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Foot and Mouth

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will investigate the (a) adequacy of the grounds and (b) quality of decision-making in her Department in pursuing prosecutions of contractors for alleged fraudulent claims or other irregularities relating to the claims made for the work undertaken for or on behalf of her Department in respect of foot and mouth disease. [150561]

Mr. Bradshaw: The prosecution of contractors for alleged fraudulent claims is a criminal matter. In such cases, Defra would refer the matter to the appropriate authorities tasked with deciding whether to prosecute or not.

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On the civil side, claims are initiated on the advice of Defra's lawyers. In the commercial disputes pertaining to the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 this advice has been provided by external commercial law firms in conjunction with forensic accountants and quantity surveyors after detailed review of contractor accounts. In many cases Defra has been successful in resolving disputes through negotiation and/or alternative disputes resolution procedures. Other disputes are being pursued through the Courts.

Defra has a public law duty to protect the public purse. It will do so unfailingly in all circumstances where the evidence is sufficient to meet legal requirements in either a civil or criminal context.

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the total payments made to date to contractors in respect of works commissioned by (a) her Department and (b) its predecessor, carried out in relation to the foot and mouth epidemic of 2001 are. [150563]

Mr. Bradshaw: Total payments of £1,247 million have been made to date to contractors in respect of works commissioned by the Department carried out in relation to the foot and mouth epidemic in 2001.

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations have been made to her Department concerning the intimidation of contractors and their representatives by officials of her Department in pursuit of reducing or discounting the value of invoices or claims made by them in respect of services provided to her Department in relation to the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic. [150566]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group has drawn the Department's attention to one case where a contractor has alleged intimidating and inappropriate communications from Defra.

To date, Defra has not received any evidence in support of the allegation that intimidation of contractors and their representatives has taken place.

Any such representations would be considered on their merits having regard to the motives of those persons making such representations.

Genetic Modification

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will define the terms "very low" and "unlikely" as used in the GM Science Review in July 2003. [148904]

Mr. Morley: I take the terms "very low" and "unlikely" as used by the GM Science Review Panel to indicate sequences of events or risks that, while theoretically possible, do not occur with sufficient probability to be cause for concern. The precise level of probability associated with these terms with vary on a case-by-case basis, depending on the particular issue that is being discussed.

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Lead Content

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 14 January 2004, Official Report, column 737W, on lead content, what studies she has commissioned concerning lead in glass crystal; and if she will make a statement. [149453]

Mr. Morley: The Department has commissioned no studies concerning lead in glass crystal.

Management Consultants

Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost to her Department of using management consultants has been in each of the last five years. [148032]

Alun Michael: Defra was formed in June 2001. The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Municipal Waste

Mr. Bill O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to ensure that local authorities continue to recycle municipal waste after 2005–06 when statutory responsibility ends; and if she will make a statement. [148755]

Mr. Morley: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on 14 January 2004, Official Report, column 740W. As that answer explained, this year's review of national recycling targets will include consideration of whether to set further statutory recycling targets for local authorities for the years beyond 2005–06. Although I cannot prejudge the outcome of that review, the Government's goal will remain to encourage local authorities to continue to move management of municipal waste up the waste hierarchy in order to meet their obligations under the Landfill Directive.

Pesticides

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what criteria the Government use to assess the progress of the voluntary initiative on pesticides; [150958]

(2) what progress has been made with the voluntary initiative on pesticides; and how many hectares of land are now covered by the Crop Protection Management Plan. [150959]

Alun Michael: The Government have charged the signatories to the Voluntary Initiative on pesticides with reducing the environmental impact of pesticide use and, in particular, effects on biodiversity and contamination of water. These environmental outcomes will be the ultimate measure of success for the Initiative.

However, measuring environmental outcomes is difficult because they are slow to emerge, hard to measure and hard to attribute reliably to a particular cause. Because of these difficulties, the Government also assesses progress with the Initiative in terms of uptake by farmers of the key components of the Initiative. Of

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these, the most significant are the National Register of Sprayer Operators, the National Sprayer Testing Scheme and Crop Protection Management Plans.

To help test whether delivery of the Initiative will benefit the environment, the signatories are establishing an "Indicator Farms" project to examine the consequences of applying Initiative measures at a farm level. If the results of this project are positive, it will help provide assurance that national uptake of the Initiative could generate national environmental benefits.

Overall progress to date with the Initiative is encouraging. Uptake of Crop Protection Management Plans is ahead of schedule and, after a slow start, applications for the National Register of Sprayer Operators and National Sprayer Testing Scheme have accelerated with the backing of the crop assurance schemes. The Government will look to see this progress maintained and will also look for the most rapid possible progress with environmental outcomes. In particular, the Government will be monitoring the pilot water catchments and the Indicator Farms project.

The Crop Protection Association advise that, as of the week commencing 19 January, around 365,000 hectares were covered by Crop Protection Management Plans.

Security Passes

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many security passes have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen by staff in (i) her Department and (ii) departmental agencies in the last 12 months. [147908]

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many security passes have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen by staff in her Department in the last 12 months. [150888]

Alun Michael: During 2003 available figures for the core Department show that 108 passes were reported lost and 12 stolen. These passes are electronically programmed and give no indication of the Department to which they relate. Once a loss is reported the pass is cancelled immediately which ends any threat to security.

Figures for Defra Agencies are as follows:

	Lost	Stolen
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science	16	1
Central Science Laboratory	11	0
Veterinary Laboratories Agency	6	0
Veterinary Medicines Directorate	10	0
Rural Payments Agency	350	5
Pesticides Safety Directorate	1	0

The high figure for the Rural Payments Agency is a result of employees on short term contracts failing to return their passes when they leave. This is being addressed.

Sunset Clauses

Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on her policy on the use of sunset clauses in

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legislation; and which Acts containing such clauses relevant to her Department were passed in each year since 1997. [149330]

Alun Michael: Defra actively promotes the better regulation agenda and the use of sunsetting where appropriate. The Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) guidance 'Better Policy Making: A Guide to Regulatory Impact Assessment' advises policy officials to consider sunsetting at an early stage of policy development and gives specific circumstances where sunsetting may be appropriate. Additional examples are included in the web-based version of the RIA guidance published in November 2003. No acts containing sunset clauses relevant to Defra have been passed since Defra was established in 2001.

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