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BSE

19. Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her oral answer of 15 November 2001, Official Report, column 962, on BSE, when the chairman of SEAC wrote to Professor Ebringer; and what the outcome was. [20575]

Mr. Morley: The chairman of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee wrote to Professor Ebringer in September inviting him to attend a future meeting of the committee. The SEAC secretariat has subsequently written to Professor Ebringer inviting him to attend the next SEAC meeting in February 2002.

Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority

20. Mr. Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions she has had with the Greater Manchester waste disposal authority. [20576]

Mr. Meacher: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has had no recent discussions with the Greater Manchester waste disposal authority.

Countryside and Rights of Way Act

21. Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the progress made with implementation of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. [20577]

Alun Michael: We are making good progress. Consultation began last month on the first draft maps showing where the new right of access to open country and registered common land might apply. We shall shortly publish the first of a series of consultation papers on the Act's rights of way provisions and we are working closely with English Nature to improve the condition of Sites of Special Scientific Interest. We expect to lay regulations on vehicular access over common land early in the new year.

Combined Heat and Power

22. Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on her strategy for the combined heat and power industry. [20578]

Mr. Meacher: The Government fully recognise the difficult circumstances facing the UK CHP industry at present, as my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer made clear in his pre-Budget report. The Department is developing a draft CHP Strategy in close collaboration with other Government Departments, which we will issue for consultation early in the new year. It will set out the measures needed to achieve the Government's CHP target of at least 10,000 megawatts of Good Quality CHP by 2010.

36. Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action she is taking to increase the contribution of combined heat and power to Britain's energy supplies. [20592]

Mr. Meacher: The Department is developing a draft CHP Strategy in close collaboration with other Government Departments, which we will issue for consultation early in the new year. It will set out the measures needed to achieve the Government's CHP target

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of at least 10,000 MW of Good Quality CHP by 2010. As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer made clear in his pre-Budget report, the DTI has consulted on the impact of the first few months of the New Electricity Trading Arrangements on smaller generators and Government are considering the means by which any concerns could be addressed. Subject to legal and other constraints, the Government will also consider the environmental case for providing more favourable treatment for CHP within the CCL, taking account of the role which CHP might play in meeting the UK's climate change targets.

Meat Imports

24. Matthew Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to reduce illegal imports of meat products and improve the Government's inspection activities. [20580]

Mr. Morley: DEFRA officials are co-ordinating a number of initiatives, involving interested Government Departments and local authority enforcement bodies, aimed at ensuring that rules for importing animal products are enforced effectively and efficiently. We have already taken action to improve publicity to travellers about import rules, to improve the collection and analysis of information about illegal imports and to use that information better to target enforcement activity. We are keeping these measures under constant review and we are looking at a wide range of other options for improvements, including, for example, the use of sniffer dogs, X-ray machines, on-the-spot-fines and changes to administrative structures.

Landfill

26. Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent representations she has received concerning her policy on landfill. [20582]

Mr. Meacher: Government policy on landfill was set out in the Second Consultation Paper on Implementation of the EC Landfill Directive. Consultation has now closed and we received over 100 responses from the waste management industry, waste producers, local government, environmental groups and members of the public. The representations received have informed our drafting of the regulations that will implement the directive and that we hope to lay before Parliament shortly.

Livestock Industry

27. Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has for the regeneration of the British livestock industry following the foot and mouth epidemic. [20583R]

Mr. Morley: DEFRA's objectives are to create a livestock production sector which is sustainable, competitive, responsive to consumer demands and founded on high animal health and welfare standards.

To ensure sustainability we need to have regard to environmental limitations and market limitations. We continue to argue the case for decoupling EC beef and sheep payments from production to enable producers to align their livestock numbers to the carrying capacity of their land and to the likely markets for their produce.

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Better marketing is needed to shorten the supply chain between producer and consumer. This should enable producers to be both more competitive and to respond to consumer tastes.

DEFRA is determined to develop a coherent strategy for the identification and tracing of animals to enable diseases to be tackled more effectively and to ensure consumer confidence in animal products. We are also launching the National Scrapie Plan, which is a long-term programme for breeding genetic resistance to scrapie and BSE into the national sheep flock.

Fridge Recycling

28. Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the recycling of fridges. [20584]

Mr. Meacher: Although EC Regulation No. 2037/2000 now requires the recovery of CFCs and HCFCs from foam, this had not been the original intention under the proposal for a regulation published by the European Commission in August l998. The text prepared by the commission only required the recovery of ozone depleting substances from foam "if practicable". The language in the relevant article was changed during negotiations shortly before the draft regulation was agreed by the Environment Council in February 1999. The UK raised this issue at a number of meetings with the commission and other member states in order to seek clarification. However, it was not until June this year that the commission finally clarified that the regulation requires the CFCs and HCFCs to be removed from foams found in waste refrigerators for destruction.

From 1 January 2002, the EC Regulation on Ozone Depleting Substances will require 'controlled substances' (including CFCs) in coolants and in insulating foam to be removed before recycling or reclamation of domestic refrigerators units. Waste refrigeration units will need to be stored until suitable domestic processing facilities come on-line. The Department has issued guidance on CFC extraction plant and guidance on the storage of waste refrigeration equipment, prior to CFC extraction. The Department's website http://www.defra.gov.uk. also contains information on the requirements of the regulation.

We have recently announced an extra £6 million in the local government finance settlement to help local authorities with the extra costs of dealing with fridges to the end of this financial year. We are urgently assessing the impacts of the regulation and will determine what further action will be necessary beyond that.

34. Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department is taking to ensure that local authorities are able to deal with recycling of refrigerators in accordance with EC Regulation 2037/2000. [20590]

Mr. Meacher: The Department has written to all English local authorities to inform them of the requirements of the regulation. More recently we have written again to issue guidance on the storage of waste refrigeration equipment, prior to CFC extraction, and to provide information for householders disposing of fridges and freezers.

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We have recently announced an extra £6 million in the local government finance settlement to help local authorities with the extra costs of dealing with fridges to the end of this financial year. We are urgently assessing the impacts of the regulation and will determine what further action will be necessary beyond that.

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