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British Waterways
Mr. Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to visit rivers managed by British Waterways. [11555]
Mr. Meacher: My noble Friend Lord Whitty visited the River Trent at Nottingham with British Waterways on 22 October. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has no current plans to visit rivers managed by British Waterways, but would like to do so at a future date if practicable.
Livestock Welfare Disposal Scheme
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to change the level of the payments made under the livestock welfare disposal scheme; and if she will make a statement. [11740]
Margaret Beckett [holding answer 1 November 2001]: My noble Friend Lord Whitty announced new rates of payment on Monday 29 October, applicable to applications posted on or after 30 October.
Agriculture
Mrs. Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her estimate is
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of the total financial support from public funds for (a) United Kingdom and (b) English agriculture (i) directly and (ii) indirectly in each year since 1990–91. [12808]
Mr. Morley: The table provided gives estimates of (a) expenditure on CAP market support measures and (b) direct payments to the agricultural sector in the UK from 1990–91 to 2000–01. Equivalent data for England could be provided only at disproportionate cost. In any case, expenditure on market support measures, eg export refunds and intervention stock costs, could not be meaningfully allocated to particular regions.
| Of which: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total public expenditure on agriculture in the UK | Expenditure on CAP market support measures | Expenditure on direct payments to the agriculture sector | |
| 1990–91 | 1,910 | 1,262 | 647 |
| 1991–92 | 1,959 | 1,183 | 776 |
| 1992–93 | 2,003 | 1,050 | 953 |
| 1993–94 | 2,869 | 1,076 | 1,792 |
| 1994–95 | 2,512 | 454 | 2,058 |
| 1995–96 | 2,897 | 457 | 2,440 |
| 1996–97 | 4,318 | 1,621 | 2,697 |
| 1997–98 | 3,583 | 1,281 | 2,302 |
| 1998–99 | 3,482 | 1,013 | 2,469 |
| 1999–2000 | 3,161 | 710 | 2,451 |
| 2000–01(f) | 3,182 | 761 | 2,421 |
Hill Farmers
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the (a) number and (b) percentage of hill farmers in England who have second jobs outside farming; and if she will make a statement. [12698]
Mr. Morley: Our information on farmers with second jobs is incomplete and limited to farms of sufficient size to occupy a full-time farmer. From the data which are available, we believe that the proportion of such hill farmers in England with second jobs off-farm is in line with the national average for all 'full-time' farms of just under 10 per cent.
Animal Health Bill
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she has taken to consult (a) the farming community, (b) conservation groups and (c) the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on the Animal Health Bill. [12346]
Margaret Beckett [holding answer 5 November 2001]: To ensure that we are prepared for any emergency we have had to act swiftly in preparing this legislation. There has not therefore been time to consult our stakeholders in the way that we normally would.
We nevertheless intend to consult representatives of those who are affected by these measures on how they will apply in practice. On foot and mouth disease in particular we will be consulting on the detail of the disease risk assessment, which is central to the new arrangements for compensation on infected premises.
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On TSEs, the national scrapie plan was subject to consultation in July 2000. That exercise indicated that genotyping would become compulsory at a future unspecified date. We will, however, consult organisations representing the sheep industry about the detailed use that should be made of the new compulsory genotyping powers and their timing.
Fuel Poverty
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the numbers of fuel poor households in England containing people aged 60 years or over under each of the definitions set out in the draft fuel poverty strategy; what estimate she has made of the number of older fuel poor households who are not eligible for a grant under the new home energy efficiency scheme; and what measures she will take to help these households improve their energy efficiency. [12431]
Mr. Meacher: The two main definitions of fuel poverty used are:
- (a) A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income on all household fuel use.
- (b) A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income (excluding housing benefit and income support for mortgage interest) on all household fuel use.
The table uses data from the 1998 English House Condition Energy Follow-Up Survey (EFUS) to show the estimated number of fuel poor households aged 60 or more in social and private sector housing.
| Number of fuel poor households aged 60 or more in social sector housing | Number of fuel poor households aged 60 or more in private sector housing | |
|---|---|---|
| Using definition (a) | 0.5 | 1.4 |
| Using definition (b) | 0.8 | 1.5 |
All fuel poor households in the social housing sector will be assisted by the separate housing programmes designed to bring all such properties up to decent standard by 2010.
Following a transition period, the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (now marketed as the Warm Front Team) is now solely focused on private sector housing. All households aged 60 or more living in this sector and in receipt of one of the main income or disability-related benefits are eligible for assistance from HEES.
Neither the 1996 English House Condition Survey, nor the 1998 EFUS, collected enough information to estimate the number of fuel poor households aged 60 or more in private sector housing that are ineligible for HEES as they do not receive an income or disability-related benefit. Such households are eligible for other assistance with energy efficiency, for example, through improvements under programmes operated by energy suppliers under the Energy Efficiency Standards of Performance (EESoPs) until 31 March 2002, and the Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) from 1 April next year, and may be eligible for improvement grants from local authorities.
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My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is also considering measures to encourage those aged 60 or more to claim the benefits to which they are entitled. These would further reduce the number of older households that are in fuel poverty but may not be eligible for HEES.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the (a) number and (b) percentage of English households containing people who are aged 60 years or over and claiming a means-tested benefit which are fuel poor under the two definitions set out in the draft fuel poverty strategy. [12430]
Mr. Meacher [holding answer 6 November 2001]: The two main definitions of fuel poverty used are: (a) A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income on all household fuel use.
(b) A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income (excluding housing benefit and income support for mortgage interest) on all household fuel use,.
Using data from the 1998 English House Condition Energy Follow-Up Survey (EFUS) it is estimated that the total number of fuel poor households aged 60 or more was 1.9 million under the definition at (a); or 2.3 million using the definition at (b).
Neither the 1996 English House Condition Survey nor the 1998 EFUS collected enough information to allow an estimate to be made of the number of fuel poor households that are in receipt of an income-related benefit. The 2001 EHCS will be the first to allow such an estimate to be made, with the initial results expected in autumn 2002.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the number of households containing people aged 60 years and over in England who do not have central heating, and the (a) number and (b) percentage of such households which are fuel poor under the two definitions set out in the draft fuel poverty strategy. [12432]
Mr. Meacher [holding answer 6 November 2001]: Using data from the English House Condition Energy Follow-Up Survey (EFUS), the table sets out the estimated number of households that in 1998 did not have central heating. It also shows the number of these regarded as fuel poor against the two main definitions:
(a) A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income on all household fuel use.
(b) A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income (excluding housing benefit and income support for mortgage interest) on all household fuel use.
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| Group | Number of households |
|---|---|
| Total number of households aged 60 or more in England | 6.5 |
| Total number of households aged 60 or more in England that do not have central heating | 1.7 |
| Total number of households aged 60 or more in England that do not have central heating and are regarded as fuel poor using the definition at (a) above | (29)0.8 |
| Total number of households aged 60 or more in England that do not have central heating and are regarded as fuel poor using the definition at (b) above | (30)0.9 |
(29) 47 per cent. of all households aged 60 or more that do not have central heating.
(30) 53 per cent. of all households aged 60 or more that do not have central heating.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much of the £260 million of funding for the home energy efficiency scheme has been spent on people living in fuel poverty. [16118]
Mr. Meacher: The Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (HEES) was launched on 1 June 2000 and is designed to tackle the problem of fuel poverty. It offers packages of insulation and heating improvements to those households most vulnerable to cold-related ill health: low-income older people, families with children, the disabled and the long-term sick.
The scheme does not attempt to assess whether each individual householder falls within the definition of fuel poverty, which would be impractical. Instead it assumes that receipt of one of the main income or disability benefits suggests that the household may be at risk. It is therefore not possible to identify how many of the 250,000 householders assisted to date were in fuel poverty at the time. However, we are confident that they were vulnerable to cold-related ill-health and at risk of fuel poverty.
A study of the scheme is planned over the next two years and will provide information on the nature of the householder assisted.
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