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Commmunities Food Supplies
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list those (a) organisations, (b) communities and (c) categories of groups in receipt of Communities food supplies from intervention stocks under Regulation (EEC) 3149/92 as amended by Regulation (EC) 1608/2205; if she will list those that have received such aid in the United Kingdom since May 1997; and if she will make a statement. [27753]
Jim Knight:
The Surplus Food Scheme laid down in Commission Regulation (EC) 3149/1992, as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) 1608/2005, allows member states to choose whether or not to participate in the scheme. The UK has chosen not to participate in this
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scheme since 1998, therefore no organisations, communities or categories of groups are currently in receipt of intervention stocks. The Rural Payments Agency no longer has records relating to this activity.
Criminal Offences
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list criminal offences created in legislation sponsored by her Department since May 1997, broken down by Act. [26706]
Jim Knight [holding answer 9 November 2005] DEFRA came into being on 8 June 2001 and so it is appropriate to answer the question from that date.
The following Acts created criminal offences in the 2002–03 session of Parliament.
The Animal Health Act 2002 (c.42)
created several criminal offences including the offence of deliberately infecting an animal with any one of 15 diseases specified in the Act, including foot-and-mouth disease. The Schedule created an offence of failing to comply with a restriction notice preventing the use for breeding of sheep that are of a genotype that is susceptible to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) and also offences of obstructing an inspector carrying out duties under the Act.
The Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003 (c.33)
provided powers to make offences by regulation for failures to comply with the scheme to be created.
made it an offence under Part one to fail to comply with a notice served by the Environment Agency requiring work to be carried out on facilities for impounding water or a licence application to be made for unlicensed impounding works.
Where abstraction or impounding takes place without a licence or does not comply with the terms of a licence, the Act made it an offence to fail to comply with an enforcement notice issued by the Environment Agency.
Part two created the offence of introducing water to or supplying water from a water undertaker's supply system without being a water undertaker or a licensed supply person. Under Part three it is an offence for an owner of manager of a large raised reservoir to fail to prepare a flood plan when required to do so. Part three also extended the offence of supplying water unfit for human consumption to apply to persons including employees of the water undertaker and self-employed people involved with the supply of water.
During the 2003–04 session the following Acts created criminal offences:
The Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 (c. 11)
makes it an offence for any person to act as an unlicensed gangmaster and for any other person to enter into arrangements with an unlicensed gangmaster.
The Highways (Obstruction by Body Corporate) Act 2004 (c.29)
made it an offence under Part one to hunt a wild mammal with a dog, except in some circumstances such as where the dog is being used for stalking and flushing-out only, or to participate in, attend or knowingly facilitate a hare-coursing event.
Part one also makes it an offence for the owner of a dog to permit it to be used for hunting or hare-coursing or for the owner of land to allow the land to be entered or used for hunting or hare-coursing.
During the 2004–2005 session the following Act created criminal offences:
The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 (c.16)
Created offences in relation to nuisance parking" which is the selling or repairing of vehicles on a road by persons in business. Part six of the Act created offences in relation to breach of Dog Control Orders", which in relation to specified land may exclude dogs from the land, or prohibit the fouling of the land, or require dogs to be kept on leads when on the land or may limit the number of dogs a person may take onto the specified land. In relation to certain premises in an Alarm Notification Area" Part seven of the Act created offences of failing to nominate a key-holder where an audible intruder alarm is present.
Dairy Farming
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State forEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs how many persons are employed in dairy farming in England; andhow many were so employed on the same date in 1997. [27363]
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Jim Knight [holding answer 15 November 2005]: The following figures show the number of workers and total labour force on holdings in England where dairy is the predominant activity. The employee figures include salaried managers, casual and family workers. Total labour force includes farmers, partners, directors and their spouses (if working on the holding) in addition to the number employed.
| Number employed | Total labour force | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 23,394 | 58,498 |
| 2004 | 13,592 | 41,665 |
Notes:
1. Figures prior to 2000 show main holdings only. From 2000 onwards minor holdings are included.
2. Due to a register improvement exercise in 2001 labour figures prior to this are not directly comparable with later results.
Source:
June Agricultural Survey
Departmental Consultants
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the (a) private finance initiative and (b) public private partnership external consultants used by her Department and each of its agencies in each of the last two years; and what the (i) nature of the work and (ii) cost was in each case. [27920]
Jim Knight: Information about the external consultants used by the Department and its agencies to advise on PFI and PPP is set out in the following tables. Details of the companies with whom PFI and PPP deals themselves have been agreed are available on Partnerships UK's (PUK) website.
(6) per annum.
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Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the external consultants used by her Department and each of its agencies, excluding public private partnership and private finance initiative contracts, in each of the last two years; and if she will provide details of the (a) nature of the work and (b) cost in each case. [27921]
Jim Knight: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
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