{"value":{"id":1237961,"askingMemberId":4107,"askingMember":null,"house":"Commons","memberHasInterest":false,"dateTabled":"2020-09-25T00:00:00","dateForAnswer":"2020-09-29T00:00:00","uin":"95622","questionText":"To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to make ecocide a crime.","answeringBodyId":13,"answeringBodyName":"Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs","isWithdrawn":false,"isNamedDay":false,"groupedQuestions":[],"answerIsHolding":false,"answerIsCorrection":false,"answeringMemberId":4522,"answeringMember":null,"correctingMemberId":null,"correctingMember":null,"dateAnswered":"2020-10-05T00:00:00","answerText":"<p>This Government is committed to improving the environment in the UK and internationally. Environmental laws and other safeguards are in place and monitored by effective regulators and tiers of Government.</p><p> </p><p>The Environment Bill will create a new, independent statutory body (the Office for Environmental Protection) with the principal objective of contributing to environmental protection and the improvement of the natural environment.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is also consulting on a new law designed to prevent forests and other important natural areas from being converted illegally into agricultural land. If approved, this will require a relatively small number of larger businesses to ensure that the ‘forest risk’ commodities they use – commodities that can cause wide-scale deforestation – have been produced legally.</p>","originalAnswerText":"","comparableAnswerText":"","dateAnswerCorrected":null,"dateHoldingAnswer":null,"attachmentCount":0,"heading":"Environment Protection: Crime","attachments":[],"groupedQuestionsDates":[]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Questions/1237961","method":"GET"}]}