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Harmful Chemicals (Household Items)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research her Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the presence of harmful chemicals in household items; and if she will make a statement. [131500]

Alun Michael: The Department has commissioned and evaluated research into chemicals in the environment. Some of these chemicals may also be present in household items and this has been considered where relevant, but this has not been the focus of the work as it is outside Defra's remit. The Department has also conducted reviews on chemicals, which have been shared with the United Nations Environment Programme and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This is in addition to work which the Department conducts under the Existing Substances Regulation (EC) 793/93 to meet our regulatory responsibilities. This work is focused on the environment and also considers impacts on human health via the environment.

Home Energy Efficiency Scheme

Mr. O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the Government intends to introduce legislation to allow people claiming the pension credit to be eligible for services under the Warm Front home energy efficiency scheme. [131465]

Mr. Bradshaw: On 4 September, Statutory Instrument, The Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2003, amended the list of qualifying benefits for Warm Front to include Pension Credit. This came into effect on the 6 October.

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Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what is meant by the phrase: the offer of services of products, in promotional material for Warm Front produced by the scheme managers. [131457]

Mr. Bradshaw: Reference to the use of client information for other services or products is included on the Warm Front application form, which is part of the Warm Front leaflet. This is to comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Particulate Matter Emissions

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the number of tonnes of particulates saved from emission to the atmosphere in the UK as a result of accumulated switching from conventional automotive fuels to (a) LPG, (b) CNG, (c) LNG and (d) hydrogen. [131715]

Mr. Bradshaw: Industry sources suggest there are around 100,000 vehicles currently running on LPG. It is not possible to precisely estimate the particulate matter emissions savings (a) because there are no measurements of particulate matter emissions from LPG fuelled vehicles and (b) there are no records of which fuel, petrol or diesel, was replaced. It is however estimated that around one third of LPG fuelled vehicles were converted from diesel. In this case, there would be savings of particulate matter emissions of around 130 tonnes per year. This is out of a total of 30,000 tonnes of PM emitted from UK road transport in 2001.

Industry sources suggest approximately 850 vehicles currently run on CNG/LNG. These are mainly heavy-duty vehicles that would otherwise be running on diesel. On the basis of this figure, it is estimated that 13 tonnes of PM have been saved in the UK by these conversions to CNG.

While comparatively small, these emissions savings contribute to improved air quality and help the UK move towards meeting its air quality objectives.

There are presently only a few prototype/demonstration vehicles in the whole of the UK running on hydrogen. Therefore, the particulate matter emission savings from converting to hydrogen are currently negligible. There is, however, long-term potential for significant particulate matter emissions savings by replacing conventional fuelled vehicles with hydrogen fuelled vehicles.

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the monetary value to the (a) environment and (b) human health of averting the emission of one tonne of particulates to the atmosphere. [131716]

Mr. Bradshaw: The external costs of air pollution is a subject where considerable research work is being undertaken to improve our scientific and economic understanding of the health and environmental damages of air pollution. This work is important to provide the evidence base on which policies are developed.

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The framework for estimating the external costs of one tonne of particulates to the atmosphere requires a detailed step-by-step analysis to assess the effect of emissions on local and regional air concentrations; quantify the health and environmental impacts using dose response functions and data on population exposed and value these health and environmental impacts in monetary terms where appropriate. Many factors including location of emissions will determine the extent of damages from a tonne of particulates.

In September 2001, the Interdepartmental Group on Costs and Benefits published "An Economic Analysis to Inform the Review of the Air Quality Strategy Objectives for Particles". This quantified a range of environmental and health effects arising from particulate emissions. Direct environmental effects of particles include damages from soiling of buildings. Evidence on the health effects of particles has been accumulating. Day to day variations in concentration of airborne particles are associated with day to day variations in a range of health end points. These include daily deaths, admissions to hospital for the treatment of both respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and symptoms among patients suffering from asthma. In addition, there is evidence from the United States that long-term exposure to particulate air pollution is associated with a decrease in life expectancy. In 2001, COMEAP (Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants) reviewed the evidence on the long-term effects of particles on mortality and concluded that it was more likely than not that a causal association existed between long-term exposure to particles and mortality. The IGCB Report took on board this advice in quantifying the long-term mortality effects of particles. However, the health benefits were not presented in monetary terms due to the uncertainties over valuation in the air pollution context where empirical studies are not yet available.

Rights of Way

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what studies have been carried out into the contribution of functioning rights of way to income creation for rural economies. [131450]

Alun Michael: 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. It estimated that over one billion pounds was spent on trips where walking was the main activity. The 2002 Leisure Day Visits Survey will be published later this year.

Sheep Farmers (Early Retirement)

Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of a voluntary early retirement scheme for tenant sheep farmers, funded from the surrender of sheep premia. [131326]

Mr. Bradshaw: Early retirement schemes have in the past been judged to provide poor value for money. For this reason, we have not used the provision in the EU Sheepmeat Regime permitting the Sheep National

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Envelope to be used to buy out sheep premium quota rights to establish an early retirement scheme; last year's Sheep Quota Purchase Scheme was intended to help address environmental problems caused by high sheep numbers in some upland areas. Direct payments under the Sheepmeat Regime will be made for one further year, but will be replaced from 2005 by Single Payments under the reform of the CAP agreed in June.

Sustainable Energy

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations she has received regarding targets for sustainable energy usage by Government properties and the attainment of those targets. [126890]

Mr. Bradshaw: From time to time the Government have received representations both from the public, from environmental groups and from the energy sector concerning the use of sustainable energy within their own estate.

Most recently, correspondence on this issue has been concerned with the publication of the Sustainable Development in Government Report, the Energy White Paper consultation and the Sustainable Energy Bill 2001.

Veterinary Surgeons Act

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the effects that proposals to amend the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 to enable non-veterinary surgeons to diagnose bovine tuberculosis may have on (a) the welfare of cattle, (b) the welfare of badgers, (c) the welfare of non-wild animals, (d) the welfare of other wild animals, (e) the workload of existing veterinary practices, (f) the cashflow of existing veterinary practices, (g) the standards of diagnosis by (i) veterinary surgeons and (ii) non-veterinary surgeons and (h) the rate of the spread of the disease in (A) the national cattle herd, (B) geographic areas currently unaffected and (C) non-cattle animals. [131588]

Mr. Bradshaw: We do not believe that the introduction of lay testers will have a detrimental effect on any of the elements listed.

The role of the lay TB tester, set out in our consultation paper issued on 4 July 2003, does not include diagnosis. This will be the responsibility of the supervising Local Veterinary Inspector (LVI) or Veterinary Officer of the State Veterinary Service. It is proposed that 72 hours after the tuberculin injection, the lay tester would record skin measurements, together with a description of the type of reaction observed. This information will be passed to a veterinary surgeon for interpretation of the results.

There is no intention of depriving LVI practices of their routine testing and no practice will be required to use lay testers. Those practices that chose to continue to use veterinary surgeons to perform TB tests would continue to receive fees at existing rates. A lower fee would be paid if a lay tester was used.

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