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Dog Fouling

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 5 February 2002, Official Report, column 902W, on dog fouling, how many complaints were received by (a) Buckinghamshire county council and (b) Aylesbury Vale district council regarding fouling; and how many fines were imposed nationally. [43322]

Mr. Meacher: Data on the number of complaints received by individual councils are not collected centrally by DEFRA. The number of fines imposed nationally for dog fouling during 2000–01 was 1,961.

Livestock Markets

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what financial support is being provided to assist owners of livestock markets to re-open. [43016]

Mr. Morley: There are no plans to offer financial support from the public purse to livestock markets, which are commercial operations.

Fluoride

Mr. Syms: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what investigation she has made of the cost of corrosion damage to water providers in (a) fluoridated and (b) unfluoridated areas. [42973]

Mr. Meacher: The maximum permitted concentration of all fluoride in public water supplies is 1.5 mg per litre of water. The effects of public water supplies on water companies' pipes are normally measured by the water's pH although there are other factors. In general, the lower the pH value, the higher the level of corrosion. Legislation specifies two compounds of fluorine which water companies may add to public supplies at the request of area health authorities. The compound that companies would normally add is hexafluorosilic acid. This is a corrosive substance and care must be exercised when it is delivered, in bulk, to water treatment works. There is, however, no measurable change in the pH of fluoridated or unfluoridated water, on leaving the treatment works, and therefore no reason to suspect that fluoridated water is more or less corrosive in the distribution system.

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Forestry

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department is taking to meet the Government's Forestry Strategy commitments to sustainably managed woods. [43603]

Mr. Morley: Our approach and commitment to sustainable woodland management is set out in the 1998 UK Forestry Standard. The England Forestry Strategy describes our priorities and programmes for forestry in England. Our aim is to ensure that all of England's woodlands are sustainably managed. We give advice to private woodland owners to encourage them to manage their woodlands sustainably and support for this is given through the Woodland Grant Scheme. All applications for assistance under this scheme must meet the criteria set out in the UK Forestry Standard.

The Forestry Commission has been awarded the World Wide Fund for Nature's Gift to the Earth Award in recognition of the key role they played in progressing independent certification of sustainable forest management in the UK through development and delivery of the UK Woodland Assurance Standard. The UK is the only country where the entire state forest area has achieved credible certification to an independent standard recognised by the Forestry Stewardship Council.

We recognise the need to monitor UK woodland and to take corrective action when necessary. The UK Forestry Standard explains how we will achieve this through a combination of scientific study and national surveys. We are committed to publishing results and to continue developing the Standard in the light of experience.

Veal Crates

Mrs. Browning: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the occasions since 1997 when Ministers or officials have made representations to the EU Commission and other member states on the abolition of veal crates. [43833]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 15 March 2002]: No such representations have been made. Council Directive 97/2/EC of 20 January 1997 imposed an EU wide ban on veal crates which will come into full effect from 31 December 2006.

Ian Stillman

Mr. Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she had concerning Ian Stillman during her visit to India of 11 February. [43907]

Mr. Morley: None.

Hedges

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures there are to encourage farmers to use hedges as boundaries on their land. [43044]

Mr. Meacher: Our Countryside Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Areas schemes provide financial incentives for planting, restoration and management of hedgerows on farmland. DEFRA also

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funds free initial conservation advice for farmers, provided on our behalf by the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group and ADAS, including on the management of hedgerows for their wildlife, landscape, amenity and historical value.

Air Conditioning

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures were taken by her Department to ensure that the consultant advising on the installation of air conditioning during the recent equipping of the new departmental building in Temple Quay, Bristol was aware of the Government's policy on the use of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants in air conditioning; and if she will make a statement on the measures taken by the consultant to source practical and safe alternatives to hydrofluorocarbon-based air conditioning. [41179]

Dr. Whitehead: I have been asked to reply.

Temple Quay is a developer led project. Their consulting engineers applied their own sustainability policies to the project and were apprised of the Government's policy on the use of HFC refrigerants.

In addition, one of the key elements of the Department's original brief to the developer and architect was that Temple Quay House must have a BREEAM rating of 'excellent'. One of the items that helped to achieve this rating was subsequently to specify refrigerants with an ozone depletion potential of zero.

Public Service Agreements

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the Public Service Agreement targets which have been revised and those which have been introduced since the publication of the 2001 departmental report. [43262]

Mr. Morley: When the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was created in June 2001 an interim Public Service Agreement with a total of 14 targets was drawn up. These 14 targets comprised all eight of the MAFF PSA targets together with six targets covering environmental issues from the DETR PSA. The DEFRA interim PSA will remain extant until the end of this spending period.

The interim PSA targets are listed on our website at www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/busplan/01psa.htm.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the Public Service Agreement target to reverse the long-term decline in populations of farmland birds by 2020. [43117]

Mr. Morley: This Department has a number of existing policy measures which will help to achieve the PSA target, not least the continuing expansion of our agri-environment schemes under the England Rural Development Programme. We are hopeful that this year's national rollout of arable Countryside Stewardship options, based on a successful pilot scheme, will prove particularly beneficial for farmland birds. An assessment carried out last year of the underlying trend showed that the decline was slowing down and we are expecting an updated assessment shortly. However, the reasons for the decline in farmland bird numbers are complex and we

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have commissioned research from the British Trust for Ornithology, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Oxford University to help us identify more precisely what needs to be done to ensure delivery of the PSA target.

Shellfish Industry

Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in what circumstances compensation is available to workers in the shellfish industry if they are unable to pursue their livelihoods. [42699]

Mr. Morley: This Department does not operate any schemes of compensation for workers in the shellfish industry.

Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the economic and employment consequences of the outbreaks of atypical diarrhetic shell fish poisoning in (a) the Thames Estuary, (b) the Wash, (c) Whitstable, (d) the Menai Straits and Anglesey, (e) the Bury Inlet and (f) Strangford Lough. [42698]

Mr. Morley: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to him on 14 February 2002, Official Report, column 647W.

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