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Security Breaches

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many staff are employed in her Department to tackle problems arising from information security breaches. [157257]

Ms Hewitt: Fourteen staff employed in my Department may potentially be involved in investigating, and tackling problems arising from, information security breaches. Others from across the Department and from our key service suppliers may assist these staff when dealing with individual cases.

Springfields Site (USA)

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry for what reason she has accepted responsibility on behalf of the taxpayer for the costs of clearing up the Springfields site in the United States; what steps she is taking to identify those individuals responsible for generating this environmental and financial liability; and if she will make a statement. [157865]

Mr. Timms: Springfields, the BNFL fuel manufacturing facility is located near Preston in Lancashire. The NDA on formation will become responsible for its clean-up.

Sugar Regime

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when she expects to respond to the letter to her from the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance concerning reform of the sugar regime; and for what reason she has not yet responded. [157095]

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Ms Hewitt: My office has no record of having received this letter. If the hon. Member writes to me again I will ensure that a response is sent as soon as possible.

UK Online for Business

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what products her Department intends to introduce to rationalise the activities of UK online for business; how these will encourage the effective use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies by small and medium-sized companies; and what the projected costs are for each new product; [157241]

(2) what the budget is for the forthcoming year to promote effective use of information and communication technology by businesses. [157246]

Mr. Timms: Under its programme of reform of business support products my Department is launching two new products under the theme of "Achieving best practice in your business". These bring together the best of a number of existing schemes such as "UK online for business" and "Fit for the Future", as well as offering direct support for implementation of best practice business projects. The promotion of effective use of information and communication technology will underpin these products, which will have a programme budget, in the first year, of £20 million.

Weights and Measures Act

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made in amending the Weights and Measures Act 1985 to facilitate electronic communications. [157198]

Mr. Timms: The Government are in the process of identifying provisions in consumer legislation, including the Weights and Measures Act 1985, which may need to be amended. The Government aims to start public consultations on any proposed changes by March 2005.

Written Ministerial Statement

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement made by the Minister for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services on 5 February 2004,

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Official Report, column 48WS, on Post Office Urban Reinvention Network, (1) what his definition of dense network is; [156483]

(2) what percentage of post offices in urban deprived areas are situated in dense networks. [156484]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 26 February 2004]: Post Office Ltd. defines a dense network of surrounding offices, in the context of offices in the 10 per cent. most deprived areas, as being several accessible branches in the 0.5 to one mile range travelling distance. Each proposal will however be considered on an individual basis with regard to reasonable transport links between the branches and travel across the area generally needed for retail needs. In addition, the role of Postwatch in the consultation process ensures that each proposal is analysed on a case-by-case basis.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Burma

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) how much money his Department has provided to the Burma Border Consortium in (a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04; [157474]

(2) what steps his Department has taken to meet the food needs of refugees in camps on the Thai-Burmese border in 2003–04; [157618]

(3) what support his Department has made available in (a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04 for Burmese refugees outside the country. [157638]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: The Department provided £600,000 to the Burmese Border Consortium in 2002–03 and 450,000 in 2003–04 to help meet the food needs of refugees in Thailand. £220,000 is being provided in 2003–04 for a border areas health programme of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which covers refugees in Thailand.

The Department is also providing support to refugees from Burma through the European Commission (EC). The EC has so far allocated 2 million euros (£2.8 million) for the Burmese Border Consortium, over the period 2002–04, 20 per cent. of which is attributable to the UK.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much money has been provided by his Department in (a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04 to assist internally displaced people in Burma and to provide education for Burmese refugees in refugee camps on the Burma-Thailand border. [157620]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: The Department did not support programmes specifically focused on internally displaced people in Burma in 2002–03 or 2003–04. However, internally displaced people may be among the beneficiaries of other DFID programmes during this period, such as a UNICEF-led immunisation programme in Burma for which DFID provided £567,000 in 2002–03, work by the International Committee of the Red Cross

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for which DFID provided £1.5 million in 2002–03, and some small grants to civil society organisations in both years.

Our support in these years to Burmese refugees in camps on the Thai-Burma border focused on meeting basic food needs. Some support for education activities has been provided in the past through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as detailed in my reply to another question from the hon. Member for Buckingham.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) what the projected level is of expenditure by his Department in 2004–05 on wildlife projects in Burma; and how the money will be allocated; [157621]

(2) what funding has been provided by his Department in 2003–04 for wildlife projects in Burma; and how the money was allocated. [157622]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: The Department has not funded wildlife projects in Burma during 2003–04 and currently has no plans to do so in 2004–05.

Deforestation

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much of the world's rainforests has been destroyed in each of the last 10 years to provide land purely to provide food for animals; and how much grain for humans this land could provide per year. [156966]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: A recent Food and Agriculture Organisation study sampled 10 per cent. of the world's tropical forests in 1980, 1990 and 2000. The key changes noted were a loss of 'closed forest' (i.e. rain forest) amounting to 70–80 million hectares per decade, and a gain in "other land cover", primarily cultivation and pastures, of an almost identical area.

It is not possible to state the proportion of forest destroyed to provide food for animals, since deforested land often has a sequence of changing uses. For example, in South America land cleared for cattle ranching is often later used for soy bean cultivation. In Africa, land cleared for small-scale landholdings is often used for both cultivation and raising livestock.

It is not possible to say how much grain for humans deforested land could provide per year owing to huge variations in land fertility.

Economic and Social Commission forAsia and the Pacific

Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the forthcoming Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific population and development meetings in (a) Santiago in March and (b) Puerto Rico in June. [157780]

Mr. Gareth Thomas: This year the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean will be holding a 10-year regional review of progress against the commitments made in the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 (ICPD). The process will consist of two parts: Firstly there will be a

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technical open-ended meeting of an ad-hoc working group in Santiago, Chile in March. The outcome of this will be a report of key lessons and challenges in relation to further implementation of ICPD. Secondly there will be a high-level regular meeting of ECLAC in Puerto Rico in June, which will consider the outcome of Santiago.

The UK Government will be represented at both these meetings as members of ECLAC. We are keen to emphasise the importance of the ICPD commitments and to support countries that do not wish to weaken the consensus of ICPD. DFID is particularly concerned with maintaining wording on reproductive health, rights and sexual health and avoiding unproductive arguments about issues that have already been agreed. The emphasis of the two ECLAC meetings should be on monitoring of progress of the ICPD commitments in the region and discussion around enhancing progress for the next 10 years.

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