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Stranded Cetaceans

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will estimate the number of cetaceans stranded on the UK shorelines by species in each of the last 12 months; what percentage of those post mortemed were recorded as bycatch deaths; and if she will make a statement. [48001]

Mr. Morley: Data on the cetaceans reported as stranding in the period January 2001 to December 2001 on a quarterly basis is contained in the table. Figures for the UK for the first three months of 2002 are not yet available, but for England and Wales, during the month of January 994 cetaceans were reported as stranded. Post mortems were carried out on 34 of these cetaceans, 79 per cent. of which were bycaught.

	January-March 2001
Species	Stranded	Post mortemed	Percentage bycaught(74)
Minke Whale	0	0	0
Sei Whale	0	0	0
Humpback Whale	1	1	0
Common Dolphin	57	22	82
Striped Dolphin	3	3	100
Risso's Dolphin	1	1	0
White-sided Dolphin	0	0	0
White-beaked Dolphin	8	0	0
Bottlenose Dolphin	0	0	0
Unidentified Dolphin	16	1	0
Long-finned Pilot Whale	3	0	0
Killer Whale	0	0	0
Harbour Porpoise	50	27	22
Northern Bottlenose Whale	0	0	0
Sowerby's Beaked Whale	0	0	0
Great Sperm Whale	1	0	0
Unidentified Cetacean	14	0	0

10 Apr 2002 : Column 299W

	April-June 2001
Species	Stranded	Post mortemed	Percentage bycaught(74)
Minke Whale	5	2	0
Sei Whale	0	0	0
Humpback Whale	0	0	0
Common Dolphin	16	2	50
Striped Dolphin	2	2	0
Risso's Dolphin	1	1	0
White-sided Dolphin	1	1	0
White-beaked Dolphin	0	0	0
Bottlenose Dolphin	3	2	0
Unidentified Dolphin	9	0	0
Long-finned Pilot Whale	4	1	0
Killer Whale	0	0	0
Harbour Porpoise	70	31	3
Northern Bottlenose Whale	0	0	0
Sowerby's Beaked Whale	1	1	0
Great Sperm Whale	2	0	0
Unidentified Cetacean	6	0	0

	July-September 2001
Species	Stranded	Post mortemed	Percentage bycaught(74)
Minke Whale	4	0	0
Sei Whale	1	0	0
Humpback Whale	1	0	0
Common Dolphin	11	1	0
Striped Dolphin	6	5	0
Risso's Dolphin	3	1	0
White-sided Dolphin	3	3	0
White-beaked Dolphin	3	2	0
Bottlenose Dolphin	3	1	0
Unidentified Dolphin	9	0	0
Long-finned Pilot Whale	6	0	0
Killer Whale	0	0	0
Harbour Porpoise	90	38	13
Northern Bottlenose Whale	1	1	0
Sowerby's Beaked Whale	2	1	0
Great Sperm Whale	1	0	0
Unidentified Cetacean	8	0	0

	October-December 2001
Species	Stranded	Post mortemed	Percentage bycaught(74)
Minke Whale	4	0	0
Sei Whale	0	0	0
Humpback Whale	0	0	0
Common Dolphin	15	9	1
Striped Dolphin	1	1	0
Risso's Dolphin	1	0	0
White-sided Dolphin	0	0	0
White-beaked Dolphin	2	2	0
Bottlenose Dolphin	3	0	0
Unidentified Dolphin	13	0	0
Long-finned Pilot Whale	12	2	0
Killer Whale	1	1	0
Harbour Porpoise	45	19	16
Northern Bottlenose Whale	1	0	0
Sowerby's Beaked Whale	0	0	0
Great Sperm Whale	2	0	0
Unidentified Cetacean	2	0	0

10 Apr 2002 : Column 300W

	Total 2001
Species	Stranded	Post mortemed	Percentage bycaught(74)
Minke Whale	13	2	0
Sei Whale	1	0	0
Humpback Whale	2	1	0
Common Dolphin	99	34	59
Striped Dolphin	12	11	27
Risso's Dolphin	6	3	0
White-sided Dolphin	4	4	0
White-beaked Dolphin	13	4	0
Bottlenose Dolphin	9	3	0
Unidentified Dolphin	47	1	0
Long-finned Pilot Whale	25	3	0
Killer Whale	1	1	0
Harbour Porpoise	255	115	14
Northern Bottlenose Whale	2	1	0
Sowerby's Beaked Whale	3	2	0
Great Sperm Whale	6	0	0
Unidentified Cetacean	30	0	0

⁽⁷⁴⁾ Of those animals subject to PM

Fur Farms

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many fur farms were licensed in each month from December 2001 to March 2002 inclusive in England; and if she will list their locations by county. [47399]

Mr. Morley: During the period 1 December 2001 to March 2002 the following fur farms were licensed in England:

County	Number of licensed fur farms
Hampshire	1
Lancashire	3
Yorkshire	1
Total	5

All these farms are thought to have ceased fur production.

Departmental Responses

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will take steps to improve the response time to parliamentary questions. [47718]

Mr. Morley: In its response to the Public Administration Select Committee's Second Report of Session 2000–01 on Ministerial Accountability and Parliamentary Questions, the Government made clear their commitment to providing prompt and accurate answers to parliamentary questions. This continues to be the Government's position.

Performance Targets

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what new initiatives her Department has taken in 2001–02 to assist in achieving its Public Service Agreement targets. [47200]

Mr. Morley: Information about progress on PSA targets will be published in the Department's 2002 departmental report.

10 Apr 2002 : Column 301W

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment she has made of whether the PSA target for reducing the incidence of BSE will be met in 2002. [47906]

Mr. Morley: The number of clinically suspect cases of BSE reported in Great Britain continues to decline, and the epidemic has now fallen to levels well below those observed when the disease was first made notifiable in 1988.

The Department's Public Service Agreement (PSA) target for the control of BSE is:

"To reduce the annual incidence of BSE to less than 650 cases by 2001 and by 2004 to be on track for fewer than 30 cases by 2006. This reflects a 99 per cent. reduction compared with 1997 when there were 4,312 cases".

This target is based on confirmed, clinical cases. The actual figure for 2001 is likely to be around 780 confirmed BSE cases in cattle presented as clinical suspects. Progress against the PSA target has been affected by movement restrictions introduced to deal with the foot and mouth outbreak. This has disrupted the slaughter of older cattle under the OTMS because available rendering capacity has been used to dispose of the carcases of animals arising from the control of FMD. This, in turn, has increased the mean age of the cattle population and resulted in more cases than previously anticipated. Nevertheless, the outturn for 2001 still represents a reduction of more than 40 per cent. compared to 2000 when there were 1,311 cases in cattle presented as clinical suspects. The epidemic continues to decline rapidly and there is no particular concern at present in relation to the 2004 and 2006 targets.

Surplus Laboratories

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if the two surplus laboratories at Harpenden and Torry referred to on page 21 of the 2001 departmental report, have been sold. [48171]

Mr. Morley: The laboratory at Torry was sold in April 2001. DEFRA has a leasehold interest in the laboratory at Harpenden. A joint conditional sale of the property by DEFRA and the freeholder floundered in January 2002 after planning consent was refused to the prospective purchaser. Negotiations are continuing with the planning authorities to facilitate a successful future sale.

Maladministration

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what payments have been made to individuals following findings of maladministration by ombudsmen with responsibility for agencies under the remit of her Department in the last 12 months; and what plans she has to review the powers to increase the level of awards that can be made. [48048]

Mr. Morley: One payment of £50.27 has been made to an individual following findings of maladministration by the ombudsman with responsibility for agencies under the remit of my Department in the last 12 months; and there are no plans to review the powers to increase the level of awards that can be made.

10 Apr 2002 : Column 302W

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