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10 May 2007 : Column 380W—continued
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Agriculture: Subsidies
Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farmers had not received their pre-populated single payment scheme application form for 2007 by 1 May; and if he will make a statement. [136510]
Barry Gardiner [holding answer 9 May 2007]: Approximately 121,700 SPS 2007 application forms were despatched well before our published target for despatch of mid-April to all SPS 2006 claimants and those who activated entitlements in SPS 2005. A further 2,190 forms have been sent out following ad hoc requests. As of 27 April 2007 almost 31,700 had been returned. Deadline for return is 15 May 2007.
Animals: Transport
Gwyn Prosser: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what procedures are in place to ensure that the journey logs required by Council Regulation (EC) No. 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport and related operations are returned to his Department within one month of the completion of the journey; and what steps officials in his Department take to examine returned journey logs in order to identify (a) breaches of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1/2005 and (b) unjustified differences between actual and proposed itineraries. [135951]
Mr. Bradshaw: Journey logs must be returned to the Animal Health Divisional Office (AHDO) within 30 days of the completion of the journey. If this does not occur, AHDO staff write to the organiser of the journey, requesting the journey logs to be returned within five working days.
All returned journey logs are checked by AHDO staff to see if the actual journey undertaken matches the planned details. Any deviations are identified and investigated, taking into account the transporter’s explanation.
Cattle: Exports
Gwyn Prosser: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many live calves have been exported for further fattening since 1 January, broken down by country of destination. [135905]
Mr. Bradshaw: The number of calves aged under 42 days exported between 1 January and 30 April 2007 are as follows:
| Destination country | Number of calves |
The information is based on export notifications received to date and registered on the Cattle Tracing System. The figures do not identify animals by health certification status, for example whether the animals were exported for slaughter, further fattening or breeding.
Departments: Oral Questions
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many questions tabled by hon. and right hon. Members for oral answer by his Department on 19 April 2007, were subsequently transferred by his Department to other departments; and for what reasons they were transferred. [133662]
Barry Gardiner: My Department received 25 questions for oral answer on Thursday 19 April. Five of those questions were transferred to the Government Department responsible for the policy and which this Department could therefore not answer.
The hon. Member tabled a question on the acreage of land prone to flooding that would be developed with housing during the next five years. The question was transferred to DCLG as it leads on national planning policy.
Two identical questions were tabled on the Code for Sustainable Housing. The code concerns the introduction of higher environmental standards for new buildings and new homes. Responsibility for that and for planning housing and Building Regulations lies with the DCLG and the questions were therefore transferred to that Department.
A question relating to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from the aviation sector was transferred to the Department for Transport as that Department is responsible for helping the aviation industry to reduce its environmental impacts.
A question relating to the proportion of domestic biofuel consumption was also transferred to DFT. That Department is co-ordinating the assessment of the energy and other implications of the large scale use of biofuels.
Seven hon. Members ‘unstarred’ their questions for answer on 19 April and one withdrew his question. Two hon. Members were not present on the day to ask their question so the Department had 10 questions to answer on the day.
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many questions tabled by hon. and right hon. Members to his Department for oral answer have been transferred to other departments since May 2005. [133805]
Barry Gardiner: The Department has transferred 33 oral questions tabled by hon. and right hon. Members since May 2005. This is from a total number of 400 questions tabled.
Questions are transferred to another Department when it is clear that DEFRA is not responsible for the policy raised in the question. Hon. Members are notified by letter on the day of transfer.
The following table shows the breakdown by month and also shows the number of questions withdrawn and unstarred by hon. Members for the same period.
| D EFRA orals | Transferred | Withdrawn | Unstarred |
Departments: Sick Leave
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people took sick leave for stress in his Department in the last 12 months; and what percentage of the total staff number this represents. [135473]
Barry Gardiner: The most recent sickness absence data available is for the 12 months ending 31 December 2006. During this period, 106 people had stress recorded as their reason for absence. This represents 2.6 per cent. of the number of staff in the Department on 31 December 2006.
DEFRA has had a stress management policy in place since 1999. The Health and Safety Executive management standards have been incorporated into
our arrangements and full information and guidance is available on the Intranet. Additional stress resources available in DEFRA include a manager’s toolkit, leaflets and videos. This work is supported by DEFRA’s Health and Safety Unit.
Domestic Wastes: Recycling
Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the household recycling rates were for each region in England in the last year for which figures are available. [135656]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is shown in the following table:
| Region | 2005-06 |
| Source: DEFRA Municipal Waste Statistics | |
Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (England) Regulations 1999
Mr. Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he expects the review of the Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (England) Regulations 1999 to be published. [136148]
Barry Gardiner: DEFRA has recently conducted research to help identify alternative methods for assessing the level of compliance to the Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (England) Regulations 1999. The methods identified will be subject to a public consultation with the aim that one or more of them can be utilised over the 2007-08 shooting season, enabling a review of the regulations to take place in 2008.
Food: Packaging
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the volume of food packaging used in each year between 2000 and 2005. [136375]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 9 May 2007]: No estimate has been made specifically on food packaging volumes.
However, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is providing technical and financial support to retailers to help identify ways of reducing the weight of primary packaging, mainly through research and development and innovative packaging design.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps the Government is taking to encourage food suppliers to use less packaging. [136401]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 9 May 2007]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea, East (Mrs. James) on 1 May 2007, Official Report, column 1525W.
International Whaling Commission: Poland
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions he has had with the Polish Prime Minister on Poland’s possible membership of the International Whaling Commission; and if he will make a statement. [135528]
Mr. Bradshaw: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 28 March 2007, Official Report, columns 1577-78W.
Shellfish: Colchester Native Oyster
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he expects the application for a Protected Geographical Indication for the Colchester Native Oyster to be determined; on what date the application was made; what representations the UK Government has made to support the application; and if he will make a statement. [136131]
Barry Gardiner: A completed application to register the Colchester Native Oyster was received in 2005. Since then, the application has been subject to a lengthy consultation process which provides interested parties within the UK with the opportunity to comment or object to the application. This consultation is necessary to ensure that all views are considered before a decision is taken by DEFRA on whether the application is justified and meets the requirements of the relevant Regulation.
The consultation process prompted a number of objections to, and comments on, the application. Officials have been giving detailed consideration to these representations and have been working closely with the applicants to address them. A meeting earlier this month, between officials and representatives of the applicant group, discussed some final outstanding points relating to the product specification for the Colchester Native Oyster. Following this constructive meeting, an announcement about the next stage of this process is expected to be made within the next month.
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