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25 July 2006 : Column 1508W—continued
Defra is also responsible for an additional six public bodies that are currently dormant and do not, therefore have any appointees.
Details of the value of pensions and any contributions made by the public bodies are available in their respective annual report and accounts.
Defra was established in 2001 and therefore there is no equivalent information for 1996, 1986 or 1976.
Recycling
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which 20 local councils recycled the greatest quantity of one or more recyclable materials in 2005-06. [88904]
Mr. Bradshaw: Data on local authority recycling and composting performances in 2005-06 are not currently available. Figures will be published when we have completed the validation and auditing procedures. Best value performance indicator data for 2004-05 are available from the Defra website at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/localauth/perf_mgmt.htm.
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people in (a) England, (b) Middlesbrough and (c) the borough of Redcar and Cleveland have been (i) issued with a fixed penalty notice under section 47ZA and (ii) prosecuted under section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for failing to meet their local authority's recycling requirements. [87965]
Mr. Bradshaw: Section 47ZA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA), as inserted by section 48 of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005, allows authorised officers to issue a £100 fixed penalty notice (FPN) to any householder not complying with a notice issued under section 46-47 of the EPA.
Local authorities can also prosecute householders for breaches of section 46 of the EPA. This offence carries a maximum fine of £1,000.
The powers exist to help ensure publicised collection arrangements are followed and waste is not left out on the wrong day, at the wrong time or in the wrong receptacle—including those designated for recyclables.
The FPN powers have been in force since 6 April 2006. Data for the number of people issued with an FPN, under the amended EPA are not yet available. Data on prosecutions taken since the amendments, under section 46, will be available in 2007.
Rural Payments Agency
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the overruns in the budget allocation for farming, food and rural affairs in 2006-07 following the problems at the Rural Payments Agency. [88917]
Ian Pearson: DEFRA is committed to living within its overall budget for 2006-07 as voted by Parliament. As a fundamental action in managing the annual budget the Department periodically reviews its internal allocations to ensure that priorities and pressures receive adequate budgetary cover.
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the Secretary of State has suggested to the Treasury that overruns resulting from problems at the Rural Payments Agency should be met from the Government’s overall contingency reserve. [88919]
Ian Pearson: DEFRA is committed to staying within its budget for 2006-07. It is not anticipated that we need to approach HM Treasury for help with our ability to manage the annual budget.
Security Passes
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many security passes have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen by staff in his Department in each year since February 2004. [88556]
Ian Pearson: The following table shows passes lost and stolen from core DEFRA and its agencies since 2004. Figures for 2006 are from 1 January to date.
| Lost | Stolen | |
Ship Breaking
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what targets he has set for the number of authorised ship-breaking facilities to be established in the UK; and if he will make a statement. [88624]
Ian Pearson: On 30 March, Defra launched a consultation to enable interested individuals and organisations to provide views on the Government’s draft UK Ship Recycling Strategy. The deadline for responses was 22 June.
The draft strategy does not set a target for the number of ship breaking facilities in the UK, as the establishment of such facilities is a matter for commercial decision. Nevertheless, the Government’s strategy proposes a number of areas of action at the domestic level to assist in the expansion of ship recycling capacity, primarily through the provision of guidance. Further information is available on the Defra website at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/ strategy/ship.htm.
Smog
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what assessment he has made of the major causes of smog in London; and what plans the Government have to reduce them; [88177]
(2) what Government targets his Department has set for smog levels in (a) London and (b) England. [88179]
Mr. Bradshaw: Hot, sunny weather, together with contributions from continental Europe carrying the substances which form ground-level ozone, can produce summer smog in London. Ground-level ozone is formed when sunlight acts on nitrogen dioxide and other atmospheric substances close to the ground. The pollutants that cause ground-level ozone come from a range of sources, including petrol and other fuels.
Ozone is a transboundary pollutant (around 50 per cent. of ozone-forming chemicals in the UK originate from continental Europe). It can only be reduced through national and international measures to reduce emissions from the source pollutants. Through international co-operation, the peak levels of ozone have been reduced due to control measures taken in the UK and its European partners. While still a feature of hot sunny weather, the peak levels seen in 2003 were typically less than half those seen in 1976.
New measures announced in recent years will improve this further by cutting ozone-forming chemicals in solvents and decorative paint across the whole of Europe. We are also pushing for greater EU controls on cars.
We have consulted on measures for Petrol Vapour Recovery stage II (PVR II) which will also help by reducing emissions of ozone-forming chemicals. The proposal is that PVR II would, by 1 January 2010, be required to be installed at: (i) all existing service stations with an annual petrol throughput of greater than 3500m(3), and; (ii) all new service stations with an annual petrol throughput greater than 500m(3).
The Air Quality Strategy for England was recently reviewed to find potential new measures to generate health benefits, and the consultation responses are now being considered. The possible package of measures would reduce the average exposure to air pollutants for everyone, and, if implemented, could see an increase in life-expectancy of three months by 2020.
There are a number of targets for ozone which apply to the whole of the UK, including London. The EU Air Quality Daughter Directive on ozone (2002/3/EC) set a number of target values and long-term objectives for ozone; these are set out in the following tables. In addition, the National Emissions Ceilings Directive (2001/81/EC) set limits on the emissions of the ozone precursors, nitrogen oxides and non methane volatile organic compounds, at 1167 kilotonnes and 1200 kilotonnes respectively by 2010.
| Parameter | Target value for 2010 | |
|
120 micrograms per metre cubed not to be exceeded more than 25 days three years | ||
|
18,000 micrograms per metre cubed hours averaged over five years |
Statutory Instruments
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on what occasions a statutory instrument sponsored by his Department has been reported by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments as defective since October 2005. [85186]
Barry Gardiner: Since the beginning of October 2005, 14 DEFRA statutory instruments have been reported for defective drafting by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.
Reports from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments contain full details of the statutory instruments which they have reported.
Supermarket Code of Practice
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the impact on farmers of the Supermarket Code of Practice. [87515]
Ian Pearson: The Supermarket Code of Practice concerns supermarkets’ trading relationships with their immediate suppliers, relatively few of whom are farmers. Responsibility for the code rests with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
The OFT carried out an extensive review of the operation of the code, including an audit on supermarkets’ compliance with it, and consultations with suppliers and other interested parties. The conclusions of that review can be found in two reports published by the OFT in March and August 2005
respectively—“Supermarkets: the code of practice and other competition issues” and “Supermarkets: the code of practice and other competition issues, Conclusions”. Copies of these reports can be found on the OFT website.
The Competition Commission has said that it plans to consider what impact the code has on relations between grocery retailers and their suppliers as part of its current investigation into the grocery market.
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions on the Supermarket Code of Practice he has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, (b) farming organisations, (c) supermarkets, (d) retailer representatives and (e) other relevant bodies. [87516]
Ian Pearson: Responsibility for the supermarket Code of Practice rests with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
In recent months, this Department has not been involved in any substantive discussions on the code with the Department of Trade and Industry or any of the other bodies referred to in the question, although the subject may have arisen in the course of our normal contacts with them.
On 2 June, Lord Rooker wrote to the Competition Commission suggesting, among other things, that it look at the effectiveness of the code as part of its investigation into the grocery market. A copy of the letter is available in the Library of this House.
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