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8 Sept 2003 : Column 309W—continued

Animal Movements

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the policy on livestock movement restrictions; whether she plans to make any changes; and if she will make a statement. [128339]

Mr. Bradshaw: A standing animal movements regime came into force on 1 August, maintaining the 6 day standstill but with additional exemptions for male sheep and cattle during the main breeding season. My noble Friend Lord Whitty set out the thinking behind this decision in a written answer on 2 July 2003, Official Report (Lords), volume 650, columns WA 117–120.

OSPAR

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the role of the European Union in OSPAR after the coming into force of the European Constitution. [128159]

Mr. Morley: The European Constitution is currently still in draft and subject to negotiation. No change in the working of OSPAR is envisaged once the European Constitution comes into force.

Seals

Linda Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to tackle the phocine distemper virus in seals in the UK. [127834]

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Mr. Bradshaw: The first case of phocine distemper virus (PDV) was reported at Anholt, Denmark in May 2002. This was the same place that the previous PDV outbreak in 1988 originated. The epizootic reached the east coast of England in August 2002.

Drawing on the lessons learned during the last outbreak, Defra helped voluntary organisations prepare and cope with the PDV outbreak as it hit UK waters. Discussions were held about the disposal and vaccinations options for seal carcases and the resulting guidance notes were published along with other useful information on the dedicated Defra PDV website (http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/ewd/seals/index.htm).

Defra commissioned the Institute of Zoology (Zoological Society of London) to monitor, report and produce information about the progress of the virus. The helpline was funded by Defra and the Devolved Administrations. We worked closely with voluntary organisations and other Government Departments, including The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA), The Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Scottish Executive Environment Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD), National Assembly for Wales Agriculture Department (NAWAD), The Department of Environment (Northern Ireland) (DoE NI), and the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU).

The outbreak was formally declared to be over in the UK at the end of February this year, and was responsible for the deaths of almost 4,000 seals. The Sea Mammal Research Unit continues to monitor seal mortality in UK waters to provide an early warning system for any future outbreaks.

Policy Development

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the use of global (a) population figures and (b) food production trends in policy development by her Department. [128047]

Mr. Bradshaw: Assessments of the impacts of EU policies under the CAP can be influenced by world market trends for agricultural commodities and my Department considers projections of these made by international organisations such as OECD. In projecting these trends, analysts will take account of likely levels of world food production, consumption and trade flows. Population changes may influence these trends.

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the role of the Precautionary Principle in determining Government policy in areas of scientific contention within her Department's responsibilities. [128181]

Mr. Bradshaw: The purpose of the Precautionary Principle is to create an impetus to take a decision notwithstanding scientific uncertainty about the nature and extent of the risk. Defra is committed to using the Precautionary Principle in line with the comprehensive guidelines and advice set down in 2002 by the

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Interdepartmental Liaison Group on Risk Assessment and is also mindful of the European Council Resolution on the Precautionary Principle agreed by Heads of Government at Nice in December 2000.

Recycling

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she takes to ensure that the incentives local authorities receive to collect paper by weight to meet Government targets are followed by action by those councils to ensure the method of collection is one which facilitates effective recycling. [127222]

Mr. Morley: Each local authority in England has been set statutory recycling and composting standards (targets) for 2003–04 and 2005–06. These targets relate to the percentage of household waste sent for recycling, not the amount collected. Individual local authorities are responsible for deciding how to meet these targets in the light of local circumstances which will include settlement patterns, waste characteristics and the market for recycling. Where authorities are contracted to supply paper (and other materials) to selected reprocessors, they will be required to supply materials in the form specified by the reprocessors, which will influence their collection practices.

Guidance on methods of collection which facilitate recycling should be based on sound data. The Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has recently conducted an extensive survey with the aim of providing a baseline measure for the quality of paper reaching reprocessors from different collection methods. The results of this study are due to be published in Autumn 2003.

River Nene

Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to investigate the response by the Environment Agency to the recent major pollution incident on the River Nene between Peterborough and Northampton. [127758]

Mr. Morley: Defra officials have checked the response by the Environment Agency to this pollution incident. They are satisfied with the extent and the manner in which the Environment Agency has carried out, and continues to carry out, its investigations into the cause and effect of the incident. I will be writing to my hon. Friend about this in more detail in reply to her letter of 15 July.

Rural Transport

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to ensure the sustainability of individual rural transport partnership schemes in the light of the 10-year transport plan; and if she will make a statement. [127764]

Alun Michael: The Rural Transport Partnership programme is run by the Countryside Agency, on behalf of Defra in order to demonstrate ways of providing flexible transport in rural communities. It provides start up funding for up to three years to community based rural transport initiatives to help them develop and implement their plans. It is additional to and outside the

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mainstream of the long-term investment framework for transport set out in the Government's 10-Year Plan. We are awaiting the Agency's evaluation of the Rural Transport Partnership scheme and will consider its future in the light of this evaluation and the review of rural delivery by my noble Friend Lord Haskins.

Sheep Tagging

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the estimated costs of sheep tagging (a) to the industry and (b) as an average per capita to farmers in 2002–03. [128170]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department's Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) estimates the additional cost to the sheep industry of implementing the EU proposals on sheep identification to be in the order of £89 million per annum for a manual double tagging system, and for an electronic identification system in the order of £44 million per annum with a one off capital investment of around £45 million.

The RIA also estimates typical business costs to be:

£

	Medium upland holding(600 ewes)	Medium lowland (600 ewes)
Additional annual cost of moving from existing requirements to double tagging and manual recording	1,582	2,034
Additional annual cost of moving from existing requirements to electronic identification	(93)2,736	(93)3,376
Additional annual cost of moving from double tagging to electronic identification	(93)1,661	(93)1,950

⁽⁹³⁾ Includes £500 capital investment for hand held reader

Waste Management

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the percentage was of collection of municipal (a) non-recyclable and (b) recyclable waste in the UK in the last 12 months. [127389]

Mr. Morley: The Department does not collect the information required to answer this question fully. However, results from the Department's Municipal Waste Management Survey for England show that 13 per cent. of Municipal Waste collected by local authorities was either recycled or composted in 2001–02.

The Strategy Unit estimated in their report, "Waste Not, Want Not", that over 50 per cent. of household waste sent to landfill sites or incinerated in England could be diverted from incineration or landfill through home composting and recycling on the basis of current best practice.

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) on-farm drum incinerators, (b) on-farm carcase incinerators and (c) waste oil burners are in operation in England; and what the total capacity is in each case. [122755]

Mr. Bradshaw: It is not possible to provide the complete detailed breakdown requested.

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Neither the Department nor the Environment Agency holds definitive data with regard to on-farm drum incinerators. However it is estimated that approximately 27,000 drum incinerators are in use in England and Wales.

A central register of operators indicates that as at 1 July 2003 there were 306 approved Specified Risk Material (SRM) incinerators in Great Britain. In addition, it is believed there are around 2,500 low capacity (less than 50kg/hour) non-SRM animal carcase incinerators mainly on pig and poultry farms in the UK.

Burning waste oil as a fuel is permitted under an exemption under Part I of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994. This exemption only applies when the total amount of waste oil burned does not exceed 2,500 litres an hour in any one engine. At the last count (Nov. 02) the Environment Agency had registered 36 such exemptions.

Applications to operate other types or capacities of waste oil burners are regulated by Local Authorities at a local level and no central database exists.However,

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according to the 2001–02 Local Air Pollution Control Survey it is believed there are over 1,100 small waste oil burners which operate with a maximum burning capacity of 0.4 megawatts to 3 megawatts net rated thermal input. However, the industry estimate is that the actual number of burners with this capacity may be as high as 10,000.

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the waste incinerators undergoing planning review. [128166]

Mr. Morley: Details of planning applications for proposed facilities which have yet to be determined by the respective local planning authorities are not held centrally. The table gives the number and status, as at 16 June 2003, of proposed new municipal waste incineration plants in England and Wales of which we are aware. The table contains information shared with the Environment Agency by prospective applicants for pollution control permits. There may also be other planning applications or amendments which have been submitted to local authorities over which the agency has not been consulted. The planning status may have been changed since the data were supplied.

Operator	Location	Planning Status
NEWLINCS Developments	Grimsby	Granted
Onyx	Portsmouth	Granted after appeal
Onyx	Marchwood, Southampton	Granted
Surrey Waste Management	Capel, Surrey	Granted, but there has been a successful legal challenge
Grundons	Slough	Granted
Onyx	Chineham, Surrey	Granted
HLC Waste Management Services	Neath, Port Talbot	Granted
Waste Recycling Group	Hull	Planning appeal turned down
Kent Enviropower	Maidstone, Kent	Granted
Riverside Resource Recovery	Bexley, London	Application submitted; public inquiry under way
Shanks	Milton Keynes	Application submitted
Onyx	Sheffield	Application approved
Sita	Ridham Dock, Kent	Subject to a planning appeal
County Environment Services	Roche, Cornwall	Application submitted

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