You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records > Hansard > Commons Debates > Daily Hansard - Written Answers
Previous Section Index Home Page

16 Apr 2007 : Column 76W—continued


Departments: Travel

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what criteria he adopts to decide what means of transport he uses to travel between his Department's offices and the Palace of Westminster. [130731]

Barry Gardiner: There are no formal criteria used. As a general rule the Secretary of State walks to the Palace of Westminster.

Departments: Work Permits

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many work permits were applied for by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years. [126800]

Barry Gardiner: This information is not held centrally. It can be obtained for the last three years but only at disproportionate cost. We are currently undertaking a HR management information review through which we will seek to ensure that all such information relating to new Civil Servants is collected and easily available in the future.

Diabrotica Virgifera

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which (a) public and (b) private research establishments have received permission to carry out contained experiments involving Diabrotica virgifera in the UK since 1995; on what date permission was granted in each case; what conditions were attached to the consents in each case; and under what legislation the permission was granted in each case. [129943]

Barry Gardiner: The following establishments currently hold licences under Part 8 of the Plant Health (England) Order 2005 to carry out scientific experiments on Diabrotica virgifera (preferred name Diabrotica virgifera virgifera), subject to a range of measures to prevent release or escape of the pest.

(a) Public research establishments:

DEFRA's Central Science Laboratory, York

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

(b) Private research establishments:

Syngenta, Jealotts Hill

University of Cambridge


16 Apr 2007 : Column 77W

University of Durham

University of Newcastle

Warwick HRI, Wellesbourne

Conditions in the licences include:

(i) use of quarantine containment facilities which have been approved by the DEFRA Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate

(ii) inactivation of waste material during the research

(iii) destruction of all licensed material at the end of the research

(iv) record keeping

(v) provision of access to DEFRA inspectors to conduct audit visits.

It has not yet been possible to retrieve information back to 1995 on licences issued under Article 30 and 30A of the Plant Health (Great Britain) Order 1993. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as this information is available.

Domestic Waste

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) of 30 January 2007, Official Report, column 285W, on domestic waste, which councils provide alternate weekly collections according to the most recent figures held by the Waste and Resources Action Programme. [130584]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Waste and Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP) most recent list of local authorities (LAs) providing an alternate weekly waste collection (AWC) service is shown as follows.


16 Apr 2007 : Column 78W

16 Apr 2007 : Column 79W
Next Section Index Home Page