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Food Borrowing

Mrs. Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the level of borrowing in the agricultural industry. [16039]

Mr. Morley: The latest available information is that published in Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2000 and is given in the table. Estimates for 2000 will be published in March 2002.

Total liabilities of UK agriculture£ million at current prices

Liabilities	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999(17)
	Long and medium term:
AMC, SASC, and LIC	1,168	1,215	1,288	1,321	1,381
Building Societies and Institutions	255	317	305	370	365
Bank loans	1,602	1,859	1,882	2,268	2,199
Family loans	326	357	326	409	461
Other	157	167	185	210	143
Total long and medium term	3,508	3,914	3,986	4,579	4,550
	Short term:
Hire purchase	656	744	662	546	457
Leasing	265	195	179	186	136
Trade Credit	1,283	1,378	1,175	1,214	1,155
Bank overdrafts	2,591	2,408	2,598	2,787	2,923
Other	137	152	166	176	146
Total short term	4,932	4,876	4,780	4,910	4,819
Total Liabilities	8,440	8,790	8,767	9,488	9,368

⁽¹⁷⁾ Provisional

Source:

Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2000

21 Nov 2001 : Column: 325W

Waste Recycling

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures she is taking to improve co-ordination between public bodies with special reference to local councils, over meeting the Government's waste recycling targets. [15523]

Margaret Beckett [holding answer 16 November 2000]: We provided guidance to local authorities on producing Municipal Waste Management Strategies published in March this year, which encouraged partnership working, as a key means for delivering the statutory targets on recycling.

Today, we are publishing a Consultation Paper on the distribution of £140 million of additional funding for local authority waste minimisation and recycling. In that Paper we suggest that partnership working between authorities to deliver higher recycling might be one of the funding priorities.

The Consultation Paper also consults on a mechanism for allowing local authorities to 'pool' their statutory performance standards for recycling and composting of household waste. In doing so we are responding to those local authorities who have told us that this will help to deliver partnership working.

Copies of the consultation paper are available in Libraries of the House.

Rural White Paper

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures are being used to assess the programme of protecting and enhancing the countryside as set out in Objective 11 of Table 14.1 of the Rural White Paper in relation to (a) biodiversity, (b) tranquillity, (c) heritage and (d) landscape character. [15911]

Alun Michael: The Department is working with the Countryside Agency, English Nature, English Heritage and the Natural Environment Research Council's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology to develop proposals for an indicator of change in countryside quality. Further research to develop the indicator is currently being commissioned. The research will use existing national datasets about changing countryside character, including agriculture, forestry and land use change statistics and, from Countryside Survey 2000, information on landscape features and biodiversity. New data on traditional farm buildings are being collated by English Heritage and the Countryside Agency. The research will consider tranquillity as an aspect of countryside character. It is intended that the indicator will be available for publication in 2004.

In addition we have an extensive programme for monitoring the effects of our agri-environment schemes, on biodiversity in particular.

Farm Incomes

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) total income from farming and (b) total off-farming income was in rural areas in the United Kingdom in (i) 1996, (ii) 1997, (iii) 1998, (iv) 1999, (v) 2000 and (vi) 2001. [15910]

21 Nov 2001 : Column: 326W

Alun Michael: The table provides total income from farming for the years 1996 to 2000 in real terms at 2000 prices in absolute terms and on a per head basis.

Year	UK total income from farming (TIFF) (£ million)	UK total income from farming per whole time person equivalent (£)
1996	5,612	23,279
1997	3,434	14,352
1998	2,510	10,612
1999	2,578	11,274
2000(18)	2,578	8,492

⁽¹⁸⁾ Provisional.

The forecast of UK total income from farming for 2001 will be published on 29 November 2001.

The table shows the United Kingdom off-farm income for farms where off-farm income covers income from employment or self employment away from the farm, and unearned income from investments, pensions and social payments.

Year	Total off-farm income (£ million)	Total off-farm income (£ per farm)
1996	659	5,100
1997	630	4,900
1998	669	5,300
1999	624	5,000

Note:

Figures for 2000 and 2001 are not yet available.

Rural Parishes

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the latest date for which figures are available, what proportion of parishes in the countryside were classified as (a) vibrant, (b) active, (c) barely active and (d) sleeping, stating in each case the measures used. [15912]

Alun Michael: The Countryside Agency's State of the Countryside Report 2001 set out indicators for community vibrancy using a selection of community activities such as contested parish council elections and annual events. Building on from this information preliminary work to re-evaluate the full database of parishes suggests that: 27 per cent. of parishes were vibrant, 38 per cent. active, 26 per cent. barely active and 9 per cent. sleeping.

Rural Deprivation

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of people living in rural wards in the United Kingdom were in low income bands compared to the national average in (a) 1996, (b) 1997, (c) 1998, (d) 1999, (e) 2000 and (f) 2001. [15906]

Alun Michael: The Countryside Agency is planning to establish a baseline for low incomes for the 2002 State of the Countryside Report. This will use the 1998 classification of rural wards and from late 2002 will use data on low income from the Office for National Statistics (this is the first time that data of this nature will be available). Reliable time series data for low income bands are not available for wards.

21 Nov 2001 : Column: 327W

Business Start-Ups

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many new business start-ups there were in rural areas in the United Kingdom in (a) 1996, (b) 1997, (c) 1998, (d) 1999, (e) 2000 and (f) 2001. [15909]

Alun Michael: Data on business start-ups in rural areas are not readily available. Information on VAT registrations for the year ending April 2000 indicates that there were 41,540 registrations in rural England. Information on earlier years is not available.

Rural Crime

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many cases of reported crime by category there were in rural areas in the United Kingdom in (a) 1997, (b) 1998, (c) 1999, (d) 2000 and (e) 2001. [15903]

Alun Michael: Home Office data on recorded crime in rural England for the 12 months to March 2001 are taken from the Crime Reduction Partnership Areas linked to all local authorities. Data collected in previous years cannot be directly compared as they used Basic Command Units (Police Force Administration Units) whose boundaries do not all coincide with local authority ones.

Population weighted figures—number of offences per 1,000 population were: violence 6.54, sexual 0.45, robbery 0.31, burglary (dwelling) 4.06, theft of vehicle 2.91, theft from vehicle 7.61.

Local Education Authorities

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which local education authorities in England and Wales are classified as rural. [15904]

Alun Michael: There is no classification of local education authorities. Most local education authorities which cover rural areas also contain urban areas.

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