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Climate Change Conference

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the forthcoming climate change negotiations in Buenos Aires in December. [192833]

Margaret Beckett: The UK welcomes the hospitality shown by the Government of Argentina in hosting the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The ministerial segment of the conference will focus on accomplishments and future challenges for the convention on its 10th anniversary; impacts of climate change, adaptation measures and sustainable development; technology; and mitigation policies.

Common Agricultural Policy

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what responses she has received from farmers about her proposals for using the common agricultural policy to reform measures to promote sustainable farming. [192841]

Alun Michael: Following agreement of the common agricultural policy reforms in June, we have received a considerable amount of responses from farmers, their representatives and others on all aspects of the proposals as well as responses to the public consultation exercise conducted over the last 18 months.

Conservation Areas

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether she intends to designate (a) Bolton Fell Moss and (b) Solway Moss as candidate special areas of conservation; and what the results were of the public consultation on this matter. [191357]

Mr. Bradshaw: Bolton Fell and Solway Moss are being considered for designation as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC). Scientific consultations on these two sites are ongoing in the light of scientific objections raised about their candidature. Once this process has been concluded, and if the sites meet the selection criteria for SAC protection, they will be designated

Both sites were the subject of Public Consultations in August 2002
 
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Of 147 consultees for the Solway Moss pSAC, including other parts of the South Solway Moss, three objections remain unsolved. Two of the objections are both socio-economic and scientific, and the third objection is based on scientific reasons only.

The consultation on the Bolton Fell, was sent to 92 consultees, of which nine still have unresolved objections on scientific ground and three have objections on socio-economic grounds

Consultants

Mr. Maples: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the contracts awarded by her Department to consultants in each of the last five years, stating in each case (a) the name of the consulting company, (b) the value of the contract and (c) the purpose for which the contract was awarded; and if she will make a statement. [191737]

Alun Michael: Defra was created in June 2001. The information requested is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the Government supported the proposal at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in Bangkok to allow Nambia and South Africa to resume trade in black rhino products. [191136]

Mr. Morley: Following expert advice the Government, along with the other EU member states, voted in support of the amended Namibian proposal. This provided that only adult males could be exported and that all hunting trophies would be marked with the country of origin, species, quota number and year of export. South Africa's proposal was also supported following their amendment reducing the annual quota from 10 to five animals. These amended proposals were subsequently adopted in plenary.

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will support Kenya's proposal at the thirteenth conference of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to ensure that the conditions of the one-off ivory stockpile sales from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa are strictly defined to prevent any detrimental impact on elephants before any trade in ivory resumes. [190192]

Mr. Morley: The Government of Kenya have withdrawn their proposal in relation to the one-off ivory stockpile sales from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The Government are happy with this outcome that will allow the parties to CITES to move forward on the agreement made at the 12th Conference of Parties in Santiago. We believe the Santiago agreement strikes the right balance between meeting the legitimate expectations of the southern African states that they should be able to engage in sustainable utilisation of their natural resources, while establishing strict controls to secure the conservation of wider elephant populations.
 
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Countryside Code

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps the Government are taking to promote the new Countryside Code. [192838]

Alun Michael: I launched the new Countryside Code on 12 July this year, and it is being promoted through cartoon broadcasts on television channels across England and Wales and at selected cinemas and outdoor venues. The Code is free of charge and is being promoted through Tourist Information Centres and through the Countryside Agency website: www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk Educational materials for teachers and youth leaders will be available from January 2005.

Dairy Industry

Mr. Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she plans to meet the Minister for Rural Regeneration at the National Assembly for Wales to discuss the dairy sector. [192823]

Alun Michael: I shall be meeting Carwyn Jones, who is Minister for Environment Planning and Countryside in the Welsh Assembly on Monday and our agenda for the meeting will include the dairy sector.

Departmental Audits

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what audit is carried out of her Department by European Union institutions; and when the next such audit is to be carried out. [190711]

Alun Michael: The EU carries out financial audits of Defra and its agencies in relation to the discharging of EU funds through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Structural Funds programmes.

These audits are carried out on a sample basis throughout the year, as well as on an annual, year-end basis.

In addition, the Commission will from time-to-time seek to satisfy itself that the UK has properly transposed Community legal obligations into UK law or is acting in conformity with other, non-financial, obligations, and will report on these in an ad hoc fashion.

More widely, many EU Directives and Regulations covering areas on which Defra leads within Government require all member states to monitor, record and transmit information, and to compile and transmit reports, to the European Commission on a regular basis for compliance monitoring purposes.

Departmental IT Contract

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the decision to outsource the contract for her Department's IT resources to International Business Machines United Kingdom Ltd.; what budget was originally set to pay for the scheme; what the cost and duration will be; and which agencies in her Department it will apply to. [190127]

 
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Alun Michael: I have taken an active interest in this procurement and discussed progress with the programme director at regular intervals. Evaluation of proposals within the Department showed that award of contract to IBM was the most economically advantageous option, and a business case showed that this was better than continuing with the previous in-house service. For evaluation purposes and to determine whether the outsource was affordable, the business case was evaluated on the basis of actual cost of service required rather than historical budget allocation. The final contract has a potential cost of £509 million over 10 years though the applications development component is non-exclusive. The initial contract is for seven years with options to extend and it applies to core Defra, and the Rural Payments Agency. Other Defra Executive agencies, any NDPB currently sponsored by Defra, and Covent Garden Market Authority are included in this procurement with the right but no obligation to opt into the contract.

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