---

19 Nov 2003 : Column 901W—continued

National Environment Campaigns

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment has been made of the impact of the Bag It and Bin It campaign on individual behaviour, with specific reference to the change in the number of items disposed of inappropriately. [139182]

Mr. Morley: Bag It and Bin It is a water industry campaign and it is for the water companies themselves to assess the impact of the campaign.

Nuclear Waste Sites

Mr. Alan Reid: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the (a) sites in the United Kingdom on which intermediate level nuclear waste is stored and (b) volume stored on each site. [139507]

Mr. Morley: The following is a list of sites at which intermediate-level radioactive waste (ILW) is stored. The figures have been taken from the 2001 waste inventory published by Defra and Nirex in October 2002. The figures for each site are the volume of conditioned waste, in cubic metres, and, where appropriate, include the ILW estimated to arise from continued operation and decommissioning.

19 Nov 2003 : Column 902W

Waste site	ILW—volume, cubic metres, conditioned
Aldermaston	4,247.0
Amersham	488.0
Berkeley	2,364.0
Bradwell	4,591.0
Calder Hall	4,755.0
Capenhurst	2.0
Cardiff	423.0
Chapelcross	5,640.0
Clyde	1.0
Culham	383.0
Devonport	258.0
Donnington and Stafford	0.2
Dounreay	8,580.0
Dungeness A	4,197.0
Dungeness B	3,729.0
Hartlepool	4,114.0
Harwell	2,744.1
Heysham 1	4,307.0
Heysham 2	4,417.0
Hinkley Point A	6,015.0
Hinkley Point B	4,156.0
Hunterston A	5,428.0
Hunterston B	4,502.0
Oldbury	3,665.0
Portsmouth	9.0
Rosyth	86.0
Rosyth and Devonport (submarines)	1,928.0
Sellafield	131,547.0
Sizewell A	4,244.0
Sizewell B	595.0
Torness	4,224.0
Trawsfynydd	2,849.0
Vulcan	203.0
Windscale	4,209.0
Winfrith	1,312.0
Wylfa	6,810.0
Total	237,022.3

Performance Monitoring

Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the total cost was of (a) setting, (b) monitoring and (c) measuring the performance targets for her Department in 2002–03; and how many and what grades of civil servants monitor these targets. [137973]

Alun Michael: The monitoring of progress towards PSA targets is part of the mainstream work of the department and involves a wide variety of staff at all levels of the organisation. Progress towards achieving targets is also monitored by staff in HM Treasury.

Pesticides

Matthew Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will carry out the appraisal of the progress of the voluntary initiative on pesticides at the end of 2003, as recommended by the Environmental Audit Committee in its First Report of Session 2002–03. [139530]

Alun Michael: In its response to this Environmental Audit Committee report, the Government said that it would continue to make regular assessments of progress and would be looking for real steps forward during 2003. In particular, the Government said it would be important for the initiative to demonstrate growing farmer uptake and progress on outcomes, particularly in respect of the water catchment project.

19 Nov 2003 : Column 903W

The Government's assessments of progress are published in the Budget and Pre-Budget Reports. The next such assessment will be in next month's Pre-Budget

Pig Farming

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress is being made with measures to support British pig farmers; and if she will make a statement. [137249]

Mr. Bradshaw: This Government has done and will continue to do what it can to help the pig sector. Since December 2000 over £63 million of taxpayers money, comprising £21.8 million for ongoers and £15.6 million for outgoers under the Pig Industry Restructuring Scheme and some £26 million in relation to Classical Swine Fever, has gone or will go direct to pig farmers as well as £200 million of indirect support in areas such as private storage aid schemes, export refunds, development grants and market promotion.

We meet frequently with representatives of the pig industry to discuss the challenges they face and have pledged to continue to encourage all parts of the pigmeat supply chain to work together, with ourselves and with Sir Don Curry's Implementation Group, in order to build a sustainable future for all sections of the industry. The Department helped to sponsor the first World Pork Congress in June and assisted industry in getting the approval of the Pigmeat Management Committee to use a new method of carcase grading—Autofom—in Great Britain.

In addition the Red Meat Industry Forum has made a successful start in providing information designed to help improve competitiveness for all the players in the red meat supply chain. In particular, this includes benchmarking for pig producers.

We will also be publishing a 10 year Animal Health and Welfare Strategy next spring, after a comprehensive consultation process. The aim of the Strategy is to improve the health and welfare of animals kept by man, and protect public health from animal disease. One major initiative of the Strategy, will be the publication of dedicated sector based sub-strategies, based on a partnership approach between Government and industry. We have been working closely with the pig sector over the past 12 months to help develop such a sub-strategy, which I believe will be launched later this year.

On illegal imports, we have made much progress in implementing our Action Plan in the past two years. Successes include the transfer of anti-smuggling responsibilities to HM Customs, new risk assessments are being carried out by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, looking at the risk of illegally imported meat. These assessments will be published next year. We are also raising awareness of the import rules among travellers, using a wide variety of methods to get our messages across.

The Department has been active in persuading overseas authorities to accept UK exports again. Last year an Export Certification Users Group was set up for live pigs, their genetic material, meat and products. The Group meets regularly to identify priority export

19 Nov 2003 : Column 904W

markets which remain closed and it also enables us to consider export certification for potential markets abroad.

Furthermore we recently launched the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative to procure food in a manner that promotes sustainable development. Its aim is to encourage public bodies to procure food in a manner that promotes sustainable development and to provide greater opportunities for small and local suppliers to compete for public sector business.

The Government is also making rapid progress on setting up a National Fallen Stock Scheme to help reduce costs to farmers, including pig farmers, for disposing of their fallen stock. We are aware of the pig industry's concerns about biosecurity and will consult the industry on the scheme's biosecurity conditions before issuing. The Directors who will sit on the Board of the Company that will run the scheme have now been selected by industry interests and formally appointed and we hope that the scheme will be up and running early in the new year.

Plankton

Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what data her Department holds on plankton (a) density and type (b) around the British Isles; and whether areas of cold water plankton have been replaced by warm water types. [134010]

Mr. Morley: The Department does not hold data on plankton density and type, but does fund the international marine environmental charity 'Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science' (SAHFOS) which is based in Plymouth, UK. SAHFOS currently operates the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey, which has been in operation since 1931 and provides one of the longest and largest marine biological data sets in the world. More than 70 years of information on the density of over 450 plankton types is contained in the database. Plankton samples have been collected from all over the north Atlantic but predominantly from waters around the British Isles.

Plankton are at the bottom of the marine food-web and because of this they are an essential food-source to virtually all marine life from fish to marine mammals and sea birds. The results of monitoring plankton communities can be used to monitor the state of the marine environment and have been employed to assess the ecological health of the waters around the British Isles.

Recent research using data from the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey has shown significant changes to the North sea ecosystem. Cold-water species of plankton that are an important food-source for cod and salmon have been displaced northwards, particularly over the last decade, and appear to be being replaced by more southerly warmer-water species.

Pollution Incidents

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 12 December 2002, Official Report, column 435W, on discharges into the environment, in

19 Nov 2003 : Column 905W

respect of pollution incidents, if she will place in the Library an updated list of the documents provided in writing to the hon. Member for Lewes. [139185]

Mr. Morley: The Environment Agency is currently updating the information provided to the hon. Member. This will take a little time, and I will write when it is available.

---