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Environment Agency
Dr. Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the Environment Agency's outstanding borrowing is under sections 48 to 50 of the Environment Act 1995; and how much of that borrowing is in relation to meeting obligations related to its navigation responsibilities. [86362]
Barry Gardiner: The Environment Agency has no outstanding borrowing. Its financial memorandum is very restrictive as to the circumstances under which its borrowing powers can be exercised and those powers have not been exercised. Therefore, there is no outstanding borrowing relating to the agency's navigation function.
Fisheries
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs why the Environment Agency has reduced the fish movement enforcement budget. [84680]
Mr. Bradshaw: The fisheries grant in aid was increased by £3 million a year from 2002, and since 1997 the Government have given around £60 million to the Environment Agency to support its fisheries activities. At present, every Government Department is under instructions to make efficiency savings. This generally involves a fundamental review of the work to be done, a reprioritisation of our responsibilities and how we manage them. Consequently, the Environment Agency GIA was reduced this year by £400,000.
Of the £5.8 million in GIA, £600,000 is spent on compliance checking and enforcement of fish movements. A reduction in GIA therefore necessitated a reduction in funding for work in this area by £150,000. If sales of rod licences are above target this year the agency may be able to make good part or all of this cut.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs why the Environment Agency has reduced funding for the salmonid improvement project. [84677]
Mr. Bradshaw: The fisheries grant in aid was increased by £3 million a year from 2002, and since 1997 the Government have given around £60 million to the Environment Agency to support its fisheries activities. At present every Government Department is under instructions to make efficiency savings. This generally involves a fundamental review of the work to be done, a reprioritisation of our responsibilities and how we manage them. As a result the Environment Agency has had its fisheries grant in aid (GIA) reduced this year by £400,000.
Consequently, since the majority of the £5.8 million GIA is spent on salmonid work a reduction in GIA necessitated a reduction in work in this area and the agency reduced its salmonid improvement project by half, to £250,000.
Recreational Boaters
Dr. Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which recreational users receive services provided by the Environment Agency on its inland and coastal waterways. [86361]
Barry Gardiner: In line with the Government's policies on health, recreation and social inclusion the Environment Agency has a duty to have regard for all recreational users.
Waste Incineration Directive
Mr.
Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what guidance he has issued to the
Environment Agency concerning
the enforcement of the Waste Incineration Directive in relation to the
burning of tallow; and if he will make a statement.
[86399]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 18 July 2006]: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on 13 July 2006, Official Report, column 1956W.
General guidance on the waste incineration directive's scope, regulatory and technical requirements was updated in June this year and is available at the following address:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/ppc/wasteincin/pdf/wid-guidance-edition3.pdf.
Water Companies
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the projected rate of return on capital allowed under agreed plans for 2005-10 with Ofwat is for each water company; and what rate of return on capital was achieved by each company in each of the last five years. [81090]
Ian Pearson: Ofwat publishes pre-tax rates of return—measured as operating profit as a percentage of regulatory capital value—in its annual report “Financial performance and expenditure of the water companies in England and Wales”. Post-tax returns have not previously been published. The figures in the table have been calculated as operating profit less current tax, as a percentage of regulatory capital value.
At the 2004 price review, Ofwat set a real terms post-tax return of 5.1 per cent. When comparing this to actual returns the comparable rate is the “Vanilla WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital)”. This is on a real basis and assumes a pre tax cost of debt and post tax cost of equity—on this basis the return that Ofwat set was 5.8 per cent.
Water only companies were allowed a premium on the return of 0.3—0.9 per cent.
At price limits, Ofwat takes companies’ particular levels of debt into account before allowing for tax.
| Post tax return | |||||
| Percentage | |||||
| 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | |
Solicitor-General
Departmental Publications
Mr. Amess: To ask the Solicitor-General if he will list in date order the (a) Green and (b) White Papers produced by the Law Officers’ Departments since October 2005. [81643]
The Solicitor-General: None.
Identity Theft
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Solicitor-General pursuant to the answer of 16 March 2006, Official Report, column 1602, on identity theft, what recent discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on the prosecution of cases of identity theft. [73782]
The Solicitor-General: I have had no recent discussions.
Trade and Industry
Carbon Capture
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what research he has commissioned on advanced coal technologies and carbon capture and storage since 1997; and what the cost was of such research. [85228]
Malcolm Wicks: The UK's Cleaner Coal Technology programme started in 1999. Under this programme we have supported 48 collaborative R and D projects on advanced coal technologies through four calls to the value of £13 million as well as a significant number of small R and D projects in collaboration with British Coal Utilisation Research Association for which some £150,000 per year was allocated. In all 174 Cleaner Coal projects have been supported to date, with an additional £3.5 million provided for collaborative Cleaner Coal Technology projects with the USA since then. Under the Department’s new Technology programme (the successor to the Cleaner Coal programme) £3.5 million was set aside for carbon abatement (including carbon capture and storage) R and D projects during 2005-06.
We published two reports produced internally investigating carbon capture and storage and the results of these can be found in “The Review of Carbon Capture and Storage in the UK” and “The Carbon Abatement Technology (CAT) Strategy for Fossil Fuel Use”, both of which can be found in the Libraries of the House. Both reports can also be found on the DTI Website at
http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/coal/cfft/co2capture/review.pdf
http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/coal/cfft/cct/pub/catreportlinked.pdf.
Coal Industry
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what opportunities will be available via the coal forum proposed in the Energy Review to discuss development and export opportunities for clean coal and carbon capture from coal-fired generation. [86420]
Malcolm Wicks: As stated in the “Energy Review Report” further information about the Forum’s remit and particulars will be announced shortly. We will need to take views on how the participants in the Coal Forum will wish to address the clean coal and CCS part of their remit.
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