Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

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What's New

• Energy efficiency and fuel poverty: Inquiry re-opened and Special Report published

The Committee has decided to re-open its inquiry into energy efficiency and fuel poverty.

The Committee had discontinued this inquiry after the Prime Minister created a new Department of Energy and Climate Change on 3 October. Responsibility for fuel poverty, previously shared between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, passed to the new Department. As the EFRA Committee’s main role is to scrutinise the work of Defra it felt this was no longer within its remit. However, a subsequent decision by the House means a new Energy and Climate Change Committee, which will focus on the work of the new Department, will not be set up until January 2009.

Chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee the Rt Hon Michael Jack said: “The recent rapid rise in fuel prices along with the Prime Minister’s announcement in September of a package of measure designed to enable households to improve the energy efficiency of their homes made the need for scrutiny of these issues a pressing one. The Committee feels it should re-open this inquiry now instead of waiting to see if it is a subject picked up by the new Committee in January.”

The Committee has published a Special Report containing the written evidence the Committee received on energy efficiency and fuel poverty. The Special Report was published on Thursday 6 November. (Reference HC 1099 of Session 2007–08).

For further details please see press notices dated 16 October 2008 and 6 November 2008.

• Waste Strategy for England 2007: Oral evidence sessions

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee will hold the following oral evidence sessions in relation to its inquiry into Waste Strategy for England 2007:

Wednesday 19 November 2008
3.00pm ASDA, John Lewis Partnership and Brecknell Willis
3.40pm Bovis Lend Lease and Constructing Excellence

Monday 24 November 2008
4.30pm Campaign to Protect Rural England and Encams
5.00pm British Soft Drinks Association and British Retail Consortium
5.30pm Rt Hon Jane Kennedy MP, Minister for Farming and the Environment, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

For further details please see press notice dated 6 November 2008.

• CHANGE IN COMMITTEE STAFF

For the information of those individuals and organisations who are in regular contact with the staff of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, there has recently been a change in Committee staff.

Clerk of the Committee

The former clerk of the Committee, Mr Chris Stanton, moved to the House of Commons Public Bill Office at the end of October. His replacement will be Mr Richard Cooke, a career clerk in the House of Commons, who takes up post on 3 November. His contact details are Tel: 020 7219 3263 and email: cooker@parliament.uk.

Current Inquiries

Badgers and cattle TB: the final report of the Independent Scientific Group on cattle TB (Oral evidence concluded; Report and Gov't Response published 23rd July 2008; Gov't response as memorandum published 9 October 2008;  Report published 27 February 2008)

Defra's Departmental Report 2008 (Oral evidence concluded)

Defra science (Inquiry announced)

Energy efficiency and fuel poverty (Inquiry re-opened; Special Report published 6 November 2008)

English pig industry (Oral evidence concluded)

Waste Strategy for England 2007 (Oral evidence in progress)

Recent Inquiries

British Waterways: follow-up (Further Report published 1 July 2008; Gov't Response published 15 October 2008; Report published 31 July 2007; Gov't Response published 17 October 2007)

Climate change: international climate policy post-2012 (Inquiry discontinued)

Climate change: the "citizen's agenda" (Oral and written evidence published 29 April 2008. Report published 13 September 2007; Gov't Response published 18 December 2007)

Committee on Climate Change (Oral and written evidence published 21 May 2008)

Draft Marine Bill: Coastal Access Provisions (Report published 22 July, Gov't Response issued September 2008)

Defra's Departmental Report 2007 and Defra priorities (Oral and written evidence published 17 July 2008)

Flooding (Report published 7 May 2008; Gov't Response published 8 July 2008)

Implementation of the Nitrates Directive in England (Report published 10 June 2008; Gov't Response published 14 October 2008)

The potential of England's rural economy (Report published 29 October 2008)

Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 (Report published 14 May 2008; Gov't Response published 24 July 2008)

Inquiries by subject

Environment | Food, Farming and Fisheries | Land Use and Rural Affairs | Animal Health and Welfare and Veterinary Services | Administration and Associated Public Bodies