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7 Jun 2004 : Column 223W—continued
Dairy Farmers
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what additional assistance she plans to give to dairy farmers; and if she will make a statement. [163524]
Alun Michael: UK dairy farmers already benefit from aid under the CAP worth around £2 billion for the EU. This will include for the first time, from this year, direct payments to dairy farmers, in addition to market support measures.
The Government are also taking action in line with their Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food to facilitate industry action to address the causes of low farmgate prices and to adapt to the new conditions created by the reformed CAP. For example:
my noble friend Lord Whitty has been chairing meetings of a Dairy Supply Chain Forum, which has been looking at collaborative solutions to improve supply chain efficiency, as well as other issues.
The Government have made a grant of nearly £0.5 million to the Food Chain Centre to examine how to improve dairy supply chain efficiency; and
we have established English Food and Farming Partnerships to encourage co-operation and collaboration across all agricultural sectors.
Dee Estuary (Dredging)
Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what role her Department has in decisions on dredging in the Dee estuary. [176069]
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Mr. Morley: Regulatory control of dredging in the Dee is the responsibility of both the Department for Transport and the Environment Agency.
The Department licenses the disposal at sea of dredged materials under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985. Responsibility for licensing in Welsh waters is devolved to the Welsh Assembly Government to which my officials provide advice.
Departmental Administration Budget
Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress has been made towards the five per cent. reduction in real terms in her Department's administration budget by 2008 announced by the Chancellor in the House on 17 March, Official Report, column 331. [176510]
Alun Michael: The real terms reduction of 5 per cent. or more will be a central feature of the public spending settlements for 2006 -8 to be announced in detail later this year.
Departmental Staff
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff were employed in the Department to work in the communications field, and what the total expenditure on communications for the Department was, broken down by (a) Government Information and Communication Service staff and (b) other staff, broken down by (i) press officers, (ii) special advisers and (iii) others, in (A) 1994–95, (B) 1996–97, (C) 1997–98 and (D) 2001–02. [168676]
Alun Michael: Defra was formed in June 2001. Information on the numbers employed in communications work in the Departments that previously dealt with Defra's policies and activities could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The costs for 2001–02 are not retained in the manner requested by the question, however the total cost of staff and related expenditure for the Communications Directorate of the Department was £5.0 million. The staff costs and related non-pay running costs of the press office was £1.7 million.
The total number of staff engaged at the mid-point of the year was 149, of which approximately 70 were communications professionals. 27 staff (inclusive of support staff) were in the press office. The remainder of the staff were employed in marketing, internal communications, new media, strategic planning, publication and print, library and translations, business support, finance and purchasing.
The Special Advisers' Code of Conduct sets out the sort of work a special adviser may undertake on behalf of their Minister. This includes communications activity. Details of the costs of special advisers are given on an annual basis.
Electric Shock Collars
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent evidence she has received on the effects of electric shock collars; and what action she intends to take. [177138]
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Mr. Bradshaw: We have recently received a report from the Kennel Club which is currently being evaluated by Defra veterinarians.
Energy Efficiency
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what budget she provided to fund the Carbon Trust in (a) 2002–03, (b) 2003–04 and (c) 2004–05, expressed in April 2004 money. [173465]
Mr. Morley: Defra funding of the Carbon Trust in each year (rounded to the nearest £ million), converted to 2004–05 money using HM Treasury GDP Deflator was as follows.
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| 2002–03 | 29 |
| 2003–04 | 53 |
The Carbon Trust's outturn for 2004–05 will not be known until after the end of the current financial year, but they have been offered Defra grant funding of about £60 million.
The Carbon Trust receives funding from the Climate Change Levy via Defra for England and via separate relationships with the devolved Administrations. The Carbon Trust Defra budget included end-year-flexibility of £6 million in 2002–03, £7 million in 2003–04 and £16 million in 2004–05.
Farm Production
Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her estimate is of the total amount of plastic waste generated by farming for each of the last three years; and what methods were used to dispose of it. [174470]
Mr. Morley: The Biffaward report, "Toward Sustainable Agricultural Waste Management" (2001), estimates that 109,000 tonnes a year of plastic arises as waste in the agricultural sector (England and Wales). The Agricultural Waste Survey (2003) indicates that most agricultural waste is currently disposed of on-farm by open burning, by burial or disposal in "farm dumps". The report and survey referred to are available on the Environment Agency's website at: www.environment-agency.gov.uk
The Government propose to consult later in the summer on the draft Regulations necessary to repeal section 75(7)(c) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and to apply to agricultural waste the controls already in place to comply with the Waste Framework Directive and the Landfill Directive (England and Wales). The consultation paper will also discuss the options for dealing with the recovery of non-packaging plastic waste from the agricultural sector—including the continuation of the existing local voluntary schemes or the introduction of a national voluntary or statutory producer responsibility scheme. Plastic packaging waste from the agricultural sector is already the subject of the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 (as amended).
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Flooding/Coastal Erosion
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) how many properties were protected against flood risk in the flood risk areas in (a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04; and how many have been so protected in 2004–05 to date; [176414]
(2) how many properties were protected from coastal erosion from an eroding frontage in (a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04; and how many have been so protected in 2004–05 to date. [176415]
Mr. Morley: Defra's Service Delivery Agreement (SDA) target 27 includes reducing flood and coastal erosion risk to some 80,000 houses between April 2003 and March 2006. Houses are counted when risk reduction is actually in place, either on completion of the project or on completion of a phase within it. This method of counting was introduced with the SDA target in March 2003. I am able to provide the outturn figure for SDA 27 for 2003–04 only, which is a total of some 20,000 houses.
The figure of 20,000 is a total for both flooding and coastal erosion risk. Of these houses, just over 1,300 have benefited from works carried out by local authorities wholly or in part to protect against coastal erosion as well as flooding from the sea, of which some 365 are identified as benefiting primarily from reduction of coastal erosion risk. It is possible that some of these 365 also benefit from reduction of flood risk.
I regret I am unable to provide figures for 2002–03 or 2004–05 to date on the same rigorous counting basis without incurring disproportionate cost. However, the progressive 2004–05 outturn will be published on the Defra website (http://www.defra.gov.uk/environ/fcd/policy/aim.htm) during the year, with the first update expected in October.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will announce the indication priority score for coastal defence schemes for 2006–07. [176416]
Mr. Morley: In order to qualify for Defra grant, proposals must meet fundamental economic, technical and environmental criteria and achieve the threshold priority score for the year in which they are to begin. I announced an indicative threshold score of 10 for 2006–07 in April. This indicative threshold is subject to possible change in the light of firmer information on funding and authorities' plans for works nationally. I hope to announce any such change later this year.
Defra is willing to consider projects now for approval to start in 2006–07 against the indicative threshold of 10 and, although there is no guarantee we will be able to fund them before 2006–07, it may be possible to bring individual approved projects forward depending on availability of funds in-year. Changes to the threshold will not affect projects which have already been approved.
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