This was a cracking interview of Rebecca Pow, DEFRA minister, by Emma Barnett on Woman’s Hour on Thursday. We moved through plastic bags, plastic waste exports to Turkey, tree-planting v HS2, road building, coal mines, trade deals with Australia and where to go on holiday. It was robust, tough but pretty fair, and went to…
Tag: Defra
Richard Benyon returns to DEFRA
Richard Benyon, the toffish ex-MP returns to DEFRA as a Lords Minister. DEFRA now has two lords a-leaping and with Zac G being unpaid, it rather looks like a strange BOGOF deal. As a minister in the upper house Lord Benyon will have to answer difficult questions from the likes of Baroness Bennett and others…
DEFRA #omnishambles on peat – who briefed ministers?
Further to this morning’s blog on DEFRA admitting to being clueless about where the 40cm peat (that they claim they are wanting to protect) can be found, here is another perplexing information response to the talented Guy Shrubsole. I’ve missed a few things out of the fairly long response but not anything material as far…
DEFRA #omnishambles publishes review of general licences
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Wild Justice challenged general licences in England in winter 2019 Natural England withdrew those licences in spring 2019. DEFRA reintroduced very similar licences in summer 2019. DEFRA held a consultation on general licences in autumn 2019. DEFRA published the consultation responses and its views on them in spring 2021. And they represent pretty poor analysis…
DEFRA #omnishambles doesn’t have a clue – for peat’s sake!
In response to an information request about DEFRA’s knowledge of peat resources, following their scandalously abject policy measure to restrict burning on peatlands, this was received (not by me, I am grateful to the excellent and talented Guy Shrubsole). The most interesting paragraph, although it is all riveting of course, is this one: We do…
#peatfreeapril
I’m one of a pile of signatories to this letter to George Eustice, Secretary of State for DEFRAomnishambles. Most of the other signatories know a lot more about peat and gardening than I do, but I can tell you that my enthusiasm for growing tomatoes, generated in lockdown last year, means that I know how…
Don’t trust DEFRA
Do you remember this blog published on 12 September? It featured this question and answer in parliament; I wrote to my MP on this matter in mid September and he passed my concerns on to DEFRA in late September, to which they replied in a letter dated 5 February for which Mr Pursglove wrote a…
I’ve only just found this site – useful
The Parallel Parliament website looks very useful – I’ve only just found it. You can find information about departments – such as DEFRA; … MPs and peers, Here’s my MP; … and up to date information on petitions, such as this one on Badgers; This petition information is right up to date (except the only…
DEFRA statement on heather burning
England’s ‘national rainforests’ to be protected through new legislation to prevent heather burning on blanket bog The government has today announced plans to bring forward legislation to prevent the burning of heather and other vegetation on protected blanket bog habitats. The new regulations will prevent the burning of any specified vegetation on areas of deep peat (over 40cm depth) on…
What now, DEFRA?
Yesterday’s announcement by the Scottish government makes DEFRA look like it is still run by throwbacks to the Edwardian era. No DEFRA minister with responsibility for wildlife conservation has ever condemned wildlife crime in the terms that we heard from the Scottish government yesterday; not Richard Benyon, not Rory Stewart, not Therese Coffey and not…