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Cattle

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what cost there will be to farmers from the cattle passports scheme; and if she will make a statement. [173679]

Alun Michael: The direct cost of running the cattle tracing system in Great Britain will be in the region of £23 million in 2005–6.

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on (a) the effectiveness of the British Cattle Movement Service and (b) delays in processing records from farmers. [173680]

Alun Michael: The British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) operates against published service targets and reports against these both to the Bovine Industry Group (made up of farmers' representatives and others in the cattle business) and to the BCMS Management Board (made up of Government Stakeholders).

In the first quarter of this year BCMS issued 100 per cent. of passports followingreceipt of a valid and complete application within five working days.

Recently, the BCMS issued its first transaction statement to keepers that brought in over 68,000 returns allowing over 500,000 queries raised by the BCMS to be resolved.

Climate Change Levy

Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the renegotiation of agreed energy saving
 
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targets contained in the climate change levy; and what assessment she has made of the effects on the future competitiveness of UK salt manufacturers. [172941]

Mr. Morley: The Climate Change Agreements are agreements with energy intensive industry through which participants pay a reduced rate of climate change levy in return for meeting challenging energy efficiency targets between 2002 and 2010. The agreements require that DEFRA review the sector targets in both 2004 and 2008 to ensure that all future milestone targets continue to represent the potential for cost effective energy savings, taking account of any changes in technical or market circumstances.

Targets are to be renegotiated with DEFRA at sector level and each sector association is then responsible for proposing how that sector target variation will be applied to underlying agreements. Negotiations with sector associations are now under way. There has been no assessment of the effects on UK salt manufacturers. Sector associations are able to put forward any information regarding changes to market circumstances in the course of these negotiations, and to take into account issues of competitiveness in proposing the variations to be made to underlying targets.

Coastal Erosion

Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has had in the last six months with (a) the National Farmers Union, (b) the Country Land and Business Association and (c) the Tenant Farmers' Association on coastal erosion and coastal protection. [163750]

Margaret Beckett: None.

Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has had in the last six months with (a) English Heritage, (b) the National Trust and (c) the Council for the Care of Churches on the threat to historic buildings from coastal erosion. [163751]

Margaret Beckett: None.

Common Agricultural Policy

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to ensure that the new schemes set up under Common Agricultural Policy reform will be simpler to administer; and if she will make a statement. [173692]

Alun Michael: Under the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which the Secretary of State announced on 6 June 2003, some 10 direct support schemes will cease and decoupled payment to farmers will be made under one integrated Single Payment Scheme. This is a significant simplification for farmers and administrators.At the same time, the Rural Payments Agency is implementing a modernisation of its working practices, including replacement of IT systems as part of a co-ordinated Change Programme. This will allow significant benefits to farmers and to the taxpayers as part of a simpler process for handling, validating and paying customers and in streamlining application procedures.
 
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Dredging (Essex)

Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much sediment has been dredged as a result of licences issued for (a) foreshore dredging and (b) estuary dredging from the Essex coast and estuaries in each of the last 30 years. [175022]

Mr. Jamieson: This information is not available centrally.

Emissions

Jane Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations she has received on behalf of the UK motor industry regarding the energy costs of Government policy on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. [173806]

Mr. Morley: Responses to the 2002 Energy White Paper consultation were received from a broad range of transport sector stakeholders, including vehicle manufacturers and trade associations covering most modes of transport.

More recently, the UK motor industry have been constructively involved in consultation on the National Allocation Plan and in regular contact with the Department throughout the implementation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

Jane Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate her Department has made of greenhouse gas emissions from aviation in (a) 2008, (b) 2012, (c) 2020, (d) 2030 and (e) 2050, assuming no fiscal or emissions policy changes; and what proportion of total UK greenhouse gas emissions it is estimated that these figures would represent. [173807]

Mr. Morley: The following table shows carbon dioxide from aviation for the years 2010 to 2050 as million tonnes carbon per year (MtC/yr) and as a percentage of UK emissions.
Table 1

	MtC/yr	Percentage
2010	11	7.5
2020	15	11.5
2030	17.5	15
2050	17.5	21.5

The entries in the table are consistent with the White Paper, "The Future of Air Transport", published in December 2003. They are rounded to the nearest 0.5 MtC/yr and 0.5 per cent. The percentage is expressed relative to the sum of (i) UK emissions projected to meet a 60 per cent. reduction in UK carbon dioxide emissions as described in the Energy White Paper published in February 2003 (which includes domestic aviation emissions), and (ii) emissions from international aviation associated with departures from UK airports. Aviation emissions are projected to stop rising between 2030 and 2050 due to fuel efficiency improvements anticipated by the Advisory Council for Aeronautical Research in Europe (ACARE) and the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
 
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The projections do not make assumptions about fiscal or emissions policy changes. Data are not available for the years 2008 and 2012.

The total effect of aviation on greenhouse gas emissions is likely to be greater than values projected for CO ₂ only, mainly because the majority of emissions take place at altitude, which could increase the impact of aviation emissions by 2.5 times the impact of CO ₂    alone. This radiative forcing factor is subject to uncertainty and could be between two and four times. Taking this into account yields the following estimates for aviation as a proportion of total greenhouse gas emissions:
Table 2

	MtCequiv/yr	Percentage
2010	27	14.5
2020	37.5	21
2030	44.5	26
2050	43.5	32.5

The figures in the second table are expressed in million tonnes of carbon equivalent per year and are rounded as before. The percentage is expressed in terms of total UK greenhouse gas emissions to 2050 assuming CO ₂     meets the Energy White Paper target plus aviation CO ₂     emissions from Table 2 multiplied by 2.5.
 
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