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Strategic Rail Authority (Rural Proofing)

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if the Strategic Rail Authority is bound by the commitment in the Rural White Paper 2000, to rural proof its policies and strategies; [94854]

(2) what guidance he has issued to the Strategic Rail Authority on rural proofing its policies and strategies. [94855]

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Mr. Jamieson: The Strategic Rail Authority is covered by the Rural White Paper commitment.

Paragraph 6.8 of the Secretary of State's Directions and Guidance states that the Authority should "ensure that its strategies, its investments (including in passenger franchises) and other expenditures, and its other activities have regard to their economic, social and environmental impacts". This includes, among other things, impacts on rural communities.

Street Lighting

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans his Department has to cooperate with Ofgem and the DTI to speed up the implementation of competition in street lighting connections. [95497]

Mr. Jamieson: The implementation of competition in street lighting connections is the responsibility of the DTI and Ofgem. But my Department is in discussions with them to see what can be done to speed the process up, since competition in this area will greatly assist in tackling the backlogs in street lighting which we are committed to remove under the 10-Year Plan for Transport.

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans his Department has to include an indicative amount of funding for street lighting for inclusion into the Local Transport Plan settlement for 2004–05 and future years. [95499]

Mr. Jamieson: The 2004–05 Local Transport Plan settlement for maintenance was announced in December last year without an indicative amount for street lighting. A decision on whether indicative amounts for street lighting will be included in future settlements will be taken at the relevant time in the light of progress in tackling the overall backlogs in local highway maintenance.

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has to include in the Local Transport Plan highway maintenance settlement funding for street lighting renewal. [95502]

Mr. Jamieson: Local Transport Plan funding can already be used for street lighting renewal, or for any capital purpose across the services a local authority provides.

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what support his Department is giving to local authorities to develop detailed inventories and risk management systems in relation to street lighting stock. [95503]

Mr. Jamieson: My Department is encouraging local authorities to develop detailed inventories and risk management systems for street lighting stock. Guidance is being developed within the Lighting Board, which has representatives from all UK highway authorities and the lighting industry. We are also funding relevant research and development.

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ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Bovine TB

Mr. Drew : To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many outbreaks of bovine TB there were in each county, in each month of the last year. [95063]

Mr. Morley: Statistics by county and month are not available. National statistics for the year 2002 by county will be available on the internet in late summer. Raw data for 2002 for the areas covered by Animal Health Offices are set out in the table. Raw data do not have the same degree of accuracy as national statistics.

Animal Health Office	Total new herd TB incidents January to December 2002	Of which are considered confirmed new TB incidents
England
Avon	97	51
Bury	2	0
Carlisle Division (Cumbria)	33	5
Chelmsford	5	0
Cornwall	426	240
Devon	508	252
Dorset	105	43
Gloucester	273	190
Hereford and Worcester	295	188
Leeds	8	5
Leicestershire	33	7
Lincoln Division	9	2
Newcastle Division	30	11
Preston Division	9	0
Reading	13	0
Reigate	16	8
Stafford Division, Cheshire	27	13
Stafford Division Derbyshire	65	37
Stafford Division, Staffs	171	112
Shropshire	64	38
Somerset	161	75
Wiltshire	136	77
Wales
Clwyd	9	4
Glamorgan, Mid	3	1
Glamorgan, South	2	0
Glamorgan, West	14	5
Gwent	97	54
Gwynedd	7	1
Powys, North	40	18
Powys, South	84	55
Scotland
Ayr	50	12
Galashiels	5	1
Inverness	3	1
Inverurie	18	1
Perth	13	5

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the number of humans infected by bovine tuberculosis from badgers in the last 10 years. [95329]

Ms Blears : I have been asked to reply.

The Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) collects data on the number of cases of M.Bovis. A breakdown of the number caused by cattle or badgers is not available. The number of reported cases of M.Bovis in humans since 1993 are as follows.

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Year	Total
1993(7)	37
1994	31
1995	20
1996	30
1997	32
1998	29
1999	31
2000	18
2001(8)	26
Total	345

⁽⁷⁾ Figures not held pre 1993.

⁽⁸⁾ 2001 is a provisional figure.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the measures her Department is taking on badgers and associated TB disease in the Saltdean area. [95330]

Mr. Morley: The licences granted by Defra under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 for the prevention of serious damage to property in Saltdean were not related to bovine TB control measures. No action on disease control grounds is currently being taken on badgers except within the Krebs trial areas. None of these is near Saltdean.

However given that badgers are susceptible to bovine TB it is important that any proposals to relocate badgers takes into account the risk of the spread of disease. Some five badgers positive to bovine TB were identified between 1984 and 1998 within a five kilometre radius of this sett at Saltdean. Some 55 have been found within a twenty kilometre radius.

Since 1996 there have been intermittent incidents of bovine TB in cattle within a twenty kilometre radius of Saltdean. The figures are as follows:

Year of incident	Within 20km radius of Saltdean	In East Sussex
1996	2	2
1997	4	4
1998	3	3
1999	5	6
2000	2	2
2001	2	3
2002	4	5

A discussion forum on 27 November provided the opportunity for an exchange of views on the Saltdean case. We are currently considering proposals for a way forward in the light of reports received since then.

Capita Group

Mr. Burstow : To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the contracts that have been awarded to the Capita Group by her Department. [89967]

Alun Michael: Contracts have been awarded to the Capita Group by the Department for recruitment services; project management work; and for training seminars and courses covering security; records management; knowledge management; Diversity and, Freedom of Information. During the FMD outbreak

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the Capita Group provided Clerks of Works to manage on-farm services in connection with cleansing and disinfection work.

Coffee Market

Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action she is taking to examine the operation of the world coffee market. [94640]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 31 January 2003]: The UK is a member, through the EU, of the International Coffee Organisation (ICO), a United Nations body established to, among other things, "achieve a reasonable balance between world supply and demand on a basis which will assure adequate supplies of coffee at fair prices to consumers and markets for coffee at remunerative prices to producers to facilitate the expansion and transparency of international trade in coffee". The ICO, therefore monitors the world coffee market on an on-going basis and provides its members with market statistics and reports.

The UK contributes to the ICO's examination of its world coffee statistics and reports and to the development of its policies. A major plank of the Organisation's current activity is the Coffee Quality Improvement Programme, which was introduced on 1 October 2002. It requires exports of unprocessed coffee from member countries to comply with minimum standards which should have a positive effect upon supply and demand and, in turn, producer prices. Discussions are also under way within the organisation about how exports of processed coffee should be dealt with.

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