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28 Nov 2005 : Column 15W—continued

Household Waste

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate the Government have made of the financial implications for local authorities of its proposed household duty of care on waste. [26925]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Waste (Household Waste Duty of Care) (England and Wales) Regulations 2005 give local authorities a new power to take action against householders for breaches of the duty of care. There is no duty on local authorities to enforce this requirement or to prosecute offenders. Therefore, the extent to which this new power is used will be a matter for individual local authorities based on their enforcement and prosecution policies, and the financial implications will vary accordingly.

As many local authorities have enforcement teams to deal with fly-tipping and other local environmental quality offences, there will be no additional cost as this is simply another power they can use to target offenders.
 
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Local authorities have been requesting this power for some time. They currently spent around £44 million from April 2004 to March 2005 on clearing fly-tipping, 55 per cent. of which was household waste. Enforcing the household waste duty of care will help to reduce illegal dumping and could lead to resource savings for authorities.

Landfill

Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the landfill requirement arising from the use of bottled water; and if she will make a statement. [27428]

Mr. Bradshaw: No specific assessment has been made by Defra of the landfill requirements arising from the use of bottled water. Both plastic and glass bottles are recyclable and there is no need to landfill them.
 
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Live Animal Exports

Sir Patrick Cormack: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to enforce the rules governing the export of live animals. [30814]

Mr. Bradshaw: Any live exports will be subject to the rigorous application of the health and welfare rules. Any evidence of non-compliance should be brought either to the attention of the relevant local authority or Defra so that it can be investigated.

Livestock Farmers (Levy)

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her response is to the recommendation of the Committee of Public Accounts, Ninth Report of 2005–06, HC563, page 5, that a levy on livestock farmers be introduced to pay for the cost of disease outbreaks. [29356]

Mr. Bradshaw: The introduction of a levy that enables livestock producers to share the risks of animal disease outbreaks is one of the options that will be examined under an industry/government partnership in the context of the soon to be published Farming Regulation and Charging Strategy.

Mobile Phones/Printer Cartridges

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) mobile phones and (b) printer cartridges she estimates were (i) recycled, (ii) reused overseas and (iii) disposed of within the United Kingdom waste stream in each year since 1990. [27888]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department does not collect recycling or reused information on mobile phones or printer cartridges.

Nappies

Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans her Department has to continue to fund campaigns to encourage the use of cloth nappies. [28633]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Waste and Resources Action Programme is running the re-usable nappy programme on behalf of Defra. Funding for this programme includes support for schemes encouraging the use of re-usable nappies.

The current funding with WRAP finishes the end of March 2006. We are currently in discussion with WRAP about their programmes, including the Real Nappy Work after this date.

Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment her Department has made of the environmental effects of the use of cloth nappies on maternity wards. [28634]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Life Cycle Analysis published in May this year by the Environment Agency stated that there was no overall environmental benefit in using either disposable or re-usable nappies.
 
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However, the use of re-usable nappies, including those from maternity wards, will help to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill and therefore contribute towards the meeting of targets to reduce such waste under the Landfill Directive.

Pet Fairs

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether she plans to bring forward a ban on pet fairs. [30489]

Mr. Bradshaw: We have been in contact with interested parties, both for and against the banning of pet fairs, in order to prepare proposals in relation to these events. We have now had an opportunity to consider the responses to this first consultation and our proposal to license pet fairs is detailed in a Regulatory impact Assessment which Defra published alongside the Animal Welfare Bill. We also intend to undertake a wider public consultation before any legislation in this area is finally introduced.

New measures to help prevent the spread of avian influenza have been agreed by the European Commission. Decision 2005/745/EC, adopted by the EU on 21 October, requires member states to ban birds at markets, shows, fairs and similar events. Domestic legislation bringing these measures into effect has been in force since Friday 28 October. The EU decision will be reviewed on 30 November.

Pigeons

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 15 November 2005, Official Report, column1067W, on pigeons, what criteria will be used in the die-off assessment to calculate response times; and what assessment she has made of the capacity of the State Veterinary Service to deal with carcase collection. [30754]

Mr. Bradshaw: A die-off involving more than three to four birds from the same species or five to six birds from different species will be referred, by the Defra helpline, to a laboratory specialist (during normal working hours) or to a veterinary officer from the State Veterinary Service (out of normal working hours). The decision as to whether carcases are required for examination is made during this second, more detailed assessment. The criteria to determine the time until collection will depend on factors including the scale of the die-off, other possible causal factors and the location of the carcases.

In order to enable the State Veterinary Service to make response times as short as practicable, all animal health offices have increased the number of staff on call out of hours by arranging for an additional Animal Health Officer to be available from each office out of hours specifically to carry out this work.

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 15 November 2005, Official Report, column 1067W, on pigeons, what discussions she has had with veterinary organisations on arrangements for carcase collection in the event of an outbreak; and what
 
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representations veterinary surgeons have made to her on the safety implications of transporting carcases to incineration sites. [30755]

Mr. Bradshaw: Plans for carcase collection and disposal are set out in Defra's Exotic Disease Generic Contingency Plan which was laid before Parliament in July 2005. The plan was issued for public consultation in February and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, British Veterinary Association and British Small Animal Veterinary Association were all formally consulted—a summary of responses is available on the Defra website.

The Department has developed stringent protocols and arrangements for the safe collection and transportation of carcases for off-site disposal which are based on veterinary risk assessments and build on the experiences of the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak. This includes the use of appropriately sealed and covered specialist vehicles which comply with the requirements of the EU Animal By-Products Regulation. All trucks are leak tested prior to use and all loads are escorted.

Private Sewers

Paddy Tipping: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions she has had with Ofwat on the cost models involved in the adoption of private sewers; which is the preferred model; when the process of adopting private sewers will begin; and if she will make a statement. [30865]

Mr. Morley: Following discussions with Defra, Ofwat has provided financial analysis for potential implementation options should ownership of private sewers and lateral drains be transferred to water and sewerage companies. The implementation options were decided on following discussions with key stakeholders.

The Government now expects to publish a decision on transfer in the new year and does not rule out further consultation on the options for implementation.
 
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