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Regulatory Impact Assessments

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on the departmental Regulatory Impact Assessment procedure; and how many RIAs have been reviewed in respect of the Department over the last year. [120856]

Mr. Caborn: A Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) must be completed for all policy proposals that have a potential impact on businesses, charities or the voluntary sector. It includes details of the arrangements for monitoring and evaluating policy proposals and their impact.

Information on the number of RIAs that have been reviewed in respect of the Department in the last year is not held.

From this year the National Audit Office (NAO) has a new role in independently evaluating a selection of RIAs. In their Annual Report, published in February 2003,the Better Regulation Task Force put forward suggestions of RIAs for the NAO to review.

The NAO review will focus on the quality of analysis in the RIAs and the thoroughness with which the RIAs have been undertaken. The findings and recommendations of best practice will be fed back to departments. It will play a valuable part in driving up standards of RIAs.

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Rural Sport and Recreation

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions she has had with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about the impact on rural sport and recreational plans to concentrate sports council funding on selected sports. [120963]

Mr. Caborn: I have had no such discussions.

Sports Administration

Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what progress has been made on the establishment of Regional Sports Boards; and if she will make a statement. [121410]

Mr. Caborn: Chairs of the Regional Sports Boards have been appointed in all the regions apart from the West Midlands which is still under consideration. However, the Chair of the London Board has just resigned for whom a replacement will be appointed as soon as possible. Sport England has appointed the members of seven of the Boards. Recruitment of the members of the West Midlands Board will start when a chair has been appointed and recruitment of the members of the North West Board will commence shortly following the appointment of its chair on 11 June.

All those regions which have a Board in place have held initial meetings and made plans for future meetings. Preparation of regional sports strategies will be a priority for all of the regions as well as making strong partnerships with other regional agencies/organisations. Sport England intends to delegate funding to the Boards this autumn. Three Regional Sports Board chairs will be appointed to Sport England's Council in October.

Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will list the membership of Regional Sports Board. [121411]

Mr. Caborn: The information requested is as follows:

North East Region: Tim Cantle-Jones (Chair), Professor Chris Drinkwater, Don Robson, Chris Roberts, Tanni Grey Thompson, David Marker, Alison Curbishley, Ged Bell, Irene Lucas, Angela James, Peter Warburton, John Mowbray.

East Region: Sir Robin Miller (Chair), Vanessa Brown, Nicholas Buckworth, Roger Fennemore, Tom McNab, Isabel Newstead, Steve Palframan, Dr. Gina Radford.

South West Region: Ged Roddy (Chair), Marie Hunter, Maggie Rae, Professor Eric Thomas, Will Behenna, Steve Evans, Rod Carr, Phil de Glanville, Penny Spink, Colin Johnson.

Yorkshire Region: Councillor Peter Price (Chair), Mike Twiggs, Jane Glaister, Anna Young, Malcolm Brown, Kate Birkenhead, Pat Marsh, Ashley Metcalf, Novlette Rennie, Alan Smith, William Nabarro.

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London Region: Vacant (Chair), Dr. Sue Atkinson, Councillor Lyn Brown, Professor Steve Hodkinson, Yvonne Marson, Richard Sumray, Karam Bhullar, Danny Crates, Philip Lewis, Mike McFarlane, Neil Taylor.

East Midlands: Len Jackson (Chair), Nicholas Bunting, Mary Butler, Ted Cassidy, Karen Chouhan, Lindsey Davies, Wendi Jarrett, Jeff Moore, Patrick Nelson, Dr. Mary Nevill, Jackie Strong, Mike Turner.

South East: Mary MacAnally (Chair), Councillor Gerry Ceaser, Brenda Chester, Rafiq Chohan, Professor Martin Elson, David Knight, Richard Leman, Paul Millman, Ben Oakley, Linda Plowright, Neil Snowball.

The members of the North West and West Midlands Regional Sports Boards have not been appointed yet. With the recent appointment of Andy Worthington as Chair of the North West Board, the recruitment of the members will now begin. Appointment of the members of the West Midlands Board will begin once its Chair has been appointed.

Tyntesfield Estate

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether the Heritage Lottery Fund has received an application from the National Trust for funds in connection with the Tyntesfield estate. [120420]

Mr. Caborn: The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has not received a worked-up application from the National Trust (NT) for what they propose to do at Tyntesfield although at the time of making the NHMF award to Tyntesfield, the Board approved in principle a further grant award from HLF subject to the receipt and favourable assessment of a fully worked-up application which meets HLF's priorities. The NT is currently working-up this application in accordance with standard HLF procedures. As part of this process a series of meetings and discussions have taken place between HLF and NT staff regarding the shape, timetable and content of their bid. HLF expect to receive an application in December this year.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Air Quality Targets

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations she has received regarding (a) her Department's targets for air quality and (b) the attainment of those targets. [120896]

Mr. Bradshaw: The information is as follows:

(a) The Government objectives on air quality are set out in the Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland published in January 2000 and its Addendum published in February 2003. Prior to the publication of these documents the Government consulted widely. The Strategy and summaries of responses received are published on my Department's website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/airquality/index.htm

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(b) We are on course or have already met the Air Quality objectives for five of the nine pollutants in England, namely benzene, 1,3-butadiene, carbon monoxide, lead and sulphur dioxide. Significant progress has been made towards meeting Air Quality objectives for nitrogen dioxide, particles, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and ozone. This is as a result of the measures that have been implemented to reduce emissions of these pollutants, and their precursors, particularly from road transport and industry.

Biofuels

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to prohibit the use of biofuels on set-aside land; and if she will make a statement. [120537]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 20 June 2003]:The set-aside requirements are part of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support arrangements for the arable sector.

The current scheme allows the growing of certain energy and other non-food crops. We believe this is a valuable flexibility in the use of set-aside land, which can contribute to wider environmental benefits.

Bushmeat

Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action she is taking to stop the trade in bushmeat. [119443]

Mr. Bradshaw: Since March 2002, the Department has had in place a series of measures designed to tackle the disease risks posed by illegal imports of all types of meat and animal products. The number of illegal imports seized in 2002–03 rose to three times the number made in the previous year, reflecting increased enforcement activity and better evidence-based targeting.

Additional resources for the coming years, together with the improved enforcement and intelligence capability provided by HM Customs and Excise, should ensure that this work is consolidated and built upon. HM Customs are setting up four mobile detection teams to target meat and animal products, and will be increasing the number of detector dog teams to six during the current financial year.

Defra are also working with the Food Standards Agency and HM Customs to understand what drives the demand for exotic meats and animal products in the UK.

In addition, under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) the UK played a key role in setting up a Working Group of Central African countries, which is due to report to the next Conference of the Parties in October 2004. We expect its recommendations to provide a valuable resource for all the countries of the region, in aiding their efforts to harmonise and strengthen local controls on the bushmeat trade.

Mr. Laxton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what legal action her Department has taken in the last four years against those who import bushmeat into the United Kingdom. [121061]

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Mr. Bradshaw: A decision to bring a prosecution before the Courts is a matter for the enforcement authority. For imports of meat covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES), this is HM Customs and Excise. For other offences regarding illegal imports of meat and animal products, responsibility lay with Local Authorities until 11 April, when this was taken over by HM Customs.

HM Customs and Excise have prosecuted three people in the last four years for CITES offences involving "bushmeat". Two were convicted, and one was acquitted but convicted under a separate animal health charge. Data on Local Authority prosecutions for offences under other meat and animal products legislation have not been collected centrally. We are not aware of any recent prosecutions by Local Authorities for bushmeat offences.

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