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Flexible Working

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many and what proportion of the staff of her Department are (a) job sharing, (b) term working and (c) engaged in another form of flexible working. [42432]

Mr. Morley: Of those employed in my Department, 83 are job sharing (1.03 per cent.) and 14 are block ("term") working (0.17 per cent.). A total of 724 work part-time (8.96 per cent.) and 80 are on unpaid leave (0.99 per cent.).

The Department also operates a flexible working hours scheme. This allows an individual to play a full part at work while enabling them to arrange their working hours to fit in with social and domestic arrangements. It also allows line managers to deal sympathetically with any requests for time off if the individual has particular needs.

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It is departmental policy, as an equal opportunity employer, to meet requests for all types of flexible working wherever the nature of the work allows. This includes: maternity, paternity and parental leave (over and above legal requirements); flexible working hours; part-time work and job sharing; leave to care for sick children/carer's leave; home-working; term-time contracts; annual hours contracts; child care allowances; career break schemes; paid/unpaid leave. The flexibility of the working pattern is decided in conjunction with local management to suit an individual's need and the needs of their work. Managers are encouraged to welcome applications from people working different patterns, where the nature of work allows.

The Department sees flexible working arrangements as important in the promotion of diversity and equal opportunities policies, in the recruitment and retention of staff and for the creation of a better work/life balance.

Energy Costs

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on energy costs incurred by her Department in each of the last 10 years. [42439]

Alun Michael: Information for the each of the last 10 years is not readily available, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. In addition, the Machinery of Government changes do not allow for easy comparison. However, information on energy costs for DEFRA's predecessor and other Government Departments for the years 1996–97 to 1999–2000 is available in the Green Ministers reports which can be found at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/ environment/greening/minister/grmin.htm. Copies are available in the Library of the House.

For your convenience these data, without the footnotes, for English Government Departments is reproduced.

Energy costs for 2000–01 will be published in the next Green Ministers report in autumn 2002.

Energy expenditure by Government Departments—as published in Green Ministers reports£

	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000
MAFF	1,607,392	1,196,306	1,270,719	1,155,485
MAFF Labs	1,195,120	2,010,656	1,877,991	1,880,441
Cabinet Office	723,587	693,234	717,622	767,895
DCMS	82,888	121,916	106,634	122,991
HM Customs and Excise	3,476,954	2,414,356	2,370,071	2,431,032
DfEE	1,337,963	1,347,403	1,056,810	1,111,660
Employment Service	5,341,147	4,848,133	4,946,793	4,960,622
DETR	4,095,629	4,099,099	3,993,520	3,473,024
Health and Safety Executive	667,458	668,883	582,679	570,336
QE2 Conference Centre	291,715	347,200	324,614	305,739
FCO	920,989	990,362	921,380	1,033,203
DoH	722,641	738,355	786,383	758,908
Home Office	2,051,873	1,792,543	1,911,139	2,378,335
HM Prison Service	24,257,826	23,868,557	20,016,907	22,310,050
Inland Revenue	8,256,246	8,192,613	8,138,451	8,772,679
DfID	212,935	225,513	209,602	183,574
Lord Chancellors Department	5,301,610	5,258,187	5,282,774	5,021,175
DSS	15,684,969	13,805,000	11,474,213	11,327,417
DTI	2,250,288	2,312,915	1,847,819	2,117,249
HM Treasury	612,651	336,547	316,314	337,396

Note:

In a few cases figures were revised from one report to another. The figures here are the latest published.

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Rio Earth Summit (Implementation)

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps have been taken by the Government since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 to (a) set goals on environmental protection and (b) improve eco-efficiency and resource productivity relating to coastal zone issues; and what these (i) goals and (ii) improvements have been. [44348]

Mr. Meacher: Among the actions contributing to sustainable development and relating to coastal zone management are work on species and habitat action plans under the Biodiversity Convention, and work within OSPAR on the strategies on hazardous substances and biodiversity.

Our policy on promoting sustainable development of the marine environment, including the coastal zone will shortly be set out in the forthcoming Marine Stewardship Report.

Civil Servants

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will set out for each Civil Service grade within her (a) Department and (b) Department's executive agencies the (i) total number of staff employed, (ii) number aged (A) 16 to 25, (B) 26 to 35, (C) 36 to 45, (D) 46 to 60 and (E) over the age of 60 years, (iii) number of registered disabled and (iv) number of ethnic minorities. [39177]

Mr. Morley: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Secretary Cabinet Office (Mr. Christopher Leslie) on 13 March 2002, Official Report, column 1073W.

Departmental Staff

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff left the service of her Department and its agencies in the year ended 31 March 2001; how many left before attaining the formal retirement age of 60 years; and in respect of how many her Department and its agencies assumed responsibilities for making payments until retirement age. [37553]

Mr. Morley: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Secretary Cabinet Office (Mr. Christopher Leslie) on 13 March 2002, Official Report, column 1072W.

For part (c), in the year ended 31 March 2001 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and its agencies assumed responsibility for making payments until retirement age (60) for 11 of these staff.

Engineers

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many chartered engineers there are in her Department; and what grades they hold. [43582]

Mr. Morley: The specific information requested is not held centrally by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

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Government Action Plan (Organic Sector)

Ms Drown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when her Department will start work on the development of the Government action plan for the organic sector announced in October. [44098]

Mr. Morley: An announcement about the Organic Food and Farming action plan will be made soon.

Objective 1 (Funding)

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 29 January, if she will ensure that the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly objective 1 funds will be fully restored. [35292]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 12 February 2002]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 14 February 2002, Official Report, column 653W.

Flood Defence

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what funds have been allocated to coastal communities for flood defence work per capita in each of the past 10 years; and if she will make a statement. [39400]

Mr. Morley: The table details DEFRA grant to the Environment Agency (EA) and local authorities (LAs) for capital works to provide tidal river and sea defences and protection against coastal erosion in each of the last 10 financial years.

£ million

	EA Sea/ Tidal River	LA Sea/ Tidal River	LA Coast Protection
1991–92	24.6	0.1	19.5
1992–93	29.6	0.5	12.2
1993–94	26.7	0.4	18.6
1994–95	30.6	0.1	24.2
1995–96	38.1	0.2	31.3
1996–97	41.2	0.7	34.7
1997–98	34.0	0.8	24.2
1998–99	27.4	0.1	24.1
1999–2000	21.3	0.9	24.7
2000–01(19)	17.5	1.2	12.0

⁽¹⁹⁾ In 2000–01 LAs under-achieved on coast protection works compared to their plans. They have recognised the need to improve project planning and the reliability of their forecasts.

Further funds are spent by the EA and LAs to cover non grant aided works, such as maintenance and flood warning. I regret I am unable to provide the above figures on a per capita basis without incurring disproportionate cost.

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