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Olympic Lottery Games

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the (a) income raised by and (b) popularity of the first Olympic scratchcard. [26430]

Tessa Jowell: Camelot Group plc has informed us that the Go for Gold scratchcard has been the fastest selling £1 scratchcard of 60 such cards launched since November 2002. Camelot considers that the income raised to date is in line with its estimates for Olympic lottery sales in the initial stages of what is a seven-year plan to raise £750 million towards our overall Olympics funding package.

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the impact of the new Olympic scratchcard on other lottery games. [26475]

 
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Tessa Jowell: It is too early to make an accurate assessment of the impact of the new Go for Gold scratchcard on other national lottery games. Our long-term aim is to grow lottery sales overall—with a view to maximising returns to the good causes from both national lottery and Olympic lottery games. That aim is shared with the National Lottery Commission (the lottery regulator) and is subject to our other, shared overriding statutory duties, namely to ensure that the national lottery is run with due propriety and that the interests of all players are protected.

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether her Department has undertaken an analysis of sales of the new Olympic scratchcard by (a) geographical region and (b) age. [26474]

Tessa Jowell [holding answer 10 November 2005]: My Department has not undertaken any specific analysis of sales by either region or age of players. Such matters are for the operator, Camelot Group plc, to consider at an appropriate time, if it believes that they would help it maximise income for the Olympics good cause. However, I am aware that the Go for Gold scratchcard has been very widely distributed across the UK and that initial sales have been very good.

Predictive Diallers

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many calls were made from call centres in her Department in 2004–05 using predictive diallers; how many such calls resulted in contact being made with the recipient without a Government agent available to talk to them; and what assessment she has made of the likely impact of Ofcom's policy on silent calls on the use of predictive diallers in departmental call centres. [28175]

Mr. Lammy: My Department does not operate any call centres.

Tourism

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps are being taken (a) to encourage tourism and (b) to improve tourist facilities in (i) Havering and (ii) Essex. [25887]

James Purnell: My Department allocates £50 million grant in aid to VisitBritain each year to market Britain overseas and England domestically. This activity benefits all parts of the country including Havering and Essex.

The Department allocates grant in aid of £1.9 million to the Greater London authority to support the Mayor in his lead responsibility for tourism in London. One of the Mayor's priorities in this area is the dispersal of visitors throughout all parts of the capital. Havering will benefit from the new East London tourism development strategy, key strands of which include the development of markets, products, sector skills and the encouragement of greater entrepreneurship.

This work has been given new impetus and the profile of East London raised by winning the competition to stage the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. A new
 
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pan-London Tourism vision and action plan are currently in development to ensure that benefits derived from tourism are maximised.

My Department also allocates grant-in-aid of £3.6 million to the regional development agencies for tourism support, including the East of England Development Agency. This contributes to the work of organisations such as the Essex Development and Regeneration Agency, which promotes Essex as a tourism destination.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Animal Boarding

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) how many (a) fines and (b) terms of imprisonment have been imposed on dog and cat home boarders found guilty of operating without a licence under the Animal Boarding Establishment Act 1963 in the last 12 months, broken down by local authority area; [29270]

(2) how many dog and cat home boarders have been found to be operating without a licence under the Animal Boarding Establishment Act 1963 in the last 12 months, broken down by local authority area. [29271]

Mr. Bradshaw: There were no convictions in England and Wales during 2004 for offences under Section 1 (8) of the Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963 relating to the licensing and inspection of boarding establishment to ensure the welfare of animals, although two separate proceeding were taken forward during this period.

Animal Exhibitions

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what criteria are being applied to establishments exhibiting animals to decide which fall outside of the terms of Article 2 of the Zoo Directive 1999/22/EC. [30915]

Jim Knight: My Department publishes guidance on the criteria which are used to determine whether establishments exhibiting wild animals can be granted exemption from the Zoo Licensing Act 1981 (and hence from Directive 1999/22/EC in accordance with Article 2). These criteria are set out in Annex D of Circular 02/2003 (as amended by more recent guidance on llama and alpaca). The circular and updated guidance can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/gwd/zoo.htm.

The criteria were developed with advice from the Zoos Forum, the Government's advisory body on zoo licensing matters. Each application is considered on its merits, along with advice from zoo inspectors, and some flexibility may be applied if there are other relevant considerations.

Batteries

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of batteries was recycled in the most recent year for which figures are available. [29143]

 
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Mr. Bradshaw: A study for the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), carried out by consultants in 2000, estimated that the recycling rate for spent automotive and industrial batteries in 2003 would be around 90 per cent. of arisings. Data collected more recently indicate that less than 2 per cent. of spent portable batteries are currently being recycled.

Beef

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the timetable is for ending the EU ban on British beef. [25229]

Mr. Bradshaw: The European Commission has acknowledged that the essential preconditions for lifting the EU export ban have been fulfilled. We are now awaiting proposals from the Commission for legislation to lift the ban. Such proposals would have to be submitted to EU Member States to consider in the Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH). If the Member States were to vote in favour of the proposals in SCoFCAH, they would be translated into all EU languages and presented to the College of Commissioners for formal adoption. We hope that these processes will be completed in early 2006, but this is a best case scenario.

In the meantime we are consulting widely within the UK on the corresponding changes which will be required to domestic legislation. This should enable us to implement the necessary amendments as soon as possible when the EU legal processes are completed. This should enable beef exports from the UK to resume at the earliest opportunity. The consultation package is available on the DEFRA website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/bse-exports/index.htm.

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she expectsbeef exports to (a) France and (b) Germany to begin, following the end of the Over Thirty Months Scheme. [28032]

Mr. Bradshaw: The timing of lifting the export ban remains uncertain but is unlikely to happen before February 2006 at the earliest. The Government are continuing to work in Brussels to ensure that the export ban is lifted as soon as possible.

We would expect Germany and France to comply with EU law when the ban is lifted.

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