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Pesticides

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment. Food and Rural Affairs (1) what assessment she has made of the (a) 0.1mg and (b) 10mg limit on (i) active pesticide breakdown products and (ii) metabolites in groundwater; [100567]

(2) What recent (a) representations she has received and (b) discussions she has had regarding the limit of (a) pesticide breakdown products and (b) metabolites in groundwater; and if she will make a statement; [100568]

(3) If she will list those metabolites considered (a) relevant and (b) non-relevant with regard to the 0.1mg limit on (i) pesticide breakdown products and (ii) metabolites in groundwater. [100569]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 5 March 2003]: The EU Pesticides Authorisations Directive (91/414/EEC) requires that pesticide active substances and their relevant metabolites, or breakdown products, should not exceed 0.1 micrograms per litre (0.1mg/L) in groundwater. This 0.1mg/L trigger value is the permitted level for pesticides and their relevant metabolites in drinking water. Its application to groundwater through Directive 91/414/EEC is designed to ensure that groundwater can be used for drinking water without treatment to remove pesticides. 0.1mg/L or 1 part in 10 billion is an extremely low level of contamination which ensures that consumers are protected from the most toxic pesticides.

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The European Commission adopted a ''guidance document on the assessment of the relevance of metabolites in groundwater of substances regulated under Council Directive 91/414/EEC'' on 26 February 2003. This document will soon be made available on the Commission website at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/ph ps/pro/wrkdoc/index en.htm

The aim is to lay down an approach to the determination of which metabolites are of concern and which are not. The Guidance has the support of all member states except Denmark. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, received a letter from the Danish Environment Minister sent to all EU Ministers for the Environment seeking a Council debate on the document before its adoption. We have received no other recent representations on this issue.

The relevance of the soil metabolites of particular pesticides is considered on a case by case basis using the approach laid down in the Guidance Document. In general metabolites are relevant if they (a) have comparable intrinsic properties to the parent compound or (b) have unacceptable toxicological properties. The conclusions on the relevance of particular metabolites as judged by the Guidance Document will be available in the review report for that compound. However, since the Guidance Document has only recently been adopted, no conclusions have yet been reached.

The limit of 10 micrograms per litre (10 mg/L) on metabolites is not a legal limit. It is a trigger value in the Guidance Document applicable to ''non-relevant metabolites'' or metabolites of lesser concern. If a compound were to give rise to non-relevant metabolites above 10 mg/L then it would not be approved unless there was strong evidence that the metabolite was of no concern.

Ducks

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many ducks other than ruddy ducks, broken down by species, have been culled as a result of the ruddy duck control scheme. [101260]

Mr. Morley: Every effort was made to minimise casualties to non-target species during the regional control trial. The Standard Operating Procedures made it clear that there should be a high degree of vigilance over identification and that shooting should only take place if safe to do so without causing injury or death to non-target species

Two female tufted ducks and one juvenile long-tailed duck were shot in error during the ruddy duck control trial. During trap testing in spring 2002, seven young mallard chicks were killed during three separate incidents when they became trapped in netting.

Vegetable Imports (Kenya)

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what checks are carried out on vegetables imported from Kenya to detect illegal use of DDT. [99452]

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Mr. Morley [holding answer 27 February 2003]: DDT is a substance which is banned for use as an agricultural pesticide in the European Union under Council Directive 79/117/EEC. However, substances which are not approved in Europe may be used in other countries. Differences in approvals between countries can arise because different approval conditions are applied and because the need for specific pesticides in different countries differs. As far as we are aware, DDT still has public health use in Kenya. The fact that a compound is not approved in Europe does not mean that residues of that compound in imported produce are unsafe or illegal. However, any residues found must not exceed any agreed maximum residue levels set.

The government conducts a wide-ranging annual surveillance programme for pesticide residues in food including imported food. Some 4,000 samples are analysed annually and the programme generates results for over 100,000 pesticide/commodity combinations. All the results are published on a web-site.

www.pesticides.gov.uk/committees/PRC/prc.htm

The surveillance programme for 2002 included monitoring for DDT in green beans from Kenya. No residues were found.

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Water Supply

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the total water use in each region that was supplied from (a) watercourses, (b) aquifers, (c) reservoirs and (d) other sources in (i) 1974, (ii) 1984, (iii) 1994 and (iv) 2002; and what her estimate is for (A) 2012 and (B) 2022. [99242]

Mr. Morley: The Environment Agency records data on abstractions as from either groundwater (aquifers) or surface water. Abstractions from reservoirs are recorded in the surface water figures.

The figures for abstractions of water in each Environment Agency region are expressed in the table below. Data for 1984 are unavailable in the format requested, but 1985 data have been provided as the total abstractions are comparable. Data for 2002 are currently being verified so abstractions for 2000 are given, representing the most recent year for which verified data is available.

There may be discontinuities in the trend data caused by the adjustment of data published by the former Department of the Environment for 1974 and 1984 to coincide with Agency boundaries, and by changes to classification.

Actual abstraction data by Environment Agency Region and source (million litres per day)

	1974			1985			1994			2000
Agency Region	GW	SW	Total	GW	SW	Total	GW	SW	Total	GW	SW	Total
Anglian	948	1246	2194	988	964	1952	1054	1149	2203	1000	1668	2668
Midlands	1539	6895	8434	1066	5796	6862	1142	3106	4248	1085	4209	5294
North East	443	6024	6467	468	3394	3862	452	2982	3434	481	5728	6209
North West	904	5298	6202	476	4281	4757	366	2642	3008	268	2694	2962
South West	460	1112	1572	623	2657	3280	675	3969	4644	726	5225	5951
Southern	1052	961	2013	1263	358	1621	1336	1479	2816	1379	4379	5758
Thames	1734	2386	4120	1879	2599	4478	1569	3079	4649	1496	3310	4806
Wales	284	8397	8681	144	8516	8660	183	7012	7195	86	10603	10689
Total	7364	32319	39683	6907	28565	35472	6777.2	25419	32196	6521	37816	44337

Note:

Where: SW denotes surface water and GW denotes ground water

Estimates for future water use in each Environment Agency region are expressed in the below table, as an expected range. These are derived from figures given in the Environment Agency's water resources strategy, Water Resources for the Future, which looks specifically at the years 2010 and 2025. The estimates have not been split into sources of water, though it is anticipated that any additional resources required would tend to be from surface water, rather than groundwater.

Total predicted demand for 2010 and 2025 by Agency Region (million litres per day)

	2010 minimum	2010 maximum	2025 minimum	2025 maximum
Region
Anglian	2563	2813	2013	4263
Midlands	4016	4516	3216	6313
North East	5916	6416	5066	7816
North West	2986	3386	2136	4686
South West	5924	6124	5624	7024
Southern	5451	5551	5051	6451
Thames	3994	4694	2994	6894
EA Wales	8960	9160	8520	9860
Total	39810	42660	34620	53307

Incinerators

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many licences to operate incinerators on farm premises have been issued in the last 12 months. [100774]

Mr. Meacher: The Environment Agency has issued two licences for the operation of incinerators on farm premises in the last 12 months. The sites are at Church Fenton in North Yorkshire and at Thornton in West Yorkshire and both licences authorise the operation of pet crematoria.

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