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Recreational Sea Fishing
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her estimate is of the financial contribution to the economy of recreational sea fishing in Britain broken down by principal categories of expenditure. [184708]
Mr. Bradshaw:
A recent report commissioned by Defra on the economic contribution of sea angling estimates a figure of £538 million for England and Wales. This figure relates to total direct and indirect expenditure on the sport. Expenditure varies between shore and boat anglers, but on average about 42 per cent. of the total is spent on purchase and operation or
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chartering of boats, 26 per cent. on tackle, and 32 per cent. on food, accommodation, transport and other costs.
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether catches landed by recreational fishing vessels are subject to the Common Fisheries Policy quota restrictions. [184814]
Mr. Bradshaw: EU Regulations governing the Common Fisheries Policy require account to be taken of all landings, with certain specified exceptions, for the purposes of quota management: there is no exemption for landings made by recreational fishing vessels. However, within the UK, vessels engaged in recreational fishing are not generally subject to quantitative restrictions on landings: they might be prohibited from making further landings if it became necessary to close a fishery to the commercial inshore fleet, or to the UK fleet as a whole, when the UK's quota for that fishery had been taken in full.
Recycling (Greater London)
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the amount of (a) household and (b) industrial waste recycled by boroughs within the Greater London area was in each of the last three years. [185341]
Mr. Morley: Latest results from the Defra Municipal Waste Management Survey show the following amounts of household waste recycled or composted in the Greater London area:
| Tonnes | |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 304,000 |
| 2001–02 | 319,000 |
| 2002–03 | 368,000 |
The latest results available for industrial and commercial waste, reused or recycled are from the Environment Agency, National Waste Production Survey, 1998–99. Greater London results show 2,454,000 tonnes.
Sewers and Drains Review
Liz Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she intends to publish her findings on the Review of Existing Sewers and Drains in England and Wales consultation document published in July 2003. [185392]
Mr. Morley: The Department plans to publish a response to the consultation in the early autumn. This will summarise responses, give the Government's views and set out the issues that need to be addressed before a final decision can be made. A decision paper should be published early next year.
Sites of Special Scientific Interest
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the (a) number, (b) percentage and (c) location of sites of special scientific interest that have been subject to inappropriate development since May 1997. [184864]
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Mr. Bradshaw: For the purposes of this answer, "inappropriate development" is taken to mean development that is causing the unfavourable condition 1 of a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). To provide this information since 1997 would involve disproportionate cost. Factors adversely affecting sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) are continually updated according to the latest condition assessment completed by English Nature conservation officers. All SSSIs are assessed on a rolling basis at least once every six years. English Nature carried out the first round of condition assessments on the complete SSSI series in England between 1997–2003.
According to the latest condition assessments 2 for each unit, 1,052 hectares of SSSI land 3 , on 55 different SSSIs, were in unfavourable condition due to activities authorised by development or mineral planning permission, excluding peat permissions. This is equivalent to 0.1 per cent. of the total SSSI area in England. The SSSI name, county and unit area adversely affected are detailed in the following table.
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1 Unfavourable condition comprises the condition categories of unfavourable no change, unfavourable declining, part destroyed and destroyed, according to the Joint Nature Conservation Committee Common Standards.
2 Data extracted on 14 July 2004
3 SSSIs are divided into units. A factor affecting part of a SSSI unit is attributed to the entire unit area for the condition assessment purposes.
Sugar
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what aspects of the reform of the EU Sugar Regime are designed to encourage farmers to produce biomass and biofuels. [186095]
Mr. Morley: The European Commission's latest Communication on sugar reform, presented to the Agriculture Council on 19 July, aims to move away from the present systems of price and production support towards a sustainable decoupled, market-based approach in line with other recent CAP reforms. It would involve both price and quota cuts in an initial phase, followed by a further review in 2008. This approach, which the Government welcomes as an important step in the right direction, should help to make sugar beet itself more competitive with other sources of biomass and biofuels, as well as promoting diversification among existing growers.
Warm Front
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the role of local government is in delivering the Warm Front programme. [185311]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 21 July 2004]: Warm Front is managed on behalf of Defra by two Scheme Managers—Eaga Partnership Ltd. and Powergen Warm Front Ltd. Both Scheme Managers work closely with a range of national and local organisations, including local authorities, to help promote the availability of Warm Front and to encourage take up.
Both scheme managers work with local authorities in a range of activities such as local roadshows and events, promotional campaigns, the development of affordable warmth strategies, energy awareness days also involving local MPs and include local authorities in regular updates about the scheme.
In addition to this, both Scheme Managers provide information to local authorities in their area for their returns to the Department under the Home Energy Conservation Act.
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