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TRADE AND INDUSTRY
End of Life Vehicles Directive
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will place copies of the responses to her Department's consultation paper on the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive in the Libraries of both Houses. [18469]
Ms Hewitt: A list of those who responded and a summary of their responses will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses shortly. Copies of individual responses whose authors have not requested confidentiality will be placed in the DTI library.
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what criteria she will use for the regulatory impact assessment of the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive; and if she will make a statement. [18468]
Ms Hewitt: A partial regulatory impact assessment of options for implementing the directive was contained in a DTI Consultation Paper published on 10 August 2001. A further regulatory impact assessment will be carried out in the process of finalising the method of implementation. This will identify, and quantify as far as possible, the costs and benefits of implementation, and will be drawn up in accordance with the accepted practices and procedures outlined in the Cabinet Office's published guidance.
Strategy Board
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) when she expects to appoint her Department's Strategy Board; and if she will make a statement; [18531]
- (2) what criteria will be used to select the business members of her Department's Strategy Board; [18533]
(3) what the terms of appointment of the business members of her Department's Strategy Board will be; and if members will receive remuneration. [18532]
Ms Hewitt [holding answer 27 November 2001]: I am considering all issues connected with the establishment of the new Strategy Board, including the criteria to be
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applied, terms of appointment and remuneration. I expect to make the appointments before 1 April 2002, and will announce them when they are made. We will be adopting an open and transparent procedure for making these appointments and I shall be making an announcement on this procedure in due course.
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Countryside Visits
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) for what reason the Countryside Agency Leisure Day Visits Survey (a) did not take place during 2001 and (b) will take place during 2002; [19600]
- (2) pursuant to her answer of 22 November 2001, Official Report, column 425W, on countryside visits, for what reason the United Kingdom Day Visitors Survey was not carried out in (a) 2000 and (b) 2001. [19782]
Alun Michael: The United Kingdom Day Visits Survey was not scheduled to take place in 2001. There is a biennial survey programme sponsored by 10 organisations. A survey did not take place in 2000 because of lack of resources. The 2002 survey will put the programme back on schedule.
Hunting
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the potential dangers of transmission of foot and mouth disease from the travelling of hunters from areas where hunting is still suspended to areas where the suspension has been lifted. [17970]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 26 November 2001]: Participants in hunting whose main dwelling is not in an FMD free county, or those who have visited livestock premises in an at risk or high risk county within seven days of a hunt, will not be able to take part in hunting. Hunt organisers will be responsible for certifying that these and other rules are being followed to DEFRA's satisfaction and it is intended that records will be kept of participants to ensure that these rules are enforced.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the economic impact on the rural economy of the temporary suspension of hunting. [17966]
Alun Michael [holding answer 26 November 2001]: The Department has not carried out an assessment of the economic impact on the rural economy from the temporary suspension of hunting. Our priority has been to concentrate on the eradication of the foot and mouth outbreak.
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information is required from landowners before permits are issued allowing the resumption of hunting with dogs on their land. [18383]
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Alun Michael: The arrangements for a temporary system of permits to regulate hunting with dogs in FMD free counties from 17 December were announced on 15 November and copies were placed in the Library of the House.
For the proposed permit system, landowners will not be required to submit any information to DEFRA. It will be down to the proposed permit holder and the hunt secretary or person responsible for the hunt (if different) to supply all necessary information.
Industrial Action
Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 22 November 2001, Official Report, column 422W, on industrial action, if she will list the level of payments by category that have been delayed since the dispute began. [19905]
Mr. Morley: The major impact of industrial action has been on the arable area payments scheme where normally around 60–70 per cent. of payments are made in the first two or three weeks of the payment window, which runs from 16 November to 31 January. This year the figure is expected to be a little over 50 per cent.
On the livestock schemes the industrial action has had minimal impact. To date industrial action has had limited impact on payments on England Rural Development Plan (ERDP) schemes, some targets on service standards are likely to be missed.
Agrimonetary Support
Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 23 November 2001, Official Report, column 519W, on departmental costs, if she will list the representations she has received from the European Union concerning the late payment of support moneys to farmers. [19786]
Mr. Morley: The Rural Payments Agency is in touch with the European Commission and they are fully aware of progress on CAP payments.
Research
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research is being carried out by her Department for which moneys from the budgets for (a) 2000–01, (b) 2001–02 and (c) 2002–03 have been committed. [19234]
Mr. Morley: Details of all on-going research funded by DEFRA—including the title, the contractor, the budget committed, and the start and scheduled end dates of individual projects—can be viewed on the Department's website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/research/projects. As research projects are commissioned, they are posted on the site.
Rural White Paper
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 21 November 2001, Official Report, column 321W, on local education authorities, and of
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26 November 2001, Official Report, column 690W, on educational attainment, what measures her Department plans to use to monitor headline indicator 3 on page 166 of the Rural White Paper. [19783]
Alun Michael: The Rural White Paper headline indicator 3—better education for all—will be informed by the work of the Countryside Agency on the development of its own indicators on education and training.
The agency currently reports on the attainment to national vocational qualification level 3 by those economically active within the Labour Force Survey and also pupils reaching Key Stage 2 within primary schools. The agency plans to continue working with these indicators but to supplement them by developing robust and consistent data on broader educational attainment—A levels, GCSEs—analysed and reported for rural areas.
Tuberculosis
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what changes her Department is proposing on animal movement restrictions for those herds subject to 12-month test intervals for tuberculosis; and what (a) economic and (b) animal health and welfare assessments she has made. [19896]
Mr. Morley: Veterinary risk assessment suggests that there is an increased risk of spread of bovine TB from herds where the test is overdue and that the risk is greatest in areas with a higher historic incidence of TB.
One way to minimise this risk would be to place such herds under movement restrictions until tested clear. This would entail financial losses for some of the farmers affected. Coming so soon after FMD such a decision would not be taken lightly.
DEFRA officials are assessing the levels of risk that attach to different types of herd and whether placing some herds under restriction would be proportionate. As part of this exercise officials are discussing proposals with the NFU and other stakeholders. No decision has yet been reached.
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made in the last six months of the threat of tuberculosis to (a) human and (b) animal health. [19897]
Mr. Morley: Tuberculosis in cattle is caused by the organism M. bovis and this can also cause tuberculosis in humans. Most tuberculosis in humans is caused by a different organism M. tuberculosis.
There remains a growing threat to cattle health from M. bovis TB. Provisional statistics show that last year new incidents of cattle TB were confirmed in some 1,000 herds and just over 8,300 cattle were slaughtered under disease control measures. Incidence was projected to rise by some 20 per cent. in 2001. Incidence is higher in the south west than elsewhere in England. It is not yet clear what the effect of the suspension of TB testing during the FMD epidemic has been on disease transmission within herds.
The occurrence of bovine tuberculosis in humans remains rare and runs at about 50 cases a year. There is no evidence of an upward trend. Most cases are thought to arise from re-activation of infection caught before the introduction of widespread pasteurisation of most milk
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in the 1950s or from infection caught abroad. The geographic spread of incidence in humans does not reflect the geographic spread of the disease in cattle in England. The threat of cattle TB to humans continues to be assessed as low but the situation is under regular review. The recent rise of M. tuberculosis TB in humans is of greater concern.
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