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10 Oct 2007 : Column 655W—continued
Departments: Publicity
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his Department’s projected spending is on advertising and promotional campaigns for (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09, broken down by cost relating to (i) television, (ii) radio and (iii) print media. [155891]
Jonathan Shaw: The Department's central spend on campaigns and marketing through the Communications Directorate and the Citizen and Public Engagement Programme is £7,160,000. Within this, the projected spend on advertising and promotional activity is as follows:
| £ | ||
| 2007-08 | 2008-09 | |
The projected spend for 2008-09 has not yet been created.
The Department does not maintain central records of other communications expenditure outside of the Communications Directorate.
Environment Agency: Manpower
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff were working for the Environment Agency in Peterborough in each year since 1997. [154073]
Mr. Woolas: A breakdown of Environment Agency staff based in Peterborough from 2000 to the present day is provided in the following table.
Details of staff numbers in earlier years is not available due to limited reporting functions prior to 2000.
| Staff | |
Staff are based at Kingfisher house and Aqua house, Peterborough.
Farms: Mushrooms
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many visits Ministers have made to mushroom farms since 1991. [156536]
Jonathan Shaw: This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many prosecutions there have been of mushroom farms under the Environment Protection Act 1990. [156537]
Jonathan Shaw: I am not aware of any such prosecutions having been undertaken since DEFRA began collecting data on prosecutions in 2001-02.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many mushroom farms there are in England. [156538]
Jonathan Shaw: According to the June Survey of Agriculture, the number of registered holdings in England specialising in mushroom production at June 2006 was 43. These are holdings where mushroom growing is the predominant activity. Estimates are based on a sample survey and are, therefore, subject to a degree of sampling error.
Flood Control
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans he has to review the cost benefit analysis system for allocating funds to flood risk areas. [156540]
Mr. Woolas: Economic analysis is undertaken as part of project appraisal. It provides an aid to determining the most appropriate solution to a problem, to ensure that the funds secured from general taxation are invested for the benefit of the nation as a whole. It is an effective tool for comparing the impacts of flooding with the costs of reducing risk. Social, health and environmental impacts can often be valued and included in the analysis where they are significant.
Following public consultation, a set of outcome measures has been developed to provide greater clarity on what policies and funding for flood and coastal erosion risk management are intended to achieve. One of the agreed measures will show the overall benefits of flood and coastal erosion risk management activities in
monetary terms. The measures will be used to set targets progressively during the period covered by the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, starting with the capital programme in 2008-09.
Flood Control: Agriculture
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions he has had with farmers regarding managing land use for flood prevention in flood risk areas. [156542]
Mr. Woolas: As part of DEFRA’s ‘Making Space for Water’ strategy, there are two projects investigating the role that rural land use and land management can play in managing flood risk at the farm and catchment scale. These projects are Catchment Scale Land—Use Management (HA6) and Land Management Practices (HA7). In the development of these projects, the Environment Agency has been working with the National Farmers Union and the Country Land and Business Association.
At a local level, the Environment Agency is developing Catchment Flood Management Plans, which consider the role of land use, in consultation with all interested parties.
Floods
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what total funds were available for flood recovery across all Government Departments for (a) the county of Gloucestershire, (b) the borough of Tewkesbury, (c) the city of Gloucester and (d) the Cotswolds district. [155859]
Mr. Woolas: To date, the Government have made available a significant package of £57 million to support areas affected by the flooding of June and July 2007. The county of Gloucestershire was allocated £2,623,000 of flood recovery grant, which includes £623,500 for the borough of Tewkesbury, £646,500 for the city of Gloucester and £623,500 for the Cotswold district council. Gloucestershire county council was allocated £1,007,900 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families. None of the other local authorities within Gloucestershire provide education or children’s services and thus were not eligible for this funding.
The Department for Transport has written to Gloucestershire saying that they will be allocated at least £10 million for highways works and there are ongoing discussions about further funding.
The Regional Development Agency with responsibility for Gloucestershire announced a £2 million flood recovery package for the region. Eligible businesses are able to claim up to a maximum of £2,500. As at 4 October 2007, 455 grant offers had been made, totalling £1,030,000 and 239 of these offers have been claimed, totalling £526,000 paid out by the Regional Development Agency.
This is additional money to that available under the Bellwin scheme. The scheme provides emergency financial assistance from the Government to local authorities, to help meet the uninsurable costs of
immediate action to safeguard life or property or prevent severe inconvenience to inhabitants in the case of an emergency or disaster. In recognition of the exceptional nature of the recent flooding, special arrangements apply for these schemes. We have significantly extended the period for which the affected authorities can claim for eligible costs and increased the proportion of costs they can receive to 100 per cent. above the threshold.
Floods: Landfill Tax
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment has been made of the increase in landfill tax in Hull, following recent flooding in the area and the need to dispose of damaged items; and if he will make a statement. [156543]
Joan Ruddock: Landfill tax provides an important incentive for local authorities to achieve more sustainable waste management.
Hull has estimated that a relatively small increase in municipal waste arisings will occur, because of the flooding. This is within the normal range of variations in annual waste arisings. It should not have a long-term or significant impact on waste management costs.
DEFRA has not assessed specifically the increase in landfill tax in Hull following the flooding in the area.
Foot and Mouth Disease: New Forest
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what contingency plans exist to deal with an outbreak of foot and mouth disease amongst commoners’ stock in the New Forest; and if he will make a statement. [156384]
Jonathan Shaw: DEFRA’s contingency plan for exotic animal diseases is in three parts:
i. Information on specific animal diseases. This is available on the DEFRA website and ensures that those interested always have access to up to date information.
ii. Emergency preparedness. This provides details of how DEFRA has prepared for an outbreak, including some information on the diseases and what action the Department has taken to be ready,
iii. Framework Response plan. This is an operational manual for those involved in managing handling an outbreak and, whilst it is in the public domain, it is primarily for officials who have responsibility in an outbreak.
The plan is reviewed annually in accordance with the requirements of the Animal Health Act 2002. The current version of the plan was laid before Parliament on 13 December 2006. The plan (together with the additional bluetongue contingency plan) is being used in the current outbreaks of foot and mouth disease and bluetongue.
DEFRA encourages owners or keepers of stock kept on common land, such as the New Forest, to undertake enhanced surveillance for signs of disease amongst their animals. If they have any concerns they should be reported to their local animal health office.
Landfill
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will make it his policy to allocate increased landfill allowance trading scheme targets to local authorities which are in sustainable communities growth plan areas. [153966]
Joan Ruddock: Under the landfill allowances trading scheme (LATS), allowances have been determined for waste disposal authorities (WDAs) each year from 2004-05 to 2019-20 to provide local authorities with greater certainty for long-term planning. The total number of allowances is limited to ensure that England can meet its share of the European Landfill Directive targets for biodegradable municipal waste. It is not possible to increase the allowances available to individual WDAs without breaching the national targets or reducing the allowances available to other local authorities.
LATS provides flexibility to help local authorities cope with increasing populations through trading, banking and borrowing of allowances. This is intended to give all WDAs every opportunity to avoid becoming liable to a financial penalty for failure to comply with LATS obligations.
Landfill: Recycling
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he has taken to investigate the capture and use of gas produced from landfill for (a) use as a fuel and (b) electricity generation. [156039]
Joan Ruddock: There are currently 324 landfill sites in the UK that utilise methane to generate electricity. The technology for this is well established, with the first site in the UK to generate electricity from landfill gas starting to operate in the 1980s.
The production of electricity from landfill gas is incentivised through the Renewables Obligation (RO), which places an obligation on licensed electricity suppliers to source a proportion of electricity from renewable sources.
Packaging: Recycling
Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what financial incentives there are for small to medium sized firms to recycle (a) materials and (b) packaging. [156552]
Joan Ruddock: The Landfill Tax acts as a financial incentive for all businesses, not just small to medium sized firms, to encourage recycling of materials. The Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) Programme (funded from Landfill Tax) allows businesses to receive free and independent support and advice to help them increase their profitability by sending less waste to landfill and recycling more.
There are no specific financial incentives for small to medium sized companies to recycle packaging. However, the Packaging Regulations do provide an incentive for businesses to reduce and minimise the amount of packaging used. This is because they are obliged to recover and recycle a specified amount of packaging waste; determined,
in part, by the amount of packaging they handle. A producer using less packaging, can reduce the costs incurred under these regulations.
Pirbright Laboratory: Standards
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) whether (a) Mr. John Manser and (b) any other officials responsible for inspecting, regulating and licensing the Institute for Animal Health site and the Merial site at Pirbright were made aware of the issues raised in the letter from the Merial site director of 20 July 2004; [155667]
(2) whether any Minister in his Department was made aware following the letter to the Department from the Merial site director of 20 July 2004 of the need to renew the old effluent drain between the restricted area of Merial and the Institute of Animal Health effluent treatment plant. [155668]
Jonathan Shaw: Officials, but not Ministers, were made aware of the issues raised in the letter from the Merial site director of 20 July 2004. The letter sought DEFRA’s views, as licensor and regulator under the Specified Animal Pathogens Order 1998, on the proposed specification of the replacement pipe. No questions over the integrity of the pipe in relation to requirements under that Order were raised in the letter, previously or subsequently, until the DEFRA-commissioned Health and Safety Executive inspection in August this year.
Plastics: Recycling
Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment the Government has made of the volume of plastic recycled in the United Kingdom compared to the volume shipped abroad. [156550]
Joan Ruddock: Most material collected in the UK for recycling is processed in this country.
The total amount of plastic waste arising in the UK is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes a year. The Environment Agency estimates that the level of plastic exports by 2006 would have reached 440,000 tonnes a year. Figures on the amount of plastic recycled in the UK are not held centrally.
Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions have been held with the plastics industry to ensure that the range of polymers and products does not create obstacles to recycling. [156551]
Joan Ruddock: No formal discussions have been held.
Government cannot oblige producers to use specific materials in their packaging or products. In reality all polymers are recyclable, although in some instances it is not currently economic to do so. The Government are making it easier for local authorities to plan for, and put in place, the waste infrastructure that is needed on the ground in order to re-process more recyclable materials.
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