-equine-id-eu-reg-eu-2015-262

No such reports have been commissioned or published in the last 12 months.

If readers remember, in my role as Cornwall Councillor, I asked for Porthleven West Sands dog banning order to be reviewed in-light of legislation changes in the Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act 2005 and Anti-Social Behaviour Crime & Policing Act 2014.

Listening to all sides I put forward an alternative ban period for Porthleven West to Cornwall Council. This was also supported by Porthleven Town Council. These changes have now been legally accepted by the signing of the Cornwall Council Public Space Protection (Dogs on Beaches) Order 2017.

The new Order for Porthleven West will come into force on the 1st May and be as follows:

• Dogs on beaches will be banned between the hours of 9.00am and 7.00pm;
• From 1 May to 30 September of each year.

New signage will be installed in the next week or so. This is a change from the 7am to 7pm ban from April till October. There are no changes for access to the beach for dogs East of Blue Buoy Steps.

Timings and periods on all other beaches can be found HERE

There are exemptions as this Order does not apply to any person who:

• Is registered as a blind person in a register compiled under Section 29 or the National Assistance Act 1948; or
• Is deaf, in respect of a dog trained by Hearing Dog for Deaf People and upon which he relies for assistance; or
• Has a disability which requires being in charge of an Assistance Dog registered with Assistance Dogs UK and upon which he relies for assistance.

The Environment Agency have requested to close the footpath crossing Loe Bar to carryout works on their equipment. From my understanding, this is to enhance the culvert that discharges water from the river Cober and Loe Pool and is part of the new flood prevention scheme for Helston.

This footpath as shown on the map below will be The Location of the footpath is: Footpath 6, Porthleven and Footpath 4, Gunwalloe. The path will be closed from the 1st May 2017 to 30th September 2017 (24 hours weekends included)

I am seeking clarification on how much is closed and whether the public can access this area.

Today, the ‘statement as to persons nominated’ to stand for the Cornwall Council Elections has been issued. I am one of four candidates who will be seeking election, or in my case re-election to the Porthleven and Helston West seat.

In the next few weeks, I will be out and about delivering my leaflets and knocking on doors. I really hope residents will know of the work I have carried out over the last few years and vote for me on May 4th.

The official nominations are:

Porthleven has been without a Town Warden since Rod Barnes retired. This is a hugely important role and therefore, Porthleven Town Council was very keen to replace Rod.

From an advert placed, five candidates applied and all were interviewed. The field of candidates was strong, but the three person panel of the Mayor, Cllr Bev Plunkett and myself appointed Carol Jewell to the post.

I would like to congratulate Carol on her appointment to this position. Carol will be an excellent Town Warden. I would also like to thank all who applied and made the panel’s decision a tough one to make.

Carol Jewell – The Porthleven Town Warden

Defra has no figures on spending specifically on the services of management consultants. Spend figures recorded under consultancy also include IT consultancy, technical consultancy, legal and financial advice, and project and programme management. Consultancy spend increased significantly in 2013/14 and 2014/15 as a result of third party support on IT programmes, for example Defra’s Shared Service Centre and CAP Delivery Programme. There are no separate records for management consultancy.

Category

Spend by Financial year

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Consultancy

7,370,397

4,657,302

3,500,291

12,283,077

20,892,135

9,754,717