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Public Spending

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what his estimate is of public spending per head from all sources in Wales in the last year for which figures are available, originating from (a) local councils, (b) devolved Government and (c) central Government. [90008]

Peter Hain: The latest estimates of public expenditure for Wales were published in the annual Treasury publication "Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2002–03". The next edition of this publication is expected in the spring of this year.

Table 6.9 shows local authority expenditure in Wales for 2000–01 as £4,414 million, equivalent to £1,520 per head of Wales' population.

Table 8.7 shows total identifiable expenditure by the National Assembly for Wales in 2000–01 as £7,980 million, equivalent to £2,748 per head of Wales' population.

Table 8.7 also shows identifiable expenditure by other central Government Departments in 2000–01 of £7,642 million, equivalent to £2,632 per head of Wales' population.

In addition there is £40,436 million of non-identifiable expenditure where it is not possible to allocate the expenditure to a specific country of the United Kingdom.

Welsh Office Expenditure

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what his estimate is of total spending by the Welsh Office in each year from 1999–2000 to 2005–06; and if he will make a statement. [89960]

Mr. Touhig: Estimated Wales Office spending for the years in question:

Year	£000
1999–2000	1,485
2001–01	3,011
2001–02	3,526
2002–03	3,696
2003–04	4,196
2004–05	4,196

The figure for 1999–2000 is for expenditure after the establishment of the Wales Office in its present form on

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1 July 1999. These figures are spending on the Wales Office and do not include the payments made to the National Assembly for Wales to fund its budget.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Annual Report

Norman Lamb : To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much producing her Department's latest Annual Report cost; how many copies were printed; how many copies of it were sold at its cover price; to whom copies of the report have been provided free of charge; and how many copies were provided free of charge. [90881]

Alun Michael: The Defra Departmental Report 2002 cost Defra £17,512.00 plus VAT. This cost was for designing, typesetting and proofing the report.

The printing of the document was handled by The Stationary Office Limited. They bore the full cost of printing and publishing of the document.

Defra does not have information on how many copies were printed while the Stationary Office is not obliged to give us this information. I understand that the Stationary Office has sold 404 copies of Defra's Departmental Report.

Defra has distributed 750 copies free of charge. The bulk of these have been made available to our staff, 25 sent to our International Relations and Export Division, 25 to the Forestry Commission and seven to the Office of Water Services.

Bovine TB

Ms Atherton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment she has made of the incidence of bovine TB in cattle in Cornwall. [92826]

Mr. Morley: At the end of November 2002, the most recent date for which we have raw data, some 493 or 13 per cent. of the cattle herds in Cornwall were under TB movement restrictions. Of those around 380 were placed under restrictions in 2002; disease has been confirmed in 218 of these herds. This number will certainly rise as culture results come through over the next few months. Statisticians have advised that the backlog of overdue TB tests will have to reduce further before conclusions can be drawn about the changes in TB incidence between 2000 and 2003. This likely to be in summer of 2003.

Health and Safety

Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) whether her Department and its agencies have met the commitment arising from Action Point 13 of the June 2000 strategy statement on Revitalising Health and Safety to summarise health and safety performance and plans in annual reports from the year 2000–01 onwards; [89511]

(2) what information she has collated on the application to her Department and its agencies of the checklist, circulated by letter by Sir Richard Mottram,

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referred to under Action Point 12 of the Revitalising Health and Safety strategy statement; and if she will make a statement; [89513]

(3) which senior officials within her Department and its agencies take responsibility for health and safety at board or equivalent level; and where their names are publicised. [89512]

Alun Michael: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Nicholas Brown) on 20 January 2003, Official Report, column. 86W.

Livestock Movements

Tony Cunningham : To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will abolish the 20 day rule. [92882]

Mr. Morley: I announced earlier today that we intend to reduce the whole farm standstill to six days from 4 March, subject to satisfactory further consultation with the livestock industry on a package of measures to improve biosecurity and disease surveillance.

New Forest National Park

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her estimate is of the cost of the public inquiry into the creation of a New Forest National Park. [91695]

Alun Michael: Defra has allocated £1.2 million for the costs to the Countryside Agency and Planning Inspectorate of the New Forest National Park inquiry. We do not expect an overspend. Other parties at the inquiry are bearing their own costs.

Organic Produce

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of (a) fruits and (b) vegetables sold in the UK were organic, in the last year for which figures are available. [91000]

Mr. Meacher: Figures published by the Soil Association ¹ estimate that the organic market accounted for 1 per cent. of the total food and drink market in the UK in 2001–02. Defra estimates that the organic market for fruit and vegetables accounted for approximately 2 per cent. of the total market for fruit and vegetables in the UK, in the same period. Detailed information on retail sales figures for organically produced fruit and vegetables is not currently available, however, to enable such a comparison to be made.

The collection, collation and publication of information on the production, manufacture and wholesale and retail marketing of organic foods on a sector by sector basis is one of the many initiatives being further developed under the Organic Action Plan, published on 29 July 2002.

¹ Soil Association organic food and farming report 2002

Plastic Carrier Bags

Mr. Kevan Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the Government policy in relation to taxation of plastic carrier bags. [89830]

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Mr. Meacher: Taxation is a matter for my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. As was announced in the Pre-Budget Report on 27 November 2002, the Government currently does not have any plans to introduce a plastic bag tax, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer is still considering the use of economic instruments for the better waste management of this and other items in the waste stream.

Recycling

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she has taken to promote the recycling of plastic bottles. [89808]

Mr. Meacher [holding answer 22 January 2003]:We have set all local authorities statutory performance standards to increase recycling and provided additional funding to deliver these standards. It is for local authorities to decide whether to focus on particular parts of waste stream such as plastic bottles. However, I would expect increasing numbers of local authorities to put in place a collection infrastructure for these as standards increase.

The Producer Responsibility Regulations we have in place require relevant businesses to recover and recycle packaging waste including plastic. That framework also generates income that is used for collection capacity, end use markets and reprocessing capacity.

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The Government has also established the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to create more stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products, and to tackle the barriers to increased reuse and recycling. WRAP has identified plastics as a priority area in its business plan to 2003–04 and one of its aims is to achieve a 20,000 tonne increase in the mixed plastics processing for industrial products by 2003–04.

WRAP has completed a research project on plastic bottle recycling, funded regional workshops on plastic recycling and has announced that it is considering whether to part fund an automated plastic bottle recycling plant.

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