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Sustainable Development
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to deliver sustainable development within Government. [165657]
Mr. Morley: Sustainable development is the responsibility of all Government Departments, but one for which Defra takes the lead. Defra actively promotes sustainable development across Whitehall in many ways in line with the Department's primary Public Service Agreement. Current initiatives include:
Annual reporting on the Government's progress towards sustainable development in the UK since the launch of the 1999 strategy for sustainable development. The 2003 "Achieving a better quality of life" report updates progress on the UK Government's 15 headline indicators of sustainable development and gives an overview of the main strategic developments and actions.
Drawing up new UK sustainable development strategy, including a strategic framework covering both domestic and international dimensions, co-owned and agreed by the devolved Administrations and the UK Government. The consultation was launched on 21 April.
Development of the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate. This is the main vehicle for improving the way in which Government Departments manage their business operations.
Ensuring that domestic and international sustainable development is an important consideration in HM Treasury's Spending Review 2004.
Pursuing, along with other Government Departments, implementation of the commitments stemming from the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress has been made on her Department's Sustainable Development Strategy. [165658]
Mr. Morley: Progress towards meeting the targets listed in the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate is detailed in the Sustainable Development in Government report published in November 2003.
Sustainable development, as the Department's overarching aim, also underpins Defra's work, which is reported in the departmental annual reports.
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A review of progress on Defra's SD strategy, "Foundations for our Future", will be published later in the year. We also published a five-year review of progress on the UK Government strategy, "Achieving a better quality of life", on 16 March 2004, together with updates on the headline indicators. Defra, together with the devolved Administrations and other Government Departments, will be launching a consultation on a future UK strategy, including both domestic and international dimensions, later this month.
Hazardous Waste
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 11 March 2004, Official Report, column 1621W, on hazardous waste, if she will make a statement on the (a) detection and (b) prosecution rates she expects the Environment Agency to achieve. [165295]
Mr. Morley: It is not possible to predict detection and prosecution rates for hazardous waste. However, Environment Agency data for prosecutions brought relating to illegal waste activity as a whole is available for the years 1999–2003 as follows:
| Year (financial) | Number of prosecutions |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 366 |
| 2000–01 | 446 |
| 2001–02 | 484 |
| 2002–03 | 511 |
The Environment Agency takes enforcement action against incidents and breaches of permit conditions in accordance with its enforcement and prosecution policies.
Press Officers
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many press officers were employed in her Department in each year from 1990–91 to 2003–04; what the total cost was in each year; and if she will make a statement. [162852]
Alun Michael: Defra was not set up until June 2001. Figures relating to numbers of press officers employed by the organisations whose functions were subsumed into the new department would not correspond accurately to the distribution and scope of the present work areas.
The number of press officers employed at Defra has been as follows:
| Number | |
|---|---|
| June 2001 | 22 |
| June 2002 | 22 |
| June 2003 | 22 |
| As at 18 March 2004 | 19 |
Public Bodies
Dr. Cable:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the budget for administration was for each non-departmental public body for which she is responsible that are in the following
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categories (a) public corporation, (b) executive, (c) advisory and (d) tribunal non-departmental public bodies in financial year 2002–03. [164460]
Alun Michael: Details of the administration costs of executive, tribunal and advisory NDPBs and public corporations are as follows:
Executive NDPBs and Public Corporations
Both management accounting practices and the definition of administration costs differ from organisation to organisation. Therefore comparisons between NDPBs may not be appropriate.
Administration costs for advisory and tribunal NDPBs include the costs of board members (fees and expenses) and any associated direct costs of running the NDPB. It does not include the costs of the secretariats within Defra.
(1) Estimated figure to reflect the costs of internal administration.
(2) No information.
(3) There was no call on the services of the tribunal in 2002–03.
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