Who doesn’t want to build a Rocket Car? I certainly do, and I was really pleased (understatement) to be able to undertake the Rocket Car Accreditation Training that will enable me to teach young people how to build and launch their own Rocket Car. In fact, I have never been so excited over a bit of foam before!

My bit of foam..

Number 11

You started by either drawing on paper, or the block of foam and then cut away the excess and then shaped with sandpaper to the design you want. No blueprint, you just used your imagination and whatever aerodynamics skill you had. There were so many different designs being built. You could not help but marvel at some of the designs. But the questions on everyone’s lips were will it go fast, or at least faster than someone else!

Tables full of rocket cars!

Once our cars were ready, it was off to the track to have a little friendly competition to see how fast our Rocket Cars could go down a 50m track. Before we could launch our cars, we all learned how to set up the speed capture equipment and how the car rockets were ignited. As we will have to do this for real when we work with the young people.

Setting up the speed capture kit

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I cannot wait till day two of the training…

Defra is very aware that migrant workers from other EU countries will be one of the complex issues that will have to be resolved as part of our exit negotiation and future relationship with the EU.

We are currently working with colleagues across government to understand the issues and explore options.

The transit of whale meat through UK and EU ports remains a point of concern for the UK. Alongside other EU Member States, we have continued to push the European Commission to look at the scope for collective action within the EU.

This is a complex issue involving complying with international trade rules, however, leaving the EU will present us with an opportunity to consider this issue from a different perspective.

I can confirm my department currently does not have the facility to allow staff to join a credit union through payroll deductions. Staff can still make arrangements to contribute to a credit union via direct debit.

In leaving the EU, we will need to update the terms of our WTO membership where, at present, our commitments are currently contained in the EU’s schedule. We recognise the need to work with the EU and with other WTO Members in order to ensure a smooth transition which minimises the disruption to our trading relationships with other WTO Members, including developing country Members and our closest trading partners.

As the Secretary of State for International Trade said in his Written Ministerial Statement on 5th December “the Government will prepare the necessary draft schedules which replicate as far as possible our current obligations”. We do not intend to alter the scope of concessions currently enjoyed by WTO members. While this is largely a technical process, there are a number of areas where we will need to consult with other WTO members.

The EU currently notifies over 120 tariff rate quotas in agriculture and a further 19 non-agriculture tariff rate quotas. There can be several tariff rate quotas within a single sector such as beef or sugar, for different products and different countries which export to the EU and UK. We do not currently assess tariff rate quotas by economic value: they are defined and administered according to the volume rather than the value of imports. All tariff rate quotas which other countries use to export to the UK, however, will be important to them, and important to the industry affected.

The most recent notification for the EU domestic support in agriculture is for the marketing year 2012/13.

The total aggregate measure of support notified was €5.9bn. This is overwhelmingly market price support which is only calculated for the EU as a whole and not for individual member states. The products with the largest notified support are:

Product

Aggregate Measure of Support

Butter

€2,743m

Common wheat

€1,865m

Skimmed milk powder

€1,145m

Wine

€696m

Milk

€192m

Ethyl alcohol

€82m

Sugar

€59m

Bee keeping

€43m

Olive oil

€18m

Fibre flax and hemp

€7m

We meet regularly at Ministerial and official level with representatives of the industry to discuss key issues and opportunities for the UK dairy sector.

I am aware of concerns regarding recommendations on the consumption of dairy products in the Eatwell Guide produced by Public Health England (PHE) in March 2016. PHE has prepared a report detailing the approaches, methods and decisions made in developing the Eatwell Guide. The report “From Plate to Guide: What, why and how for the Eatwell model” is available on the PHE website.

Clare Moriarty (Permanent Secretary) is the diversity champion on Defra’s departmental board.

The Government introduced diversity champions as part of the Talent Action Plan (TAP) commitment to have champions in all departments. The Government uses diversity champions to provide an overall insight for all protected characteristics, including LGBT, Race, Religion or Belief, Gender, Disability, Social Mobility, Age, Carers, Gender Reassignment etc.

The Bloodhound Project is a British led endeavour to break the world land speed record of   1,000mph in South Africa. The project is not just about breaking a record, but to inspire the next generation to enjoy, explore and get involved in STEM subjects. You can find out more HERE.

Cornwall is very lucky in that the Bloodhound is coming here to do some major test before it embarks on its journey to South Africa. Not wanting to lose this fantastic opportunity, I am keen for young people in Cornwall to be part of that history. It will be the chance to see first-hand engineering at the highest level and a great opportunity to get students excited about STEM.

Therefore, we at Cornwall Council want our young people to be part of the model rocket car competition. This will enable young people to work as a team and get hands on experience of programming and aerodynamics in one of the most fun ways possible.

Credit: Flock and Siemens

So far, 3,672 children from 94 schools, including children Elective Home Educated across Cornwall have registered to take part in a model rocket car competition being staged as part of the Bloodhound Project.

Children from schools across Cornwall will compete as part of 918 teams at approximately five race HUBs.  The goal is simple – the two fastest primary and secondary teams to compete in the model rocket care competition open days being held during February and March 2017 will be invited to the regional finals in March 2017.  The fastest primary and secondary team at each regional final will then go to the finals in June.

The winning team nationally will get an all-inclusive trip to South Africa to spend a week with the BLOODHOUND race team, plus a cash prize of £1,000.

This builds into one of the key priorities in Cornwall Council’s Education Strategy and its Raising Aspirations and Achievements Strategy (RAAS) is to secure high quality provision, widen local opportunities and promote equalities.  The Council has been working with local partners to bring this project to Cornwall to help meet this priority and to encourage more of our young people into STEM related subjects. I hope by the Bloodhound coming to Cornwall, it will inspire young people to be engineers of the future.

For me, I get to be one of the rocketeers and will be doing the Rocket Car Accredited Training over the next few days. I am very excited to be doing this!!

More information about the project is available from http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/education

Information on the total amount of current and capital expenditure on services by organisation in Yorkshire and the Humber is publicly available on gov.uk as part of the Country and Regional Analysis statistical release. This information covers 2011-12 through to 2015-16 and can be found at the following web link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2016

Information specifically on spend on staffing in Yorkshire and the Humber can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Defra is working with the Department for International Trade to deliver a shared International Action Plan, launched in October, to drive exports of British food and drink. This will be supported by a campaign under the ‘Food is GREAT’ pillar to encourage UK producers, throughout the supply chain, to export more and to build global recognition of UK excellence in food and drink.

Year on year food prices have continued to fall, with a 2% fall over the last 12 months, according to the most recent official Consumer Prices Index (CPI) figures released on 13 December. General inflation is 1.2 per cent, up from 0.9 per cent in October. Food prices rose by 0.4% in the month to November 2016. However, overall, food prices have fallen by 7% since their peak in February 2014.

Commodity prices, exchange rates and oil prices are known to be the most important drivers of retail food price inflation.

This Government is committed to tackling poverty and disadvantage and to delivering real social reform, and we believe that economic growth and employment offer the best route to give people a better future. Household spend on food by households with the lowest 20% income is included in the Living Cost of Food Survey (LCFS) and has remained constant at around 16.5% for a number of years. The Government helps the most vulnerable afford and have access to nutritious food though initiatives such as the Healthy Start scheme and Free School Meals, and through the welfare system.

My term of office as your Cornwall Councillor nearly up as there will be elections to Cornwall Council on May 4th. No official list of candidates seeking election has been finalised, but many of the political parties have named their candidate to fight this election.

This blog post is officially confirming my intent to stand and seek re-election as an Independent to the electoral division of Porthleven and Helston West at the May election.  I hope residents will consider me for a further term of office.

As part of the review of animal establishment licensing schemes, the Government is proposing to remove the licence exemptions in the Pet Animals Act 1951. These exemptions are for those in the business of selling either pedigree animals that have been bred by them or the offspring of an animal that has been kept by them as a pet, for instance, the offspring of their non-pedigree pet cat. We will be publishing our ‘Next Steps’ document on the proposals shortly.

We received the letter to which the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West refers on 22 December, and you can expect a reply imminently.

Just before Christmas the Government made an announcement that it had created a fund to help those areas will a high number of second-homes. The funding is allocated between local authorities proportionate to the number of holiday homes in the local area and taking account of the affordability of housing to local people.The amount of money available nationally is £60m. From this pot, Cornwall Council will receive £5,117,980.

Whilst I welcome this money, it is not really going to deal with the issue of second-homes. I long campaigned for any second-home or holiday-let to require planning permission before it could change from full-time occupation. In this campaign, I submitted a Motion to Cornwall Council which was fully supported to ask the Government to change the planning rules. Details of that Motion can be found HERE. Yet the Government dismissed the Council’s Motion and letter (blogs on second-homes HERE).

How can the £5m allocated to Cornwall Council be spent? In essence, the fund will enable local community groups deliver affordable housing units of mixed tenure on sites which are likely to be of little interest to mainstream house-builders. Being honest, getting developers to build is not a problem, the problem is what happens to those open market dwellings after they are built.

Furthermore, in the Governments own words, this funding will “contribute to the overall national effort to boost housing supply.”

From the Government’s message, it seems to tackle second-homes is to build more housing. This will not solve the problem. The problem can be mitigated against if there was a change to planning legislation. For instance, you cannot change a business unit into a home without planning permission. The same rule should apply for both second-homes and holiday-lets.