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Tallow (Support Fuel)
Mr. John Cryer: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much tallow produced as a by-product of rendering under the over-30 month scheme contracts is used as support fuel. [107932]
Ms Quin: As at 31 December 1999 some 86,165 tonnes of tallow produced from the rendering of animals under the over-30-month scheme had been burnt in rendering plants as replacement fuel.
Organic Farming
Mr. Breed: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total (a) number and (b) value of grants made under the organic farming scheme since its introduction. [107561]
Mr. Morley: Since the introduction of the Organic Farming Scheme in April 1999, 693 applications have been approved with a grant value of £7.9 million for the current financial year and a forecast value of £9.4 million for the remaining years of the Scheme. A further 483 grant applications are being processed.
Tom Lang's Craft Butchers, Ashburton
Mr. Steen: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will grant a square stamp licence to Henry Lang of Tom Lang's Craft Butchers and Abattoir in Ashburton for a throughput of 50 units per week. [106057]
Ms Quin [holding answer 31 January 2000]: This abattoir is licensed as a low throughput slaughterhouse, which allows a maximum throughput of 20 livestock units per week. It has sought licensing as a full throughput slaughterhouse to allow a higher weekly throughput, but recently contacted MAFF officials and advised them that it no longer wishes to seek this status. The abattoir is instead pursuing, in close consultation with MAFF officials, an option under the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995 (as amended) which allows low throughput slaughterhouses to deal with up to 30 livestock units per week, provided certain conditions are met.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Departmental Expenditure Limit
Mr. Michael J. Foster: To ask the President of the Council what proposals she has to amend the House of Commons Departmental Expenditure Limit for 1999-2000. [108471]
Mrs. Beckett:
Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate for Class XVIII, Vote 4 (House of Commons: Members Salaries etc) the House of Commons Departmental Expenditure Limit for 1999-200 will be increased by £3,311,000 from
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£273,236,000. The increase is the net effect of increases in financial assistance to Opposition parties and other current expenditure.
The increase will be a charge on the DEL Reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.
Mr. Gordon Prentice:
To ask the President of the Council if she will place in the Library the instructions and terms of reference of the contract placed with PricewaterhouseCoopers to advise on persons suitable for membership of the second chamber. [107620]
Mrs. Beckett:
PricewaterhouseCoopers Executive Search and Selection have not been employed to advise on persons suitable for membership of the second chamber. They have been employed to assist in the recruitment of the Chairman and three independent members of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
The invitation to tender document sent to PricewaterhouseCoopers by the Cabinet Office included relevant passages from the White paper 'Modernising Parliament Reforming the House of Lords', a draft remit of the Appointments Commission and a draft job and person specification. PricewaterhouseCoopers used this document as the starting point of their work.
I have placed a copy of the 'invitation to tender' document and the standard terms and conditions of the Cabinet Office in the Library.
Mr. Dismore:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department in relation to criminal cases that can be tried either way in the magistrates or Crown courts, if he will say, for each of the last three years (a) how many cases in which the defendant elected for trial in the Crown court resulted in a plea of guilty at the Crown court, (b) in relation to the cases, identified at (a), how many defendants were on legal aid, (c) what was (i) the total, (ii) the highest and (iii) the medium cost to the legal aid budget of the cases identified at (b), and (d) what he estimates the cost to the legal aid system would have been, for the statistics identified at (c), if the cases identified at (a) had been tried on a guilty plea in the magistrates court. [107846]
Mr. Lock:
The information required is not held centrally by the Department and could, therefore, be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Field:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many letters he has received since 1 May 1997 on (a) constituency matters and (b) other matters of Government policy from each of those Members of the House who have not taken the oath of allegiance. [108399]
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Mr. Lock:
Information in respect of correspondence between hon. Members and Departments is treated in confidence unless the originating hon. Member chooses to make this public. It is not therefore possible to provide the information requested.
Mr. Ben Chapman:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what proposals he has to amend the Lord Chancellor's Department's departmental expenditure limit and running costs limit for 1999-2000. [108980]
Mr. Lock:
Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate for Class V, Votes 1, 2 and 3 the Lord Chancellor's Department Departmental Expenditure Limit for 1999-2000 will be increased by £26,934,000 from £2,421,244,000 to £2,448,178,000. The increase is the net effect of a transfer for £505,000 from the Department of Social Security relating to the costs of recruiting and re-appointing panel members for Unified Appeals Tribunals; a transfer from the Reserve for £25,000,000 in respect of the additional legal aid costs following implementation of the Narey reforms; a transfer to the Home Office for £200,000 in respect of a contribution towards the costs of the IBIS (Integrating Business and Information Systems) Criminal Justice System Unit; and take up of End Year Flexibility entitlement in the sum of £1,629,000.
The running cost limit for Lord Chancellor's Department Class V, Vote 1 will be increased by £23,167,000 from £502,203,000 to £525,370,000. The increase is in respect of a £380,000 transfer from the Department of Social Security relating to costs in respect of recruiting and re-appointing panel members for the Unified Appeals Tribunals; a £200,000 transfer to the Home Office in respect of a contribution towards the cost of the IBIS Unit; an increase of £695,000 to meet additional costs of the ARAMIS PFI project, an increase of £19,550,000 following reclassification of expenditure as a result of the impact of the changes in ESA 95; and an increase of £2,742,000 following a transfer from other current expenditure to meet the additional costs in respect of Asylum and Immigration.
The running cost limit for Northern Ireland Court Service, Class V, Vote 2 will be increased by £679,000 from £29,960,000 to £30,636,000. The increase is as a result of take up of End Year Flexibility entitlement.
The running cost limit for Public Records Office, Class V, Vote 3 will be increased by £2,908,000 from £25,842,000 to £28,750,000. This increase is as a result of a £900,000 increase funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, in respect of a project to microfilm World War One Soldier's documents; a £200,000 increase relating to expenditure on wholesale publishing and book purchases, which is funded by additional wider market receipts generated by retail sales; a £950,000 increase in respect of End Year Flexibility entitlement; a £2,558,000 increase to meet additional costs in respect of Capital Charges on the Civil Estate, and a £1,700,000 reduction following virement into capital expenditure relating to developments in online services.
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The increases will be offset by a transfer from the Department of Social Security Departmental Expenditure Limit, a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and charges on the DEL Reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.
Mr. Cawsey:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he will publish proposals for reform of the Broadcasting Act; and if he will make a statement. [108981]
Mr. Chris Smith:
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and I propose to publish a White Paper later this year setting out the Government's proposals for reform of the framework of communications legislation. This will include proposals for changing both the Telecommunications and Broadcasting Acts as a basis for legislation when parliamentary time allows. The White Paper will accordingly be broad in its scope, covering both infrastructure and content issues. It will draw on responses to the options for reform of the broadcasting and telecommunications framework set out in the Government's June 1999 statement "Regulating Communications: The Way Ahead" and will take full account of emerging conclusions from the current review of the European Union regulatory framework for communications. The work will be taken forward by a joint DTI/DCMS team to ensure a coherent and consistent approach to the regulation of the converging communications industries.
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