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Brucellosis

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what action is being taken to limit potential brucellosis outbreaks in cattle in Northern Ireland. [164921]

Mr. Pearson: My Department has in place a Brucellosis control programme which aims to bring about a substantial reduction in disease levels and the eventual eradication of brucellosis from Northern Ireland. The control measures are based on a programme of testing, the slaughter of infected animals, the restriction of movements of animals to and from infected herds and surrounding herds, and the tracing of contact animals.

The implementation of the Brucellosis Policy Review recommendations, which I announced last June, will ensure further progress towards eradication of the disease. The process of extending annual Brucellosis testing throughout Northern Ireland got under way in November. The public consultation exercise on the subordinate legislation needed to implement further revised measures was launched on 30 January 2004 and I hope to have the necessary subordinate legislation in place by mid 2004. Work is also under way on the feasibility of further measures that we hope to implement.

We are already seeing some effect from the control measures that have been implemented. During the year we have seen a reduction in the number of new herds restricted because of brucellosis. The number of new herds restricted during 2003 was 261. The comparable figure for 2002 was 361.

College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to the answer of 3 February
 
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2004, Official Report, column 868W on Peace II Programme, under what measure number the money was awarded to the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE); who authorised the approval to distribute the money to CAFRE; under whose name money was awarded to CAFRE; and what items of expenditure in addition to normal running costs of CAFRE the money funded. [166831]

Mr. Pearson: The money in respect of this project was awarded under Priority 1, Measure 6 (Training for Farmers) of the PEACE II Programme.

Training through technology development and transfer is an on-going programme delivered through the College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) which has been operational since January 2000. During 2003 when the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) was assessing how the PEACE II N+2 targets could be met, this programme was considered under the "Innovative Actions" strand of activities seeking to ensure expenditure targets could be achieved. Such innovative actions were approved by the PEACE II Monitoring Committee.

The technology development and transfer programme was considered consistent with the terms of the PEACE II Programme and an application was submitted by CAFRE to Measure 1.6 for the project titled, Developing Agriculture through Technology Adoption (DATA). The application was considered in the normal manner by a three person Selection Panel against the Peace and Reconciliation and Measure Specific criteria and judged successful. The Selection Panel included a person independent of DARD. The success of this application enabled DARD to meet its N+2 targets and ensured no loss of PEACE II funding.

The Letter of Offer in respect of the DATA project was issued by Pauline McCloy, Director of Rural Development, on behalf of DARD, and accepted on behalf of the College by Paul McGurnaghan, CAFRE Deputy Director and John Fay, CAFRE Director.

As the DATA project is a training programme the money allocated covers staff costs and other expenditure solely related to the delivery of the project such as set-up costs associated with demonstrations and publicity booklets for the programme. None of the money allocated is used to fund any of the running costs associated with other CAFRE activities.

Contaminated Land

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of part 3 of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 in tackling contaminated land in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement. [164540]

Angela Smith: The provisions of part 3 of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 have not yet been brought into operation. In order to do so, it will be necessary to supplement the provisions of part 3 by further policy development and subordinate legislation. Until now priority in the allocation of resources within the Department of the Environment has had to be given to dealing with a backlog of overdue EU directives.
 
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However, in preparation for the implementation of the forthcoming EU Directive on Environmental Liability, the Department is currently examining the work and resources that will be necessary to bring the statutory contaminated land regime into operation in advance of the directive.

Cory Reports Inquiry

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what his policy is on meeting from public funds the costs of legal advice and representation to (a) present and (b) former servants of the Crown who are summoned to give evidence to a public inquiry established as a result of the Cory Reports. [166641]

Mr. Paul Murphy: Once the inquiries begin, reasonable costs of legal assistance will be met from the
 
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public purse for those invited to assist them, in accordance with the procedures that will apply to each inquiry. This will include any present or former public servants who are called to give evidence.

Crime Detection Rates

David Burnside: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the Police Service of Northern Ireland crime detection rates were in each month during the last two years, broken down by named geographic areas designated by individual district command units. [165846]

Mr. Pearson: The following table provides the information requested with the exception of figures forMarch 2004 which are not currently available.
Detection rates by DCU for 2002–2003 and 2003–2004    Percentage

	Antrim	Ards	East Belfast	North Belfast	South Belfast	West Belfast	Carrickfergus	Castlereagh	Larne
2002–03
April 2002	30.4	21	9.7	11.6	18.0	22.7	28.1	11.7	42.3
May 2002	16.5	21.5	11.2	12.2	12.3	21.1	21.8	13.2	19.0
June 2002	15.6	23.2	10.1	13.2	12.5	21.1	14.2	9.7	29.8
July 2002	16.0	34.3	15.5	11.6	20.4	21.6	23.3	16.4	36.7
August 2002	19.9	19.6	21.2	12.6	13.4	20.0	23.3	13.1	27.2
September 2002	17.9	24.1	12.7	17.9	15.7	16.8	37.8	11.8	44.2
October 2002	9.3	28.8	16.3	22.6	18.3	17.6	30.3	16.7	25.9
November 2002	9.2	26.4	19.0	21.3	17.6	22.3	25.9	20.2	49.2
December 2002	16.4	27.2	14.8	18.8	15.7	21.6	28.3	16.7	35.0
January 2003	10.3	24.9	21.8	17.0	16.3	21.4	27.3	17.7	25.4
February 2003	8.9	29	27.4	18.4	17.2	12.9	21.1	25.5	38.1
March 2003	10.7	32.4	23.4	15.7	14.1	17.4	28.8	18.2	47.1
2003–2004 1
April 2003	15.0	26.5	19.1	15.7	17.0	20.6	25.2	14.9	42.3
May 2003	10.5	23.9	25.3	18.0	16.1	26.2	34.1	18.6	57.4
June 2003	15.6	25.9	20.5	15.7	23.0	19.4	26.2	13.5	35.3
July 2003	16.6	25.3	20.1	15.1	22.6	18.1	26.5	19.8	43.0
August 2003	14.2	24.0	23.1	17.6	20.4	18.4	26.7	32.9	33.1
September 2003	19.2	24.3	33.1	16.9	22.3	15.8	38.3	19.9	37.6
October 2003	20.7	29.5	35.5	21.3	17.6	16.9	35.7	14.1	39.5
November 2003	16.4	28.2	25.8	21.3	19.2	21.6	24.8	18.4	49.0
December 2003	18.5	22.6	33.2	23.5	17.1	18.9	30.6	23.9	31.7
January 2004	25.3	31.9	31.4	18.6	18.5	15.0	29.3	23.1	38.6
February 2004	23.1	36.0	40.8	23.2	19.3	12.4	58.5	20.3	30.4

Detection rates by DCU for 2002–2003 and 2003–2004    Percentage

	Down	Fermanagh	Foyle	Limavady	Magherafelt	Moyle	Newry and Mourne	Omagh	Strabane
2002–03
April 2002	20.1	25.3	25.7	28.4	34.7	41.5	23.5	48.79	67.9
May 2002	21.9	30.0	26.6	26.9	31.0	43.1	22.5	39.9	32.0
June 2002	22.9	29.8	21.4	21.0	35.2	29.7	25.2	37.8	28.9
July 2002	17.7	21.7	22.8	27.3	21.2	18.9	29.5	45.7	42.9
August 2002	21.9	33.0	20.2	27.3	23.6	40.0	21.3	39.3	39.7
September 2002	28.6	39.6	22.3	24.2	20.6	41.6	23.9	60.2	44.7
October 2002	30.9	24.9	27.8	40.1	31.2	58.0	22.8	39.3	42.7
November 2002	25.2	35.0	26.3	39.4	21.1	29.6	24.3	38.2	60.4
December 2002	24.9	25.3	25.3	32.5	32.6	20.0	23.7	45.6	38.7
January 2003	37.6	30.2	30.6	29.5	34.2	39.5	28.0	41.7	46.7
February 2003	31.8	33.9	25.4	24.9	40.7	25.8	24.4	36.7	55.1
March 2003	25.2	25.7	21.3	37.3	41.1	48.5	24.0	31.1	70.2
2003–2004 1
April 2003	27.6	28.2	24.5	37.0	38.3	39.2	24.6	39.9	29.1
May 2003	29.3	24.8	26.6	23.3	36.9	20.5	24.9	29.6	45.1
June 2003	25.6	30.3	23.3	35.6	40.7	62.7	22.3	48.5	39.1
July 2003	30.0	36.3	25.0	38.8	36.8	34.0	34.0	42.1	47.9
August 2003	23.7	25.4	23.7	27.3	35.8	35.0	29.4	55.7	44.6
September 2003	26.5	21.2	26.3	29.9	34.3	26.1	33.8	42.2	43.0
October 2003	30.5	33.3	31.5	37.7	41.1	43.5	27.7	55.1	52.5
November 2003	30.4	29.5	21.9	31.3	31.0	22.4	19.3	32.4	48.5
December 2003	27.0	23.3	17.5	24.3	21.7	30.1	28.1	39.2	44.1
January 2004	27.0	23.5	21.7	33.3	27.0	13.4	31.4	47.1	46.7
February 2004	29.7	36.1	23.1	33.9	52.3	25.4	30.0	33.5	61.4

 
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Detection rates by DCU for 2002–2003 and 2003–2004    Percentage

	Lisburn	Newtownabbey	North Down	Armagh	Banbridge	Ballymeana	Ballymoney	Coleraine	Cookstown
2002–03
April 2002	19.4	11.5	15.7	33.6	34.5	49.3	32.7	29.3	33.5
May 2002	17.4	10.0	13.9	46.0	29.7	26.1	22.6	24.6	32.2
June 2002	28.4	10.8	13.4	38.7	37.5	30.8	26.1	18.3	29.1
July 2002	23.4	12.3	14.8	29.0	35..5	32.6	31.5	25.5	38.8
August	22.2	18.9	17.4	39.7	38.8	27.0	26.8	21.6	26.5
September 2002	21.3	13.5	21.9	28.1	52.0	27.5	47.4	22.0	25.7
October 2002	21.0	15.0	19.1	28.1	43.6	26.6	38.5	34.7	37.0
November 2002	24.2	15.9	20.5	39.6	38.7	41.1	31.5	30.5	27.3
December 2002	23.3	14.7	24.8	29.5	32.6	22.6	22.2	22.8	29.3
January 2003	24.3	15.6	33.4	29.8	37.6	24.7	61.7	30.5	31.8
February 2003	18.3	17.7	25.3	31.6	46.2	25.1	43.6	35.0	27.1
March 2003	11.5	27.2	38.0	43.6	38.3	28.3	59.8	46.4	21.7
2003–2004 1
April 2003	18.6	18.1	20.7	45.1	52.4	23.6	28.7	24.4	45.1
May 2003	23.8	18.4	26.5	53.5	40.6	35.6	23.8	22.1	35.6
June 2003	24.2	18.4	20.5	38.8	38.8	32.1	48.2	20.5	40.7
July 2003	22.4	19.8	28.5	39.0	38.3	26.1	39.8	36.0	41.5
August 2003	21.5	24.2	24.8	34.4	35.6	27.2	47.9	31.2	34.0
September 2003	24.1	22.7	27.0	33.0	32.6	36.1	27.5	32.7	37.6
October 2003	26.6	20.7	29.0	47.7	32.4	43.8	54.2	25.4	50.0
November 2003	22.5	19.0	31.7	44.3	31.1	37.7	40.0	28.4	49.7
December 2003	24.5	31.7	27.5	31.5	35.1	29.4	23.6	21.2	52.7
January 2004	20.9	20.7	28.2	36.0	30.3	43.7	25.8	27.3	56.3
February 2004	20.5	24.7	36.2	45.5	26.4	46.9	42.9	34.7	51.9

Percentage

	Craigavon	Dungannon and South Tyrone
2002–03
April 2002	28.0	42.2
May 2002	21.2	35.1
June 2002	30.3	22.9
July 2002	21.3	34.5
August 2002	19.0	40.8
September 2002	18.0	24.4
October 2002	25.6	59.0
November 2002	22.7	28.9
December 2002	27.7	28.8
January 2003	17.6	23.0
February 2003	12.9	41.3
March 2003	18.4	30.2
2003–2004 1
April 2003	21.8	37.4
May 2003	12.2	29.9
June 2003	17.2	37.6
July 2003	24.2	45.9
August 2003	24.9	41.2
September 2003	28.9	48.7
October 2003	25.0	42.0
November 2003	21.2	35.8
December 2003	25.4	45.2
January 2004	29.9	47.1
February 2004	21.8	29.5

⁽²³⁾ Please note that clearance rates for March 2004 are not yet available. Clearance rates for 2003–2004 are provisional and as such are liable to revision.



 
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