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28 Apr 2004 : Column 1018W—continued
Oil Storage Tanks
David Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of
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the oil storage tanks subject to the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001 she expects the Environment Agency to inspect each year; and what percentage were inspected in 2003–04. [166050]
Mr. Morley: The Environment Agency does not undertake specific inspections but enforces the Oil Storage Regulations during routine visits in order to reduce resource burdens. There is no annual target for the percentage of tanks inspected and no record of the number of tanks inspected in 2003–04.
Over-30-months Scheme
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost of payments to farmers under the Over-30-Months Scheme was in each of the last 12 months. [168950]
Alun Michael: The cost of payments to farmers under the Over-30-Months Scheme in each of the last 12 months, April 2003 to March 2004, was as follows:
| Amount (£) | |
|---|---|
| 2003 | |
| April | 28,129,511 |
| May | 8,859,938 |
| June | 9,449,415 |
| July | 11,164,461 |
| August | 10,554,215 |
| September | 14,979,891 |
| October | 20,950,694 |
| November | 22,387,481 |
| December | 20,174,638 |
| 2004 | |
| January | 21,726,791 |
| February | 14,602,777 |
| March | 13,702,852 |
| Total | 196,682,664 |
Recycled Paper
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of copying paper used by the Department in 2002–03 was from recycled sources; and how much post-consumer waste this paper contained. [165659]
Alun Michael: The UK Sustainable Development in Government Second Annual report shows that in the year ended 31 March 2003 recycled paper accounted for 42 per cent. of the value of desk top paper purchased by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The post consumer waste element of that recycled paper was 80 per cent. or more.
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of paper for printed publications used by the Department in 2002–03 was from recycled sources; and how much post-consumer waste this paper contained. [165660]
Alun Michael:
The UK Sustainable Development in Government Second Annual report shows that in the year ended 31 March 2003 recycled paper accounted for 89 per cent. of the value of paper for printed publications purchased by the Department for the
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Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The post consumer waste element of that recycled paper was 75 per cent. or more.
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures she has put in place to ensure that her Department meets the quick win targets set by her Department to ensure that all copying paper bought by the Department is 100 per cent. recycled with a minimum of 75 per cent. post-consumer waste content. [165661]
Alun Michael: Procurement units in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been made aware of the quick win target for purchases of copying paper. Defra monitors its performance for the purpose of reporting progress in the annual Sustainable Development in Government report.
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures she has put in place to ensure that her Department meets the quick win targets set by her Department to ensure that all paper for printed publications bought by the Department is 60 per cent. recycled, of which a minimum is 75 per cent. post-consumer waste. [165662]
Alun Michael: Procurement units in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been made aware of the quick win target for purchases of paper for printed publications. Defra monitors its performance for the purpose of reporting progress in the annual Sustainable Development in Government report.
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs by what date her Department expects to reach the quick win targets to ensure that (a) all copying paper bought by the Department is 100 per cent. recycled with a minimum of 75 per cent. post-consumer waste content and (b) all paper for printed publications bought by the Department is 60 per cent. recycled, of which a minimum is 75 per cent. post-consumer waste. [165663]
Alun Michael: The Sustainable Development in Government Report shows that Defra met the quick win target for paper for printed publications purchased in 2002–03. That target is likely to have been met in 2003–04 too. This achievement owes much to the fact that most of Defra's printed publications are commissioned from a single central business unit. The situation with copier paper is that there are many different ordering points over a large and diverse organisation and that makes achievement of the target difficult to accurately predict. Nevertheless, Defra has procedures in place to help ensure that all new copying paper purchased will be recycled and aims to reach the target as soon as possible.
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the Department's main suppliers of (a) copier paper, (b) stationery, (c) envelopes and (d) paper for reports; what the name of the paper used in each case is; and what the (i) recycled and (ii) post-consumer recycled content of each type of paper is. [165664]
Alun Michael:
Information on paper, stationery and envelopes purchased by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is set out as
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follows. Data have been provided on the basis of contracts that have been operational in the department and its agencies at some time over the past two financial years. Purchase of paper used for reports is generally not recorded as a separate category.
The main suppliers are: The Paper Company; Premier Paper Group plc; Guilbert UK; Banner Business Systems; and Lyreco.
The main brand names of recycled paper supplied, with the percentage of post consumer waste shown in brackets, are Evolve (100 per cent.) and Niceday 3500 (80 per cent.).
The main brand names of virgin paper supplied are Neusiedlea and Banner Value.
Paper for Printed Publications
The main suppliers are: Howard Smith Paper; Premier Paper Group plc; Robert Home; and James McNaughton.
The main brand names are: Greencoat; Evolve; Evolution; Cyclus; and Revert.
Much of the paper for printed publications was purchased centrally and over 80 per cent. of that was recycled with a post consumer waste content of 75 per cent. or more.
The main supplier is Guilbert UK. Information on paper supplied by Guilbert has been covered by the preceding text.
The main supplier is Banner Business systems. Manila envelopes purchased were 70 per cent. post consumer waste. White envelopes purchased had less than 5 per cent. post consumer waste.
Refrigeration
Linda Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of UK refrigeration equipment disposal plants use vapour recovery hoods. [165454]
Mr. Morley: Sites in England and Wales do not have vapour recovery hoods as the technology developed to recover ozone-depleting substances (generally mechanical recovery) incorporates alternative mechanisms to prevent gas release (e.g. vacuum sealing).
Mr. Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many tonnes of CFCs were converted into inert substances in 2003; what her estimate is of how many tonnes of CFCs will be converted into inert substances in 2004; and what her target is for the conversion of CFCs into inert substances for 2004. [167238]
Mr. Morley
[holding answer 22 April 2004]: Under EC Regulation 2037/2000 on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, CFCs must be recovered for destruction. The amount of CFCs destroyed in 2003 for the whole of the UK was 494,356 kg. Figures for 2004 are not available yet, but will need to be reported to the
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European Commission by 31 March 2005 in order to fulfil the reporting requirements under Article 16 of the Regulation.
Mr. Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the cost to (a) central Government and (b) local government of an effective containment programme of hydrofluorocarbons leakage. [167239]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 22 April 2004]: The European Commission have proposed a Regulation on certain fluorinated greenhouse gases (hydrofluorocarbons/HFCs) which includes proposed containment measures as well as measures prohibiting the placing on the market of HFCs in certain uses.
The Government provided an initial assessment of the costs of the proposed Regulation in a Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment, published in November 2003. The annualised costs were estimated to be in the range £74,000 to £225,000.
These costs related to the compliance costs of the sectors directly affected by the proposal. Some of these costs may be passed on to the consumer. This initial assessment did not estimate anticipated enforcement costs for central/local government or other bodies.
Mr. Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost was to (a) central Government and (b) local government of recovering, recycling and destroying CFCs from refrigeration and air conditioning equipment in each year for which figures are available; and what her estimates are for future expenditure. [167240]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 22 April 2004]: The cost to central Government of recovering, recycling and destroying CFCs from refrigeration and air conditioning equipment would have fallen mainly on the Government estate, but is not quantified.
The Government provided an additional £46 million in England for the period 1 January 2002 to 31 March 2003 to cover the costs on local authorities of implementing the Regulation. The Spending Review 2002 provided an increase in the Environmental, Protective and Cultural Services block Formula Spending Shares for 2003–04 onwards to cover the on-going costs on local authorities.
Mr. Page: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the average decommissioning cost per refrigerator. [165857]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 19 April 2004]: The average decommissioning cost of a refrigerator is between £10 and £15.
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the volume of emissions of hydrofluorocarbons in each of the last five years; and what forecast she has made of future emissions. [167480]
Mr. Morley
[holding answer 22 April 2004]: The table shows total emissions of hydrofluorocarbons for the last five years for which estimates have been made, plus projections for 2010 and 2020. The historical estimates are from the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory,
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1990–2002, published in April 2004. The projections are consistent with the inventory and were made by AEA Technology in a contract to Defra completed in July 2003. The data are expressed in terms of a unit equivalent to the emission of a thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide.
| Emissions | |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 17,268 |
| 1999 | 10,830 |
| 2000 | 9,081 |
| 2001 | 9,728 |
| 2002 | 10,418 |
| 2010 | 11,563 |
| 2020 | 10,394 |
In August 2003, the European Commission proposed a regulation on certain fluorinated gases intended to reduce further emissions of hydrofluorocarbons. The additional emission reduction achieved by this regulation will depend on the final outcome of EU negotiations.
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the environmental effects of replacing chlorofluorocarbons with hydrofluorocarbons in new refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment; and if she will make a statement. [167481]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 22 April 2004]: The use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in new refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment has been prohibited under EC Regulation 2037/2000 on substances that deplete the ozone layer. In practice, new most domestic refrigerators in the UK now use hydrocarbon (HCs) refrigerants rather than hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
CFCs have a global warming potential (GWP) of 4,600–14,000, The HFCs in most common use in UK have GWPs in the range 650–3,800. Hydrocarbon refrigerants (e.g. propane, butane) have a GWP of 3.
The change from CFCs to HCs is likely to result in a reduced impact on the climate from refrigeration emissions, due to their lower GWP. In 2002, emissions of HFCs from mobile air conditioning (MAC) were equivalent to 1,080 kilo tonnes of CO 2 .
CFCs have an ozone depleting potential, whereas HFCs and HCs do not, so the effect of replacing CFCs with these refrigerants is to lessen ozone depletion activity.
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress is being made towards developing less environmentally damaging alternatives to hydrofluorocarbons in refrigeration and air-conditioning plant; and if she will make a statement. [167482]
Mr. Morley
[holding answer 22 April 2004]: Alternatives to hydrofluorocarbons are already available. Hydrocarbons, ammonia and carbon dioxide can be used as the coolant in refrigeration and air-conditioning plant. The choice of coolant will depend on relative energy consumption, safety and other technical considerations.
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Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information she has collated regarding (a) the number of sites in the United Kingdom for retrieving chlorofluorocarbons from domestic refrigerators and (b) the location of such sites; and what measures she is taking to facilitate the development of further sites. [167483]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 22 April 2004]: Under Article 16 of EC Regulation 2037/2000 the UK is required to submit details on the sites available for retrieving chlorofluorocarbons from domestic refrigerators. There are 24 sites in total. Details of these facilities and their locations are listed in an annex available in the Library of the House .
The market will facilitate the development of further sites (if needed).
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