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Genetically Modified Organisms
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans he has to assess the way in which genetically modified organisms are regulated; and if he will examine the current operation of the Advisory Committee on Releases into the Environment. [83268]
Ian Pearson: The European Commission has recently undertaken reviews of the main pieces of EU legislation concerning the deliberate release of genetically modified organisms. The Government will take note of the results of these reviews.
We are, at present, satisfied with the way that the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) operates. ACRE is included in a general review being undertaken by Defra of its non-executive bodies.
Mobile Telephones
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the impact on the environment of the regular recharging of mobile telephones. [81863]
Ian Pearson: Defra’s Market Transformation Programme (MTP) estimates that in 2005 there were nearly 140 million external power supplies of the type used to charge mobile technology such as telephones and digital music players in use in the UK.
Because the power consumed by external power supplies when charging appliances varies significantly with the type and size of appliance and the degree to which the appliance connected to it is already charged no reliable information is available on the impact on the environment of the regular recharging of mobile phones.
However, the MTP has calculated that external power supplies use around 3.4Twh annually while they remain plugged in but not connected to an appliance or when the appliance has reached full-charge. Of this total approximately 1.6Twh is estimated to be attributed to mobile phone chargers.
Encouragingly,
all of the major suppliers of mobile phones are signatories of the
European Commission’s Code of Conduct for the Energy Performance
of External Power Supplies which sets a voluntary commitment on
manufacturers to supply chargers which meet a minimum level of
performance in both standby and charge modes. Aside from a small
percentage of older mobile phones (sold before the Code of Conduct was
established) the
large majority of mobile phones are now supplied with chargers which
consume 1W or under while in standby or a no-load condition. In time
this will reduce the total UK standby consumption of mobile phones by
over 50 per cent.
Payment Schemes
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in how many cases claimants have disputed the full or interim Single Farm Payments made to them since April 2005. [76606]
Barry Gardiner: The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) operates a formal appeal procedure to deal with appeals from customers about decisions reached by RPA which affect the amount of payment that they receive. To date 112 SPS related appeals have been received since payments began. In addition, the appeal procedure has dealt with 181 appeals against the Moorland Line and 280 appeals against the historic element of the SPS prior to payments being made.
RPA does not currently have separate data on the number of cases where the claimant has disputed a payment made under the 2005 Single Payment Scheme outside of the formal appeals procedure.
Pollution
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much carbon dioxide was released into the air by British industries in each of the last five years. [82820]
Ian Pearson: The following table shows carbon dioxide emissions in megatonnes released by British industries from 2000 to 2004. Data for 2005 is not yet available. An average annual amount of CO2 emissions of 307.60804 megatonnes was released over five years.
| Megatonne | |
Road Transport Emissions
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs by what percentage carbon emissions from road transport have changed in each of the past nine years. [82344]
Ian Pearson: The following table shows changes in carbon dioxide emissions from road transport from 1997 to 2004. Data for 2005 are not yet available.
| Total emissions in carbon kilotonnes | Percentage change between years | Percentage change from base line year (1990) | |
Single Farm Payments
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he has taken to prevent late application penalties being handed down to farmers who have not yet received their single farm payment scheme application forms. [76177]
Barry Gardiner: An EU Regulation has been adopted which provides for all 2006 SPS claims to be accepted without penalty until 15 June. This extra time above and beyond the extension to 31 May will mean that around 4,000 farmers will not now be penalised.
Applications will be accepted by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) until 10 July. However a penalty of 1 per cent. per working day will be applied to applications received between 16 June and 10 July.
Application forms may be obtained from the RPA website, www.rpa.gov.uk: RPA Drop in Centres or by telephoning the RPA Customer Service Centre on 0845 603 7777.
Water Companies
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the likely (a) environmental and (b) economic impact on (i) South West London and (ii) London of Thames Water’s failure to meet its leakage reduction target. [81014]
Ian Pearson: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to my hon. Friend for West Ham (Lyn Brown) on 29 June 2006, Official Report, column 560W.
International Development
Afghanistan
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many officials from his Department are based in each province in Afghanistan, broken down by job function. [82733]
Hilary Benn: DFID has 16 UK officials currently based in Afghanistan. 14 are based in Kabul, one in Badakhshan and one in Helmand. These are listed in the following table and are broken down by job function.
One additional post in Kabul (Economist) and one in Kandahar (Development Adviser) are vacant. Two additional official positions will move from London to Kabul in the next three months (Governance Adviser and Economist). This makes a total planned complement of 20 staff in Afghanistan. The DFID Afghanistan team also has UK officials in London, and Afghan staff in Kabul, and staff from Kabul travel regularly to other provinces (notably Helmand) to support the team there.
The Post Conflict Reconstruction Unit, for which DFID has accounting responsibility, has deployed four UK officials to Helmand at various times in advance of the arrival of other departments' staff, and has two officials based in Kabul as part of the Strategic Delivery Unit.
DFID officials currently based in Afghanistan are as follows:
| Job title | Location |
Transition Manager (to be replaced as Deputy Office Manager) | |
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many farmers have been offered grants to grow alternative crops to poppies in Afghanistan; and how much was paid to those farmers in (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06. [83283]
Hilary Benn: DFID has not paid any grants directly to farmers to grow alternative crops to opium poppies in Afghanistan in 2004-05 and 20050-6. However, DFID does provide support to farmers, through programme and project support. Benefits to farmers from this support include training in new farming techniques, the introduction of alternative crops and identifying potential markets for these crops, distribution of seeds and fertilizer, and support to improve animal health and husbandry.
In recognition of the need to increase the opportunities for farmers to move way from poppy cultivation, DFID has increased its funding for alternative livelihoods from £13 million in financial year 2004-05 to £45 million in 2005-06.
At the same time as developing agricultural opportunities, DFID is also promoting the development of non-farm alternative livelihoods by supporting national programmes of the Government of Afghanistan which are helping to increase access to credit and improve infrastructure for farmers to transport their produce to markets.
Carbon Emissions
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent estimate he has made of the carbon emissions of his Department; what commitment he has made to reducing such emissions; and if he will make a statement. [81056]
Mr. Thomas: Estimated carbon emissions from DFID operational activities:
| Tonnes of carbon from UK buildings | Tonnes of carbon from air travel | |
DFID is strongly committed to the targets set out in the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate to reverse the current upward trend in carbon emissions by April 2007 and to reduce emissions by 12.5 per cent. by 2010-11, and by 30 per cent. by 2020.
During the refurbishment of both our UK buildings, we incorporated many energy saving mechanisms and have established Environment Management Systems in both offices. We have 100 per cent. green electricity at both UK offices and we are also currently working with the Carbon Trust to evaluate various options for renewable energy such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units. To reduce emissions from air travel we have significantly increased our video-conferencing facilities and actively encourage staff to use them.
Child Educational Development
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what funding the UK gives developing countries for child educational development. [84475]
Mr. Thomas: The Government will spend approximately £8.5 billion over the next 10 years. By 2010, we will be providing £1 billion a year in support of education in developing countries. This long-term commitment will provide poor country governments with predictable funding against which they can prepare ambitious 10-year education sector plans to achieve the education goals. Our support will help in the development and implementation of 10-year plans, which will increase investment in schools, including recruiting and training more teachers, getting more pupils into and completing school and improving the quality of education.
Clean Water
David Tredinnick: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps he is taking to improve access to clean water and sanitation in the developing world. [82720]
Hilary
Benn: Our approach is to help developing country
governments to implement their own plans for provision of water and
sanitation, both by direct
financing and providing technical know-how. We are
also taking steps to make the international system, particularly the
UN, more effective, through our support to UN-Water, and to the Joint
Monitoring Programme, which measures global progress towards access to
safe water and basic
sanitation.
The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe water by 2015 is on track to be met globally, but not in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. DFID is committed to doubling spending on water in Africa to £95 million by 2008. We are now actively involved in seven African countries (Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia), up from only two years ago; and through oar funding of other agencies' programmes, we reach many other countries. For example, the EU plans to provide 10 million people with access to water and a further five million to sanitation by 2010 through projects it has recently approved through the Water Facility.
DFID's Water and Sanitation strategy was set out in the 2004 Water Action Plan. I reinforced DFID's commitment to doing more during my speeches on World Water Day in March 2005, and at DFID's External Water Forum in February 2006. DFID closely monitors progress in water and sanitation and publishes regular updates on the DFID website. The latest update can be accessed on DFID's website address at:
www.dfid.gov.uk
Debt Cancellation
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many African countries’ debts have been cancelled in the last five years. [83120]
Hilary Benn: Since 2001, 14 African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia) have received debt stock cancellation under the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative. Another African country, Uganda, received debt stock cancellation under HIPC in 2000. All 15 of these countries have had 100 per cent. of their remaining debt stock at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank cancelled this year under the new Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). When they completed the HIPC Initiative, all these countries also received 100 per cent. cancellation of any bilateral (government to government) debts outstanding to the UK.
A further 10 African countries are currently receiving interim debt relief under HIPC, and will receive 100 per cent. debt stock cancellation under the MDRI and on bilateral debts from the UK when they complete the HIPC Initiative.
Nigeria
has also received considerable debt stock cancellation in the past year
as part of the deal agreed with its Paris Club (government) creditors
to resolve 100 per cent. of its debts. Overall, US$18 billion of
debt stock was cancelled under the deal, and Nigeria bought back the
remaining debt for $12.4
billion.
Prior to 2001, the UK also cancelled the bilateral aid debts of low income African countries.
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