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Transport Pollutant Emissions

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of F-gas emissions are estimated to derive from the transport sector through vehicle air-conditioning and transport refrigeration; and what plans she has to control such emissions. [125333]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 11 July 2003]: The data presented in the table are taken from a study sponsored by my Department in 1999. The study estimated that in 1995, emissions from mobile air conditioning and refrigerated transport were responsible for 0.8 per cent. of total UK fluorinated gases (F-gases) emissions. This figure was projected to rise to 12 per cent. in 2010, due to the increasing use of air conditioners in new vehicles.

Emissions in million tonnes of CO2 equivalent

	Mobile air conditioning	Refrigerated transport	Total transport	Total all sources	Percentage of UK total emission
1995	0.13	0.01	0.14	17.5	0.8
2010	1.31	0.13	1.44	12.0	12

The Department has undertaken a follow-up study for emissions and projections of F-gases and this will be published shortly.

We expect the European Commission to publish shortly a proposal on measures to reduce emissions of F-gases.

Unsupported Crops Sector

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make an assessment of the impact of the European Commission's proposals for decoupling in the unsupported crops sector. [116486]

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Margaret Beckett: Overall, the agreement reached at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 27 June is estimated to give rise to annual net economic benefits of about euro 0.6 to 0.8 billion in the UK. The agreement does not provide for direct payments to growers for land used only for non-supported crops in the reference period. However, land needed to qualify for a direct payment under the new arrangements cannot be used to grow fruit, vegetables and table potatoes, thereby removing a potential source of additional competition that the unsupported sector was concerned would arise from the Commission's proposals.

Vital Villages Programme

Mrs. Shephard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether (a) she, (b) Department officials and (c) the Countryside Agency gave instructions to suspend payments on the Countryside Agency's Vital Villages programme from 16 April to 1 June 2003. [125855]

Alun Michael: The Countryside Agency manages the Vital Villages programme on behalf of Defra. Day to day decisions on the operation of the scheme are a matter for the Agency.

The Countryside Agency did not suspend payments under the programme but did call a temporary halt to making any new commitments while they considered how to target the programme for the remainder of the year. By May 2003 almost two thirds of the 2003–04 budget was allocated.

Mrs. Shephard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether there was variation between budgeted and actual expenditure in the period from April 2002 to March 2003 in the Countryside Agency's Vital Villages programme. [125856]

Alun Michael: The Countryside Agency's Vital Villages programme budget allocation was £17.5 million in 2002–03 and the actual expenditure on grants was £17.25 million. Within the overall programme the Rural Transport Partnerships budget allocation was £8.2 million and actual expenditure was £9.9 million.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Arms Exports

Mr. Menzies Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the trips made by senior Ministers, and the countries visited, where UK exports on the Military and Dual Lists were the main reason for the trip in each year since 2001. [125665]

Nigel Griffiths: I am not aware of any overseas visits by senior DTI Ministers in the years since 2001 that have had as their main theme the export of Military and Dual List goods.

The specific responsibility within this Government for the export promotion of UK military equipment lies with the Ministry of Defence (MOD), specifically the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO).

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BNFL

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her policy is on the involvement of BNFL in nuclear weapons programmes. [119539]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 16 June 2003]: BNFL's Board ensures compliance with all UK nuclear non-proliferation obligations.

In common with many other suppliers, BNFL has made an important contribution to the UK's effective and credible nuclear deterrent. Tritium continues to be supplied to the Ministry of Defence, but the production and separation of plutonium for weapons' use was stopped prior to 1995. Civil nuclear material at BNFL facilities is, like such material at other facilities in the UK, subject to Euratom Treaty safeguards and to the terms of the UK's safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Euratom.

BNFL is a third joint venture partner in a consortium that manages the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston on behalf of MOD.

Canada-EU Trade

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps are being taken towards Canada agreeing a free trade agreement with the EU; and if she will make a statement. [125081]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: At the EU-Canada Summit in Ottawa last December it was agreed that proposals for the negotiation of a Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement would be submitted for the next Summit in Canada, in December 2003.

Departmental Grants

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much money has been given by her Department (a) in the form of Regional Selective Assistance and (b) under the Enterprise Grant scheme; and how much of this has been paid to industrial projects that have subsequently failed. [124730]

Jacqui Smith: Expenditure from 1 January 1997 to date was £662.1 million for Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) in England and £28.2 million for the Enterprise Grant scheme (EG) which was introduced in January 2000.

£40.1 million and £0.2 million was paid to RSA and EG projects respectively where, to date, there has been some recovery or write-off action. Many of these projects will have involved some investment but not on the scale anticipated at the time of offer.

Departmental Policy (Burma)

Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her policy is on (a) trade with and (b) investment in Burma by companies registered in the United Kingdom or their overseas subsidiaries. [125668]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made clear in his reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Maryhill (Ann McKechin) on 25 June 2003, Official Report, column 1042W, the British

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Government do not encourage trade with or investment in Burma while the regime continues to suppress the basic human rights of its people. We offer no support for companies wishing to trade with Burma or for those who want to invest there. Representatives of British companies or their subsidiaries that inquire about the prospects, either for trade with or investment in Burma, are informed of this policy. I met the Chairman of British American Tobacco, Mr. Marlin Broughton on 2 July 2003. BAT are the only major British investor in Burma. They run a partnership with the business arm of Burma's military directorship, the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings. I asked Mr. Broughton to consider withdrawing their investment.

Electricity Generation

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the UK's generation mix for electricity (a) is and (b) was in (i) 1973, (ii) 1980, and (iii) 1990, (iv) 2000. [125583]

Mr. Timms: The percentage of gross electricity supplied by fuel is set out in the following table.

	1973	1980	1990	2000	2002
Coal	67	74	69	32	32
Oil	21	11	7	1	1
Gas	—	1	1	40	40
Nuclear	10	12	20	22	22
Renewables(4)	2	2	3	3	3
Other(5)	—	—	—	2	2
Total	100	100	100	100	100

⁽⁴⁾ Includes hydro natural flow.

⁽⁵⁾ Includes coke oven gas, blast furnace gas, waste products from chemical processes and generation by hydro pumped storage.

Sources:

Digest of UK Energy Statistics, UK Energy in Brief

Mobile Phone Masts

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to ask the National Radiological Protection Board to review research on the health aspects of mobile phone masts and to report to her; and if she will make a statement. [125006]

Mr. Timms: The public health implications of mobile phone technologies in general were comprehensively assessed by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP), chaired by Sir William Stewart, in May 2000 (www.iegmp.org.uk). In respect of base stations the Group concluded that:

The balance of evidence indicates that there is no general risk to the health of people living near to base stations on the basis that exposures are expected to be small fractions of guidelines.

Measurements undertaken by the National Radiological Protection Board and the Radiocommunications Agency have confirmed that public exposures are very much lower than the international exposure guidelines and are published on the websites www.nrpb.org and www.radio.gov.uk respectively.

The IEGMP additionally recommended that the issue of possible health effects from mobile phone technology should be the subject of a further review in three years time or earlier if circumstances demand it. In responding

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to the recommendations in the IEGMP report, the Government asked the NRPB to undertake this further review and the Board of NRPB requested its independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) to carry this out. It is expected that this further report will be issued towards the end of 2003. Membership of AGNIR can be found on the NRPB's website (www.nrpb.org).

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