| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
16 Jan 2006 : Column 911W—continued
Waste Management
Ms Gisela Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will exclude tallow from the waste incineration directive. [41304]
Mr. Bradshaw: If the tallow concerned is waste as defined by the waste framework directive, it does not lie within the competence of any member state of the European Union unilaterally to exclude its incineration or co-incineration from the scope of the waste incineration directive.
Mr. Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the merits of household charges for waste collection as a method of increasing participation in recycling. [40465]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department's work on variable household charging and household incentives for wasterecycling and reduction is based on the body of existing, publicly available, research, supplemented by investigation into specific examples of such activity and by specially commissioned research and pilot schemes on household incentives in England.
Mr. Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she will be taking to ensure (a) packaging producers and (b) compliance schemes contribute appropriately to meeting UK packaging waste recycling targets each year. [40469]
Mr. Bradshaw: Packaging producers already have legal obligations under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2005 to recover and recycle specified tonnages of packaging waste each year based on the amount of packaging that goes through their business. A producer will be committing an offence if he fails to discharge his obligations under these regulations. However, producers may join compliance schemes, which take on the producers' legal obligations to recover and recycle packaging waste.
Water Consumption
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the changes have been in water consumption since 1980, broken down by sewerage company service areas. [38972]
Mr. Morley:
The earliest figures we hold for average household water consumption are for 1995–96. The following table shows water company estimates of average daily household consumption in litres per head per day for 1995–96 and 2004–05. Further details are contained in the Ofwat 'Security of supply, leakage and the efficient use of water' report, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.
16 Jan 2006 : Column 912W
Whaling (Japan)
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps have been taken to ensure that Japan is aware of the UK's views on its increased scientific whaling within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary; and if she will make a statement. [41470]
Mr. Bradshaw: The UK Government, in common with those of a majority of International Whaling Commission (IWC) members, has regularly criticised Japanese scientific whaling programmes in both the North Pacific (JARPN) and the Southern Ocean (JARPA) as being of little scientific value and urged Japan to terminate them forthwith.
Prior to last year's annual meeting of the IWC (IWC57), the UK participated in an Australian led demarche of 18 countries objecting to Japan's proposed expansion of JARPA. This drew attention to a draft IWC Resolution Proposed by Australia and co-sponsored by the UK, which was subsequently adopted during IWC57; this resolution urges the Government of Japan to revise its JARPA II scientific whaling programme so that any information needed to meet scientific objectives is obtained using non-lethal means.
I issued a press notice on 11 November urging Japan not to proceed with their JARPA II programme. The statement condemned the Japanese plans in the Antarctic stating that
Later this month the UK and a number of other countries will take high level diplomatic action in Tokyo protesting in the strongest possible terms our objection to the continuation of their whaling activities.
16 Jan 2006 : Column 913W
Wildlife Rescue Centres
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what support herDepartment makes available to wildlife rescue centres. [41516]
Jim Knight: Defra does not fund individual wildlife rescue centres.
HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION
Archiving
Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission (1) if the Commission will take steps to establish a searchable archive on the parliamentary (a) intranet and (b) internet of the (i) meetings of (A)Standing Committees and (B) Select Committees and (ii) Sittings of the House that were webcast in each of the last three sessions of Parliament; and if he will make a statement; [41732]
(2) if he will list the meetings of (a) standing and (b) Select Committees that were webcast in the last session of Parliament for which information is available. [41766]
Nick Harvey: Since January 2004 the webcasting service has provided audio-coverage of all Select and Standing Committee meetings which are not televised but which are being held in public, as well as of televised meetings. Ignoring the period between the general election and the summer recess, an average of 26 Commons Committees, five Lords Committees and two Joint Committees have been webcast each week in the current session. Of these, an average of 10 Commons Committees and one Lords Committee are webcast as television"; the rest are webcast as audio. A full list could be compiled only at disproportionate expense.
www.parliamentlive.tv offers an online, on-demand searchable archive of coverage of all meetings which have been webcast" over the internet and intranet for two weeks following transmission. Webcast committee coverage which has been televised is then held by the Parliamentary Recording Unit indefinitely and can be made available on request in a number of modern formats, including online. The business case currently being prepared for a radical redesign of the parliamentary website will include options for improvements to the accessibility of audio and video material.
Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission (1)what restrictions apply to (a) individuals and (b) pressure groups and other organisations e-mailing hon. Members at their parliamentary e-mail accounts; and if he will make a statement; [41638]
(2) whether the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (SI 2426) will apply to pressure groups wishing to e-mail all hon. Members at their parliamentary e-mail accounts; and if he will make a statement. [41639]
16 Jan 2006 : Column 914W
Nick Harvey: PICT delete all known SPAM e-mail" from incoming messages and known scams" directed at Members. No attempt is made to filter e-mail beyond this. Members can make local arrangements to identify and block known senders of unwanted e-mail on an individual basis.
The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 prohibit use of unsolicited electronic mail for the purposes of direct marketing, except when it is with the recipient's consent. The remedies for those in receipt of such electronic mail are set out in the regulations.
Medical Facilities
Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for NorthDevon, representing the House of Commons Commission what medical facilities are available in the Palace of Westminster for (a) hon. Members' staff, (b) hon. Members and (c) visitors to the Palace; and if he will make a statement. [41733]
Nick Harvey: Within the Palace of Westminster itself, a practice nurse is available from 9 am to 5 pm at the medical suite located in the lower waiting hall, offering health advice and a minor treatment service. These services are available to all passholders. The practice nurse also assists with medical emergencies and cases of ill health whether they involve passholders or visitors to the Palace.
There are approximately 180 qualified first aiders across the parliamentary estate (including security personnel and staff from both Houses), of whom around 80 are trained defibrillator operators. Appropriately trained staff have access to an Epipen for emergency use in cases of anaphylactic shock.
The parliamentary Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Service (OHSWS) offers a range of services, including medical screening for Members. Further details can be found on the parliamentary intranet at http://dfaweb.parliament.uk/members/medservs/medical. htm.Information, brochures and leaflets are available from OHSWS and information packs were distributed to all Members and Peers following the 2005 summer recess.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |