AQW 23136/17-22

Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 24/09/2021
Answered On Date: 06/10/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for an update on his Department’s plans to introduce Pollution Prevention and Control Farm Permits.

Answer:

Currently any farm rearing poultry or pigs intensively in an installation with more than:

(i)40,000 places for poultry;

(ii)2,000 places for production pigs (over 30 kg); or

(iii)750 places for sows.

must operate under the conditions set out in a Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) Permit, issued by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).

There are no plans to extend the current PPC regime pertaining to the pig and poultry sectors. Defra’s Clean Air Strategy (2019) states that action will be taken to extend environmental permitting to the dairy and intensive beef sectors in England by 2025. The forthcoming Ammonia Strategy consultation will take views on the appropriateness of an equivalent approach in Northern Ireland.