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Women (Agriculture)
Jackie Ballard: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what funding is available from the European Union for schemes to help women into agriculture. [70258]
Mr. Rooker: I am not aware of any EU Schemes which provide funding specifically to help women into agriculture. However, EU funding for measures designed to promote employment in special occupational areas is available under Objective 3.
Jackie Ballard: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has for the United Kingdom to take part in the European Union scheme to help women enter into agriculture. [70259]
Mr. Rooker: I have no plans to take part in any schemes designed to help women enter agriculture.
Public Consultations
Dr. Lynne Jones: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish his Department's collation and assessment of responses to all the Government's public consultations. [69768]
Mr. Morley: It is my Department's practice to make responses to consultations available on request. For some consultations summaries of the responses are produced, and may also be put in the Library of the House or on the MAFF website. Key issues of concern raised during consultations are included in the Regulatory Impact Assessments which accompany any new legislation which either imposes a cost on, or reduces costs to, business. The next Departmental Report will contain a summary of the better regulation aspects arising from consultations during 1998.
Pigs
Mr. Laurence Robertson:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what discussions he has
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had with European Union farm ministers about (a) the treatment of pigs during farming and (b) the production methods of pig farming; and if he will make a statement. [69506]
Mr. Morley
[holding answer 8 February 1999]: No negotiations have taken place on these matters in the Council of Ministers, because the European Commission has not yet brought forward its overdue proposals to update EU welfare standards for pigs. We will continue to press for proposals, which must at least meet the standards currently applying to the UK, to come forward as soon as possible.
Mr. Letwin:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what tests are carried out by port health authorities on poultry imports from countries outside the E.U. [69486]
Mr. Rooker
[holding answer 8 February 1999]: Live poultry may be imported into the EU only from approved third countries from flocks which are subject to regular disease monitoring. Member States are notified about all such imports and documentary, identity and physical checks are carried out at the point of entry. Similarly, poultry meat may only be imported from third countries, and from establishments in those third countries, which are approved by the European Commission. On arrival at a Border Inspection Post in the Community the documents and identity of every consignment of poultry meat must be checked. At least 50 per cent. of consignments must also be subject to physical checks to ensure that they are fit for their intended purpose.
Mr. Swinney:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the evidence to date of maternal transmission of BSE. [70177]
Mr. Rooker
[holding answer 9 February 1999]: SEAC's conclusions on maternal transmission were given in its statement of 16 April 1997. This information was published in MAFF News Release 108/97 on 18 April 1997, which can be accessed on the MAFF website at--http://www.maff.gov.uk/maffhome.htm. The News Release is also available to all Members in the Library of the House.
There is no new evidence which calls these conclusions into question.
Mrs. Browning:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many hectares of urban land he intends to be covered by his Department's scheme for woodland and tree planting on derelict land. [70229]
Mr. Morley
[holding answer 9 February 1999]: The Government's Forestry Strategy for England, published last December, identifies the opportunity to increase significantly the level of planting of woodland on derelict land, and puts forward a series of actions to achieve this. However, we have not set specific targets.
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Dr. David Clark:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the average percentage increase in salaries of non-industrial civil servants, excluding members of the senior civil service, in his Department for 1998-99; and to what extent the pay awards were staged. [69522]
Mr. Morley
[holding answer 9 February 1999]: Since 1996 MAFF has had delegated authority for negotiating pay settlements. For the last pay round the core MAFF settlement included Pesticides Safety Division and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
The headline pay settlement was 2.7 per cent. on the paybill. Together with the additional funds from staff turnover this settlement allowed performance related increases with an overall cost of 4.2 per cent. and one-off structural changes worth 0.5 per cent. of the paybill.
Pay awards were not staged.
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and food is also responsible for other Executive Agencies with their own negotiating remits. I have asked their Chief Executives to respond direct with information on their pay settlements.
Letter from Peter Stanley to Dr. David Clark, dated 11 February 1999:
Letter from P. W. Greig-Smith to Mr. David Clark, dated 11 February 1999:
Letter from Sarah Nason to Dr. David Clark, dated 8 February 1999:
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The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply, in respect of the Central Science Laboratory (CSL), to your question concerning the average percentage increase in salaries of non-industrial civil servants and to what extent the pay awards were staged.
Since 1996 CSL has had delegated authority for negotiating pay settlements.
CSL operates a performance related pay system which links pay awards to job performance. It is therefore not possible to provide a single average figure which is meaningful. For 1998/99, pay increases for satisfactory performers ranged from 3.5% to 5.4% with a few exceptional performers receiving an additional accelerated pay progression of 6%. For some unsatisfactory performers, no pay increase was received.
Pay awards were not staged, being paid in full with effect from 1 August 1998.
The Minister has asked me to reply to your question on the average percentage increase in salaries of non-industrial Civil Servants, excluding members of the Senior Civil Service, in his Department for 1998-99 and to what extent the pay awards were staged. I am replying on behalf of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS).
CEFAS operates a performance-related pay system which links pay awards to job performance. It is therefore not possible to provide a single average figure that is meaningful. For 1998/99 the performance pay increases of satisfactory performers ranged from 2.39% to 7.21% with an underpinning minimum increase of 3.00% or £400, whichever was greater. Unsatisfactory performers received no increase.
The average 1998/99 pay increase for non-industrials at CEFAS was 4.08%. Payments were not staged, being paid in full with December salaries.
Mr. Elliot Morley has asked me to reply, in respect of the Farming and Rural Conservation Agency (FRCA), to your question about the average percentage increase in salaries of non-industrial civil servants, excluding members of the senior civil service in 1998/99, and to what extent the pay awards were staged.
FRCA has had delegated authority for negotiating pay settlements since the Agency's launch in April 1997. Payment date within the Agency is 1 August each year. The headline pay settlement for 1998/99 was 2.0% on the paybill and together with the additional funds from staff turnover, staff in post received performance related increases averaging 4.0%. The increases were not staged.
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