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Magistrates Courts (Wales)

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many magistrates courts have been closed in Wales since 1997. [160909]

Mr. Leslie: MCCs are not required by statute to inform my Department of proposed courthouse closures that are not subject to an appeal. The following table shows that there have been 10 magistrates court closures in Wales since 1997, compiled from the information that is available to my Department.

Magistrates court	Date of closure
Machynlleth	31 March 2003
Lampeter	9 June 2003
Tenby	30 June 2003
Bridgenorth	31 January 2002
Abergele	31 December 2000
Corwen	31 December 1998
Bargoed	31 December 1997
Monmouth	31 December 1997
Pontlottyn	31 December 1997
Pontypool	31 December 1997

Recruitment

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the cost of recruitment of civil servants for the Department or its predecessors was in each financial year since 1996–97, broken down by (a) delegated or contracted out recruitment procedures and (b) recruitment procedures carried out by the Department. [158184]

Mr. Lammy: Information about recruitment costs is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate costs.

HOUSE OF COMMONS

Smoking Room

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Chairman of the Catering Committee when the Smoking Room was renamed Members' Smoke Room as set out on the survey card for that room. [160914]

Mr. Dennis Turner: I am happy to be able to reassure the hon. Member for Lichfield that the Members' Smoking Room has not been renamed. Reference to the "Members' Smoke Room" was an error and the customer feedback cards bearing this title have been withdrawn. I thank the hon. Member for pointing out this mistake.

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CHURCH COMMISSIONERS

Parliamentary Questions

Miss McIntosh: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners when he will reply to the question tabled for oral answer by the hon. Member for Vale of York, reference 158945. [161394]

Sir Stuart Bell: My answer was submitted on 8 March.

In that answer, I said that in 1996 the total stipend cost for parochial clergy (not including Employer's National Insurance contributions) was approximately £130.5 million. In 2003 the figure was approximately £151.8 million.

St. Giles, Imber

Dr. Murrison: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners what plans the Commissioners have for the future of St. Giles's Church, Imber. [161304]

Sir Stuart Bell: The Commissioners had a helpful meeting on 19 January about the future of this church with Ministers from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Ministry of Defence. In particular the possibility of an endowment to facilitate the vesting of the church in the Churches Conservation Trust was discussed. There will be further discussions between the Ministers and the Commissioners are waiting to hear the outcome.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Abattoirs

Mr. O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs where information is held about the number of charges brought against abattoirs for breaches of meat hygiene and animal welfare regulations which are withdrawn before they come to court. [160416]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 11 March 2004]: Information about the number of charges brought against abattoirs that are withdrawn before they come to court is recorded on individual case files.

Animal Welfare

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will undertake a welfare study on deer at the Baronsdown deer sanctuary. [160172]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department is not intending to undertake a survey on the welfare of wild deer at Baronsdown deer sanctuary

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether any deer carcases from the Baronsdown deer sanctuary, suspected of being infected with bovine tuberculosis, will be disposed of at an appropriate plant under the EU Animal By-Products Regulation. [160173]

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Mr. Bradshaw: The Animal By-Products Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 requires, among other things, that wild animals suspected of being infected with diseases communicable to animals and humans, such as bovine TB, are disposed of using one of the following methods:

Incineration;

Rendering in an approved plant followed by incineration; or

Pressure rendering in an approved plant followed by landfill.

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make it her policy to use the proposed Animal Welfare Bill to ban the sale and use of electronic shock collars. [160908]

Mr. Bradshaw: We do not expect the proposed Animal Welfare Bill to set out detail on what equipment may or may not be used on animals. But we anticipate that the Bill will provide powers for the Secretary of State to make regulations or issue codes of practice on such points, in order to improve animal welfare. Whether these powers will be used in respect of electronic dog collars has yet to be decided.

Carbon Emissions

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the annual level of carbon emissions resulting from electrical appliances being left in standby mode. [156342]

Mr. Morley: The estimate of the Government's Market Transformation Programme is that consumer electronics, home computing equipment, domestic cooking equipment and office equipment left in stand-by mode accounted for approximately 600,000 tonnes of carbon (6.4TWh) in the UK in 2002.

There is further energy consumption, for which we do not have firm estimates at present, from washing machines, dishwashers and other white goods which have a stand-by mode; from consumer electronic equipment using an external power supply that continues to consume energy when plugged in but not in use; and from domestic personal computer equipment where the stand-by facilities are not properly enabled. Taken together, these sources of consumption may bring the overall figure to around one million tonnes of carbon.

In order to try to tackle this problem the Market Transformation Programme (www.mtprog.com) has been encouraging manufacturers to reduce both the "on" and the stand-by power consumption of household appliances through the adoption of design improvements, voluntary codes of conduct, and best practice guidelines and targets. This approach has been fairly successful in respect of televisions: an EU-wide voluntary agreement will mean that the majority of new televisions sold in the UK will soon consume around 1 watt of power in stand-by mode rather than the 3–8 watts consumed by older models. We expect this agreement to be extended to cover DVD players shortly.

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A similar agreement for external power supplies aims to encourage new power supplies consuming around half a watt in stand-by mode compared to the present average of just over 2 watts.

In addition, the Government's initiative on sustainable procurement, announced last autumn, includes a requirement for government departments which purchase computers and televisions to specify low stand-by power requirements.

Cetaceans

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action her Department is taking to prevent the accidental deaths of (a) dolphins and (b) porpoises in UK fishing activities. [160237]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Government have funded a number of research projects to identify fisheries in which accidental deaths of dolphin and porpoise bycatch occurs and to develop and trial measures to reduce this bycatch. This work has identified in particular a dolphin bycatch problem in the offshore pair trawl fishery for bass. Trials of an escape grid mechanism to reduce this bycatch are currently taking place. Work has also identified that acoustic devices known as pingers are effective in reducing bycatch of harbour porpoises in fixed gear fisheries.

Building on this and other research work this Department, along with Devolved Administrations, published in March 2003 the UK Small Cetacean Bycatch Response Strategy which made a number of recommendations for measures to reduce bycatch. As EU measures will be most effective in reducing bycatch in community waters, the implementation of this strategy will need to take account of the outcome of current discussions on European Commission proposals to reduce bycatch. I welcome the Commission proposals and I am looking for their early implementation.

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action her Department is taking to support the work of the Natural History Museum in monitoring (a) porpoise and (b) dolphin deaths. [160238]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department provides funding for the Natural History Museum's Cetacean (and Turtle) Strandings Scheme, which monitors and investigates porpoise and dolphin strandings around the UK. The work is carried out in partnership with the Institute of Zoology and the Scottish Agricultural College.

Defra and its predecessors have supported this work since 1990 and my Department is currently providing the Natural History Museum with funding of £1,610,966.00 for the scheme (for the period 2000–01 to 2005–06). This brings our total support over the last 10 years to over £2.7 million.

The work provides valuable information on causes of, and trends in, cetacean mortality around the British Isles. It involves maintaining records of stranded cetaceans and analysing tissue and bone samples to enable their physiology and reaction to various pollutants and chemicals to be assessed. The work has developed a number of methodologies which have

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provided significant advances in the study of cetaceans. The maintenance of a tissue bank provides a useful source of material for many other organisations and individuals undertaking research into marine mammals. Data gleaned from this research have also been used within Defra to examine the impact on marine life of agricultural pesticides run-off, and to examine the impacts of pollutants on marine mammals.

Investigation of cetacean strandings under this scheme contributes towards the UK's systems of monitoring bycatch under the requirements of the EC Habitats Directive, and to our commitments to study cetacean strandings under the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas (ASCOBANS).

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action her Department is taking to implement the EU Habitats Directive in respect of preventing fishing fleets from killing (a) dolphins and (b) porpoises. [160239]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC) requires member states to undertake surveillance of the conservation status of cetaceans, to monitor the incidental capture and killing of cetaceans and, in the light of information gathered, to take further research or conservation measures as required to ensure incidental capture and killing does not have a significant negative impact on the species. The Department implements these requirements through support for numerous research, data collection and surveillance projects.

The UK was one of several EU member states that provided funding for the collaborative Small Cetacean Abundance in the North Sea (SCANS) survey in 1994. The Department is now committing further funds (£275,000) to support another such survey (entitled SCANS II) to repeat and extend the work carried out in 1994.

We have also provided funding amounting to over £2.7 million over 10 years for the Natural History Museum's long-term research into cetacean strandings in the UK. In addition, we have commissioned a number of specific research projects during the last decade monitoring bycatch levels in specific fisheries and researching potential measures to reduce bycatch. Last year the Department committed a further £1 million to more research in this area.

In 2003 the Department also produced the UK Small Cetacean Bycatch Response Strategy consultation paper. One of the recommendations contained in the Strategy in respect of the Habitats Directive is for the UK to develop an expanded bycatch monitoring scheme to assess levels of bycatch in UK fisheries at a statistically valid level. We shall now consider how best to develop such a scheme to also take into account recent European Commission proposals for the reduction of cetacean bycatch, including requirements for monitoring.

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