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18 Nov 2004 : Column 2032W—continued
Mobile Telephones
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many mobile phones were used by (a) Ministers and special advisers and (b) officials in her Department in each year since 1997; how many were (i) lost and (ii) stolen; and what their cost was. [191436]
Margaret Beckett: The number of mobile phones held by the Department as at October 2004 is 3,398, of which 46 are the responsibility of the Department's Secretariat. No information is held centrally on the number of phones which have been lost or stolen.
The total payment made to our primary mobile phone contractors for the 12 months to October 2004 is £498,350.46. This includes rental, call charges, mobile phones and accessories. All contracts in place comply with the OGC negotiated contract.
Centralised records were not established until last year, so no details are available for earlier years.
Nickel-cadmium Batteries
Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to improve collection and recycling rates for nickel-cadmium batteries. [199281]
Mr. Morley: This is a matter for the Department of Trade and Industry.
Organic Farming
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much was spent in support of organic farming in each of the last three years. [197644]
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Mr. Bradshaw: The following table shows Defra's spending in the last three financial years on support for organic farming:
In the 2004–05 year, payments to the end of October, were as follows:
(46) Payments made under this scheme are administered by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).
Over-thirty-month Scheme
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions her Department has had with the Scottish Executive regarding the Over-30-month scheme; and if she will make a statement. [193716]
Alun Michael: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Parliamentary Questions
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will reply to the question, reference 198471, from the hon. Member for Vale of York. [199350]
Mr. Morley: I replied to the hon. Member's question on 17 November 2004.
Peat Bogs
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her letter of 10 October (her ref: 203663/JF) regarding peat bogs, when she expects the consultation on the designation of (a) Bolton Fell Moss and (b) Solway Moss as special areas of conservation to be concluded. [197081]
Mr. Bradshaw:
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
18 Nov 2004 : Column 2034W
Peregrine Falcons
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the size of the peregrine falcon population in the UK (a) at present, (b) 10 years ago, (c) 20 years ago and (d) 30 years. [198389]
Mr. Bradshaw: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Public Telephones
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of coverage of public telephone kiosks in rural areas; and what discussions she has had with British Telecommunications and other telephone suppliers on this matter. [190063]
Alun Michael: I have not made an assessment or had discussions with telephone suppliers. The Government takes access to all public services in rural areas seriously and all telephone providers are subject to the universal service obligation.
Universal service is a concept fundamental to the regulation of telecommunications in the UK. It means that basic telephone services should be available to everybody upon reasonable request and at an affordable price. This includes the provision of public call boxes and call box services in the UK.
This is a matter for the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which took over responsibility for telecommunications regulation in December 2003. The universal service conditions and directions applying to public call boxes can be found on Ofcom's website. Ofcom is currently reviewing the universal service obligation and intends to publish a document for consultation later this year.
Publications
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the Department's publications, copies of which have been mailed unsolicited in the most recent 12 months for which information is available; and how many copies of each publication were printed. [197723]
Alun Michael: The Department's Communication Directorate issued some 109 mailings during the most recent 12 months. These mainly consist of forms and guidance to farmers dealing with Common Agricultural Policy issues and consultation documents targeted at stakeholders and other interested parties.
The number of copies printed is determined by the number of addresses on the appropriate mailing list; this could range from a few hundred for some consultations to 200,000 for a circulation to all farmers.
During the period we issued 33 mailings to farmers; 27 consultation documents and 49 containing general information to regional and specialist groups.
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Raptors
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what legislation is in force to protect raptor bird populations; and whether she has plans to amend the legislation. [198377]
Mr. Bradshaw: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what effect the existing legislation to protect raptor birds has had on their population in the UK. [198388]
Mr. Bradshaw: All birds of prey are strictly protected under UK law. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (for Great Britain) and the 1985 Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order, as amended by other legislation such as the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, establish the legal basis for the protection of these and other bird species.
Illegal persecution constrains populations sizes and distribution. The population of hen harrier is now at a level which jeopardises the continued existence of the species in England. However other species are in the process of recovering former distribution and population size, apparently as a consequence of recent lessening of levels of illegal persecution directed at them. Thus the Buzzard currently appears to be re-establishing its former range in lowland Britain.
The population status of birds of prey is affected not only by their legal status, but also by a range of other factors some of which are under different forms of legislative or policy regulation. Thus in recent decades the populations of Peregrine and Sparrowhawk have been recovering their former distributions and numbers as a consequence of progressive legal restrictions on the use of persistent organo-chlorine pesticides formerly used in agriculture, leading to the ultimate banning of the use of DOT in 1986.
Land-use changes (many of which are under legislative or policy control), such as open-ground afforestation, have affected UK raptor populations in a range of ways—and have had different impacts consequent on species' different ecological requirements. Meanwhile species such as White-tailed Eagle and Red Kite have been the subject of active re-establishment programmes. Information on the main drivers of population change for each species of UK raptor is summarised in Annex 4 of the 2000 report to Ministers of the UK Raptor Working Group, a copy of which is in the House of Commons Library.
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