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Oil Spills, River Mersey

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the detergents used in the clean up operations following oil spills in the River Mersey from 1980 up to the latest spill; and if he will list each detergent's constituent chemical elements. [29716]

Mr. Clappison [holding answer 20 May 1996]: I understand that neither North West Water Authority nor the National Rivers Authority used detergents as a dispersant in incidents of this kind. It is possible that other bodies may have made limited use of detergents. If this is the case, I shall write to the hon. Member with the relevant information.

AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD

Common Agriculture Policy

Mr. Cox: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what financial contribution to the European Union common agricultural policy was paid by each of the member states in 1995. [29722]

Mr. Baldry: Member states contribute to the European Community budget as a whole, and not to parts of it. A breakdown of member states' gross contributions to the European Community budget in the 1995 Supplementary and Amending Budget No. 1, Official Report L276 of 20 November 1995, page 39, a copy of which has been placed in the House Library.

Animal Feed

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the animal feed products

21 May 1996 : Column: 168

currently on sale to UK farmers which (a) include and (b) do not include a clear list of contents on the packaging. [29579]

Mrs. Browning: All compound feeds are required by the Feeding Stuffs Regulations to carry lists of ingredients either by their specific name or by category.

Meat Hygiene Service

Mr. Cohen: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what recent reports he has received about prohibited parts of cattle finding their way into the food chain; in how many cases such material had been certified fit for human consumption by the Meat Hygiene Service; what inquiry has been undertaken as to how these errors occurred; how many officials have been disciplined; what was the average length of time to identify such material; and if he will make a statement. [28459]

Mrs. Browning: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to the hon. Member for High Peak (Mr. Hendry) on 30 April, Official Report, columns 483-84.

Civil Servants

Mr. Martyn Jones: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the companies which have civil servants from his Departments as directors, and for each company, the occasions on which it has been found guilty of improper trading or misrepresentation of company financial status in the last five years. [29252]

Mr. Boswell: The following companies currently have civil servants from my Department as non executive directors under the "Guide to Non-Executive Directorships for Civil Servants":

H. R. Wallingford The Albert Fisher Group PLC Cadbury Ltd.

As to "improper trading or misrepresentation of company financial status", there are no such offences in law.

Goosanders

Mr. Hinchliffe: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many applications he has received in each of the last five years for licences to kill goosanders; how many of these were granted; and how many birds were killed. [29840]

Mrs. Browning: The information requested is as follows:

	Number of applications received	Number of licences granted	Actual number shot
January-December 1991	0	0	0
January-December 1992	0	0	0
January 1993-April 1994	11	7	39
May 1994-April 1995	28	0	0
May 1995-March 1996(9)	25	5	(10)2

Statistics on licences are now collated for the period 1 May to 30 April., Prior to 1994, figures were collated on a calendar year basis.

(9) Latest information available.

(10) Provisional figures.

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Mr. Hinchliffe: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the assessment of damage to fisheries underlying each licence to kill goosanders issued in 1996; what other methods were evaluated to tackle the problem; and if he will make a statement. [29842]

Mrs. Browning: Where licences were granted to shoot a limited number of goosanders as an aid to scaring, the Ministry was satisfied that serious damage was being caused to the fisheries. A wide range of alternative non-lethal scaring methods had been tried, for example, gas and rope bangers, rockets, horns, shooting blanks, human presence, but were found to be ineffective.

Fishing Vessels (Decommissioning)

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what has been the total cost to public funds of all registered fishing vessels decommissioned over each of the last five years; [30366]

(2) what plans he has to promote further decommissioning of the United Kingdom's registered fishing vessels. [30367]

Mr. Baldry: There were no UK decommissioning schemes in 1991 and 1992. The 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96 schemes have cost £7.8 million, £8.8 million and £9.6 million respectively.

In the light of experience with these schemes, a consultation paper was issued seeking views on possible improvements to the arrangements. These are reflected in the details of the 1996-97 scheme announced on 9 May, for which some £13 million is available. There is currently provision of up to £12 million for a further scheme in 1997-98.

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the number of United Kingdom registered vessels fishing for demersal species in the North sea over the past five years together with the total size of the demersal catch, the total value of the demersal catch and the number of demersal vessels decommissioned during each of the last five years for which figures are available. [30365]

Mr. Baldry: Figures showing the landed quantity and value of demersal fish, including nephrops, caught in the North sea, ICES area IV, for the years 1991-1994 inclusive are given in table 1.

These include species for which there is no mandatory reporting requirement in respect of fishing activity. Moreover, fishing activity is generally recorded in terms of total effort deployed by stocks and area. Extracting the information requested about numbers of vessels would involve disproportionate cost and fail to give a complete picture of activity in relation to all demersal species in the North sea.

Table 2 gives details of the number of vessels decommissioned in each round of the current programme by broad demersal segment.

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Table 1: Landings of demersal species, including nephrops, by the UK fleet of catches in the North Sea: quantity and value

	1991	1992	1993	1994
	Total demersal (including nephrops)
Tonnes liveweight	202,603	215,132	142,339	249,715
Thousand.	215,948	209,873	225,705	237,756

Table 2: UK fishing vessels decommissioned in the last 5 years; number by demersal segment

	Decommissioning scheme for:
Vessels over 10 metres overall length	1993	1994	1995
Segment
Beam trawl	4	8	6
Demersal trawl/seiners	84	109	54
Nephrop trawl	17	8	0
Lines and nets	9	24	33

Fishing (Irish Box)

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many fishing vessels from other EU member states have fished in the Irish box since 1 January; which EU flags they were flying; what is the estimate of the tonnage caught by these vessels; and what were the principal ports where they landed their catches. [30368]

Mr. Baldry: The Irish box comprises waters which fall within both British and Irish fishery limits. Information about the total number of fishing vessels from other member states which have fished in the Irish box since 1 January 1996, the tonnage of fish caught by these vessels and the principal ports at which that catch was landed is not available on a systematic basis.

New regulations to monitor fishing effort in western waters including the Irish box came into operation on 1 January this year. They apply to vessels over 18m in overall length, 15m between perpendiculars, with effort ceilings being set for the over 18m fleet of each member state by the principal types of fishery other than those for pelagic fish. Vessels over 18m from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom are permitted to fish in the Irish box within the effort ceilings which have been set. The number of Spanish vessels permitted to fish in the Irish box is limited to a maximum of 40 at any one time.

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