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Illegal Imports

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has for the establishment of a single agency to address legal and illegal imports of food. [155392]

Mr. Bradshaw: In its response to the Reports of the Foot and Mouth Disease inquiries in November 2002, the Government said that there was a case for a single agency to oversee all aspects of the management of the legal trade in imported foodstuffs, but that we would first aim to secure a step change in the co-ordination and delivery of local authority inspection of imported foodstuffs and products of animal origin within one year. We will review the first year's program with the step change project, which has been co-ordinated by the Food Standards Agency and in the light of that consider the case for an agency later in the Spring.

Responsibility for anti-smuggling checks on illegal imports of food was transferred to HM Customs and Excise in April 2003. The Government have no plans for changes in those responsibilities.

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Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the effectiveness of local authorities in the detection of illegal meat imports that have evaded customs and border inspections. [155394]

Mr. Bradshaw: Local authorities have made and continue to make seizures of products of animal origin inland. Central records do not differentiate between legitimate imports which now fail to meet relevant regulations, shipments that have entered the EU through other member states and any that may have evaded customs and border inspections in the UK.

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will report to Parliament on the progress of the illegal meat strategy. [155391]

Mr. Bradshaw: Progress against the Government's Action plan on illegal imports in 2002–03 is reported in the Annual Review of controls on imports of Animal Products. Copies have been placed in House Libraries.

The 2003–04 Action Plan is appended to the Review, and we are working with HM Customs and other responsible parties to implement it. Progress will be reported in the second annual report which will be published in early Summer.

Illegal Meat Imports

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment has been made of the sufficiency of resources allocated to HM Customs and Excise to address illegal meat imports and of how they compare with those of its equivalent in other European countries. [155847]

Mr. Bradshaw: We have almost doubled the amount of funding available to HMCE in 04/05 to put more resources into addressing illegal imports of meat, fish, plants, and their products. We do not have details of what resources other EU countries have in place but know that the UK is viewed as being more advanced in this area.

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what role her Department has played in tackling the import of illegal meat. [156488]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is responsible for policy issues relating to imports of products of animal origin and plant and plant products.

HM Customs and Excise are responsible for enforcement at points of entry to the UK and local authorities are responsible for enforcement inland.

We continue to liaise closely with HM Customs and Excise and the Food Standards Agency to ensure a coherent approach in tackling illegal imports.

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) whether the Ad Hoc Ministerial Group 23 will consult organisations outside Government when undertaking the review of Step Change; [155396]

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(2) if she will ask Ad Hoc Ministerial Group 23 to broaden the scope of the review into Step Change to include a review into the effectiveness of the Government's illegal meat strategy; [155397]

(3) when Ad Hoc Ministerial Group 23 has met; and if she will publish the minutes and agenda; [155398]

(4) if she will list the members of Ad Hoc Ministerial Group 23; and what its remit is. [155399]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Ministerial Committee on Illegal Imports (Misc 23) was established by the Prime Minister in July 2003 to co-ordinate policy on imports of animals, plants, fish and their products. It is composed of the following members:

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Chair)

Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Economic Secretary

Minister of State, Home Office (Beverley Hughes)

Minister of State, Department for Transport

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Health (Melanie Johnson)

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord Mclntosh)

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Phil Hope)

The Chairman of the Food Standards Agency is invited to attend.

It has been established practice under successive Governments not to disclose information relating to the proceedings of Cabinet Committees. This practice is now formalised by Exemption 2 of Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

Knackeries/Hunt Kennels

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) how many knackeries were licensed in the UK in each year since 2000; [156661]

(2) how many hunt kennels were licensed in the UK in each year since 2000. [156662]

Mr. Bradshaw: Prior to the Animal By-Products Regulations 2003, which came into force on 1 July 2003, Knackers' Yards required approval under the Animal By-Products Order 1999. Hunt Kennels required registration under the Order.

In June 2003, before the Animal By-Products Order was revoked, there were 73 approved Knackers' Yards and 293 registered Hunt Kennels. We do not have a breakdown of how many were approved in each year.

Motor Cycling

Mr. David: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures are being taken to prevent unauthorised off-road motor cycling. [158090]

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Alun Michael: The Forestry Commission and Countryside Council for Wales are jointly organising the Wales Off-road Motorcycle Conference to take place on 6 May. The Conference will consider how best to curtail unlawful off-road motorcycling and how to develop, as an alternative, facilities for motorcycling as a managed outdoor recreational activity.

In addition, the Government have published a consultation paper setting out its proposals for tackling the problems that can arise through the use of motorcycles and other mechanically propelled vehicles on public rights of way.

Parliamentary Questions

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many parliamentary questions have been tabled to her Department since 1 January 2003, broken down by (a) ordinary written and (b) named day; what precentage in respect of (a) were answered within 10 working days; and what percentage in respect of (b) were answered by the specified date. [157516]

Alun Michael: Records for Session 2002–03 were not maintained in such a way to enable the Department to extract the information requested without incurring disproportionate costs.

However, according to our records Defra received a total of 5,444 parliamentary questions broken down as follows:

(a) 3,836 were ordinary written;

(b) 851 were named day.

To date, in the current parliamentary session we have received a total of 1,784 parliamentary questions, broken down as follows:

(a) 1,104 were ordinary written, of which 923 were answered within 10 working days which equates to 83.6 per cent;

(b) 190 were named day and 42 were answered on the specified date which equates to 22.1 per cent.

Defra endeavours to reply to all parliamentary questions within parliamentary deadlines wherever possible.

Peat

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what steps her Department is taking (a) to collect and (b) to publish data for the regular two-yearly monitoring of the use of peat and peat alternatives; [157173]

(2) what steps her Department is taking to meet the Biodiversity Action Plan targets for the replacement of peat in the horticulture industry. [157174]

Mr. Bradshaw: The latest information on monitoring of peat and alternative products for growing media and soil improvers in the UK was published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in 2003. The Department now has responsibility for this issue. We are considering arrangements for a further monitoring exercise later this year with a view to publishing the data in 2005.

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In the meantime we have commissioned ADAS to produce a report which will provide details of the current use of peat and growing media alternatives in the commercial horticulture sector in England.

The Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is carrying out research into the use of recycled and compost materials in the production of growing media. The research includes a programme of demonstration growing trials across the UK, covering a range of plant types, growing regimes and commercial situations. The growing trials involve trials of peat-free and reduced peat formulations against a standard peat based formulation. It is expected that the results from the research will be published in April this year.

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