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12 May 2003 : Column 4W—continued

Canoeing

Mr. Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many development officer posts the Environment Agency is funding to encourage canoeing over the next three years; and if she will make a statement. [111929]

Mr. Meacher: There are 20 staff employed in England and Wales with responsibility for developing waterways and associated recreational activities, including canoeing. This is not expected to change over the next three years.

Mr. Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much money was allocated by the Environment Agency to encourage participation in canoeing in each of the last five years; how much the Agency has allocated for each of the next three years; and if she will make a statement. [111930]

Mr. Meacher: The Environment Agency does not specifically allocate funds for the promotion of canoeing. Around £6 million grant-in-aid is spent per annum in the development of the Agency's waterways projects and includes the promotion of canoeing.

Common Agricultural Policy

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will place in the Library copies of responses made to her Department's consultation on the Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy. [110896]

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Margaret Beckett: In line with standard practice, responses to the consultation exercise are available to the public through the main Defra library and copies of the list of respondents has been placed in the Library of the House.

Counselling Services

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what arrangements are made in her Department to allow staff to access counselling services. [111936]

Alun Michael: This Department has its own in-house Staff Welfare Service, which provides a service to staff and managers in the core Department and to all of its agencies. The 9 Welfare Officers, who are based in various locations throughout the country, have all received training in counselling and are available to staff on a 24 hour basis, 365 days a year.

The Welfare Officers are able to deal with any problem brought to them by staff, whether they originate from inside or outside the workplace and by doing so they help them to resolve or come to terms with those problems, thus helping to keep staff effective at work.

Document Classification

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many documents are held by her Department that are subject to security classification, broken down by category of classification. [107356]

Alun Michael: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to him by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Mr. Alexander) on 7 May 2003, Official Report, column 696W.

Farmers' Grants

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the schemes making grants to farmers that have met the targets in the Citizens Charter for (a) notification and (b) payment. [111860]

Alun Michael: The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is responsible for administering CAP payments to farmers in England.

Citizens Charter targets do not apply to the RPA, as its targets are set annually by its Ownership Board and are approved by Ministers.

Performance against target for the RPA in respect of subsidy payments to farmers and replies to correspondence for the financial year 2002–03 is as shown in the table. These figures are provisional pending validation by Audit.

Target	Performance
To process and pay at least 96.14 per cent. of valid IACS claims by value within the EU deadline.	96.42%
To ensure that 92 per cent. of correspondence is answered within 15 working days	92.29%

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GM Field Trials

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what weight she will attach to public opinion expressed through the intended consultation exercise in formulating her response to the results of the GM field trials. [110376]

Mr. Meacher: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has already made clear that the public debate will help to inform the Government's policy-making on GM, including its policy on the cultivation of GM crops, and that we will indicate what we have learned from the debate when making future policy announcements.

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make it her policy to allow a minimum of three months public consultation on GM crops following the publication of the results of the GM field trials before deciding her response to these trials. [110377]

Mr. Meacher: The Government do not intend to issue a formal response to the results of the GM field trials. The public will have an opportunity to debate the issues surrounding GM crops during the forthcoming public debate. Once the scientific papers reporting the results of the GM field trials are published and in the public domain, there will be further opportunity to comment on the implications.

Household Waste

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether she has carried out a cost-benefit analysis on changes in the collection of bulky items of waste from individual households; how much she has spent on addressing fly tipping in local authorities that have introduced charges for the collection of household waste; and what the likely administrative costs are estimated to be of introducing a charge for the collection of waste items from individual households. [111041]

Mr. Meacher: We have not carried out a cost-benefit analysis on changes in the collection of bulky items of waste from individual households.

Local authorities receive funding through the Environmental, Protective and Cultural Services block and it is not therefore possible to estimate how much local authorities have spent on tackling fly tipping.

Information on the administrative costs of local authorities introducing charges for the collection of bulky items of waste from individual households is not held centrally.

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the environmental benefits of a free service for the collection of bulky items of waste from individual households; and what guidance she gives to local authorities on the advisability of introducing charges for the collection of bulky items of waste. [111057]

Mr. Meacher: No assessment has been made of the environmental benefits of a free service for the collection of bulky items of waste from individual householders. The Government intends to conduct research into fly

12 May 2003 : Column 7W

tipping that will look at schemes that have been instigated by local authorities to combat fly tipping. One of the areas to be covered is the free collection of bulky items.

Guidance to local authorities on the advisability of introducing charges for the collection of bulky items of waste was published in the joint Circular from the Department of the Environment (Circular 13/88) and the Welsh Office (Circular 19/88) and this advice was reinforced in the joint Circular from the Department of the Environment (Circular 14/92), the Welsh Office (Circular 30/92) and the Scottish Office Environment Department (Circular 24/92).

Illegal Timber Imports

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action is being taken at EU level to tackle the trade in illegal timber imports; whether the UK will support new EU legislation to ban the trade in illegally acquired timber and timber products; and if she will make a statement. [111034]

Mr. Meacher: Under EU law, import controls on illegally logged timber can only be imposed at EU level. We are therefore working actively within the EU, where this is now being considered. The Government are strongly encouraging the European Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process. The European Commission will shortly publish a proposed FLEGT action plan. The plan will include consideration of new EU legislative regulations to address imports of illegally logged timber in a way that is consistent with EU obligations to the World Trade Organisation.

Land Use Policy Group

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions she has had with the Land Use Policy Group. [111271]

Alun Michael: Ministers and officials meet regularly with the England bodies that make up the Land Use Policy Group which are the Environment Agency, the Countryside Agency and English Nature, all of which are sponsored by the Department. Recently, officials have taken part in meetings of the group and presentations on their recent report "Europe's Rural Futures". We look forward to a continuing close relationship with the LUPG, and to a continuing valuable contribution by the Group to policy development.

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