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Burnside Farm

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when her Department was first informed of the existence of a video of Burnside Farm taken by Northumberland Trading Standards officers on 23 February 2001; and when her Department first obtained a copy of the video. [194308]

 
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Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 28 October 2004]: A Defra official was present at Burnside Farm on 24 February 2001 when the video of the conditions on the farm was being made by Northumberland Trading Standards Department. Defra officials saw some of the video when it was shown at Robert Waugh's trial in May 2002. Defra recently obtained copies of the video when it was referred to in correspondence received by Defra officials on 30 September 2004.

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether a representative of her Department was present at the trial of Mr. Bobby Waugh for breach of his waste food feeding licence in May 2002. [194307]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 28 October 2004]: The trial was attended by four officials from Defra, three of whom gave evidence.

Civil Servants

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the average length of continuous service for civil servants within the Department is. [194399]

Alun Michael: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend, the Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Ruth Kelly) on 3 November 2004, Official Report, column 268W.

Conservation Areas

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) scientific and (b) socio-economic objections to the designation of (i) Bolton Fell Moss and (ii) Solway Moss as special areas of conservation are; and when she expects to conclude each consultation. [194493]

Mr. Bradshaw: Generic scientific issues raised by the objectors to the proposed SAC designations on Bolton Fell and Solway Moss are:

that sites which are mainly areas of bare peat is contrary to EU and Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) guidance;

sites with bare peat do not contain National Vegetation Classification (NVC) plant communities typical of raised bogs;

the designation of these two peatland sites in conjunction with others already classified as cSACs is not necessary to achieve favourable conservation status for raised bogs;

the National Peatland Resource Inventory has been wrongly interpreted which has led to far more degraded raised bogs being selected as pSACs than is necessary to satisfy the guidance received from the European Commission;

the site selection process was partial and ad hoc and the criteria was written after sites were selected instead of developing the selection criteria and then selecting sites;

English Nature did not consider selecting sites which were wooded, afforested or contained peat underlying agricultural sites;

English Nature placed undue emphasis on the restorability and/or size of the site when selecting sites and this overrode other considerations;

that contextual information required to list appropriate areas of active and degraded raised bogs is not available, and finally, that English Nature did not follow JNCC guidance on the number of sites to be selected from the first moderation process.

 
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Objections on socio-economic grounds to both designations are:

local employment issues concerning the closure of peat-extraction operations at either site;

loss of revenue to landowner from peat-extraction operator; after-use restriction on ability of landowner at Bolton Fell Moss to generate income following end of peat extraction.

Once the scientific objections have been resolved, and it is confirmed that the sites meet the selection criteria for SAC protection, they will be designated forthwith. It is not currently clear how long this will take.

Contagious Equine Metritis

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the last outbreak of contagious equine metritis in British horses was recorded; and where. [194937]

Mr. Bradshaw: The last outbreak of contagious equine metritis in Great Britain occurred in late 2002 in Staffordshire, with the last individual case linked to this outbreak occurring in early 2003, again in Staffordshire.

Cormorants

Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 20 October, Official Report, columns 695–96W, on cormorants, what action is being taken through the European Union to tackle cormorant numbers at a European level. [194811]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 1 November 2004]: At the European level the REDCAFE group (Reducing the conflict between cormorants and fisheries on a Pan-European scale) was set up in 2001, to synthesise current cormorant and fisheries information and identify and evaluate methods of reducing Europe-wide conflict between conservationists and fishery interests. Initial conclusions emphasise site-specific management as the key. Further work has been agreed, on an inter-disciplinary approach taking account of social and economic interests. Discussions at ORNIS (the EC Committee covering the Birds Directive), also covered the Development of a Framework for Biodiversity Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). The data from REDCAFE will be input into this process, along with other European initiatives such as the IMEW (Integrated Management of European Wetlands). The RAP aims to fully quantify the problems, develop a solution and provide synthesis and dissemination of the results. This process will provide a participatory decision strategy. The approach is being supported with EU research funding, and member states are also encouraged to participate.

Departmental IT

Brian White: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of the Department's (a) implemented and (b) planned computer systems use open source software; and what plans are in place to raise this level. [195657]

Alun Michael: The information is as follows:
 
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(a) The percentage of implemented computer systems in Defra that use open source operating systems such as Linux is small, less than 5 per cent., but many Defra systems comply with the Government eGIF standards that allow easy and open exchange of data.

(b) Defra has recently outsourced its IT operations. There are no targets imposed on the supplier to implement open source software, a level playing field will apply in procurement of software solutions. The IT supplier is bound to work within eGIF standards and many of the planed IT systems will include a significant proportion of open source code. In addition the supplier will be conducting a number of additional pieces of work to test the business benefits to Defra of extending the use of open source.

Directive 2002/49/EC

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the timetable is for transposing Directive 2002/49/EC into UK law. [195203]

Alun Michael: Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise requires that member states of the European Union must comply with Directive 2002/49/EC on the assessment and management of environmental noise by 18 July 2004 (Article 14). Unfortunately, due to the practical complexities of the Directive the UK has been unable to meet this deadline.

We are continuing to work to comply with the Directive as soon as possible and we will be putting our proposed approach to complying with the Directive to public consultation in due course. We will use the responses to the consultation to inform our final approach to complying with the Directive.

Equine Exports

Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many equines were exported from the UK in each of the past 10 years; and if she will make a statement. [193517]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 27 October 2004]: Available information on the number of equines certified for export from the UK is as follows:

	Number
1996	1,169
1997	8,119
1998	11,086
1999	9,579
2000	9,176
2001	14,284
2002	10,785
2003	9,130

The figures are derived from computer based systems introduced in late 1996 relating to export health certification from the UK. The figures are subject to updating and amendment.

Except for part of 2001 and 2002, the figures exclude the movement of certain horses to France and Ireland which, under a Tripartite Agreement, do not require export health certification.
 
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