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Phytophthora Ramorum

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what study her Department has made into the incidence of Phytophthora ramorum in wild-growing Rhododendron ponticum. [130852]

Margaret Beckett: In collaboration with the Forestry Commission, English Nature, and the Countryside Commission for Wales, Defra is currently undertaking a survey of a sample of areas of wild-growing Rhododendron ponticum in order to establish the extent of the presence of Phytophthora ramorum and the likely impact on our native flora. To date 56 such sites have been inspected for the presence of the organism but it has been found on only two sites, both of which are in the area of an existing confirmed outbreak.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will place in the Library a list of gardens open to the public that have been served with enforcement notices in respect of Phytophthora ramorum during 2003. [130853]

Margaret Beckett: The Government believe the public should have as much information as possible about this disease and is happy to meet all reasonable requests for information. However, the information obtained specifically in relation to individual premises has been gathered in pursuance of the Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate's statutory powers and on the basis of this information, where necessary, enforcement notices are issued to ensure compliance. In the absence of a statutory obligation to publish details identifying individual premises, to publish such details without consent could seriously jeopardise our ability to work with business in relation to the reporting and control of Phytophthora ramorum.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many gardens and nurseries have been visited by her Department's staff during 2003 in order to take samples to test for Phytophthora ramorum; what the time scale is for the testing programme; how many staff are employed on the testing programme; and if she will make a statement. [130854]

Margaret Beckett: Since 1 January 2003, staff from Defra's Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate, the Horticultural Marketing Inspectorate and the Central Science Laboratory have visited 2,961 parks, gardens, nurseries and other retail outlets in order to take samples to test for Phytophthora ramorum. Up to 14 scientific staff from the Central Science Laboratory are directly involved in the process of testing for this disease and each routine test can take up to seven days.

Defra has committed resources to continue the visits and the testing programme at least until the end of March 2004.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research she has commissioned to discover for how long Phytophthora ramorum has been present in rhododendrons and related plants in this country. [130855]

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Margaret Beckett: It is unlikely that we will be able to determine exactly how long Phytophthora ramorum has been present in rhododendrons and related plants in this country. However, surveys are currently being conducted to establish how widespread the disease is and this may give an indication of how long it has been present.

In addition, the literature has been reviewed for records of Phytophthora species on rhododendrons in the UK. The established authority "Pathogens of Trees and Shrubs" by Pearce, published in 1963, states that at that time there was no evidence of any Phytophthora on rhododendrons. The first record of a Phytophthora species on this host was in 1968. Phytophthora ramorum was first described as a new species in October 2001 and first found in the UK in April 2002.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many samples have been tested for Phytophthora ramorum during 2003; what proportion of samples have proven positive; and if she will make a statement. [130856]

Margaret Beckett: Since 1 January 2003, 3883 individual laboratory tests have been carried out on samples of plant material suspected of being infected with Phytophthora ramorum fungus in the United Kingdom. 15.9 per cent. of these samples were confirmed as being infected with this pathogen.

Defra and the devolved authorities continue to survey for the disease and to take eradication action against any findings.

Habitats Directive

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the 96 Habitats Directive sites identified by the

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Environment Agency in its Composite Plan, page 8, as most at risk of being damaged, including in each case the nature and source of the damage. [129347]

Margaret Beckett: The Habitats Directive sites identified on page 8 of the Environment Agency's Corporate Plan for England have been placed in the Library of the House; the responsibility for Wales rests with the National Assembly for Wales.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will place in the Library a copy of the results and conclusions of the Environment Agency's Habitats Directive benefits assessment of 2003. [129348]

Margaret Beckett: I am happy to place a copy of the conclusions of the Environment Agency's benefits assessment of 2003 in the Library. It should be noted that the addendum (item (iii) in para. 1.3 of the covering paper) is the result of further work done after consideration of the initial paper, and the figures therefore replace those shown in para. 4.1 and Appendix 1 of that paper.

Pollution

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) serious (category 1) and (b) significant (category 2) pollution incidents there have been in each year since 1996. [129349]

Margaret Beckett: The number of Category 1 and 2 incidents affecting water for each year from 1996 is shown in the table, together with the number of Category 1 and 2 incidents affecting all media (air, land and water) from 1999. Statistics relating to air and land were not reported to the Environment Agency prior to 1999.

	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Category 1 incidents affecting water	156	194	128	90	77	118	79
Category 2 incidents affecting water	1,510	1,354	1,238	863	758	860	760
Category 1 affecting all media (air, land and water) from 1999	—	—	—	131	99	147	109
Category 2 affecting all media (air, land and water) from 1999	—	—	—	1,387	1,198	1,707	1,357

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many current applications for pollution prevention and control permits have been pending for four months or longer. [129351]

Margaret Beckett: Schedule 1 to the PPC Regulations categorises installations subject to integrated pollution prevention and control into Part A(1) and Part A(2). If the installation is categorised as a Part A(1) installation then the permit application must be made to the Environment Agency. The Part A(1) installations are generally larger or more complex than Part A(2) installations, which are regulated by the relevant local authority.

If a regulator requires more information before it can reach a final decision on an application, it can issue a notice to an operator requesting the information under Schedule 4 of the PPC Regulations. This inevitably delays the process significantly.

Currently 160 permit applications made to the Environment Agency have been under determination for four months or longer. Local authority data are collected annually and information for this the first major year of operation will not be available until autumn 2004.

Poultry Industry

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has for ensuring that the UK poultry industry is able to remain competitive; and if she will make a statement. [130207]

Mr. Bradshaw: From the industry's perspective, the principal need is for Government to avoid unnecessary burdens or obstacles, while ensuring that standards (including those related to the environment and animal health and welfare) meet public requirements.

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Our priorities in this sector are to continue to act where there is clear evidence of illegal competition from third countries; within overall government policy, to work to achieve a satisfactory WTO agreement; domestically and internationally, to strike an appropriate balance between need for regulation and overburdening industry; in line with the Government's wider Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy, to encourage industry to look increasingly towards value added/premium products; to support poultry industry participation in Defra's sustainability forum; and to continue to participate fully in EU negotiations on animal welfare issues affecting the poultry industry.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the suppliers of poultry meat whose consignments have been found to contain nitrofurans, indicating in each case the date of detection and the subsequent period of time during which imports from that source were stopped. [129406]

Miss Melanie Johnson: I have been asked to reply.

Poultry meat consignments (from Thailand and Brazil) are required to be tested for nitrofurans before they are allowed into the food chain. Any consignments containing nitrofurans above the reporting limit are destroyed. The results are also reported to the European Commission (EC) through the rapid alert system for food and feed (RASFF). The EC has made it clear that supplier details contained in these rapid alerts are confidential.

Records of United Kingdom raised RASFFs show that nitrofurans residues were detected in the following consignments of poultry sampled on the dates shown in the table.

Dates of sampling for nitrofuran positive poultry samples (UK)

2002		2003
25 March (3 samples)	22 July	1 February
26 March	24 July	19 February
29 March	31 October	25 March
30 March	1 November	—
5 April	19 November	—
23 April	21 November	—
4 May	2 December	—
10 July	—	—

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make it her policy to make representations to the European Commission to delist third country plants that have been found to have exported poultry meat containing nitrofurans into the European Union. [129407]

Miss Melanie Johnson: I have been asked to reply.

Representation has been made to the European Commission (EC) to delist third country plants exporting products of animal origin containing illegal veterinary residues, for example, nitrofurans and chloramphenicol. The EC is responsible for pursuing this issue with the third countries concerned to ensure that plants for which repeated failures are reported are delisted.

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