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ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Animal Welfare

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will introduce measures to prohibit the (a) import, (b) export and (c) re-export of (i) primates and (ii) marine mammals; and if she will make a statement. [58311]

Jim Knight: The import, export and re-export of primates and most marine mammals, including all whales and dolphins, monk seals, fur seals, sea otters, and Canadian populations of walrus, is already strictly regulated under Council Regulation 338/97, which
 
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implements the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) within the EU. Imports of harp and hood seal pup skins are also prohibited under the Import of Seal Skins Regulations 1996.

These controls already give us adequate powers to suspend trade in primates and most marine mammals if necessary. However, our scientific advisors, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, do not consider that there are any conservation grounds for taking such action at this time.

Bird Protection

Ms Angela C. Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will consult on adding the (a) peregrine falcon, (b) barn owl, (c) common raven and (d) red-billed chough to the schedule of species whose nests will be protected throughout the year. [57156]

Jim Knight: Clause 46 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill seeks to amend section 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as it applies within England and Wales. This would provide year-round protection for birds which re-use their nests, and which are listed on schedule ZA1. The schedule lists the Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, and Osprey and there are no current plans to include additional birds. Should evidence come to light that other birds would benefit from being listed, a full public consultation would need to take place before any decision was taken.

Under section 1 of the 1981 Act all wild birds are protected against being killed, injured or taken, and their nests and eggs are protected against being taken, damaged or destroyed. In addition, peregrine falcons, barn owls and red-billed choughs, are protected against disturbance during their breeding season by virtue of being listed on schedule 1. There are signs that the populations of these three species are slowly increasing within the UK, and the current level of protection is therefore considered sufficient to ensure their continued breeding success. The raven is not listed as a bird of conservation concern.

Cattle Passports

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether applications for registration of cattle passports are recorded by (a) date of dispatch by the applicant, (b) postal receipt by the British Cattle Movement Service and (c) date of processing; and if she will make a statement. [56043]

Jim Knight: An application for the registration of a cattle passport is recorded by the date that it is received at the British Cattle Movement Service.

A keeper has 27 days to apply for a cattle passport. Any applications that are received after this deadline will automatically be refused, but the keeper has the option to appeal against this decision. If an applicant wishes to appeal on the grounds that the postal service caused the application to be late, they will be required to provide independent evidence that they posted the application in good time.
 
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John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the effect of postal delays on the late delivery of cattle passport applications to the British Cattle Movement Service; and if she will make a statement. [56044]

Jim Knight: The British Cattle Movement Service is aware that there is the potential for late delivery of cattle passport applications and have procedures in place to account for this.

Every year a plan is put in place to take into account the Christmas, Easter and bank holidays, as well as weekends. Receipt dates are also reviewed if there is a possibility of a postal strike, or any other industrial action which may impact the day when cattle passport applications are received. During these periods the scanning system is amended to show the last available working day as the receipt date.

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will instruct the British Cattle Movement Service, when accepting applications for cattle passports, to retain on file both the application and envelope which carries the date of posting of the relevant application. [56045]

Jim Knight: Applications for cattle passports are captured onto the cattle tracing system (CTS) on the day they are received. These are then retained as a scanned image for future reference.

The British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) receives large volumes of paper applications on a daily basis, which at its peak can reach 30,000 per day. BCMS recently conducted a survey on the quality of the post marks on the envelopes and found that only 37 per cent. were legible. Owing to this information the option to retain the envelopes as evidence of the date of postage was not seen as viable.

BCMS recommends to keepers who are concerned about the postal system to obtain a certificate of postage which are issued free by the Royal Mail.

Promotions regularly take place highlighting the benefits of using CTS Web Services and CTS Online. Both of these enable keepers to apply for passports and receive a receipt confirming that the application or movement notifications have been received.

Cetaceans

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment she has made of measures funded by her Department to monitor the (a) scale and (b) nature of cetacean strandings on the (i) Cornish and (ii) South West England coasts during (A) the present winter fishery and (B) the previous five years. [56150]

Mr. Bradshaw: The winter fishery off the south west coast of England typically takes place any time between 1 November and 30 April. From 1 November 2005 to 7 March 2006, there have been 101 reports of stranded cetaceans in Cornwall and 13 cetaceans reported stranded in Devon and Dorset. A total of 42 post mortems were undertaken and, of these, the cause of death in 14 cases was determined as bycatch. The
 
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remaining 28 cases were determined either as physical trauma, infectious disease, live stranding, starvation or other undiagnosed causes.

Table 1 gives a breakdown by species of the number of cetaceans stranded and the number that were diagnosed as bycaught for the present winter fisheries season.

	Cornwall	Devon/Dorset	Total number diagnosed to be bycaught
Dolphins (all species)	77	11	6
Harbour Porpoise	24	2	8
Total	101	13	14

Table 2 gives a breakdown of recorded strandings by species and the number which were bycaught for the previous five years by county. A total of 257 post mortems were carried out over the five years. The cause of death in 135 cases was determined as bycatch, and the remaining 122 cases were determined either as physical trauma, infectious disease, live stranding, starvation or other undiagnosed causes.

	Dolphins		Harbour Porpoise
	Cornwall	Devon/Dorset	Cornwall	Devon/Dorset	Total number diagnosed to be bycaught
2000–01	43	38	15	17	27
2001–02	84	50	58	8	30
2002–03	177	99	33	12	28
2003–04	106	69	104	12	32
2004–05	59	28	29	13	18

Correspondence

Sir Patrick Cormack: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she will reply to the letter of 8 October 2005 from the hon. Member for South Staffordshire regarding the waste composting site at Iverley Park Farm, which was transferred by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in November 2005. [48911]

Mr. Bradshaw: I apologise for the delay in replying to the hon. Member's letter. A response will be issued shortly.

ENCAMS

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much funding her Department has provided to ENCAMS in each year since 1997. [57056]

Mr. Bradshaw: Government have provided ENCAMS with funding since 1997 as detailed in the following table.

	£000
1997–98	3,997
1998–99	3,697
1999–2000	3,762
2000–01	3,542
2001–02	3,762
2002–03	(3)4,597
2003–04	3,574
2004–05	4,542
2005–06	5,542

⁽³⁾ Defra allocated an additional £1 million to local authorities through ENCAMS for the Local Environmental Quality Pathfinder Programme that forged partnerships between local authorities and the local community. Some of the projects developed reduced fast food litter, railway land litter and schools litter.



 
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