The Foreign Secretary’s visit includes:

• a trip to the Amazon to see first-hand the work of an animal rescue centre to tackle the illegal wildlife trade in Peru
• representing the UK at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to discuss a range of global issues with his counterparts
• vising a British Council funded pilot project in Chile which aims to advance digital literacy and coding skills particularly among female students

Peru

The Foreign Secretary’s time in Peru includes:

• visiting Iquitos, where he and the Peruvian Foreign Minister Nestor Popolizio visited an animal rescue centre to see animals rescued as part of crackdown on the illegal wildlife trade
• visiting a remote community on an island in the Amazon River to see the education challenges in Peru, where 34% of rural girls are illiterate, and launching a UK-funded solar energy project that is providing energy for the 140-pupil school
• in Lima, he visited the site of the Lima 2019 Pan American and ParaPan American Games, the world’s fourth largest sporting event in the world; the UK is already providing technical support to help deliver the Games

The Foreign Secretary said:

It’s been wonderful to see the way our relationship is developing and intensifying. We’ve discussed all the things that the UK and Peru can do together, to save endangered wildlife, to help promote the education of women and girls around the world and to build our common prosperity.

We’ve today announced an infrastructure taskforce so that UK expertise can help the Peruvians as they go forward next year to the Pan-American Games and building a wonderful new metro system under Lima.

Argentina

The Foreign Secretary has arrived in Argentina and where he will represent the UK at G20 summit.

In the first visit by a British Foreign Secretary to Argentina in 22 years, the Foreign Secretary joined Foreign Minister Faurie, Defence Minister Agaud and Security Minister Bullrich at a ceremony at the ‘Monument to the Fallen’ He. Mr Johnson laid a wreath in honour of those who died on both sides of the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict.

Previous reports

• 2014 onwards, see the APHA disease surveillance reports collection
• Before 2014, see the archived AHVLA web pages

The Environment Agency’s National Coarse Fish Farm near Calverton, Nottinghamshire, is continuing to break records for producing healthy fish for re-stocking.

These fish play an important role in the work of the Environment Agency and its partners to restore, improve and develop sustainable fisheries in England.

In 2017 the fish farm produced 9 tonnes of strong healthy fish, an increase from the 6 tonnes produced in 2016.
Over the 12 months the farm bred more than 350,000 fish, with the average size and quality of each fish increasing on previous years.

In 2017, Calverton Fish Farm also stocked out over 6,000,000 advanced reared larvae back into the wild. Some of these larvae were introduced into waters where natural reproduction has previously been poor. They help to give the resident fish populations a boost to become self-sustainable in the future.

The main reasons for stocking Calverton-bred fish and larvae are: replacing stocks lost to pollution or following habitat or water quality improvements; improving stocks where natural reproduction is low; and helping to create fisheries in areas where there is a shortage of angling opportunities.

Kevin Austin, Environment Agency Deputy Director Agriculture, Fisheries and the Natural Environment said:

The work of Calverton fish farm is funded by income from fishing licence fees so it’s great to see it continuing its work producing the healthy fish needed for recovery and re-stocking.

Alan Henshaw, Calverton Fish Farm Team Leader said:

We’ve achieved increases in weight by improving the growing conditions for the fish and by mixing the species up more to find groups that grow well together. Having a highly dedicated and professional team that are producing fish of such high quality is also key to the success of Calverton.

Our annual production of fish by overall weight has more than doubled since 2013. This is a huge increase and a great achievement on the part of the team. Production of these bigger, stronger, fitter, disease-free fish means that they are better able to cope with life in the wild when we release them.

When they reached 18 months old, the 358,552 fish produced in 2017 were restocked into rivers, lakes and ponds as part of re-stocking programmes across England.

The fish breeding process is complex and involves the team at Calverton removing the sperm and eggs by hand from the fish. The eggs are laid out in specialist trays and placed inside troughs, where they receive a fresh, temperature controlled water supply. The eggs are incubated for between three and 30 days depending on species and when the eggs have hatched, the larvae are fed with tiny shrimp.

Notes to editors
In 2017, the number of each species of fish released was:

• Barbel – 10,020

• Bream – 46,910

• Chub – 57,359

• Roach – 70,525

• Dace – 47,818

• Rudd – 12,280

• Tench – 23,080

• Crucian carp -16,560

• Grayling – 74,000

The Environment Agency’s National Coarse Fish Farm near Calverton, Nottinghamshire, is continuing to break records for producing healthy fish for re-stocking.

These fish play an important role in the work of the Environment Agency and its partners to restore, improve and develop sustainable fisheries in England.

In 2017 the fish farm produced 9 tonnes of strong healthy fish, an increase from the 6 tonnes produced in 2016.
Over the 12 months the farm bred more than 350,000 fish, with the average size and quality of each fish increasing on previous years.

In 2017, Calverton Fish Farm also stocked out over 6,000,000 advanced reared larvae back into the wild. Some of these larvae were introduced into waters where natural reproduction has previously been poor. They help to give the resident fish populations a boost to become self-sustainable in the future.

The main reasons for stocking Calverton-bred fish and larvae are: replacing stocks lost to pollution or following habitat or water quality improvements; improving stocks where natural reproduction is low; and helping to create fisheries in areas where there is a shortage of angling opportunities.

Kevin Austin, Environment Agency Deputy Director Agriculture, Fisheries and the Natural Environment said:

The work of Calverton fish farm is funded by income from fishing licence fees so it’s great to see it continuing its work producing the healthy fish needed for recovery and re-stocking.

Alan Henshaw, Calverton Fish Farm Team Leader said:

We’ve achieved increases in weight by improving the growing conditions for the fish and by mixing the species up more to find groups that grow well together. Having a highly dedicated and professional team that are producing fish of such high quality is also key to the success of Calverton.

Our annual production of fish by overall weight has more than doubled since 2013. This is a huge increase and a great achievement on the part of the team. Production of these bigger, stronger, fitter, disease-free fish means that they are better able to cope with life in the wild when we release them.

When they reached 18 months old, the 358,552 fish produced in 2017 were restocked into rivers, lakes and ponds as part of re-stocking programmes across England.

The fish breeding process is complex and involves the team at Calverton removing the sperm and eggs by hand from the fish. The eggs are laid out in specialist trays and placed inside troughs, where they receive a fresh, temperature controlled water supply. The eggs are incubated for between three and 30 days depending on species and when the eggs have hatched, the larvae are fed with tiny shrimp.

Notes to editors
In 2017, the number of each species of fish released was:

• Barbel – 10,020

• Bream – 46,910

• Chub – 57,359

• Roach – 70,525

• Dace – 47,818

• Rudd – 12,280

• Tench – 23,080

• Crucian carp -16,560

• Grayling – 74,000

Sanglier Limited, a Kirkby in Ashfield based Company specialising in the manufacture and distribution of adhesives and paints, has paid £37,000 to a charity for not meeting the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007.

The Company paid £37,450 to an environmental charity to compensate for not meeting their obligations under the Producer Responsibility (Packaging Waste) Regulations for the years 2005 – 2015.

The company made a pro active Enforcement Undertaking offer after it became aware that it was obligated under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulation 2007. The Environment Agency investigated further and found that the company had failed to register as a producer of packaging, and failed to meet its requirements to recover and recycle packaging waste between 2005 and 2015. The Company registered for the first time in September 2016 with a compliance Scheme after it realised that it was obligated under the regulations.

The Enforcement Undertaking offer included payment to an environmental charity of £37,450 plus payment of the Environment Agency’s costs It has also put in place robust measures to ensure that non-compliance does not happen again.

Joanne Weston, Regulated Industry Officer said:

Sanglier Ltd acknowledged they had failed to comply with the legislation and it is good to see that the costs they avoided by not complying are going directly to a charity for environmental improvement.

In any enforcement undertaking, the person or company’s offer should restore or remediate the harm caused by the incident where possible. For producer responsibility offences this is achieved by making a financial contribution to a recognised environmental charity or project to achieve environmental benefit. The offender must also demonstrate they will change their behaviour and ensure future compliance with environmental legislation.

Sanglier Limited donated £37,450 to the Campaign to Protect Rural England. The donation will be used to fund an initiative designed to motivate and support volunteers across the UK to take action against litter. It was also fund litter picking equipment for use by its volunteers and maintenance costs for the charity’s new website.

In addition to other enforcement tools the Environment Agency can choose to accept an offer of a civil sanction in appropriate cases as an alternative to prosecutions.

Civil sanction include Enforcement Undertakings which can be a cost-effective way for some businesses to mitigate for less serious environmental offences, rectifying the harm caused by way of a financial donation designed to improve the environment. Failure to comply with the enforcement undertaking may result in the person or company being prosecuted for the original offence/s.

Details of Enforcement Undertakings accepted by the Environment Agency can be found on GOV.UK.