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Registered Holdings

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many registered holdings there are for European subsidy purposes; how many there were in 1994; and if she will make a statement. [188991]

Alun Michael: The number of holdings that registered/submitted applications for European subsidy purposes in 2004 and 1994, under the Integrated Administration and Control System are set out in the following table.

The figures for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were provided by their respective devolved assemblies.

	1994	2004
England	81,224	71,978
Wales	20,919	16,814
Scotland	25,542	19,675
Northern Ireland	28,748	24,944

Rural Payments Agency

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what factors underlay the decision to set the salary for the Chief Executive of the Rural Payments Agency at its present level. [189618]

Alun Michael: The Rural Payments Agency brought together functions from the former Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's regional centres and the former Intervention Board. The purpose was to streamline, modernise and reduce the costs of administering Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes, while delivering a high-quality service to farmers and traders. This new agency required a leader with a successful track record of delivering radical change in a substantial delivery organisation and it demanded someone who could sustain a high level of performance. The Chief Executive post was therefore advertised in 2000 as an Open Competition. Since then there has been the additional challenge of delivering successful implementation of CAP reform. The external market and the high expectations of the post holder were factors in determining the salary. The salaries of chief executives are reported to Parliament in the usual way.

Sea Bass

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will liaise with other Departments to ensure that their catering policies source sea bass from hand line fisheries. [188137]

 
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Mr. Bradshaw: Defra is compiling a catering services procurement toolkit that will include guidance on the relevance of fish sources to the Government's sustainable development objectives for food. This guidance will be published on Defra's website and central Departments will be notified directly.

The current draft does not refer to individual species of fish and nor does it suggest preferred catch methods but it does suggest that the method of catch should be labelled so that paying customers can make an informed choice when choosing dishes of food.

Defra supports the sourcing of sea bass from responsibly managed fisheries. Hand lining is a relatively low impact method of fishing and so can help fisheries to remain sustainable. Advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas on sea bass has been that the level of exploitation of the stock appeared to be sustainable. New advice is due shortly which we will be considering carefully to ensure that this stock remains sustainably exploited. There are also currently no restrictions at a UK or community level on the method of fishing that can be used to target bass.

In these circumstances I consider it would be inappropriate to advise Departments to encourage their caterers to restrict the source of bass they purchase to hand line fisheries only.

Sugar

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has had with sugar beet farmers from the Vale of York on the reform of the EU Sugar regime. [190373]

Alun Michael: Ministers and officials frequently meet farming organisations, including the National Farmers Union, to discuss a range of topical subjects including sugar reform. The current chairman of the NFU Sugar Board is a beet farmer from the Vale of York.

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the future of sugar beet farming in (a) the Vale of York and (b) England. [190379]

Alun Michael: The Government have consistently pressed for early and radical reform of the EU sugar regime, which is now seriously out of line with the decoupled, market-based approach already adopted for virtually all of the rest of the Common Agricultural Policy. The current regime also gives rise to major distortions in international trade, some of which are under active challenge in the WTO.

Negotiations are beginning in Brussels on a European Commission approach to reform which would mark a step change in the operation of the regime, bringing prices significantly closer to world levels and moving towards a more liberalised and competitive system based on comparative advantage rather than historic production and national self-sufficiency. We have welcomed this as an important step on the right direction.

We are in close touch with British Sugar, the National Farmers Union and a wide range of interests, both in the UK and elsewhere, who will be affected. The
 
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consultation exercise which we carried out on the Commission's original options paper last year will be followed by a further consultation once formal legislative proposals are tabled. We will also be providing Parliament with a full Regulatory Impact Assessment as soon as the detail is clearer. In addition we will shortly be publishing independent research on the economic, social and environmental implications in the UK of sugar reform. This should help to make clearer the likely impacts on sugar beet farming in the United Kingdom, as well as putting the reform into the wider context of decoupled support for agriculture.

Supermarkets Code of Practice

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions on the Supermarkets Code of Practice she has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, (b) farming organisations, (c) supermarkets, (d) retailer representatives and (e) other relevant bodies. [190124]

Alun Michael: Responsibility for the Code of Practice rests with the Office of Fair Trading. However, as Defra is the sponsor Department for the farming and food industries, the subject of the Code will have arisen in the course of discussions and correspondence between Defra and representatives of various bodies, including farming and retail organisations. We have also discussed the Code with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of Fair Trading.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Correspondence

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter to him dated 21 July from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. Farag Elkailani. [189707]

Mr. Blunkett: I replied to my right hon. Friend on 15 September 2004.

Identity Cards

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) nature and (b) values are of his Department's consultancy contracts for, and in relation to, the identity card scheme. [188703]

Mr. Browne: There is one current Home Office consultancy contract in relation to the identity card scheme. PA Consulting Group were engaged in May 2004 as the Home Office's development partner providing resources in support of programme development.

Marriage (Denmark)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will commission research into the effects of legislation in Denmark which require that applicants and sponsors, for the purpose of marriage, from outside the EU must be aged over 24 years. [189391]

 
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Mr. Browne: No. We are aware of the Danish requirement and we will be looking at reports on the effectiveness of this measure as a means of preventing marriage abuse. We are also keeping our own marriage provisions—including the extension of the probationary period, and the requirement for foreign nationals to give notice of their marriage at certain designated register offices under review and will make any changes to the Rules that we consider necessary.

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