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30 Jan 2004 : Column 544W—continued

Carcase Burial Pits

Mr. Burnett: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what costs were incurred by her Department and its predecessor in relation to the proposed carcase burial pits at Ash Moor in Devon, broken down by (a) costs in relation to the acquisition of rights of way, (b) costs of construction

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including materials and off-site works, (c) security costs, (d) costs of restoration, including off-site works, (e) legal and professional fees and costs and (f) consultants' fees and costs. [151086]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 26 January 2004]: The site was declared closed by Defra in late 2001. Costs incurred prior to 12/2001 relate to site construction, costs after 12/2001 relate to site management and restoration.

£

	Up to end 11/2001	From12/2001
Purchase of site (inc Acquire rights of way)	300,000	Nil
Cost of Construction	5,686,000	965,350
Security (inc fence maintenance)	395,000	215,000
Legal fees (estimated)	100,000	70,000
Consultant fees and costs	203,000	(3)603,950

Notes:

⁽³⁾ Figure quoted includes site management changes

Environmental Protection

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her Department has spent in each of the past three years on training for environmental health officers under the Contaminated Land Regime, Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990; and if she will make statement. [150612]

Mr. Morley: With grant-in-aid from the Department, the Environment Agency enables training in procedural and technical aspects of the regime to include places for both local authority and Agency staff, in a joint approach. The latter often make up 75 per cent. or more of those attending.

The Agency spent around £180,000 on developing such training in 2003–04, and an estimated £120,000 to £150,000 per annum in earlier years. They work closely with the National Society for Clean Air, and the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health who also provide training for local authority staff. The Agency has made materials available for use by other training providers.

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what financial and practical assistance her Department has given to environmental health officers since the Contaminated Land Regime, Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 came into force; and if she will make a statement. [150613]

Mr. Morley: The Department has been providing financial assistance to English local authorities for contaminated land capital projects for many years. Since the introduction in April 2000 of the contaminated land regime in Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, a total of £33.083 million capital funding has been provided, covering the financial years 2000–01 to 2002–03. Final figures are not yet available for 2003–04, but approvals to local authorities total a further £10.8 million, although the final outturn may be lower. Our project assessors frequently give advice to individual authorities which can save money and improve results.

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To reflect the revenue implications of the regime for local authorities, £12 million per year was added to revenue support grant, and distributed in the normal way through the system of standard spending assessments. Capital and revenue support will continue under the new prudential finance system.

The Department, together with the Environment Agency, has also been producing procedural and technical guidance, notably the Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (CLEA) Model and associated materials. This work is continuing. Details are available on the Department's website. The Environment Agency have also produced a number of technical and other documents.

Fisheries

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what impact she expects the increase in the Scottish North Sea fleet haddock quota will have on landed prices; [150322]

(2) what the effect on market prices is of major quota increases for a fish species. [150323]

Mr. Bradshaw: The price for an internationally traded species of fish, such as haddock, will tend to be influenced by the world price.

The processing industry imports substantial quantities of fish to meet its needs and over time can adjust its import needs for species such as haddock, if the price and quality of domestic landings are considered appropriate.

However, in the short term, prices for fish landed at UK ports may be affected by a number of factors, including the quality and size of fish, and whether exceptionally heavy or light concentrations of fish, are landed at particular times.

Prices can also be affected by marketing activities. I understand that Seafish and Seafood Scotland, with the support of Scottish fishermen, are about to begin a consumer campaign for marketing haddock.

GM Crops

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the Government's response to the farm scale evaluations of GM crops will be published. [151642]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 29 January 2004]: The Government have received advice from the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) on the implications of the farm scale evaluation results. We are consulting with the devolved Administrations before deciding whether to accept ACRE'S advice.

The Government are now considering their overall policy on GM crops in the light of all the available information, including ACRE'S advice. We are aiming to set out our conclusions shortly.

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has for further scientific tests of GM crops following the farm scale evaluations. [151643]

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Mr. Morley [holding answer 29 January 2004]: The Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) will advise on a case-by-case basis for each individual GM crop whether we have enough scientific evidence to enable us to make decisions. If further evidence is needed then we would expect the applicants to provide it. We are currently considering priorities for further publicly funded research in light of science review report.

Information Technology

Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what cost savings have been made in her Department since the introduction of the Information Technology procurement Centre of Excellence; and how these were calculated. [151042]

Alun Michael: A Centre of Excellence was formally established within Defra in June 2003 to integrate the essential functions which underpin the successful delivery of all types of acquisition based programmes and projects. As cost benefits will not accrue until improvements start to take effect, it is too early to measure cost savings. All Centres of Excellence are currently developing future plans, and as part of this process measurement of savings will be defined and reported.

Ivory

Mr. Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the Government's policy on the proposed sale of ivory stockpiles by (a) Namibia, (b) Botswana and (c) South Africa under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. [150963]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 28 January 2004]: It was agreed at the 12th Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Chile in 2002, that any one-off ivory sales would be supervised through a strict control system. It was also agreed that no sales would take place before May 2004 at the earliest to provide time for baseline data to be gathered on population and poaching levels and for information to be obtained on whether potential importing countries can effectively regulate their domestic ivory markets. The aim of these controls is to prevent any illegal ivory from entering into legal markets and to discourage an upsurge in poaching.

The Government are strongly opposed to the illegal and unsustainable trade in elephant ivory. We will therefore insist at the CITES Standing Committee in Geneva in March 2004 that all of the strict conditions governing the one-off sale are met in full before any trade is allowed to go ahead.

Krebs Trials

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her Answer of 11 December 2003, Official Report, column 539W, what the detailed protocol was for the wildlife survey undertaken as part of the Krebs trials; and whether landowner participation was invited for the specific surveys carried out in pursuance of this survey. [150569]

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Mr. Bradshaw: Survey techniques employed on this project to assess abundance of wildlife include spotlight surveys of hedgehogs, foxes, rabbits and brown hares and count surveys of ground-nesting birds. Radiotelemetry is also used to study the behaviour and mortality of hedgehogs, and video and still camera surveillance to monitor predation of birds' nests. Fox diet has been investigated through the collection of faecal samples. Detailed protocols of these techniques will be documented in scientific publications which are currently in preparation. All landowners were contacted to request their permission for access to land before surveys were carried out.

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