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Departmental Salaries

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people in her Department earn more than a whole-time equivalent salary of £57,485 per year. [195328]

 
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Alun Michael: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 11 November 2004, Official Report, column 856W.

Eastern Irish Sea Fishery

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make representations to the EU Commission (a) to close the sole fishery in the Eastern Irish Sea and (b) to make a minimum 110 mesh size for cod ends mandatory. [192941]

Mr. Bradshaw: No. UK fishermen land significant quantities of sole from the Eastern Irish Sea. There is no reason why they should not continue to do so. Mesh sizes in the Irish Sea—as elsewhere—vary between fisheries from small meshes used to catch shrimps to 100mm or more used to catch cod. I have no plans to make 110mm mesh mandatory in all these fisheries.

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the sustainability of the plaice fishery in the Eastern Irish Sea. [192945]

Mr. Bradshaw: Assessments of plaice stocks around the UK are undertaken by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). The latest assessment, published on 22 October 2004, is that the Irish Sea plaice has full reproductive capacity and is harvested sustainably.

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what reports she has received from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science this year on (a) the operation of the Cod Recovery Plan and (b) the effects of the Cod Recovery Plan on the plaice fishery in the Eastern Irish Sea; and what action she has taken in response. [192952]

Mr. Bradshaw: Ongoing research and analysis on various aspects of the operation of the cod recovery programme, as undertaken by CEFAS, has been incorporated directly into this year's ICES advice process. The Fisheries Science Partnership has undertaken specific work on the level of bycatch and discards linked to the use of particular mesh sizes in the Eastern Irish Sea trawl fisheries. A full report on this work is expected later this year.

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has had within the Fisheries Council on introducing selective gear to reduce discards in the Eastern Irish Sea. [192958]

Mr. Bradshaw: A number of measures to introduce more selective gear into the Irish Sea have already been agreed as part of the cod recovery plan. These include a requirement to use square mesh panels in demersal trawls using 80–99 mm mesh and headline panels in nets with meshes of 70–99 mm. We expect the Commission to bring forward a further technical conservation proposal next year.

Departmental Expenditure

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much of the Environment Agency's annual budget was spent on
 
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(a) international conferences, (b) summits and (c) fact-finding missions outside the UK in each year since June 2001. [197190]

Mr. Morley: Figures for expenditure on (a) international conferences, (b) summits and (c) fact-finding missions outside the UK are not collected by the Environment Agency and could be established only at disproportionate cost.

However, the Environment Agency's expenditure on all business visits outside the UK in the last three financial years (net of recoverable travel costs) was as follows:

	£
2001–02	285,888
2002–03	298,046
2003–04	389,556

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will break down the budget set by her Department for public expenditure on (a) the Rural Development Service and (b) Rural Policy programmes and schemes for the financial years (i) 2004–05 and (ii) 2005–06 by programme. [196691]

Alun Michael: The information is as follows:

(a) The Department's plans for public expenditure on the running costs of the Rural Development Service are £37.6 million for both 2004–05 and 2005–06.

(b) The Department's plans for public expenditure on Rural Policy for the two years 2004–05 and 2005–06 consist of the following programmes:
£million

Programme	2004–05	2005–06
Payments to Regional Development Agencies	46.6	76.9
Sponsorship of the Countryside Agency	93.9	72.6
Rural economy development schemes	31.5	32.5
Total	172.0	182.0

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much of her annual departmental budget was spent on international conferences, summits or fact-finding missions outside the UK in each year since June 2001. [197225]

Margaret Beckett: This information could only be provided at disproportionate costs as expenditure is not summarised by the Department under the categories requested.

Environmental Schemes (Payments)

Paddy Tipping: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much has been paid out under (a) Countryside Stewardship, (b) Organic Conversion Scheme, (c) Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme, (d) Woodland Scheme and (e) Moorland and Habitat Scheme in each county in England in 2004; and if she will make a statement. [196302]

 
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Alun Michael: Payments made under these schemes are administered by the Rural Payments Agency. In the current financial year to the end of October, payments made in England totalled:

	£ million
Countryside Stewardship Scheme(1)	28.863
Organic Farming Scheme	4.145
Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme	35.385
Farm Woodland Scheme	1.526
Farm Woodland Premium Scheme	7.067

⁽¹⁾ The Moorland and Habitat schemes are closed to new applicants and residual payments are included in the total for Countryside Stewardship

The RPA is amending its database to enable expenditure on these schemes to be broken down by county, and I shall write to my hon. Friend with the details he has requested as soon as they are available.

Foxes

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the prevalence of catching urban foxes and transporting and releasing them into rural areas; and if she will make a statement. [191138]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has made no assessment of this.

It is not unlawful to trap foxes in live capture cage traps and to release them at the same or a different location as long as this is done humanely and as long as the fox is not abandoned in circumstances likely to cause unnecessary suffering.

However, I should point out, that my Department advises against relocating foxes on welfare grounds, mainly due to their territorial nature.

Free Fruit (Primary Schools)

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the rural proofing by her Department of the Government's scheme to provide free fruit to children in primary schools. [190664]

Alun Michael [pursuant to his reply, 21 October 2004, Official Report, c. 834W]: My answer contained the word "rival" three times in the final sentence. This was incorrect and should have stated "rural". The rest of the answer remains correct and is detailed in full as follows.

The National Free Fruit Scheme was launched in November 2000 and has been expanded upon since then. The scheme pre-dates the introduction of rural proofing, which was launched in the Rural White Paper, also of November 2000. It was not initially subject to rural proofing, but all new policy is subject to regulatory impact assessment, which includes an element of rural proofing. This would normally be done by the Department introducing the policy, in this case, the Department of Health. Clearly, the policy applies to both rural and urban schools and as well as providing health benefits it uses produce from rural areas and promotes consumption which is likely to help the rural economy in the long term.
 
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