You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records > Hansard > Commons Debates > Commons Debates by date > Commons Debates - previous sessions > Bound Volume Hansard - Written Answers
Previous Section Index Home Page

8 May 2003 : Column 777W—continued

Biological Resources Centres

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what response she has made to the OECD Initiative on Biological Resources Centres; and what resources have been committed to the achievement in the UK of the objectives of the initiative. [107922]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 9 April 2003]: The Government supports the broad objective of the OECD initiative on Biological Resource Centres, which is to seek to ensure the conservation of biological resources and associated information in an efficient and effective way through the creation of a global network of biological resource centres like seed banks or culture collections, and, through such a network, to provide improved access to biological resources of an appropriate quality to bona fide users in the fields of life sciences and biotechnology. Proposals on how this might be achieved are still under discussion in the OECD. Officials from my Department are actively involved in those talks.

Bovine Claim Payments

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what is owed to Mr. and Mrs. T. McCoy of Dartmouth in relation to their 2001 bovine claim; and what the reasons are for the delay in payment, with reference to her Department's letter to the hon. Member for Totnes of 15 March 2003, ref 179375/JW. [111859]

Alun Michael: As stated in the letter of 15 March 2003, all Mr. And Mrs. McCoy's bovine claims for 2001 have been paid, and there are not outstanding payments.

Countryside and Rights of Way Act

Valerie Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she expects the new rights of access under Part 1 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 to commence in the Central Southern Region. [111247]

Alun Michael: I announced in November last year that the new right for the public to walk on mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land will be rolled out on a region by region basis. This will give walkers the right to walk in open countryside and on registered common land as early as possible, rather than having to wait for the mapping process to be completed for the whole country. I intend to open the first two regions to public access during the summer of 2004. These are the south east and central southern England.

8 May 2003 : Column 778W

This is a demanding timetable as we will need to have in place not only the conclusive maps for those regions but also all necessary restrictions and exclusion on access. Guidance and codes of practice will also need to be available to walkers and landowners. These mechanisms are necessary under the CROW Act and it is important for them to be in force in each region before access land is made available to the public so that the interests of both land managers and walkers are safeguarded.We expect to meet the target of having all access land open by the end of 2005.

Criminal Offences

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list, broken down by Act, the criminal offences created in legislation sponsored by her Department and its predecessors since 1997. [110988]

Alun Michael: A number of criminal offences have been created in primary legislation, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and its predecessor Departments, since 1997. The following list contains only legislation concerning policy areas now administered by Defra. The Plant Varieties Act 1997 (c. 66) created two new criminal offences. The Food Standards Act 1999 (c. 28) created eight new criminal offences. The Fur Farming (Prohibition) Act 2000 (c. 33) created four new criminal offences. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (c. 37) created 22 new criminal offences. The Animal Health 2002 Act (c. 42) created 14 new criminal offences.

No comprehensive records are kept by the Department of offences created in secondary legislation, and the cost of searching the many instruments in force for which the Department has responsibility would be disproportionate.

Exhibitions

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list events at which her Department and each agency and non-departmental public body for which her Department is responsible have exhibited in each of the last three years, stating for each (a) the purpose of exhibiting, (b) the cost of exhibiting and (c) the number of staff attending for the exhibition. [107626]

Alun Michael: The following is a list of the events at which attendance or an exhibit were commissioned centrally by Defra as part of the Department's publicity

programme. This covers the period since the Department's inception in June 2001. The events were commissioned at a cost of £0.5 million in 2001–02 and £1.2 million in 2002–03 to Defra's central publicity budget.

The number of staff attending each event is not available and the information for each agency and non-departmental body for which Defra is responsible could be collated only at a disproportionate cost.

8 May 2003 : Column 779W


8 May 2003 : Column 780W

8 May 2003 : Column 781W

Next Section Index Home Page