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Canoeing

Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the Environment Agency has published research into the impact of canoeing on (a) fish and (b) the environment; and if she will make a statement. [58368]

Mr. Morley: The Environment Agency published an R&D report in 2000 on 'The Effects of Canoeing on Fish Stock and Angling'. The research was commissioned to assess the extent to which canoeing affects fish populations and the extent to which canoeing can conflict with angling.

The general conclusion from this study was that canoeing is not harmful to fish populations. The main area of conflict between anglers and canoeists centres around the actual or perceived disturbance of angling. Neither this

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research, nor any other Agency funded research, have addressed the issue of the impact of canoeing on the wider environment.

Fishing Industry

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has of the (a) value and (b) destination of EU grants for (i) new fishing vessels and (ii) decommissioning of fishing vessels in each year since 1997. [60156]

Mr. Morley: No EU grants have been awarded in the UK since 1997 for the construction of new fishing vessels.

There have been decommissioning schemes in 1997 and 2001–02. The 1997 scheme was a UK-wide programme. 104 vessels were decommissioned at a cost of £13.9 million. For 2001–02 separate schemes are in place in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The English scheme is complete but approvals continue in the other schemes. Estimates of the results of the schemes are as follows:

	Number of vessels	Cost £ million
England	32	6.1
Scotland	97	24.8
N. Ireland	30	4.5
Total	159	35.4

Supermarkets

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent representations she has received on anti-competitive practices in the purchasing of horticultural produce by supermarkets. [60108]

Mr. Morley: We have not received any representations about anti-competitive practices in the purchasing of horticultural produce by supermarkets.

Responsibility for competition issues rests with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the investigation of competition cases is a matter for the Director General of Fair Trading.

CABINET OFFICE

Age Discrimination

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Cabinet Office if (a) his Department and (b) its agencies have a policy of not considering applications for employment by persons over a particular age. [59460]

Mr. Alexander: No. The policy of the Cabinet Office and its agencies is to consider all applications regardless of age.

Public Consultations

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Cabinet Office if he will list the public consultations undertaken by his

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officials since June 2001, stating in each case the (a) number of respondents and (b) percentage of those specifically consulted who responded. [60139]

Mr. Alexander: The following formal national public consultations, which are subject to the Code of Practice on Written Consultation, have been undertaken by the Cabinet Office since June 2001:

(a) Raising the Educational Attainment of Children in Care (July 2001);

(b) Transport and Social Exclusion (July 2001);

(c) The Future of Emergency Planning in England and Wales (August 2001);

(d) Licensing of Crown Copyright (HMSO) (October 2001).

The number of respondents for each was as follows:

(a) Raising the Educational Attainment of Children in Care: 200 responses to the consultation document and 2,000 responses to questionnaires distributed through the "Who Cares?" magazine;

(b) Transport and Social Exclusion: 788;

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(c) The Future of Emergency Planning in England and Wales: 267;

(d) Licensing of Crown Copyright: 39.

The Government's Code of Practice on Written Consultation places an emphasis on making formal national public consultation documents widely available and not restricting them to specific groups or individuals. Consequently there is no requirement in the code to measure the percentage of those specifically consulted who responded. In the case of the HMSO consultation on Licensing of Crown Copyright, for which records were kept on the number specifically consulted, the figure was 17.9 per cent.

The Cabinet Office's Performance and Innovation Unit published 'Privacy and Data-Sharing: the Way Forward for Public Services' on 11 April 2002. The report included three recommendations that were raised for consultation. The consultation exercise is being managed by the Lord Chancellor's Department. As the consultation period ends on 12 July no figures are currently held on total numbers of responses.

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LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT

Special Advisers

Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department on how many occasions between 31 March 2001 and 31 March 2002 (a) departmental and (b) non-departmental special advisers have travelled abroad in an official capacity; what places were visited; and how much each visit cost. [58728]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Between 31 March 2001 and 31 March 2002, the expert adviser for the Lord Chancellor's Department has accompanied a Minister overseas once. On that occasion the Lord Chancellor, a senior departmental official, the expert adviser, and a private secretary went to Brussels on official business.

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The total cost of the visit for the whole party was £1,670.00. All travel by special advisers is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the Ministerial Code, and the Civil Service Management Code.

Public Consultations

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will list the public consultations undertaken by her Department since June 2001, stating in each case the (a) number of respondents and (b) percentage of those specifically consulted who responded. [60152]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The following are the public consultations that have been conducted by the Lord Chancellor's Department (and its agencies):

Title	Month	Number of respondents
Report of the Review Group on the Royal Peculiars	July 2001	47
Administrative Court—Proposed Changes To Primary Legislation Following Sir Jeffrey Bowman's Review Of The Crown Office List	July 2001	37
Towards Effective Enforcement—a single piece of bailiff law and a regulatory structure	July 2001	84
Payments into Court in Satisfaction of a Claim	August 2001	48
Report of the Review of Tribunals by Sir Andrew Leggatt	August 2001	360
General Pre-action Protocol	November 2001	107

Note:

Information on the percentage of those specifically consulted who responded is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Other consultations are still in progress.

Public Record Office

Mr. John Taylor: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will make a statement about Government policy on the acquisition of additional Public Record Office storage space to facilitate the transfer of the (a) 1921, (b) 1951, (c) 1961 and (d) 1971 census records from the Registrar-General's Department to the Public Record Office. [59065]

Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 10 June 2002 [59066]. There is no Government policy to acquire additional storage space for the PRO to facilitate the transfer of these records from the Office for National Statistics. The PRO's storage capacity will be reviewed before the transfer of such records as the year of their availability to the public approaches.

Mr. John Taylor: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what the provisional timetable is for the transfer of the (a) 1921, (b) 1951, (c) 1961 and (d) 1971 decennial population census records for England and Wales to the Public Record Office. [59066]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Records of the decennial population census are closed for 100 years under Lord Chancellor's Instrument number 12. The records of the population census of (a) 1921, (b) 1951, (c) 1961 and (d) 1971 are currently retained by the Office of National Statistics with the approval of the Lord Chancellor under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958 (as amended). A timetable for their transfer to the PRO will be agreed as the end of their closure period approaches.

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