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24 Feb 2009 : Column 572W—continued
Recycling
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction in the value of recyclable materials on the recycling rates of local authorities. [256366]
Jane Kennedy: Figures for local authority recycling rates since the onset of the fall in value of recyclable materials are not yet available. However, the Waste and Resources Action Programme reports that so far there is no indication of any significant change in local authority recycling performance as a result of the fall in market prices.
Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what his policy is on the payment of recycling credits to third party collectors who collect material from the kerbside in one local authority area but send the material to a neighbouring local authority area which is willing to pay a recycling credit and claim the recycling within their reported recycling rate and his Department’s WasteDataFlow system; [256886]
(2) how household recycling collected at the kerbside by social enterprise organisations is included in his Department’s WasteDataFlow in circumstances where the local authority does not pay a recycling credit. [256887]
Jane Kennedy
[holding answer 23 February 2009]: Local authorities have a power but not a duty to pay recycling credits to third parties. The local authority in
the area where the waste was collected may decide whether it would be reasonable to pay credits under these circumstances.
WasteDataFlow collects information on “tonnes of material collected from kerbside schemes by non contracted/voluntary community sector from household sources”. No information is collected on whether or not local authorities pay recycling credit in WasteDataFlow.
Mr. Mullin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans he has to review the distinction between his Department’s definitions of domestic and commercial waste for the purposes of recycling waste; and if he will make a statement. [257480]
Jane Kennedy: The definitions of household and commercial waste used by DEFRA are those contained within Section 75 of The Environmental Protection Act 1990. Further clarification of these definitions is contained in the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992.
There are no plans to review these definitions.
Rights of Way
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he is taking to identify and restore lost rights of way. [256496]
Huw Irranca-Davies: In the wake of the Discovering Lost Ways project, Natural England has formed a Stakeholder Working Group to bring together key interests nationally to agree a package of strategic reforms relating to unrecorded and other rights of way. These include any reforms the group considers would improve the system for processing claims and reduce unnecessary delay and bureaucracy.
The group is expected to report by the end of the year. We have undertaken not to commence the provisions of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 relating to the extinguishment of unclaimed historic rights of way from 2026 at least until the group has reported.
Rural Payments Agency: ICT
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 12 January 2009, Official Report, column 224W, on the Rural Payments Agency: ICT, if he will estimate the shelf-life of the Epsilon programme. [258193]
Jane Kennedy [holding answer 23 February 2009]: The Epsilon programme, involving a 12 month development cycle, made changes to IT systems used to process claims under the Single Payments scheme. The changes made during the Epsilon upgrade will continue to be used unless amendments to the scheme affect the functions introduced as part of that programme.
Sewers
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from which budget his Department plans to meet net new burdens on local authorities imposed as a result of the transfer of responsibilities for maintaining private sewers and lateral drains. [257952]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The transfer of responsibility for private sewers and drains to the water and sewerage companies in England will impose no new net burdens on local authorities. It is expected that the transfer will produce savings to local authorities which will no longer need to exercise their statutory powers to ensure the repair of privately owned lateral drains and sewers.
Waste Disposal: Fees and Charges
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many local authorities have received advice through the Local Authority Support Direct Consultancy Service about the operation of alternate weekly collections of household waste in the last 24 months. [252634]
Jane Kennedy: There is no such named service.
Waste Management
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information his Department holds for benchmarking purposes on the proportion of municipal waste (a) recycled or composted, (b) landfilled and (c) incinerated with energy from waste by each member state of the EU-15 in each of the last 10 years. [257444]
Jane Kennedy: DEFRA supplies data to Eurostat as part of its European reporting obligations. This reported national data for all EU member states is publicly available from Eurostat:
Data for the last 10 years is available from this site via the Eurostat Environmental Data Centre on Waste
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid= 3155,70491033,3155,70521316&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
Eurostat publish this data for all EU-15 and EU-27 countries.
Water Charges
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much has (a) been budgeted for expenditure on and (b) has been spent to date on the surface water management plan announced on 17 December 2008. [257663]
Huw Irranca-Davies [holding answer 23 February 2009]: At present, £300,000 is allocated towards the production of surface water management plans (SWMP) split over the six local authorities which are trialling the new SWMP guidance document. To date, no expenditure has been made but invoices are expected from the six authorities in the next few weeks. The anticipated expenditure up to end of March 2009 will be £190,000 with the remaining £110,000 spent by end of July 2009.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what funding his Department has made available to each local authority for the development of a surface water management plan; and whether the allocation of this funding takes account of the geographical size of each local authority. [258039]
Huw Irranca-Davies [holding answer 23 February 2009]: DEFRA announced initial funding of £300,000 in December 2008 for an initial programme of six locations where guidance for Surface Water Management Plans will be trialled. The money was divided equally between the successful bids. The findings from the trials are required quickly to inform final guidance which we are planning to consult on later in 2009 and then make available to all local authorities. Work on this first phase is not expected to deliver complete coverage within all the locations selected due to the variation in size and complexity.
Water Charges: Religious Buildings
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations he has received from the General Synod about church water bills; and if he will make a statement. [257842]
Huw Irranca-Davies: My Department has received a number of representations from the Church of England and I am aware that the issue of surface water drainage charges for churches was discussed by the General Synod on 11 February.
The Government support site area charging for surface water drainage in principle. However, it is very wrong that customers such as churches are facing increases in bills of several hundred per cent., and where there are massive variations between what is being charged in different areas by different companies.
I have made this clear to Ofwat as the economic regulator for the water industry. I have also made it clear that increases in bills of this magnitude are not in line with the Government’s guidance on charging issued to Ofwat in 2000, or Ofwat’s more detailed 2003 guidance to the water companies.
It is for individual water companies to prepare their charging schemes and for Ofwat to review and approve them. In response to representations, United Utilities now proposes to set its surface water drainage charges for 2009-10 at 2007-08 levels for places of public religious worship.
Water Charges: Yorkshire and the Humber
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions his Department has had with (a) Yorkshire Water and (b) the East Riding Council on the development of a surface water management plan; and what progress has been made on such a plan. [258038]
Huw Irranca-Davies
[holding answer 23 February 2009]: The East Riding Council (indicating that Yorkshire Water would be a partner) submitted a bid for funding from DEFRA in October 2008. This followed a call for expressions of interest from local authorities to undertake early implementation of surface water drainage improvements. The purpose of the work was to test new guidance for producing surface water management plans and report back findings by mid 2009. DEFRA received more than 30 applications although the trial was restricted to six owing to the proposed level of support and advice that would be available during the trial. The East Riding proposal was of good quality but in this instance was not selected to be part of this first phase. The successful
bids were announced by the Secretary of State on 18 December 2008 during the Government’s Response to Sir Michael Pitt’s Review—Lessons Learned from the 2007 Floods. DEFRA will shortly be publishing a living draft of the current guidance and inviting comments on this with a view to publishing a final version in autumn 2009.
Water Companies: Carbon Emissions
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what powers he has to direct Ofwat to direct water companies to adopt carbon dioxide emission reduction measures; [257733]
(2) what steps his Department is taking to promote the adoption of carbon dioxide emission reduction programmes by water supply companies. [257735]
Huw Irranca-Davies: Ofwat sets out how it is taking into account the impact of climate change for the 2009 price review in its documents “Setting Price Limits for 2010 to 2015: Framework and approach” and “Capital Expenditure for 2010 to 2015: Ofwat’s views on companies’ draft business plans”. These documents are available on the Ofwat website.
The Secretary of State has no powers to direct Ofwat to direct water companies. However, guidance issued by the Secretary of State to Ofwat in 2000 states that
“companies’ charges schemes should take proper account of the impact of the use of water services on the environment”.
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will meet representatives of water companies and the construction sector to discuss major infrastructure projects and carbon dioxide emission reductions. [257734]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The Secretary of State and myself are in the process of arranging a meeting with water company chief executives to discuss a range of water issues.
Duchy of Lancaster
Children
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many and what proportion of women in the UK have children. [257617]
Kevin Brennan: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated February 2009:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your request for information on how many, and what proportion, of women in the UK have children. (257617)
The information requested is only available for women of childbearing age in England and Wales (ages 15-44). The latest year for which figures are available is 2007.
The table below shows for 2007, the estimated number and proportion of women aged between 15 and 44 in England and Wales who have ever had a child.
| Estimated number and proportion of women aged 15-44 who have ever had a child, England and Wales, 2007 | |
| Number/Percentage | |
The proportion of women aged 15-44 in 2007 who have ever had a child is relatively low because many of the women in this age group have not yet started childbearing. For women who have completed their childbearing years (women aged 45 in 2007), 80 per cent are estimated to have had at least one child.
More detailed information showing the proportion of women of childbearing age by number of live-born children, by year of birth of mother and age is published annually for England and Wales in Birth Statistics Series FML Table 10.5.
Civil Service: Work Experience
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what summer placement internship schemes are available in the Civil Service for students (a) with disabilities, (b) without disabilities, (c) from an ethnic minority and (d) not from an ethnic minority. [256469]
Mr. Watson [holding answer 12 February 2009]: The Cabinet Office is responsible for managing the Civil Service Summer Diversity Internship programme. The Summer Diversity Internship programme is open to undergraduates and graduates from black and ethnic minority backgrounds and those with disabilities. The programme seeks to provide high calibre ethnic minority and disabled undergraduates/graduates with a six-nine weeks work placement within Government Departments across Whitehall. The aim of the programme is to ensure that the civil service is bringing through a diverse range of people to further increase the capacity and capability of the civil service to better respond to the needs of the business and public.
The Cabinet Office is not responsible for centrally coordinating any internship schemes that are department specific and does not hold any information about these local schemes.
We have been in discussions with senior officials at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and other stakeholders about the proposed new National Internship programme and have offered our support to this programme across the civil service.
Departmental ICT
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with reference to the answer of 4 November 2008, Official Report, columns 336-7W, on Government Departments: information and communications technology, which IP addresses are used by (a) his Department and (b) computers in the offices of its (i) Ministers, (ii) communications officials and (iii) special advisers. [241946]
Mr. Watson:
In accordance with standard good information security practice and to help defend against electronic attack, my department does not publish internal IP addresses for its corporate IT systems. When accessing
external services such as internet websites, the IP addresses of all the computers on my Department's internal office IT system are hidden behind the following IP addresses which are publicly available—195.92.40.49 and 62.25.106.209.
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