---

11 Nov 2004 : Column 816W—continued

EU Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals Directive

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she has taken to minimise the number of experiments that will need to be conducted on animals following the introduction of the EU Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals Directive. [196821]

Alun Michael: Keeping animal testing to the necessary minimum is a prime objective of the UK Government in negotiating the REACH regulation. Our aim is to protect human health and the environment while
 
11 Nov 2004 : Column 817W
 
keeping bureaucracy to a minimum and keeping animal testing down both by use of alternative methods and by avoiding duplicates. Our proposal for "one substance one registration" commands support because it is designed to meet all these UK negotiating requirements and discussions in Council Working Groups are continuing on that basis.

We welcome the fact that there is now widespread acceptance of the need to minimise animal testing. Concerns of the UK and others have led to several provisos being included in the legislative proposal to encourage maximum use of existing data, avoid duplication of testing and to require the use of alternative methods wherever possible and appropriate.

The Commission proposal includes a pre-registration phase which should allow for data sharing. There are also incentives to encourage consortia formation through sharing fees incurred in the registration process. The UK has proposed a mandatory system of "one substance, one registration" to ensure data sharing and decrease the burden on regulators, and this is currently being discussed in Council Working Groups.

The UK Government have in place a programme for work on improving animal welfare in research and in May 2004 we set up a New Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research with a doubling of the budget for the current year to £660,000. The new centre will develop a UK strategy for the implementation of the 3Rs, fund high quality research that advances the 3Rs, provide advice on the 3Rs and animal welfare to the scientific community and work with regulators on the acceptance of alternative methods for regulatory toxicity testing. The work of the centre will help to reduce the animal experiments required under REACH.

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will estimate how many extra experiments will need to be conducted upon animals in each of the next five years as a result of the UK's implementation of the EU Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals Directive. [196822]

Alun Michael: The UK Government's approach to REACH is to achieve the best possible outcome in terms of protecting human health and the environment while keeping both the bureaucratic burdens on industry and the extent of animal testing to the necessary minimum. REACH is currently under negotiation in Council and in the European Parliament and is unlikely to be agreed before 2006. Once agreed REACH will phase in existing substances over 11 years. REACH is still being negotiated and any estimate of how many experiments would be needed over each of the next five years could be misleading.

The information needed by REACH to provide the basis for protecting human health and the environment may come from a number of sources, of which animal testing is only one. The chemical industry already has some of this information while there are other sources of information such as mathematical modelling and read-across of data from one chemical to another which will reduce the number of new experiments that will be required.
 
11 Nov 2004 : Column 818W
 

Another factor that will lead to further reductions in the number of experiments that will be conducted under REACH is the significant amount of testing that has taken place internationally over recent years and is ongoing on high production volume chemicals (those produced or imported in quantities over 1,000 tonnes per year) that will not need to be repeated.

It is an overall objective for the UK Government, in negotiating the REACH Regulation, to ensure that animal testing is kept to the minimum necessary to protect human health and the environment.

We hope that our proposal for "one substance, one registration" will have significant impact in minimising animal testing and that meaningful estimates can be provided once the process of negotiation is complete.

Executive Agencies

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many full-time equivalent jobs (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies had in (i) Yorkshire and the Humber and (ii) the City of York in (A) 1997 and (B) the latest year for which figures are available. [191850]

Alun Michael: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend, the Minister of State, Cabinet Office on 25 October 2004, Official Report column 1053W.

The information placed in the Library of the House did not include the Rural Payments Agency, which had 420 permanent staff in Yorkshire and the Humber on 1 April 2004. None of these staff were located in the City of York. Data is not available for 1997 as RPA was created in November 2001.

Extensification Payment Scheme

Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the information requested in the "Extensification Payment Scheme 2004: Status of Subsidiary Holdings" is also available on pages 17 and 18 of Farm's 2003 Integrated Administration and Control System form. [193874]

Alun Michael: The information requested by the Rural Payments Agency in a letter entitled "Extensification Payment Scheme 2004: Status of Subsidiary Holdings" is not available in answers given on a producer's Integrated Administration and Control System application or any of the bovine scheme claim forms.

Fair Trade

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make it her policy to ensure that hospitality within her Department is sourced from fair trade producers wherever possible within the boundaries set by the public procurement rules. [196656]

Alun Michael: We have introduced fair trade food and drink products into nine of the eleven Defra staff restaurants, including the Department's headquarters
 
11 Nov 2004 : Column 819W
 
and a number of regional offices in Guildford, Reading, York and Crewe. At all of these sites the teas and coffees served as official hospitality are fair trade products.

The position in Defra generally is explained in a case study published on the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative web site. URL: http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/sustain/procurement/casestudies/tea-coffee.htm.

The web site also provides advice on fair trade considerations at http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/sustain/procurement/trade.htm, including a link to the Office of Government Commerce's "Guidance on Fair and Ethical Trading".

Flooding

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the latest position on the proposed flood defence scheme for the Silk Stream, Edgware and Colindale. [194851]

Mr. Morley: Main works at Prince Edward's Playing Field in Harrow are expected to be complete by December 2004 and work on the flood storage area in Summerhouse Lake is expected to start in April 2005. Construction to enhance flood storage at Stoney Wood Lake is expected to start in September 2005 subject to the availability of funds in the Environment Agency (EA)'s Capital Programme for 2005–06.

The EA's proposed Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) needed for the new flood storage areas at Bury Farm and Edgwarebury Park is currently being implemented and a revised planning application for the proposed work will be submitted in December 2004. Subject to funding and the satisfactory resolution of any objections to the CPO, work is scheduled to begin at both sites in 2006.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what reports the Department has received from the Met Office about potential flooding in the UK during the coming winter. [196002]

Mr. Morley: The Department receives twice-weekly briefings on the flood risk outlook from the Environment Agency, which are based on forecast information that they receive from the Met Office. The Met Office does not claim to be able to make predictions of rainfall and other major meteorological drivers of flooding for more than about five days ahead.

---