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Labour Force

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of the UK work force were employed in agriculture in each of the past 10 years, broken down by (a) region and (b) type of farm. [104977]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 25 March 2003]: The information is given in the tables for (a) UK total and regions in England and (b) UK farm types.

Information for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is published in Agriculture in the United Kingdom for 2001 and 2002 and in Farm Incomes in the United Kingdom for earlier years. These can be found on the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk/esg/m publications.htm

(a) Agricultural labour force as a percentage of total labour force

	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
North East	1.33	1.30	1.24	1.24	1.06	1.20	1.18	1.13	1.23	1.17
North West	1.60	1.59	1.54	1.52	1.30	1.44	1.32	1.32	1.33	1.25
Yorkshire and the Humber	2.05	2.00	1.91	1.87	1.60	1.79	1.74	1.71	1.79	1.73
East Midlands	2.65	2.55	2.48	2.41	2.07	2.33	2.18	2.16	2.23	2.14
West Midlands	2.10	2.06	1.99	1.97	1.68	1.91	1.82	1.86	1.92	1.83
Eastern	2.63	2.54	2.46	2.38	2.02	2.31	2.12	2.05	2.10	2.02
London	0.04	0.04	0.04	0.04	0.03	0.04	0.03	0.03	0.03	0.03
South East	1.76	1.70	1.63	1.58	1.35	1.55	1.44	1.32	1.38	1.35
South West	3.91	3.88	3.72	3.69	3.16	3.55	3.43	3.44	3.42	3.25
UK Total	2.29	2.26	2.19	2.15	1.84	2.07	1.95	1.90	1.92	1.88

Notes:

For England years 1993–99 include main holdings only, years 2000–02 include main and minor holdings. A greater degree of estimation has been used for the years 1993–97

Source:

June Census of Agriculture and Horticulture, SEERAD, DARD, NAWAD, ONS.

(b) Agricultural labour force as a percentage of total UK labour force by farm type

Farm type	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Cereals	0.21	0.20	0.20	0.20	0.18	0.21	0.19	0.19	0.21	0.20
General cropping	0.28	0.27	0.27	0.26	0.21	0.23	0.21	0.19	0.19	0.18
Horticulture	0.23	0.22	0.20	0.20	0.17	0.20	0.20	0.19	0.19	0.19
Pigs and poultry	0.10	0.09	0.09	0.08	0.08	0.09	0.07	0.08	0.08	0.08
Dairy	0.34	0.37	0.36	0.34	0.28	0.30	0.28	0.26	0.24	0.24
Cattle and sheep (LFA)	0.43	0.41	0.40	0.40	0.34	0.39	0.38	0.36	0.35	0.36
Cattle and sheep (lowland)	0.32	0.29	0.28	0.28	0.24	0.27	0.26	0.27	0.26	0.28
Mixed	0.21	0.20	0.19	0.19	0.16	0.18	0.16	0.15	0.15	0.14
Other types	0.18	0.19	0.19	0.20	0.17	0.19	0.19	0.20	0.24	0.22
All types	2.29	2.26	2.19	2.15	1.84	2.07	1.95	1.90	1.92	1.88

Notes:

For England years 1993–99 include main holdings only, years 2000–02 include main and minor holdings. A greater degree of estimation has been used for the years 1993–97.

Source:

June Census of Agriculture and Horticulture, SEERAD, DARD, NAWAD

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the budgets were in 2001–02 of (a) the Agricultural Wages Board, (b) the Agricultural Wages Committee England, (c) the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, (d) the UK Register of Organic Food Standards, (e) the Wine Standards Board of the Vintner's Company, (f) the Agricultural Dwelling House Authority, (g) the Hill Farming Advisory Committee, (h) the National Rural Development Forum, (i) the Rural Affairs Forum, (j) the Trade Union Sustainable Development Advisory Committee, (k) Regional Flood Defence Committees and (l) the Regional Environmental Protection Advisory Committees; and if she will make a statement. [104434]

Alun Michael: Information on 2001–02 budgets for most of the bodies listed can be found in the Cabinet Office "Public Bodies 2002" publication, a copy of

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which is in the Library of the House. The bodies not listed in this publication, i.e. the National Rural Development Forum, the Rural Affairs Forum, the Trade Union Sustainable Development Advisory Committee and the Regional Environmental Protection Advisory Committees, are funded from within mainstream budgets in Defra or its agencies and could be separated out from those budgets at disproportionate cost only.

Woodland

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to introduce statutory protection for ancient woodland in England. [105226]

Mr. Morley: A number of measures are already in place to protect all woodland in England, including ancient semi-natural woodlands, where the biodiversity and cultural heritage values are the highest. In particular, the felling of any type of woodland is controlled through felling regulations. Additionally, many woodlands are subject to further controls because they are within designated areas such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest or Special Areas of Conservation.

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the amount of ancient woodland in England. [105227]

Mr. Morley: We estimate the total area of ancient woodland in England to be 334,000 hectares, as set out in the UK Indicators of Sustainable Forestry. The publication can be viewed on the Forestry Commission's website at http://www.forestrv.qov.uk/sfindicators

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to increase woodland cover in (a) the East Riding of Yorkshire, (b) Yorkshire and the Humber and (c) England. [105276]

Mr. Morley: With support from the Woodland Grant Scheme and Farm Woodland Premium Scheme, private woodland owners in Yorkshire and the Humber, including the East Riding, created some 850 hectares of new woodland over the last two years. The forthcoming Regional Forestry Framework is expected to identify priorities and actions for forestry in the Region, including further woodland creation.

As regards our Forestry Strategy for England as a whole, we are currently reviewing our grant schemes with a view to achieving, among other things, improved targeting of support for new woodland. At the moment, our target is to create 30,000 hectares of new woodland over the seven year period of the England Rural Development Programme.

Animal By-products

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions are taking place with unrelated organisations in advance of the introduction of the Animal By-Products Order. [105893]

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Mr. Morley: Discussions are continuing with a wide range of stakeholders prior to the introduction of the Animal By-Products Regulation on 1 May.

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what penalties will ensue for those who continue to use on-farm burial after the introduction of the Animal By-Products Order. [105894]

Mr. Morley: Penalties for failure to comply with the Animal By-Products Regulation when it comes into effect from 1 May range from a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both.

Bovine TB

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of cattle sold to stock farms culled out during the foot and mouth crisis in respect of which (i) their TB reactor test was overdue and (ii) the herd was subject to a movement restriction following the identification of TB infected cattle. [105966]

Mr. Morley: DEFRA is funding a study of the consequences of restocking, which makes the most of the unique research opportunities following the foot and mouth disease outbreak, and looks at TB in newly formed herds. However, the information sought, in the format requested, could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she will take to ensure that all current projects under the Government's bovine TB research programme will be made accessible to (a) non-governmental organisations and (b) the public by means of (i) a reference title for each project, (ii) a description of its purpose, (iii) its timescales and (iv) its cost. [105919]

Mr. Morley: The various strands of the Government's research programme both completed and on-going are available in exactly the format requested on Defra's website www2.defra.gov.uk/research/

Annual reports of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB also include summary updates of Defra-funded TB research. These are available on the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/tb

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her latest estimate is of the progress being made to (a) identify, (b) pilot and (c) conduct a wider implementation of a cattle vaccine to control the spread of bovine TB. [105920]

Mr. Morley: The development of a TB vaccine is one of the key objectives of our TB research programme. We are currently committed to research projects costing more than £5 million, designed to identify candidate vaccines, to experimentally vaccinate cattle and to develop a TB test which will differentiate vaccinated from infected animals. There are many steps in the process of identifying vaccine candidates, testing their efficacy and getting legislative clearance for the successful ones. The Chief Veterinary Officer has set up

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a Vaccine Steering Group to identify the administrative and legal processes that would need to be followed to enable a vaccine to be used with minimum delay.

The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG) has cautioned that vaccination is an effective policy option for controlling bovine tuberculosis only in the longer term. The Group is expected to report to Ministers in the first half of this year on the feasibility of pursuing a TB vaccination strategy for cattle or wildlife.

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