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ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Greenhouse Gases

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs by what factor each of the other greenhouse gases is more damaging than carbon dioxide. [29616]

Margaret Beckett: The Global Warming Potential (GWP) for each greenhouse gas measures its effectiveness at global warming over the next 100 years compared to CO ₂ . For example, an emission of 1 tonne of methane (CH ₄ ) will have a warming effect over the next 100 years that is 21 times greater than the warming produced over that time scale by an emission of 1 tonne of CO ₂ .

The following table shows the UK emissions of the greenhouse gases in 1999 (latest complete annual figures), the GWP of each of the gases and the amount of CO ₂ that would produce the same warming.

Direct greenhouse gases	Emissions in 1999 (kT)	GWP (100 years)	Equivalent kT of CO2
CO 2 (carbon dioxide)	547,800	1	547,800
CH 4 (methane)	2632	21	55,266
N 2 0 (nitrous oxide)	138	310	42,890
HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons)	2.749	560–12100	6,206
PFCs (perfluorocarbons)	0.098	6000–7400	678
SF 6 (sulphur hexafluoride)	0.055	23900	1,314

Flood Defence

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she expects to publish proposals for change to flood defence funding and related administrative arrangements. [27540]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 16 January 2002]: This Department is finalising a public consultation document about future funding of flood defence and related institutional and administrative arrangements with a view to issuing it as soon as possible.

Parliamentary Questions

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many answers to parliamentary questions have not been answered by her Department under exemption 13 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information in each year since 1994. [29420]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 22 January 2002]: As the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was created on 8 June 2001, the information requested is not available.

Circuses

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will review the regulations governing the use of animals in circuses; and if she will make a statement. [30205]

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Mr. Morley: A review of the legislation which might apply to animals kept by man for enjoyment, sport, companionship or farming purposes is taking place. The regulations relating to circus animals are included in the review. Further details of the review can be found on the DEFRA website www.defra.gov.uk.

Correspondence

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will reply to the letters of 28 September and 31 October from the hon. Member for Buckingham on behalf of his constituent, Mr. David Body. [17065]

Mr. Morley: A response to the hon. Member's letters of 28 September and 31 October were sent on 20 November 2001 and 14 January 2002 respectively.

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the hon. Member for West Chelmsford will be given a reply to his letter of 12 June 2001 to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which was transferred to her Department on 18 June, concerning Dr. Reza Hussain of St. John's hospital, Chelmsford. [26357]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 15 January 2002]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 23 January 2002, Official Report, column 928W.

Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the total external spend by his Department was on Private Finance Initiative consultants in each of the last four years; how many full-time equivalent consultants were employed over this period; how many billed consultancy days there were per year; what the implied average cost of each PFI consultant was; how many consultancy firms were used by his Department over this period; and if he will make a statement. [31030]

Mr. Morley: The Department has been in existence only since June 2001. Information covering earlier periods is therefore not available, and could be constructed retrospectively only at disproportionate cost.

Empty Properties

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her estimate is of the (a) annual cost and (b) total value of the empty properties owned by (i) her Department, (ii) her agencies and (iii) other public bodies for which she has had responsibility in each of the last four years. [30081]

Mr. Morley: The information requested is set out in the tables. As the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was created on 8 June 2001, this relates to the former Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The Department does not hold centrally information about properties occupied by non-departmental public bodies.

Under Treasury guidelines, Departments have up to three years or more to dispose of surplus properties to ensure that the best possible price is obtained. The values of some empty properties will, therefore, be included in more than one of the total annual values shown.

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Estimated annual cost⁽¹⁸⁾ of empty core DEFRA properties

	£ million
2000–01	1.47
1999–2000	0.88
1998–99	3.26
1997–98	2.26

⁽¹⁸⁾ Includes rent or capital charge, service charges and rates, plus estimated maintenance, facilities management, and marketing costs based on average property values.

Estimated total value⁽¹⁹⁾ of empty core DEFRA properties

	£ million
2000–01	10.6
1999–2000	9.8
1998–99	12.5
1997–98	16.0

⁽¹⁹⁾ Based on Valuation Office Agency capital valuation or actual sale price

Estimated annual cost⁽²⁰⁾ of empty DEFRA executive agency properties

	£ million
2000–01	0.15
1999–2000	0.21
1998–99	0.25
1997–98	0.00

⁽²⁰⁾ Includes rent or capital charge, service charges and rates, plus estimated maintenance, facilities management, and marketing costs based on average property values.

Estimated total value⁽²¹⁾ of empty DEFRA executive agency properties

	£ million
2000–01	2.00
1999–2000	13.4
1998–99	1.45
1997–98	1.45

⁽²¹⁾ Based on Valuation Office Agency capital valuation or actual sale price

Genotype Test Errors

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the extent of genotype test errors by laboratories undertaking work for her Department in December 2001; and if she will make a statement. [29987]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 24 January 2002]: We announced on 14 December that DEFRA's quality control arrangements had revealed errors in the genotype results sent to the owners of five flocks participating in the national scrapie plan. The results had been provided to DEFRA by LGC, a private sector laboratory. As a precautionary measure DEFRA arranged for all of the blood samples tested so far by LGC under the national scrapie plan to be re-tested. This has involved re-testing over 4,000 samples. Although we have no had re-test results for all but 163 of those samples, the re-testing exercise is not yet complete. However, the re-testing has revealed some further errors in the original tests done by LGC. The re-testing exercise will be completed as soon as possible. All flock owners affected have been kept informed, and will be given revised results where this is necessary. DEFRA has already given corrected results to the owners of the five flocks where errors were originally

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detected. LGC has acknowledged the failure of their systems and has taken remedial action. Following a detailed inspection, DEFRA is now satisfied with LGC's revised procedures, but we regard as serious the shortcomings which have occurred, and we will be closely monitoring LGC's future performance.

Definitive Map

Mrs. Dean: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to enable local authorities to deal with applications for modifications to the definitive map more rapidly. [30120]

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action she plans to take to reduce the backlog of applications for modifications of public rights of way. [30615]

Alun Michael: Following enactment of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, we have provided new funding to assist local authorities with their rights of way duties. This includes additional funding for processing applications for modifications to the definitive map. We are also funding a project, managed by the Countryside Agency, that will improve the quality of applications from the public. This should enable local authorities to process modification orders faster.

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