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22 May 2006 : Column 1300W—continued
Gamebirds
Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) pheasants, (b) partridges and (c) ducks are being kept for (i) meat production, (ii) showing, (iii) breeding for shooting, (iv) rearing for shooting, (v) releasing for shooting and (vi) other purposes at premises listed in the Great Britain Poultry Register; and how many such premises there are, broken down by species kept. [70780]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is set out in the following table:
| Duck | Pheasant | Partridge | ||||
| Production type | Bird | Premise | Bird | Premise | Bird | Premise |
This information was produced using data from the Great Britain Poultry Register taken on 12 May 2006. All data are subject to change.
The GB Poultry Register allows people to register themselves as a commercial hatchery without necessarily indicating which species they hatch, hence the unknown category. It is also possible that premises may have registered themselves as having an incubator capacity but have not registered that they use this for commercial purposes.
The GB Poultry Register captures data under the Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (No. 2) Regulations 2005. Registration is mandatory for premises with 50 or more birds kept for commercial purposes. In addition, the register also includes voluntary registrations for non-commercial premises and those where fewer than 50 poultry are kept.
The completeness of the data is dependant on the level of compliance with the legislation as specified above. Owners are required to de-register if they no longer keep poultry.
Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many premises listed in the Great Britain Poultry Register in respect of the keeping of (a) pheasants and (b) partridges receive (i) live birds and (ii) eggs from outside Great Britain. [70782]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is set out in the following table:
| Species | Number of premises |
This information was produced using data from the Great Britain Poultry Register taken on 12 May 2006. All data are subject to change.
The Poultry Register combines the import of birds and eggs from outside GB into one single question.
The GB Poultry Register captures data under the Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (No. 2) Regulations 2005. Registration is mandatory for premises with 50 or more birds kept for commercial purposes. In addition, the register also includes voluntary registrations for non-commercial premises and those where fewer than 50 poultry are kept.
The completeness of the data is dependant on the level of compliance with the legislation as specified above. Owners are required to de-register if they no longer keep poultry.
Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many premises listed in the Great Britain Poultry Register in respect of the keeping of (a) pheasants and (b) partridges have a pond, lake or open reservoir within the boundary of the premises or next to the premises. [70783]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is set out in the following table:
| Species | Number |
| (1) No partridges. (2) No pheasants. |
This information was produced using data from the Great Britain Poultry Register taken on 12 May 2006. All data are subject to change.
The GB Poultry Register captures data under the Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (No. 2) Regulations 2005. Registration is mandatory for premises with 50 or more birds kept for commercial purposes. In addition, the register also includes voluntary registrations for non-commercial premises and those where fewer than 50 poultry are kept.
The completeness of the data is dependant on the level of compliance with the legislation as specified above. Owners are required to de-register if they no longer keep poultry.
Greenhouse Gases
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the greenhouse gas emissions are in carbon equivalent per kilometre of the most commonly used aircraft in the United Kingdom; what the carbon equivalent emissions per passenger kilometre would be in each case if the aircraft were fully loaded at its normal passenger capacity. [71326]
Ian Pearson: The Government are currently in discussion with our contractors to determine whether UK specific aircraft emissions data can be generated. The Department will communicate this information if it becomes available in due course.
The most recent related figures on aircraft emissions come from the DEFRA Guidelines for Reporting on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, published in July 2005. This is available at:
http://defraweb/environment/business/envrp/gas/envrpgas-annexes.pdf
These show that, averaged out, emissions of CO2 per passenger kilometre are 0.11 kg on a typical long haul flight. On a short haul flight the figure is 0.15 kg. Assumptions for a long haul flight refer to a 5,000 km journey on a typical 450-seat capacity aircraft, with a
70 per cent. load factor. Assumptions for a short haul flight refer to a 500 km journey on a typical 128-seat capacity aircraft, with a 65 per cent. load factor.
Harmful Gas Emissions
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the percentage change was in (a) carbon dioxide and (b) other harmful gases arising from energy efficiency measures taken in each of the last 30 years; and what the planned reduction in harmful gas emission through energy efficiency measures is over the next 10 years. [68031]
Ian Pearson: In relation to carbon dioxide, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 8 February 2006, Official Report, column 1282W. This refers to an exercise carried out for the household sector, depicting carbon changed for the period 1970 to 2001. Copies of this report are held in the Library.
With reference to other harmful gases, emissions of air pollutants are estimated in the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. These data are available from the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory website:
http://www.naei.org.uk./
Future targets for energy efficiency are focused on 2010. The 2006 UK Climate Change Programme sets out how energy efficiency will save 10.2 million tonnes of carbon (MtC) per year by that date, with savings split between the business sector (5.1 MtC), the household sector (4.8MtC), and the public sector (0.3MtC).
In addition, the 2004 Energy Efficiency Action Plan includes a residential energy efficiency aim (as required by the Sustainable Energy Act 2003) to save 3.5 MtC from homes in England by 2010 through energy efficiency measures.
Home Working
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people in his Department have been enabled to work from home in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [67980]
Barry Gardiner: The Department currently has 2,000 registered users for dial-up network access and 1,000 registered users for network access via broadband. Of these, about 300 are registered for both, so the total is about 2,700 staff who are currently enabled to work from home.
We do not have historical data for previous years, nor are specific data held on the precise extent of home working.
Migrant Labour (Farms)
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent estimate he has made of the number of farmers whose profitability is dependent on migrant labour. [69778]
Barry Gardiner: The Government do recognise that migrant workers have a role to play in meeting the agricultural sector's need for labour, and temporary and seasonal labour in particular. The current Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme has existed to meet this need. However, the scheme is being phased out in 2010 given the availability of labour from the new member states of the EU.
Research commissioned by the Home Office into the use by employers of migrant labour(1) indicates that migrant workers have become an important source of labour, particularly in agriculture and the hospitality sector. Some of the employers interviewed as part of this research said that their businesses would suffer or could not survive without migrant labour.
The summary report of this research can be viewed on the Home Office's website at the following address: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/rdsolr0306.pdf
(1) Employers Use of Migrant Labour, Institute for Employment Studies—March 2006.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many meetings his Department has had in the last three years in which he or his predecessors discussed with the National Farmers' Union (a) extending and (b) speeding up the process for migrant work permits. [69781]
Barry Gardiner: DEFRA Ministers have not specifically discussed extending and speeding up the process for work permits for migrant workers at any of their meetings with the NFU in the past three years.
However, Ministers have attended meetings with the NFU and other stakeholder organisations in recent years at which the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) was discussed. SAWS is a long-standing quota-based scheme which operates outside the normal work permit rules. The scheme allows students from non-EU countries to take up agricultural work in the UK without the need to obtain a work permit for periods of up to six months.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the contribution of migrant workers to the rural economy in 2005. [69805]
Barry Gardiner: My Department does not hold this information.
Research commissioned by the Home Office into the use of migrant labour(1) by employers indicates that migrant workers have become an important source of labour, particularly in agriculture and the hospitality sector. This is supported by research commissioned by DEFRA in 2005 to inform the implementation of the Gangmasters (Licensing Act) 2004(2). This research suggests that in the food manufacturing industry, which represents an important part of the rural economy, some 90 per cent. of agency workers are migrants.
In addition a recent study published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation(3) shows that employers are successfully recruiting migrant workers to take up jobs which traditionally have been hard to fill in the agriculture, construction and hospitality industries.
Employers said that they value migrant workers for their reliability and strong work ethic. There is much anecdotal evidence from SAWS (seasonal agricultural workers) operators that migrant workers have a positive effect on the local economy in their use of local services such as shops, banks, etc.
(1) Employers Use of Migrant Labour, Institute for Employment Studies—March 2006.
(2) Secondary Processing in Food Manufacture and Use of Gang Labour, Precision Prospecting—2005.
(3) Fair enough? Central and East European migrants in low-wage employment in the UK, Joseph Rowntree Foundation—May 2005.
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