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Written Answers to Questions
Wednesday 11 January 2006
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Administrative Savings
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what administrative savings have been made by her Department in each of the last eight years. [34950]
Jim Knight: Information on gross and net controlled administration costs underspends for Whitehall Departments is published in the Public Expenditure Outturn White Papers for the relevant years. These are available in the Library of the House.
DEFRA has also agreed efficiency targets, financial and staff, for the Spending Review 2004 period. These are set out in the Efficiency Technical Note which was published on DEFRA's website on 5 December 2005. It can be found at:
Apiculture
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the effect on the UK honey bee population of the reduction in the National Bee Unit's budget. [39411]
Jim Knight: The Department has not reduced its expenditure with the National Bee Unit.
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many seasonal bee inspectors she expects to be employed by her Department in (a) January 2006 and (b) January 2007. [39412]
Jim Knight: Bee inspectors are employed by the National Bee Unit, which is part of the Central Science Laboratory, a Defra agency. The Unit expects to employ 28 seasonal bee inspectors in England in 2006 and 2007, unchanged from the number employed during 2005.
Bottom Ash Incinerator
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will publish the risk assessment carried out by the Environment Agency in relation to the use of Incinerator Bottom Ash in the Tesco construction site at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire; and if she will make a statement. [38939]
Mr. Bradshaw
[holding answer 20 December 2005]: Incinerator bottom ash aggregates were being used as a secondary construction material in the Tesco construction site of Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire under an exemption from waste management licensing. The Environment Agency does not normally carry out
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a risk assessment itself on exempted activities as they are considered low risk, but does check whether the information provided by the operators of the activity meets the terms and conditions of the exemption.
Jacksons Civil Engineering Ltd. notified the Environment Agency of the use of this material in construction of the Tesco site, Gerrards Cross, as an exempt activity under the Regulations. The notification included a risk assessment provided by the producers of the aggregate. In accordance with Environment Agency policy, this document has been placed on the public register at their Hatfield Office (North East Area Office, Apollo Court, 2 Bishops Square Business Park, St. Albans Road West, Hatfield, Hertfordshire. AL109EX).
Climate Change
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which bodies are funded by her Department which are concerned with climate change; and how much funding these bodies received in 2003–04. [39724]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 10 January 2006]: The two key bodies funded by Defra to combat climate change are the Energy Saving Trust and the Carbon Trust. Total expenditure in 2003–04 by the Department on the Carbon Trust was £52.4 million and on Energy Saving Trust £29.8 million (including the Community Energy Programme).
The Department also funds a number of research contracts relating to climate change. The total value of these in 2003–04 was £13.5 million. These include around £9.9 million for the Hadley Centre (part of the Meterological Office) and around £0.6 million funding to Oxford University for the UK Climate Impacts Programme.
In addition the Environment Agency contributes to mitigation of greenhouse gases through its regulation of emissions and to society's adaptation to the impacts of climate change, notably by flood risk management. However, it is not possible to assess the proportion of the Agency's £1 billion per annum budget (60 per cent. of which is funded by Grant-in-Aid from Defra) that can specifically be attributed to climate change work.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much funding the Government spent in 2003–04 on climate change adaption. [39725]
Mr. Morley [holding answer 10 January 2006]: The Government has no specific overall budget for adaptation to climate change. In many fields, adaptation to climate change is in its early stages and in general would be an incremental element of existing programmes. No detailed assessment has been made of the scale of this additional work.
The Department is currently consulting on the development of the Government's Adaptation Policy Framework, an exercise that includes collation of a database of policies, measures and programmes that are already taking account of adaptation requirements. The results of this consultation exercise will be reported later in 2006.
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The answer given on 3 March 2005, Official Report, column 1275W, detailed the Department's spending in 2003–04 on research into the impacts of climate change and the identification of adaptation and mitigation options.
Departmental Costs
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) salary bill was and (b) administrative costs were for her Department in (i) each (A) nation and (B) region of the UK and (ii) London in 2004–05. [35878]
Jim Knight: The administration budgets regime overseen by the Treasury relates to Whitehall Departments only. How administration costs are controlled in the devolved Administrations is a matter for them. We do not monitor regional or central London administration costs separately.
The most recent Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper (CMD 6639) records provisional 2004–05 departmental administration costs outturn. The DEFRA departmental report contains the estimated 2004–05 pay bill outturn.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much was spent on advertising by (a) her Department, (b) each (i) non-departmental public body and (ii) executive agency for which her Department is responsible and (c) each independent statutory body, organisation and body financially sponsored by her Department in each year since May 1997. [39076]
Jim Knight: The Department does not maintain separate records of its expenditure for advertising. The expenditure for publicity by Defra's Communications Directorate includes marketing, advertising, publications, events, shows and direct mailings and is recorded for the financial years since Defra's creation in June 2001 as follows:
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 6.6 |
| 2002–03 | 4.7 |
| 2003–04 | 2.5 |
| 2004–05 | 4.2 |
This includes communications on a wide range of matters, much of it necessary or beneficial to the public and the wide range of industries in which Defra has an interest, together with local government, voluntary organisations and other bodies.
Individual records of advertising spend for Defra's NDPBs, agencies and financially sponsored organisations are not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many widescreen televisions have been purchased by her Department for use in London Headquarters in each of the last five years; and what the cost was in each year. [39138]
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Jim Knight: The following table summarises the Department's rounded expenditure on widescreen televisions across the London headquarters estate since the beginning of the financial year 2001–02.
| Quantity | Cost (£) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | — | — |
| 2002–03 | — | — |
| 2003–04 | 1 | 1,400 |
| 2004–05 | 7 | 10,900 |
| 2005–06 | 15 | 22,520 |
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