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TA Bounty

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the rationale is behind the target of 60 per cent. for members of the TA to achieve their bounty each year; and what the target was in each year since 1997. [81108]

Dr. Moonie: The Territorial Army does not set any targets for members to achieve bounty, and has never done so. The criteria for awarding a bounty are: completion of a 15-day period of continuous training; or, if authorised, a reduced camp of eight days. In addition, Independent TA personnel must undertake out camp training for 12 days (this is reduced to four days for Specialists) and achieve three passes in

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individual Training Directives 1–5 (this is reduced to two passes for Specialists). Finally, all personnel must be awarded the COs Certificate of Efficiency in order to qualify for a bounty.

There is currently a Fit For Role target of 60 per cent. of the TA's strength. The rationale behind this target is based on the fact that the TA is at least 5 per cent undermanned; on average 25 per cent. of all TA are under recruit or Class 3 training at any one time; and up to 10 per cent. of members are unable to meet the training commitments for personal or business reasons. Between training years 1996–97 and 2001–02 the TA employed a Fit For Role target of 55 per cent. of strength. We expect that the TA will meet the target of 60 per cent. of this financial year.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Air Quality

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans her Department has to empower local authorities to provide mandatory air quality monitoring. [80501]

Alun Michael: Local authorities have a duty under Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 to review and assess the air quality in their areas and to declare air quality management areas, where it appears that any air quality objective is unlikely to be met on time. This usually involves some monitoring of key pollutants, but the amount of monitoring varies from one authority to another depending upon the scale of any local air pollution problems.

There are no plans to make air quality monitoring mandatory for all local authorities. This would be disproportionately expensive. Authorities may instead make use of air quality monitoring data from the national automatic monitoring network run by my Department. Where my Department feels that an authority, which has no monitoring of its own, should undertake some air quality monitoring in its area, we may issue directions to that local authority indicating that it must do so.

We introduced the Air Quality Supplementary Credit Approval Programme to support authorities capital costs. Since 1997, the Government have awarded over #20 million to assist authorities with expenditure on air quality monitoring equipment, dispersion modelling and emissions inventories.

Animal By-products

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what strategies her Department intends to implement to meet the targets under the draft EU regulation on animal by-products. [80509]

Mr. Morley: There are no targets under the EU animal by-products regulation, but we intend to introduce a statutory instrument to give effect to the requirements of the regulation following consultation with industry and interested parties.

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Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans her Department has to revise the Animal By-products Order to include the composting or biogas digestion of kitchen and catering wastes containing meat. [80510]

Mr. Morley: We will shortly be consulting on an amendment to the Animal By-products Order, which will permit the treatment in approved composting or biogas plants of catering waste which contains meat or which comes from premises on which meat is handled. Approved premises would need to comply with treatment standards and hygiene requirements in line with recommendations made by an independent risk assessment commissioned by DEFRA.

Animal Diseases (EU Finance)

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her policy is on applying to the European Commission for a share of the financial package to fight BSE and other animal diseases in the EU in 2003; and if she will make a statement. [81715]

Mr. Morley: For 2003, the UK intended to apply to the European Commission with claims for funding for TB and Brucella for Northern Ireland and for TSE surveillance. These claims were not received by the Commission until after the 1 June 2002 deadline, and were judged to be ineligible.

Animal Movements

Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action the Government will take against those who disregard 20-day restrictions on animal movements from 1 January 2003 by refusing to complete standard movement documents. [80549]

Mr. Morley: Responsibility for enforcement of the animal movements legislation falls to Local Authorities. It is for each such authority to determine the appropriate action to take in the event of a breach of the legislation. It is in the interests of the farming industry as a whole, and of the wider rural economy, that farmers should complete these movement documents correctly and observe the animal movement controls in force, so as to help prevent any repeat of last year's outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

Congestion Charging

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many car parking spaces are available to (a) employees of her Department and (b) visitors to her Department within the proposed central London road user charging zone. [81855]

Alun Michael: Within the proposed central London charging zone there are 16 car parking spaces available to employees of the Department, and nine car parking spaces available to visitors to the Department.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the policy is of her Department in relation to the reimbursement of central London road user charges incurred by its employees. [81835]

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Alun Michael: All civil servants are responsible for payment of their own every day home to office travel costs. The introduction of a central London road user scheme will not affect this basic condition of service. We are currently considering our policy in relation to staff on official business who are required to drive their own or hire vehicles within the charging zone.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the estimated cost is to her Department of the Central London Road User Charging Scheme for (a) 17 February 2003 to 31 March 2003, and (b) 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004. [81874]

Alun Michael: Any additional costs which might accrue to the Department as a result of the congestion charging scheme would be just one element within wider costs which have to be met from budgets for official travelling and other costs.

Correspondence

Tony Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she will reply to the letter of Mr. Williams of Cockermouth, a constituent, of 2 December 2001. [80879]

Alun Michael: Information on letters sent direct to the Department from members of the public is not collated centrally. Such letters are referred to the relevant Division within the Department on receipt for answer.

Countryside Agency

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will announce the next five years funding for the Countryside Agency. [80743]

Alun Michael: I shall make a final decision on the Agency's resource allocation for 2003–04 shortly. I expect the allocation to be very near to #100 million, a considerable increase on this year's allocation of #92 million.

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the different financial models she is considering for the future of the Countryside Agency. [80744]

Alun Michael: As I announced on 8 November a review of rural policy delivery arrangements will commence shortly, led by Lord Haskins. Its remit will encompass all aspects of the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery arrangements, including those which are currently the responsibility of the Countryside Agency.

Emissions

Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what emissions of (a) carbon monoxide, (b) hydrocarbons, (c) oxides of nitrogen and (d) particulates are generated by the average UK oil central heating domestic boiler. [81012]

Alun Michael: We estimate that in 2000 there were approximately 760,000 households using oil for central heating in the UK, burning a total of 2.25 million tonnes of oil annually. Emissions from individual boilers vary

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depending on the amount of use, and their efficiency and maintenance. However, we estimate that average annual emissions per boiler in 2000 were as follows:

Pollutant	Average annual emissions per boiler
Carbon Monoxide	0.49kg
Hydrocarbons1	1.3kg
Oxides of Nitrogen	6.5kg
Particles (PM10)	0.09kg

1 Hydrocarbons includes volatile organic compounds and methane

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