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Live Exports

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions her Department has had with her European counterparts since April 2002 on removing European Union obstacles to the ban on live exports and their replacement by meat exports; and if she will make a statement. [121371]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 1 July 2003]: Judgments in the European Court of Justice have confirmed that a ban on the live export of animals would be illegal under the Treaty of Rome. Instead of seeking a ban, we have continued to press in the Agriculture Council for the European Commission to bring forward

3 Jul 2003 : Column 403W

improved controls for the welfare of animals during transport. Commissioner David Byrne has now said that he expects to produce these long overdue proposals in July 2003. Most of our exports are of meat. We are supporting action to improve competitiveness in the red meat food chain with a view to strengthening meat supply chains both at home and in export markets.

Methane

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent estimate she has made of the quantity of methane which is being released annually by the northward retreat of permafrost and the consequent impact on climate change. [122666]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 30 June 2003]: Methane concentrations have increased by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times and account for about 20 per cent. of the climate warming due to greenhouse gases. The increase in concentration is mostly due to increases in anthropogenic emissions (from sources such as landfills, energy production and biomass burning). We have no estimates for the current annual release rate from such areas but methane emissions from high-latitude permafrost areas are likely to have made a contribution to climate change due to greenhouse gases of less than 1 per cent.

Modulation

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the impact of the higher rates of modulation on larger farms; and if she will make a statement. [120539]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 20 June 2003]: The deal on CAP reform agreed by the Agriculture Council on 26 June 2003 represents a real shift in agricultural policy. It will provide a more sustainable basis for European agriculture and reflect the wider environmental and rural development objectives, which society seeks to achieve.

The first Euro5,000 of every recipient's subsidy is exempt from modulation. However, this means that the effective modulation rate is higher on farms in receipt of higher levels of subsidy. However, this should be viewed in the context of the whole package of reforms. An assessment of the economic impact of the Commission's January proposals on the long-term perspective for sustainable agriculture is available on the Defra website (http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/reports/capreform.pdf), and an assessment of the impact of the outcome of the negotiations will be made available in future.

OSPAR Ministerial Meeting

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations she has received from non-governmental organisations on the Ospar ministerial meeting in Bremen. [120788]

Mr. Morley: Defra officials discussed a range of issues on biodiversity with Wildlife and Countryside Link on 29 May 2003. Greenpeace also made representations in relation to radioactive substances.

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Non-governmental organisations also made representations directly to the Bremen meeting. In addition, I met both Wildlife and Countryside Link and Greenpeace in Bremen prior to the start of the meeting.

Recycling

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will review the assistance the Government gives to charity shops in promoting the reuse of goods; and if she will make a statement. [121985]

Mr. Morley: The Government do not give assistance specifically for this purpose, although there are many ways in which we support the work of charities in general and in which we promote the reuse and recycling of materials. We are always willing to receive representations and ideas about specific measures that would benefit either or both of these causes.

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to stop the export of recyclable materials from the UK to other countries for treatment; and if she will make a statement. [119699]

Mr. Morley: The Government have no plans at present to prevent the export of recyclable materials for treatment. Our priority is to increase the amount of waste that is reused or recycled; to achieve these aims may necessitate the export of recyclate. The Government have taken action to increase recycling markets in the UK by setting up the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which was set up to lead on recycling market development in the United Kingdom.

Rights of Way

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many miles of footpaths are in use. [123404]

Alun Michael: In England and Wales it is estimated that there are 173,940 km of public rights of way that are footpaths. There are no figures held centrally to show how many miles of footpath are in use, and the information could be provided only at a disproportionate cost. However, the 1998 Day Visits Survey, which surveyed leisure day visits in both urban and rural areas, found that walking was a principal activity on approximately 930 million trips in England and Wales. The 2002 Leisure Day Visits Survey will be published in the autumn this year.

Rural Payments Agency

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many payments to farmers were completed after the target date by the Rural Payments Agency in each month in (a) 2000–01, (b) 2001–02, (c) 2002–03 and (d) 2003–04 to date, broken down by type. [122843]

Alun Michael: Since the Rural Payments Agency was established on 16 October 2001 the number of payments made to farmers after the target date is as follows.

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2001–02 Scheme	October	November	December	January	February	March
F&V Withdrawal	—	2	—	—	—	—
OTMS Deadweight	—	—	—	3	—	—
OTMS Incineration	1	3	13	3	—	1
OTMS Mincing	4	—	—	3	—	2
Main AAPS Payments	—	—	—	—	2114	355
SAPS	—	4	—	—	2	1
BSPS	49	41	—	—	1	15

ERDP Schemes are subject to rolling payment deadlines that are calculated from the date an individual claim is received by the Rural Development Service who administer the schemes on behalf of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). The exception being the Hill Farm allowance which is administered by RPA and has a target of 95 per cent. of payments to be made by the end of March.

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2001 Scheme	Total number of claims	Claims processed after target date
Countryside Stewardship Scheme	9,359	2,901
Environmentally Sensitive Areas I-III	8,336	1,167
Environmentally Sensitive Areas IV	3,127	187
Farm Woodland Premium Scheme	6,464	3,813
Organic Farming Scheme	1,242	322
Energy Crops Scheme	15	2
Processing and Marketing Grant	17	3
Rural Enterprise Scheme	229	39
Vocational Training Scheme	70	6

2002–03 Scheme	April	May	June	July	August	September
OTMS Liveweight	—	—	—	—	—	—
OTMS Incineration	—	—	—	—	—	—
OTMS Mincing	—	—	—	—	—	—
Main MRS Payments	16	20	11	25	5	11
Non Food Set-Aside	150	20	20	10	3	5
SAPS	—	—	—	—	—	—
BSPS	5	4	—	8	—	5,800
SCPS	—	—	—	—	—	1,982
SPS	—	—	—	—	—	5,565
EPS	—	—	—	—	—	948

2002–03 Scheme	October	November	December	January	February	March
OTMS Liveweight	—	—	—	14	—	—
OTMS Incineration	—	—	4	—	—	—
OTMS Mincing	3	—	—	3	—	—
Main MRS Payments	—	—	—	—	341	98
Non Food Set-Aside	1	—	—	—	—	—
SAPS	3	5		2	2	2
BSPS	4,396	1,894	954	776	791	550
SCPS	2,109	982	319	634	883	424
SPS	7,433	3,026	3,925	1,832	5,128	3,663
EPS	488	385	117	125	222	166

ERDP Schemes are subject to rolling payment deadlines that are calculated from the date an individual claim is received by the Rural Development Service who administer the schemes on behalf of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). The exception being the Hill Farm Allowance which is administered by RPA and has a target of 95 per cent. of payments to be made by the end of March.

2002 Scheme	Total number of claims	Claims processed after target date
Countryside Stewardship Scheme	19,790	3,364
Environmentally Sensitive Areas I-III	7,458	2,162
Environmentally Sensitive Areas IV	3,120	62
Farm Woodland Premium Scheme	7,683	230
Organic Farming Scheme	1,489	148
Processing and Marketing Grant	61	11
Rural Enterprise Scheme	898	197
Vocational Training Scheme	223	22
Hill Farm Allowance	11,116	222

2003–04 Scheme	April	May	June
Main AAPS Payments	17	25	—
Non Food Set-Aside	242	33	—
SAPS	15	8	46
BSPS	259	193	223
SCPS	107	3	—
SPS	3,083	707	422
EPS	47	41	23

ERDP Schemes are subject to rolling payment deadlines that are calculated from the date an individual claim is received by the Rural Development Service who administer the schemes on behalf of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). The exception being the Hill Farm Allowance which is administered by RPA and has a target of 95 per cent. of payments to be made by the end of March.

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2003 Scheme	Total number of claims	Claims processed after target date
Organic Farming Scheme	694	146
Rural Enterprise Scheme	253	38
Vocational Training Scheme	70	4

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what actions her Department is taking to deal with administrative problems across the border between England and Wales in processing payments by the Rural Payments Agency. [122520]

Alun Michael: The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) and National Assembly for Wales Agriculture and Rural Affairs Department (NAWARAD) are in regular communication in respect of subsidy claims which cover land and animals, in both England and Wales. The majority of such claims which have been validated have received at least interim payments.

In addition, automated interfaces are being developed between England and Wales for the bovine schemes.

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