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24 Mar 2005 : Column 926W—continued
Countryside (Access)
Mr. Brazier:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what research the Countryside Agency has carried out to determine the effects of the introduction of the provisions of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 in the
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(a) South East and (b) lower North West; and how many members of the public have taken advantage of this new access provision; [222379]
(2) what effect the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 has had on the (a) numbers of people accessing the countryside and (b) number of walks undertaken in the (i) South East and (ii) lower North West areas; [222380]
(3) what plans (a) her Department and (b) the Countryside Agency have for monitoring the effects on (i) access and (ii) outdoor recreation of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. [222381]
Alun Michael: The Countryside Agency is developing a monitoring programme on the effects of the introduction of the new right of access under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 which will provide information at a national and regional level on the numbers of people taking advantage of the new right.
The monitoring programme will also explore issues such as visitor behaviour, enjoyment and satisfaction with access rights in more depth. The main elements of the monitoring programme include additional interviews in the continuing England Day Visitor Survey, which measures public use of access land, and using an Omnibus Survey to track public awareness and understanding of access rights and of what constitutes responsible visitor behaviour both in the countryside in general and in relation to access land. In addition there will be on-site surveys to establish a more in-depth profile of visitors and visitor behaviour on access land and an on-line (website) survey of access land users seeking to establish qualitative data on views, perceptions and levels of public satisfaction in relation to access land. The Agency's monitoring programme will include a land manager survey to assess the impact of the new rights of access on land managers and also a nature conservation monitoring element through an extension to the Breeding Bird Survey, operated by the British Trust for Ornithology.
The England Day Visitor Survey records day visits to the countryside and will for the first time separately identify visits to open access land and to English National Parks. The Agency will publish the results of the England Day Visitor Survey and Omnibus Survey in April 2006. The report will include an assessment of the impact of the Act on the number of people accessing the countryside including the effect on the number of walks undertaken in the South East and Lower North West. This assessment will be possible once a full year of data is available to compare against the visits recorded by the Great Britain Day Visit Survey 2002–03. The other elements of the monitoring programme are scheduled to commence from summer 2005 and the Agency will publish reports from these early in 2006.
Decontamination (Corby)
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions (a) she and (b) the Environment Agency have had with Corby borough council concerning the decontamination of the land formerly occupied by the British Steel ironworks at Corby. [222274]
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Mr. Morley: My officials have been in contact with Corby borough council over funding of intrusive investigations at various sites. Subsequently, the Environment Agency has been asked by the council under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to inspect on its behalf one site in the ironworks area, and other sites in the borough, as potential special sites. They are meeting to discuss this shortly. Investigations under Part IIA help to establish the level and nature of any risk to human health or the environment from land contamination, and may inform decisions about subsequent remediation.
The Agency has also been consulted by the borough about several planning applications, as a statutory consultee under Town and Country Planning legislation for certain types of application. Such consultations enable the Agency to comment on risks to controlled waters in connection with development proposals.
Departmental Budget
Mr. Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on her Department's budget for 2005–06; and what the projected change in expenditure is for each component of the budget in each year between 2004–05 and the latest year for which projections have been made. [223034]
Alun Michael: The 2004 Spending Review Settlement provided Defra with its Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) profile for the years 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08, as shown in the following table. In 2004–05 the Department's DEL is £3,085 million resource and £331 million capital.
| 2005–06 | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resource | 3,276 | 3,314 | 3,420 |
| Capital | 339 | 339 | 339 |
| Total DEL | 3,615 | 3,653 | 3,759 |
In addition, Defra estimates Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) and income from the EU as set out in the following table.
| Annually managed expenditure (AME) | EU income | |
|---|---|---|
| 2004–05 | 2,445 | -3,280 |
| 2005–06 | 2,351 | -3,393 |
| 2006–07 | 2,367 | -3,258 |
| 2007–08 | 2,375 | -3,211 |
A more detailed breakdown of planned spending will be published in the departmental report 2005 later this year.
Environment Campaigns
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the national environment campaigns promoted by the Government since 1997; and what the (a) resource costs, (b) capital expenditure costs and (c) staffing costs were of each at today's prices. [208189]
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Alun Michael: The information is as follows.
| £000 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Expenditure | Expenditure at 2004–05 prices | |
| 1997–98 | — | — |
| 1998–99 | — | — |
| 1999–2000 | — | — |
| 2000–01 | — | — |
| 2001–02 | — | — |
| 2002–03 | — | — |
| 2003–04 | (2)517 | 528 |
| 2004–05 | 3, 4, 55,431 | 54 |
(1) The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is funded by Defra, the Devolved Administrations, and currently the DTI. WRAP was formed in 2000 and began work 2001. Figures supplied by WRAP.
(2) Staff numbers 2 (rounded estimate), staff cost £55,000.
(3) Staff numbers 4.5, staff cost £115,000.
(4) WRAP have committed a total of 10 million to a national campaign Recycle Now" over the three year period 2003–06.
(5) Full year estimate.
(6) In addition to this expenditure Defra allocated an additional £1 million to local authorities through ENCAMS for the Local Environmental Quality Pathfinder Programme that forged partnerships between local authorities and the local community. Some of the projects developed reduced fast food litter, railway land litter and schools litter.
(7) Encams baseline grant was increased by £1 million in 2004–05, and is being increased by a further £1 million in 2005–06.
Government funding is provided to ENCAMS (formerly Tidy Britain Group) annually. This funding supports ENCAMS work on a range of local environmental quality issues, including programmes to discourage littering.
Staff and resource figures are not available
| £000 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Expenditure | Expenditure at 2004–05 prices | |
| 1997–98 | — | — |
| 1998–99 | — | — |
| 1999–2000 | — | — |
| 2000–01 | — | — |
| 2001–02 | — | — |
| 2002–03 | (8)(5507610009)700 | 735 |
| 2003–04 | 3,300 | 3,371 |
| 2004–05 | 3,600 | 3,600 |
(8) The Carbon Trust was formed in 2001–02 but did not begin marketing activity until 2002–03. Figure for 2002–03 is total marketing expenditure. Figures for 2003–04 and 2004–05 represent expenditure on awareness campaigns.
(9) Figures for resource breakdown not available as Carbon Trust do not distinguish between these categories in the funding information they provide to Defra.
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In addition to Government environmental promotions, the Carbon Trust, an independent company funded by Defra, spent the following on marketing campaigns targeted at business and the public sector.
(10) Figures for 1997–98 to 2000–01 inclusive show advertising expenditure only and include a small amount of Scottish Executive support.
(11) Figure for 2004–05 also includes a separate campaign to promote energy efficiency in the run-up to the start of the Energy Efficiency Commitment for 2005–08.
In addition to Government environmental promotions, the Energy Saving Trust, an independent company funded by Defra, spent the following on its Energy Efficiency" Consumer Marketing Campaign.
| £000 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Expenditure | Expenditure at 2004–05 prices | |
| 1997–98 | 0 | 0 |
| 1998–99 | 3,809 | 4,385 |
| 1999–2000 | 7,666 | 8,637 |
| 2000–01 | 9,976 | 11,110 |
| 2001–02 | 525 | 570 |
| 2002–03 | (12)0 | 0 |
| 2003–04 | 0 | 0 |
(12) This campaign served to raise public awareness and to encourage individual action to help the environment. However, in the absence of an underpinning legal requirement, it was considered to be of lower priority than the Department's other environmental programmes which bodies such as the Energy Savings Trust and NGOs will deliver. Winding down the campaign will help deliver savings of £3.4 million pa from 2005–06 onwards.
Staff and resource figures are not available.
All expenditure at 2004–05 prices has been calculated using the GDP deflator tables from HM Treasury.Since similar questions were answered there have been changes in accounting practices which have given rise to variations in some of the figures given in this answer.
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