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Electoral Pilots

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions whether local authorities operating electoral pilots for the May 2002 local elections involving all-postal ballots will be required to (a) ensure that ballot papers are fully accessible to visually impaired voters through the use of (i) standard ballot papers which conform to clear print guidelines, (ii) tactile templates, and (iii) notices in alternative formats and (b) offer visually impaired and other print disabled people an alternative means of casting a secret ballot independently. [19846]

Dr. Whitehead: The criteria for assessing applications to conduct electoral pilot schemes at the May 2002 local elections include the criterion that no elector, including anyone who is visually impaired, should be disadvantaged in casting their vote in any proposed pilot compared with the standard procedure for conducting elections. We will consider any alternative means for visually impaired electors to vote in secret provided the basic principles for secrecy of the ballot are maintained.

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Visually Impaired Voters

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what steps his Department is taking to ensure that electoral administrators comply with the duty to display at least one large print notice and have available a voting template for the benefit of visually impaired voters at every polling station in the May 2002 local elections; and what assessment he has made of the availability of these devices at the 2001 General Election. [19847]

Dr. Whitehead: Returning officers are under a legal duty to display a large print ballot paper and to provide a voting device for the visually impaired in each polling station. Any returning officer failing to comply may, therefore, be subject to prosecution. The Home Office ensured that sufficient voting templates were available to every returning officer free of charge to supply each polling station at the 2001 General Election.

Public Service Agreements

Brian White: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what progress is being made in concluding local public service agreements. [21426]

Mr. Raynsford: The national roll-out phase of local PSAs is now under way. Almost 120 local authorities have said they want to take part in the programme over the next two years. We have signed the first of these further agreements with East Riding of Yorkshire council, and expect to sign agreements with Leeds city council, Peterborough city council and Buckinghamshire county council before Christmas. Copies of local PSAs will be placed in the House Library as they are concluded.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Livestock Markets

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of loss in (a) turnover and (b) tax revenue caused by the closure of livestock markets. [19741]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 4 December 2001]: The Department is working to establish the economic losses resulting from the closure of livestock markets. The tax revenue losses from closure are very uncertain.

Rural Bus Services

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 28 November 2001, how many rural households were within 10 minutes walk of an hourly bus service in (a) 1992 to 1994, (b) 1995 to 1997 and (c) 1998 to 2000. [20703]

Alun Michael: It is not possible to provide figures of numbers of households because the appropriate total numbers of households in rural areas for multiplying up the proportions are not available. Rural areas are all areas which are not defined as urban areas, plus urban areas with a population less than 3,000, as defined by the 1991 census. Information on the proportion of households within 10 minutes walk of an hourly bus service (based

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on information from the National Travel Survey) was provided for the hon. Member on 21 November 2001, Official Report, columns 327–28W, by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North (Ms Keeble).

Energy Policy

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what submission her Department has made to the performance and innovation unit's inquiry into long-term energy policy. [18238]

Mr. Meacher: The Department submitted six papers to the performance and innovation unit's energy review, all of which can be seen on its website. The papers are entitled: Introduction and Projections Methodology; Low Carbon Options for the Domestic Sector; Scope for Demand Side Measures in Industry; Energy Projections for the Service Sector; Transport Energy Efficiency; and Additional Savings and Associated Costs. I am a member of the advisory group to the review, and my Department has also been in regular contact with the unit throughout the review.

Animal Holdings

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many holdings in each of the last 10 years had (a) one animal, (b) two to five animals, (c) five to 10 animals, (d) 10 to 100 animals, (e) 100 to 200 animals and (f) more than 200 animals. [20715]

Mr. Morley: Number of main holdings in England by animal size group is provided in the table.

Animal size groups

	1	2–5	6–10	11–100	101–200	201 and over	Total
1990	537	3,438	3,878	34,806	17,148	37,885	97,692
1991	569	3,586	3,930	34,644	16,850	37,160	96,739
1992	665	3,677	3,988	34,849	16,689	36,745	96,613
1993	779	3,825	4,161	34,864	16,557	36,414	96,600
1994	745	3,874	4,080	34,495	16,446	36,164	95,804
1995	593	3,173	3,517	32,891	16,177	35,102	91,453
1996	589	3,279	3,447	32,254	16,162	34,524	90,255
1997	648	3,036	3,207	32,657	15,647	34,192	89,387
1998	645	2,995	3,381	31,433	15,337	33,984	87,775
1999	476	3,291	3,311	31,070	15,200	33,640	86,988
2000	665	4,088	3,510	27,372	13,649	31,650	80,934

Note:

Animals include total cattle and calves, total pigs, total sheep and lambs, total goats and farmed deer (except for 1990 where no figure for farmed deer is available).

Source:

June Agricultural and Horticultural Census (main holdings only).

Trade Effluent

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 2 July 2001, Official Report, column 46W, on trade effluent, if she will answer all the questions listed. [20691]

Mr. Meacher [holding answer 4 December 2001]: In my answer of 2 July 2001, Official Report, column 46W, I informed my hon. Friend that the information he

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requested was not held centrally. I now have this information which I am pleased to make available to him. The following tables contain this information.

The total number of prosecutions for breaches of trade effluent discharge consents between 1 April 1999 and 31 July 2001 is 21, with total fines of £141,500. Unfortunately no information is available for 1998 as records only began in April 1999.

Environment agency region/sector	Total fines (£)
Anglian
None	None
Midlands
None	None
North East
Food Processing	32,000
Mining/quarries	500
Local authority	1,500
North West
Brewery	9,500
Board Manufacturer	10,000
Timber Merchants	2,000
Mining/quarries	4,000
Paper Manufacturers	17,500
Southern
Food Processing	14,000
Mining/quarries	2,000
Food Processing	2,000
South West
Textiles	2,000
Mining/quarries	1,000
Food Processing	3,000
Mining/quarries	500
Mining/quarries	(41)—
Thames
Brewery	9,000
Wales
Water	4,000
Water	2,000
Water	10,000
Energy	15,000

⁽⁴¹⁾ 3 year conditional discharge

Percentage

	Compliance of discharge consents in force
Environment agency region	1998	1999	2000
Anglian	73.5	74.3	78.6
Midlands(42)	83.5	85.9	84.7
North East	85.9	86.5	83.8
North West	88.6	86.4	82.3
Southern	62.8	59.6	70.7
South West	49.2	61.3	61.9
Thames	87.0	84.2	86.5
England	80.1	81.5	79.5
Wales	77.3	52.2	71.8
All regions	79.6	78.3	78.5

⁽⁴²⁾ Midlands Region data for 1998 and 1999 are for all trade discharges as it is not possible to breakdown this historic data to significant discharges only

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	Percentage of consents in force monitored
Environment agency region	1998	1999	2000
Anglian	91.1	92.8	87.3
Midlands	82.5	72.8	66.6
North East	45.7	45.0	49.2
North West	73.5	58.5	61.6
Southern	77.7	77.3	56.0
South West	100.0	91.0	80.4
Thames	93.5	87.4	59.2
England	74.8	69.1	64.1
Wales	62.2	72.9	89.8
All regions	72.7	69.6	67.3

	Percentage of trade discharge consents reviewed
Environment agency region	1998	1999	2000
Anglian	2	1	1
Midlands	5	6	19
North East	2	2	2
North West	3	5	2
Southern	9	17	9
South West	12	8	14
Thames	35	18	18
England	7	6	9
Wales	15	20	19
All regions	8	8	10

	Percentage of discharge consents containing red list substances
Environment agency region	1998	1999	2000
Anglian	7.0	6.1	6.1
Midlands	3.0	2.8	5.1
North East	2.2	2.3	2.2
North West	3.9	2.8	0.7
Southern	12.2	16.3	9.9
South West	11.6	9.7	8.5
Thames	4.0	3.5	2.9
England	4.6	4.2	4.4
Wales	0.5	0.8	0.8
All regions	4.0	3.8	3.9

	Number of industrial discharge consents in force
Environment agency region	1998	1999	2000
Anglian	313	374	378
Midlands	1,186	1,329	680
North East	982	958	950
North West	559	675	586
Southern	188	141	232
South West	362	442	541
Thames	277	317	377
England	3,867	4,236	3,744
Wales(43)	740	531	528
All regions	4,607	4,767	4,272

⁽⁴³⁾ The figure for 2000 is an estimate, accurate data are unavailable

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