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4 Jun 2007 : Column 5W—continued
Floods: West Midlands
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much the Environment Agency spent on flood defences in the west Midlands in (a) 2001, (b) 2004 and (c) 2006. [140215]
Ian Pearson: The midlands region of the Environment Agency spent the following on flood defences in the requested years:
| £ million | |
This expenditure is inclusive of capital and maintenance expenditure and includes the flood defence schemes built at Shrewsbury, Bewdley, Kidderminster, Hereford, Cannock and Burton on Trent.
Fly Tipping
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many prosecutions for the offence of fly-tipping there were in (a) England and Wales and (b) the West Midlands Region in each of the last three years. [138251]
Mr. Bradshaw: The following table shows the number of individuals and companies prosecuted in magistrates courts for offences under section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (the main offence covering illegal waste disposal) in England in the past three years:
| Prosecutions | |
| Source: Criminal Justice Systems Analysis (2007) | |
The number of prosecutions recorded by local authorities in the West Midlands on Flycapture, the national fly-tipping database, is shown in the following table.
| Prosecutions | |
The Flycapture database, which was set up in 2004 by DEFRA, the Environment Agency and the Local Government Association, records the number of fly-tipping incidents dealt with by the Environment Agency and local authorities and details of enforcement action. Data for 2006-07 have not yet been finalised but will be available in the summer.
Fly Tipping: Databases
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what steps he is taking to encourage local authorities to increase the amount of information they submit to the Flycapture database; [138253]
(2) what the cost is of maintaining the Flycapture database. [138257]
Mr. Bradshaw: Since the Flycapture database was set up in 2004, DEFRA has funded a national data co-ordinator to help and encourage local authorities (LAs) in England to register and to submit regular monthly returns. The national data co-ordinator issues guidance to Flycapture data co-ordinators within LAs, and visits them to help resolve problems and validate data. DEFRA has also held a number of workshops with LAs to raise awareness, and has run Flycapture support group meetings, where good practice and knowledge are shared. We have also worked with the Department for Communities and Local Government to ensure Flycapture is used to monitor LAs’ performance on the Best Value Performance Indicator on fly tipping (BV199d).
As a result of this effort, and the hard work of LAs themselves, I am pleased to say that 100 per cent. of LAs in England are registered to use the database and, in 2005-06, 93 per cent. returned 10 or more monthly returns. DEFRA is continuing to encourage the remaining authorities to fulfil their legal requirement in submitting regular monthly returns.
DEFRA provides £159,000 per year to the Environment Agency to maintain and run the Flycapture database. DEFRA also pays for technical improvements. The budget for these in 2007-08 was £50,000. The devolved administrations also contribute funds, since Flycapture covers all parts of the UK.
Freight: Transport
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the relative carbon efficiency of transporting freight by rail and by road. [139748]
Ian Pearson: Making direct comparisons between these types of transport is not straightforward because of the range of factors that impact on fuel efficiency; for example, the size of the vehicle or how heavily laden it is. However, an assessment has been made of the carbon dioxide (CO2) efficiency of transporting freight by road, rail and other methods. This forms part of the ‘Guidelines for Company Reporting on Greenhouse Gas Emissions’, published by DEFRA, to assist companies in reporting their carbon emissions. Emissions for freight carried by road (table 1) are based on how full the vehicle is, and conversion factors for CO2 emissions per tonne kilometre are provided for rail (table 2) and other freight transport types. It is possible to calculate CO2 emissions from transporting a certain amount of freight by road or rail from these data.
| Table 1 Calculation of CO 2 emissions from freight carried by road | |||||||
| D iesel freight road mileage conversion factors | |||||||
| Type of lorry | Percentage weight laden | Total km travelled | x | litres fuel per km | x | Fuel conversion factor | Total kg C0 2 |
| Table 2 Calculation of CO 2 emissions from other freight transport | |||||
| Other freight transport mileage conversion factors | |||||
| Freight transport mode | Tonne km | x | Factor | Total kg CO 2 | |
Further details are available on the DEFRA website. The guidelines are currently being updated and are scheduled to be published soon.
Grazing Land: Walls and Fences
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what consideration has been given to bringing forward proposals to extend the provisions of the Commons Act 2006 to deal with the issue of straying sheep. [138407]
Barry Gardiner: We do not intend to extend the Commons Act 2006 to deal with straying sheep. On many commons, customary law already requires adjacent landowners to fence against the boundary of the common. This issue was considered during the passage of the Commons Bill, where it was concluded that it would not be appropriate to use legislation to extend this practice to all commons, given that operational needs may differ between commons. The Commons Act provides that fences may be constructed on common land, for example to control the movement of livestock, provided the consent of the Secretary of State is secured.
Landfill
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) number and (b) total area was of landfill sites in each region of England in each year since 2002-03. [137894]
Mr. Bradshaw: At the end of 2005 there were approximately 638 active landfill sites in England and Wales, as shown in the following table. Data for 2005-06 and 2006-07 are not yet available.
| Table 1: Landfill data 2002-05 | ||||||
| Region | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | |||
| Number of sites | Total area (m( 2) ) | Number of sites | Total area (m( 2) ) | Number of sites | Total area (m( 2) ) | |
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