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Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning
Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has had with the Secretary for Agriculture in the National Assembly for Wales on assistance for the English and Welsh shellfish industries in recovering from the impact of recent diarrhetic shellfish poisoning outbreaks. [34533]
Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the economic, employment and environmental impact of recent outbreaks of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning in the UK. [34535]
Mr. Morley: None. The devolved Administrations have responsibility for making such assessments in their own areas. In England, we have, at the request of the Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries Committee, made provision under the Thames Estuary Cockle Fishery Order 1994 for greater flexibility in the management of the fishery to help minimise the impact of any closures on local cockle fishermen.
Legislative Reform (Cruelty to Animals)
Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to propose reform and legislation relating to cruelty to animals, with particular reference to the tethering of horses. [34756]
Mr. Morley: Under the Protection of Animals Act 1911, it is an offence to cause a horse, ass or mule unnecessary suffering including as a result of the manner or conditions in which it was tethered.
The Department is currently reviewing the legislation relating to the welfare of captive and domestic animals, including that which affects the tethering of horses. More information about the review can be found at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/animalwelfare/ letter.htm.
CAP Spending (Euros)
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much per year has been spent in euros at current exchange rates in the EU as a whole on the common agricultural policy in each of the last five years. [34679]
Mr. Morley: The following table give the cost of the common agricultural policy throughout the EU at current exchange rates.
14 Feb 2002 : Column 650W
| FEOGA years | Cost of the CAP in euros (millions) | Cost of the CAP converted into pounds (millions) at £/euro = 0.6163 |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 39,108 | 24,102 |
| 1997 | 40,675 | 25,068 |
| 1998 | 38,748 | 23,881 |
| 1999 | 39,541 | 24,369 |
| 2000 | 40,435 | 24,920 |
Water Sports
Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when DEFRA-funded research into water-based sport and recreation was discussed by (a) the Environment Agency Board and (b) each regional fisheries, ecology and recreation advisory committee. [34963]
Alun Michael: An information paper was presented to regional fisheries, ecology and recreation advisory committees at the time the DETR research was commissioned (2001). The final report to DEFRA has only just been published and the summary report will be provided to Committees for the April 2002 round of meetings. The report may subsequently be referred to the agency board.
Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) if she will request the Environment Agency to make a comparative study of arrangements for access to water for non- powered craft in other European countries; and if she will make a statement; [34957]
- (2) what assessment she has made of the compatibility of angling and canoeing activities on waters where there is a statutory right of navigation; and if she will make a statement. [34956]
Alun Michael: In December 2001 we published the findings of research into the facts about water-based sport and recreation. The report, "Water-Based Sport and Recreation: the facts", considered the relations between users including anglers and canoeists. The research did not extend to examining the provision of access to water in other European countries.
DEFRA officials will shortly be meeting the other sponsors of the research (British Waterways, the Countryside Agency, the Countryside Council for Wales, the Environment Agency and Sport England) and other interested Government Departments. In the light of those decisions I shall consider what further work or action we may need to undertake in the light of the report's findings.
Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list new access agreements to moving water for canoeists in England and Wales reached in each of the last 10 years. [34958]
Alun Michael: Such information is not held by this Department or its agencies. However, the report, "Water-Based Sport and Recreation: the facts", found that there were formal access agreements on 812 km of major inland rivers that are not public navigations. Over two thirds of agreements are either for the angling closed season or periods of less than one month.
14 Feb 2002 : Column 651W
Organic Farming
Mr. Rendel: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what progress she has made in increasing organic food production as a proportion of total UK food production; [34665]
- (2) what plans she has to set a target for the proportion of farmland to be farmed organically. [34666]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 8 February 2002]: We have made a significant amount of money available to assist farmers to convert to organic production and will continue to do so. In April 1999 we introduced the Organic Farming Scheme offering greatly increased rates of aid compared to the previous scheme. Since then the area of land under organic management in England has risen from 0.6 per cent. to 1.7 per cent. of agricultural land. And we have budgeted expenditure of £140 million over the lifetime of the England Rural Development Programme, which should triple the area under organic management by 2006; however, the Government do not have any plans to set a specific target for proportion of land to be farmed organically. The development of the UK organic sector will be carried forward in the context of an organic food and farming action plan once the recommendations of the Policy Commission on the future of Farming and Food have been taken into account.
Genotype Errors
Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 29 January 2002, Official Report, column 241W, on genotype errors, if she will list the different types of errors that were discovered upon the retesting of the samples. [34863]
Mr. Morley: The errors which occurred at LGC were as follows:
- Problems with the bar code reader on the robot handling the samples resulted in manual interventions which in turn caused errors in the identification of samples;
A second robot was misaligned and this resulted in the incorrect transfer of samples, causing errors in the identification of samples;
There were two sets of problems with the main testing methodology used by LGC. The first caused delays but not errors. The second was a technical problem with the assay. The latter resulted in the false reading of three samples.
Fisheries
Mrs. Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 31 January 2002, Official Report, column 409, on fisheries, if she will make a statement on whether the effort distribution set out in the proposal for the cod and hake recovery programme will be directly linked to the quota distribution scheme as under the present Relative Stability keys. [35881]
Mr. Morley: In their proposals for measures for the recovery of cod and hake stocks, the Commission envisage that the allocation of permitted effort between member states should be based on relative fishing effort by each member state's fleet over the reference period 1998–2000. The Commission proposals effectively leave the distribution of the national effort allocation within each member state to national discretion.
14 Feb 2002 : Column 652W
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress her Department has made in securing the effective UK management control over fishing effort within the (a) six and (b) 12-mile limit from the UK's coastline. [35264]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 11 February 2002]: A decision on the six and 12-mile limits will be taken as part of the CFP review in 2002. Previous discussions in the Council of Ministers have revealed a very strong consensus among member states in favour of renewing the present provisions; the commission is also known to support them. For my part, I shall be making every effort to get the limits made permanent.
Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many fishermen there were and what the value of fish caught by the fishing industry was in each relevant constituency in each year since 1990. [34869]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 11 February 2002]: Data are not available by constituency. However estimates of the number of fishermen from 1994 by district and the value of fish landed by UK vessels over 10m in length for the major UK ports are published in UK Sea Fisheries Statistics available in the Library of the House.
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 29 January 2002, Official Report, column 242W, if (a) the whole £6 million decommissioning scheme funds will be paid through her Department's account and (b) the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Objective 1 budget will be fully restored. [35293]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 12 February 2002]: It is in the public interest for grant payments under the fishing vessel decommissioning scheme to be co-financed by EU funds, and we will therefore draw on the available EU finance. Under the Community requirements the EU contribution for vessels which under the scheme are Cornish must be set against the total allocation of EU funds for the Cornish Objective 1 fisheries programme for the 2000–06 period. this arrangement was agreed by the Objective 1 programme monitoring committee for the decommissioning scheme.
This process does not reduce the availability of the £5 million funds which we have made available for fisheries for the period 2001–02 to 2003–04 under the Cornish programme. Only £1 million of this provision has so far been committed through projects approved by the Objective 1 Working Group. I welcome the work being undertaken by the fisheries task force to develop a strategy for future expenditure in Cornwall.
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