---

Refrigerator Insulation Foam

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer given by the Minister of State for the Environment on 31 January 2002, Official Report, column 414, if she will place in the Library the correspondence between the Government and the European Commission regarding the removal of chlorofluorocarbons from the insulation foam of refrigerators. [34531]

Mr. Meacher: There have only been two pieces of correspondence related to this specific issue exchanged between UK officials and the European Commission. All the other instances referred to in my reply given to the hon. Member on 31 January 2002, Official Report, column 414, were either in the form of minuted discussions at Management Committee on EC Regulations 3093/94 and 2037/2000 or in the margins of another meeting. Since the minutes of Management Committee are produced by the European Commission, we understand that we are not in a position to be able to place them in the Library.

I have today placed in the Libraries of the House, a faxed letter of 11 September 2000 and a letter of 30 January 2001 from a UK official dealing with the EC Regulation on substances that deplete the ozone layer to officials at the European Commission.

Badgers

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her latest estimate is of the badger population. [34504]

Margaret Beckett: There are likely to be in the region of 300,000 to 400,000 badgers in Great Britain. This figure is derived from the National Badger Survey which took place in the mid-1990's.

Angling Licences

Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what angling licences are granted for waters where there is a statutory right of navigation. [34953]

Mr. Meacher: Anyone aged 12 years or over who fishes for salmon, trout, freshwater fish or eels in England and Wales must have an Environment Agency rod fishing licence. Rod licences are required for fishing in both navigable and non-navigable waters. Agency rod licences do not confer a right to fish; a permit from the owner of the fishing rights is required before angling can take place.

River Thames

Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether there is a statutory right of navigation along the full length of the River Thames. [34954]

Mr. Meacher: There is a public right of navigation on the River Thames from Cricklade to the sea, but the river above Lechlade is not fully navigable.

25 Feb 2002 : Column 925W

Peat

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what steps her Department is taking to meet the Biodiversity Action Plan target for the replacement of peat in the horticultural industry by 2010; [34487]

(2) what steps her Department is taking to meet the Biodiversity Action Plan target for replacement of peat in the horticulture industry by 2010. [35380]

Mr. Meacher: The Biodiversity Action Plan commits the Government to undertake and promote research and development into sustainable alternatives to peat and provide advice on the development and marketing of peat alternatives. The aim of the plan is for 40 per cent. of the total market requirements to be peat free by 2005 and 90 per cent. by 2010.

Peat is a major constituent of growing media used in gardening and commercial horticulture. It is well suited to a wide range of uses and comes from a variety of sources in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and the Baltic States.

There has already been some substitution of peat by other materials, such as coir and bark, but there are still considerable difficulties to be overcome in producing alternative growing media of sufficiently reliable and consistent quality to replace peat in the full range of its present uses.

We are funding seminars to increase awareness of and to examine the potential for using reduced-peat and peat free alternatives and to encourage growers and others to take them up where they are already available.

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what progress is being made in safeguarding the proposed special areas for conservation of lowland raised peat bogs which are awaiting ratification; [34489]

(2) what progress has been made in safeguarding the environmental interests of the proposed special areas for conservation lowland raised peat bogs that are still awaiting ratification. [35379]

Mr. Meacher: Further to my answers of 14 January 2002, Official Report, columns 116–17W, concerning the Hatfield Moor site, I anticipate that English Nature's report on their consultations on the designation of that site and three other sites, together with recommendations to Government, will be presented within the next two months. If justified as Special Areas of Conservation, the sites will be notified to the European Commission and afforded immediate legal protection under national legislation.

Combined Heat and Power

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what costs were incurred in setting up her Department's quality assessment programme for combined heat and power to 31 March 2001; [35390]

(2) what the anticipated operational costs are of the Department's quality assessment programme for combined heat and power for the financial year 2001–02; [35391]

25 Feb 2002 : Column 926W

Mr. Meacher: The costs incurred in setting up and running the Combined Heat and Power Quality Assurance programme (CHPQA) to 31 March 2001 was around £765,000. The anticipated operational costs of the CHPQA for 2001–02 is around £625,000.

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what estimates her Department has made of the operational costs for the running of the CHP Club in 2001–02; [35394]

(2) what costs were incurred in setting up the Department's CHP Club; and what its operational costs were in the financial year 2000–01. [35393]

Mr. Meacher: The CHP Club provides a one-stop shop for independent information and guidance for potential and new users on the design, implementation, and operation of CHP schemes. Responsibility for the management of the Government's Energy Efficiency Best Practice programme including the CHP Club will soon be passed to the Carbon Trust. The total cost of setting up and operating the CHP Club in 2000–01 was around £200,000. The cost of running the club in 2001–02 is expected to be a similar amount.

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to ensure that the Government's CHP target is reflected in her Department's aims and objectives. [35388]

Mr. Meacher: The Government target of 10,000 MWe of installed CHP by 2010 will make a significant contribution to DEFRA's objectives to promote sustainable management and prudent use of natural resources domestically and internationally. The CHP target will also contribute to DEFRA's future public service agreement targets.

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the procedure is by which applicants qualify for inclusion in the Government's quality assessment procedure for combined heat and power; and whether this procedure requires periodic re-assessment. [35392]

Mr. Meacher: The Combined Heat and Power Quality Assurance programme (CHPQA) provides a practical, determinate method for assessing CHP schemes. Operators are required to self-assess their scheme, based on actual performance data, which is subject to validation and verification. A CHPQA certificate is then issued detailing the parameters qualifying as "good quality" CHP. All CHPQA certificates are valid to 31 December of the year of issue, whereupon applicants must submit a fresh self-assessment based on the previous year's data.

Waste Management

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the (a) levels and (b) mix of waste required to make a modern high-temperature incinerator commercially viable. [35396]

Mr. Meacher: The levels of waste that make a modern high-temperature incinerator commercially viable will depend on the gate fees charged. Its viability is likely to be enhanced by the availability of sufficient quantities of high calorific value wastes to ensure full combustion of material with lower calorific value.

25 Feb 2002 : Column 927W

Landfill

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to reduce the amount of hazardous and industrial waste sent to landfill sites for disposal. [35631]

Mr. Meacher: The forthcoming landfill regulations which will implement the EC Landfill Directive in England and Wales reduce the amount of hazardous waste going to landfill by banning, from July 2002, the landfilling of hazardous liquid wastes and any hazardous wastes which in the conditions of landfill are explosive, corrosive, oxidising, highly flammable or flammable.

More widely, in Waste Strategy 2000, we have set a target to reduce the amount of industrial and commercial waste sent to landfill by 2005 to 85 per cent. of that landfilled in 1998.

---