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Written Answers to Questions
Monday 14 April 2003
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Bird Registration Scheme
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she expects to publish the results of her Department's review of its Bird Registration Scheme. [107933]
Mr. Morley: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Welsh Assembly have completed the public consultation on the bird registration scheme.
The consultation provoked over 400 responses from individuals; groups and organisations known to have an interest in schedule 4 and other birds; central and local government organisations; police forces and other enforcement agencies. A summary is being made available on the Department's website.
Having analysed the responses, Defra and the Welsh Assembly have decided to:
- retain the Bird Registration Scheme; but to
remove the requirement to re-register birds every three years
treat birds already identifiable with an approved CITES mark as having sufficient marking for registration purposes under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
invite their statutory advisers, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, to review the statutory criteria for listing birds under schedule 4 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Combustion Plants
Mr. John Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what estimate she has made of the costs to industry of the adoption of (a) emission limit values and (b) a national emission reduction plan under the revised Large Combustion Plants Directive; [108552]
- (2) whether (a) a power station and (b) generating unit are treated as combustion plants under the revised Large Combustion Plants Directive; [108554]
(3) whether emission trading will be possible under a national emission reduction plan within the revised Large Combustion Plants Directive. [108553]
Alun Michael: The Government are currently considering the implementation of the revised Large Combustion Plant Directive (2001/80/EC), in particular, the costs and benefits of the options.
Article 2(7) of the revised Directive defines a combustion plant as "any technical apparatus in which fuels are oxidised in order to use the heat thus
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generated". It provides for certain qualifications and exceptions to this definition (eg exclusion of gas turbines licensed before 27 November 2002) which do not constitute combustion plants for the purposes of the Directive.
Article 1 of the revised Directive provides that it only applies to combustion plants (as defined in Article 2), "the rated thermal input of which is equal to or greater than 50MW, irrespective of the type of fuel used (solid, liquid or gaseous)".
Accordingly, if a power station or generating unit falls within the provisions of Articles 1 and 2 of the Directive and does not benefit from any of the exclusions set out in Article 2(7), it will constitute a combustion plant for the purposes of the revised Directive.
Article 4(6) of the revised Directive, which deals with the implementation of the Directive via a "national emission reduction plan" specifies the requirements that those plans must include, which among others comprise "objectives and related targets, measures and timetables for reaching those objectives and targets, and a monitoring mechanism" (Article 4(6) (a)). This Article further provides that "the national emission plan shall reduce the total annual emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (S02) and dust from existing plants to the levels that would have been achieved by applying the emission limit values referred to in paragraph 3 to the existing plants in operation in the year 2000".
There is nothing in the revised Directive to prohibit emissions trading in the context of a national emission reduction plan, though any emissions trading would have to comply with all other requirements of Community law, including rules of competition and state aids.
Countryside Access
Paddy Tipping: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she intends to publish regulations relating to the exclusion and restriction of access under Part 1 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. [108796]
Alun Michael: Regulations on exclusions and restrictions of access are currently being finalised and I expect to be in a position to lay them by the end of May 2003.
Websites
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the (a) cost of and (b) number of visitors to each website operated by her Department and each agency and non-departmental public body for which her Department is responsible in each year since its establishment. [107631]
Alun Michael: The cost of and number of visitors to the main Defra website (www.defra.gov.uk) for each financial year since the formation of the Department in June 2001 are as follows.
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| Year | Cost (£) | Number of visitors |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02(1) | 525,000 | 1,607,966 |
| 2002–03(2) | 623,000 | 1,418,515 |
(1) From June 2001.
(2) To end February 2003.
The Sustainable Development web site www. sustainable-development.gov.uk has running costs of approximately £20–25,000 per annum in the period since June 2001, including start-up costs for subsidiary sites. Numbers of visitors are not readily available for the full period since June 2001 but currently average approximately 12,000 visitors per month.
A number of other smaller websites are operated by the Department, for which costs are incorporated within the budgets for specific programmes and not separately identified. Corresponding information is not held centrally for other websites managed by the Department's agencies and non-Departmental public bodies, and could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
European Working Groups
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on progress with achieving transparency in respect of the European working groups for which the Department is responsible. [105732]
Mr. Morley: The Government have long been committed to greater openness in the EU Institutions. This was a key theme of the UK Presidencies in 1992 and 1998. Making it easier to gain access to non-sensitive documents is crucial to this. The Government welcomed Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. As a result, more documents are released to the public, while genuinely sensitive documents are given the protection they need.
Accountability and transparency of Council business to Parliament are ensured by the scrutiny process, to which the Government are also firmly committed.
We strongly supported the measures agreed at the Seville European Council to make the Council more open when in legislating mode. We remain committed to increasing transparency. The Future of Europe Convention is also looking at ways to make the EU more open.
Farm Subsidies
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to channel production-linked farm subsidies into rural development schemes. [107806]
Mr. Morley: Government have redirected, and match funded, a proportion of production linked subsidy payments into rural development measures since 2001. In the current negotiations on CAP reform we are pressing for both a shift in support from production-linked subsidies to environmental and rural development measures and a significant increase in the UK's share of current EU funding for rural development programmes. We are committed to increasing expenditure on the England Rural Development Programme. The detailed
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arrangements for delivering this commitment will depend on the outcome of the on-going negotiations on the reform of the CAP.
Fur Farming
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 1 April 2003, Official Report, column 644W, on fur farming, whether the compensation scheme for fur farmers is in conformity with the Human Rights Act 1998. [108035]
Mr. Morley: On Thursday 13 March 2003 the High Court gave judgment quashing the Fur Farming (Compensation Scheme) (England) Order 2002. The Government's view is that the compensation scheme conforms with Human Rights legislation. An application has been made to appeal.
Over-30-months Scheme
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the value for money of (a) direct incineration and (b) rendering followed by incineration of carcases under the Over-30-Month Scheme. [108928]
Alun Michael: The cost of rendering and subsequent incineration of rendered products is less expensive than that of the direct incineration of cattle carcases. However, there are some benefits to the direct incineration of carcases in terms of quicker re-imbursement of compensation sums to the Exchequer from the EU. Both methods of disposal are used under the Over-30-Month Scheme and each represent good value for money.
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