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Written Answers to Questions

Tuesday 30 November 2004

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Exmoor National Park

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make an assessment of the economic impact of the Single Farm Payment on the Exmoor National Park area. [199817]

Alun Michael: An assessment of the economic impact of the Single Payment Scheme in England has been placed in the House of Commons' Library (and is available on the Defra website). Data are not available to enable an assessment to be made specifically of impacts within the National Park, but the report contains analysis relating to cattle and sheep farms in the Less Favoured Areas, which is the predominant farm type in National Parks.

Hunting

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many foxes were killed during hunts in each of the last five years. [199780]

Alun Michael: The Department does not maintain records of the numbers of foxes killed by hunting each year. However, Lord Burns' report estimates that between 21,000 and 25,000 foxes are killed by hunts each year, which accounts for around 6 per cent. of all fox deaths.

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when (a) she and (b) Ministers in her Department last met representatives of the League Against Cruel Sports; and if she will make a statement. [199637]

Alun Michael: Ministers meet a wide range of people in the course of their day-to-day business. The last meeting between a Defra Minister and representatives of the League Against Cruel Sports took place in August.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to how many written questions tabled in the last parliamentary Session her Department had been unable to provide a substantive answer before the end of the Session. [199647]

Alun Michael: Four of the 4,883 parliamentary questions tabled by MPs in the last Session did not receive a substantive answer before the end of the Session.
 
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Set-aside Rules

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will publish the details of the new set-aside rules. [200320]

Alun Michael: We have already published many of the rules concerning set-aside that will apply under the Single Payment Scheme in 2005, including details about which farmers will have to set land aside under the new scheme, how these farmers should calculate the area of land they will need to set aside, and how set-aside entitlements must be used. Guidance about the management rules for set-aside, which will be very similar to the corresponding rules which formerly applied under the Arable Area Payments Scheme, will be published shortly.

SOLICITOR-GENERAL

Correspondence

Joyce Quin: To ask the Solicitor-General when she will reply to the letter from the right hon. Member for Gateshead, East and Washington, West dated 4 February. [200590]

The Solicitor-General: A reply was sent on 5 April 2004. A duplicate copy of that letter has been sent to my hon. Friend on Monday 29 November 2004.

Ministerial Meetings

Glenda Jackson: To ask the Solicitor-General what discussions the Attorney-General held with John Bellinger, senior associate counsel to President Bush and legal adviser to the National Security Council, during his visit to Washington in February 2003. [199763]

The Solicitor-General: As made clear in paragraph 377 of the Report of the Butler Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction, in order to assist in reaching a concluded view on the proper interpretation of resolution 1441, in February 2003 the Attorney-General met members of the US Administration who, as co-sponsors of the resolution had detailed knowledge of its negotiation. These were confidential Government to Government discussions and their content is covered by legal professional privilege. The detail of the discussion is therefore exempt from disclosure under both paragraphs 1 and 4(d) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Carrier Bags

Mrs. Spelman : To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much it has cost to produce carrier bags branded with ODPM since 1997. [200631]

Phil Hope: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was created on 29 May 2002. Since then the Office has spent £790.00 on the production of 5,000 branded carrier bags at a cost of about 16p per bag.
 
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Departmental Websites

Paul Holmes : To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether his Department's .gov.uk websites comply with the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines adopted by the Government in 2001; and if he will make a statement. [199626]

Phil Hope: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's main website (www.odpm.gov.uk) and the info41ocal. gov.uk site follow the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content (W3C) Accessibility Guidelines Priority 2 Checkpoints.

Greywater Recycling Systems

Dr. Stoate: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what measures his Department is taking to encourage the installation of domestic greywater recycling systems in (a) new and (b) existing properties. [199430]

Phil Hope: Water conservation, including the use of recycled water, is being considered in the current review of Part G, Hygiene, of the Building Regulations. This will provide guidance on how recycled water can be used in new buildings.

The use of recycled water in existing buildings is being appraised in integrated water management plans for growth areas including the Thames Gateway.

High Hedges

Mr. Beith: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he will issue guidance to local authorities in respect of provisions to address problems with high hedges contained in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. [199903]

Phil Hope: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister intends to issue guidance for local authorities at the same time as Regulations to bring Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 into force are laid before Parliament. We expect the complaints system to be fully operational early in 2005.

ELECTORAL COMMISSION

Electoral Registration

Mr. Evans: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what representations the Electoral Commission is making to companies to encourage workers who live abroad to register to vote in British elections. [200086]

Mr. Viggers: I am advised by the Electoral Commission that it is making no such representations.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Fixed Penalty Notices

Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many fixed penalty notices have been issued for firework abuse since 14 September. [199712]

 
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Ms Blears: The latest provisional data shows that, between 1 October 2003 and 31 October 2004, 302 penalty notices for disorder have been issued by police forces in England and Wales for the offence of throwing fireworks. A further 10 penalty notices have been issued thus far for offences under the Fireworks Regulations 2004, which were implemented on 11 October 2004.

Police

Mr. Chidgey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will end the funding rule which results in police authorities facing financial penalties if they fail to maintain officer numbers. [199779]

Ms Blears: The number of police officers in England and Wales reached a new record of 139,728 on 31 August 2004 and we are committed to maintaining these record numbers.

The major component in the rise in police numbers since March 2000 has been the use of the Crime Fighting Fund. The Fund has supported forces' recruitment of more than 9,500 officers additional to those which forces were already planning to appoint.

The Home Office will continue to provide funding for these additional posts on condition that the uplift achieved since 2000 is maintained.

Mr. Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will make an announcement on the Police Grant Settlement. [200318]

Ms Blears: I shall announce details of the provisional police grant settlement for 2005–06 on 2 December.

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will make a statement on the future of the police training centre at Bruche, Warrington; [200194]

(2) what discussions he has had on the future of the police training centre at Bruche; when these discussions took place; and who was involved in them. [200197]

Ms Blears: The police training centre at Bruche, Warrington, is run by Centrex, the national police training provider. It is currently used to provide the residential Stage 2 of Foundation Training to probationary officers.

We are currently working on the modernisation of probationer training. Under this, probationers will no longer automatically be sent for residential training at Centrex regional training centres, and the role of Centrex will change, with a greater focus on design, quality assurance and evaluation of training, rather than delivery.

Taking forward this work has involved extensive discussions between the Home Office and key stakeholders, in particular representatives of the Association of Police Authorities, the Association of Chief Police Officers and Centrex. The Home Office has been represented in these discussions by officials. The discussions have been taking place through most of this year, in particular over the summer, and are still on-going.The modernisation of probationer training will
 
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necessarily have implications for the future of Centrex's estate, including the training centre at Bruche. We are still working with Centrex on the details of these.

Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of policing incidents arising from excessive alcohol consumption was in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [199612]

Ms Blears: Police authority accounts are not kept in a form which would make it possible to identify the costs of policing related to alcohol related disorder, and there is no specific grant made available to forces to deal directly with the problems associated with excessive alcohol consumption. It is for individual police forces to decide how they allocate their resources to tackle their crime and disorder priorities.

The Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England, published on 15 March 2004 estimates that alcohol related crime and disorder costs taxpayers up to £7.3 billion a year.

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