| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
21 May 2007 : Column 1035W—continued
Greyhounds
Mr. MacDougall: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures he is taking to stop greyhounds being killed or abandoned when their use as sporting dogs is over. [138475]
Mr. Bradshaw: The is no law to prevent the humane euthanasia of a greyhound when its racing career has finished.
The Animal Welfare Act 2006 strengthened the law on the abandonment of animals by introducing an offence of failing to provide for the welfare needs of an animal. This applies to owners and keepers of all animals, including racing and retired greyhounds.
The Act also allows regulations to be made to promote the welfare of animals for which a person is responsible. The Government are committed to introducing new regulations to protect the welfare of racing greyhounds. We understand that the industry is making significant steps in improving the number of greyhounds which are re-homed, although more needs to be done. We would like more action to taken by the industry to ensure that the number of dogs used in racing matches the number that can be re-homed at the end of their career.
Nature Conservation
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the number of species which became extinct in England in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [137854]
Barry Gardiner: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 5 July 2006, Official Report, column 1135W.
Non-Food Environmental Grazing Animals
Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the number of environmental grazing (a) cattle and (b) sheep used for land maintenance rather than for food production purposes in England. [137316]
Barry Gardiner [holding answer 17 May 2007]: Data are not collected on the number of cattle and sheep used for environmental grazing rather than food production. However, many animals used for food production will also help maintain or enhance the environment.
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the condition was of each site of special scientific interest (SSSI) in each year since 1997; and what the total land area of SSSIs was in each category in England in each (a) region and (b) location. [137857]
Barry Gardiner: There are 4,113 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in England covering 1,076,543 hectares. Each SSSI is subdivided into one or more units for the purposes of management and assessing condition. In total there are about 22,000 SSSI units and the latest information on the condition of each is available on the Natural England website at:
The following table summarises the condition of SSSIs in England by year and by Government region. The first six-year monitoring cycle was completed in October 2003, and it is therefore only possible to provide accurate figures for the overall condition of SSSIs from then on.
| Area and proportion of SSSIs in Target Condition( 1) in England’s Government regions from 2003 to 2007 | ||||||||||
| 31 October 2003 | 31 March 2004 | 31 March 2005 | 31 March 2006 | 31 March 2007 | ||||||
| Government region | Area( 2) | Percentage | Area( 2) | Percentage | Area( 2) | Percentage | Area( 2) | Percentage | Area( 2) | Percentage |
| (1) ‘Target Condition’ encompasses the condition categories of favourable and unfavourable recovering. (2) Hectares. | ||||||||||
Beef
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which countries refuse to import UK beef. [136957]
Barry Gardiner: We are currently able to export UK beef to EU member states and Barbados. My Department is working closely with the UK industry to identify priority non-EU export markets. DEFRA, with the support of Foreign and Commonwealth Office overseas posts, is negotiating the health conditions under which UK beef may be exported to these priority non-EU markets.
Waste and Resources Action Programme
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) how much the Waste and Resources Action Programme spent on (a) salaries and (b) bonuses in each year since 1997; [136781]
(2) how much the Waste and Resources Action Programme spent on administration in each year since 1997. [136782]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 14 May 2007]: The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) was established in December 2000 with funding from DEFRA, the Department of Trade and Industry and the devolved assemblies.
The data requested are published in WRAP'S annual reports (available on their website) and are set out in the following table:
| £ | |||||
| 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |
Salaries are benchmarked against those in similar sized organisations and bonuses are paid to executive directors based on achievement of specific objectives aligned with WRAP'S goals.
WRAP is part funded through the landfill tax.
WRAP'S annual account and report for 2006-07 has not yet been published.
Whales: Conservation
Mr. MacDougall: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will continue to support anti-whaling measures internationally. [138076]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 18 May 2007]: The UK has been, and will remain, at the forefront of the fight to ensure that the anti-whaling countries’ attempts to restart commercial whaling and to reduce the level of protection afforded to cetacean species around the world do not succeed.
The UK will again be one of the few countries represented by a minister, my hon. Friend the Minister for Biodiversity (Barry Gardiner), at this month’s International Whaling Commission meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. The UK’s key aim will be to resist
any attempts to end the moratorium on commercial whaling, or otherwise weaken the Commission’s conservation agenda.
Trade and Industry
Australia: Trade
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the primary (a) imported and (b) exported goods and services are between the UK and (i) Australia and (ii) New Zealand. [138175]
Mr. McCartney: For trade in goods with Australia and New Zealand, I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 12 March 2007, Official Report, columns 72-75W.
Table 9.11 of the ONS UK Balance of Payments Pink Book indicate that leading UK services imports from Australia in 2005 were travel at £999 million and transportation at £438 million out of a total of £1,808 million. Leading UK services exports to Australia in 2005 were transportation at £855 million and travel at £663 million out of a total of £2,584 million.
No similar breakdown is available for New Zealand of the total UK imports of services of £497 million in 2005 and exports of £391 million. Using International Trade In Services data for 2005, UK imports of travel services from New Zealand were £388 million, while exports of travel services to New Zealand were £141 million; it is likely that transportation services were a significant proportion of the remainder.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |