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Written Answers to Questions

Tuesday 2 March 2004

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Agriculture and Fisheries Council

Mr. Hood: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the outcome was of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 24 February; what the Government's stance was on the issues discussed, including its voting record; and if she will make a statement. [157673]

Margaret Beckett: I represented the United Kingdom at a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on 24 February.

The Irish Presidency briefly presented its work programme for the first half of the year. Their general priorities were enlargement, simplification and enhancement of food safety.

The Council agreed by a qualified majority a regulation providing for tariff quotas for the importation of certain fishery products. Italy voted against because of its view that the quota for tuna loin imports was insufficient and Spain abstained because it felt that the quotas in general were too large. I supported the proposal.

The Council noted progress on technical level discussions preparatory to political discussion at the April Council on the proposals for a regulation on the protection of animals during transport. There was a discussion, and I supported the need for an early agreement and for a longer-term objective of moving trade in live animals for slaughter to a meat basis.

The Council noted a presentation from the Commission on its proposals for the financial perspective.

The Council noted a report from the Greek Minister about severe weather conditions in Greece affecting agriculture and the sympathetic response from the Commission. Greece and the Commission would pursue the assessment of this situation bilaterally.

The Council took note of a report from the Commission on its public hearing on 22 January on organic food and farming. This is preparatory to the tabling of an action plan by the Commission to the Council later in the Irish Presidency.

Under any other business, the Council noted a written report on BSE and reports from Commissioner Byrne on the current situation in regard to Avian Influenza in Asia and a recent outbreak in the US. Commissioner Byrne notified the Council that acting under comitology procedures the Commission was to introduce a ban on the importation of live poultry and certain products from the US. The Council also noted a report from

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Spain and Portugal about the high level of feed grain prices and indications from Finland and Sweden that there remained supplies of oats which could be used.

The Council also noted information from Italy and Portugal with support from other wine producing countries about recent changes which had been made to the use of traditional terms for wine imported from third countries. The Council noted that the Commission had explained that these changes were necessary to take account of recent discussions at WTO level.

The Council noted information from France about the low level of milk prices. A wide range of views were expressed in subsequent discussion. I made the point that this was to be expected as a result of the changes agreed last June which was reflected in the compensation payments to be introduced shortly. The Commission undertook to produce an analysis of the situation with assistance from the member states.

Finally the Commission amplified the terms of a letter which it had recently sent to all member states about the single farm payment to explain that it was simply making the point that member states which chose to operate on regional or hybrid models would need to justify this decision to the Commission as will be clarified in the Commission implementing regulations. This was noted by the Council.

Animal Welfare

Mr. Streeter: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the prospects of obtaining approval under Article 30 of the Treaty of Rome to ban the live transport of horses to the Continent. [153628]

Alun Michael: We have considered very carefully the idea that the Government could seek a ban on the grounds of public morality (Article 30 of the Treaty of Rome), but we do not believe that this would be defensible (a) when horses have always been slaughtered in this country in order for the meat to be exported for human consumption and (b) when horses are exported for a variety of purposes. That is why we have concentrated our attention on issues of horse welfare during transport in order to make sure that we have future arrangements based on horse welfare which are stronger and more robust that the current 'minimum values' rules.

Energy White Paper

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the Energy Efficiency Implementation Plan announced in the Energy White Paper of February 2003 is to be published; whether publication of the plan is expected to be within the timescale originally indicated in the White Paper; and when she expects to publish the second annual progress report on the UK Fuel Poverty Strategy. [154580]

Mr. Morley: As announced in a written statement by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on 3 February 2004, Official Report, columns 30–31WS, the Energy White Paper first annual report will be published shortly after the Easter recess. This will allow the Government to report on a full year from the launch of the White Paper in February 2003, as

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we are legally required to do by the Sustainable Energy Act 2003, as well as to capture some key energy statistics for the relevant period. Given the importance of energy efficiency to delivery of the Energy White Paper objectives, the Government intend to publish the Energy Efficiency Implementation Plan at the same time as the Annual Report. The Government also envisage simultaneous publication of the fuel poverty strategy implementation plan and the CHP strategy as well as the second annual progress report on the UK Fuel Poverty Strategy.

Flood Defences

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what guidance has been issued to the Environment Agency on matching local authority funding for flood defences. [154915]

Margaret Beckett: No such guidance has been issued. From April 2004 the Environment Agency's flood defence service in England will be funded primarily through Defra grant in aid which will replace, in large part, the levies that local authorities have previously paid to the Agency. We have, however, left in place a power for the Agency to levy local authorities to fund works not covered by Defra grant. These levies need to be agreed by the relevant flood defence committee on which the local authorities have a majority.

Levies are also subject to a cap of three times the level of Formula Spending Share allocated to each local authority to support the levy payment.

Horses

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much horse meat was exported in 2003. [157263]

Alun Michael: In 2003, 1,566 tonnes of horse meat was exported from the UK.

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what (a) grants and (b) other public funding she has made available to defray the start-up costs of the National Equine Database; [156652]

(2) what the (a) start-up budget and the (b) running costs of the National Equine Database are; and from which budget it will be funded. [156654]

Alun Michael: Defra is making provision for funding the start up costs of the National Equine Database for the first two years, and thereafter Defra will be responsible for the on-going maintenance costs of the data that Defra will use.

We have invited tenders to supply the database, and until the procurement process is complete the estimated costs for the database have to be treated as Commercial-in-Confidence.

Pig Industry

Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the business recovery scheme to which the unspent funds from the pig industry restructuring scheme was re-allocated. [155497]

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Alun Michael: The widely welcomed Business Recovery Fund (BRF) was set up in May 2001 to help small non-farming rural businesses recover from the effects of the foot and mouth outbreak. Pig farmers were eligible to apply for the BRF, but only if they wished to be helped to diversify from farming. The Fund provided a total of some £74 million for allocation to qualifying businesses. £54 million was new money provided by the Government, and the remainder was provided by Regional Development Agencies, who administered the Fund.

Rural Payments Agency

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) full and (b) part-time staff have been employed in the Rural Payments Agency in each of the last five years. [156046]

Alun Michael: The figures for the number of full and part-time staff employed by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) are set out in the following table.

The RPA was inaugurated with effect from 16 October 2001.

From	Full-time	Part-time(1)
16 October 2001	2,946.00	196.50
31 March 2002	3,003.00	241.69
31 March 2003	3,020.00	258.46
31 March 2004(2)	3,336.00	291.70

⁽¹⁾ Full-time equivalent.

⁽²⁾ Forecast figure as at 31 March 2004.

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