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2 Apr 2009 : Column 1301W—continued
Power Stations: EU Law
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 2 March 2009, Official Report, column 1330W, on power stations: EC law, whether the Environment Agency plans to apply derogations for plants from the provisions of the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive. [266663]
Jane Kennedy: The Environment Agency already applies, where sought, the derogations provided in Article 5(1) and paragraph 2 of Part A of Annex VIII of the Large Combustion Plants Directive (2001/80/EC). These relate respectively to the emission limit value for sulphur dioxide for existing plants operating less than 2,000 hours annually and to monitoring requirements in specified circumstances. The Environment Agency is aware there is no need to consider granting the derogations in Article 7 which refer to breakdown or a sudden change in fuel use.
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 2 March 2009, Official Report, column 1330W, on power stations: EC law, whether his Department plans to make further provisions in relation to the operation of power stations to which derogations from the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive are applied. [267006]
Jane Kennedy: Derogations contained in the Large Combustion Plants Directive (2001/20/EC) are for the competent authority (the Environment Agency in England and Wales) to apply as it sees fit in the light of discussion with the plant operator concerned. DEFRA has no plans to make provisions in that respect.
Private Finance Initiative
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what contracts under the private finance initiative his Department has entered into in each of the last four years; and what the monetary value of each was. [268461]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not entered into any private finance initiative contracts in any of the last four years.
The Department facilitates local authorities to enter into PFI contracts in the waste sector using credits provided through HM Treasury, but it is not itself one of the parties in these deals.
Seal Products: EU Action
Alun Michael: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he is taking at EU level to encourage a prohibition on seal products entering the EU. [268328]
Huw Irranca-Davies: Commission proposals for a ban on the import of seal products into the EU were discussed for the first time by the Council of Ministers on 20 October. The Czech presidency has committed to getting agreement, on a workable ban before the end of this term in the European Parliament and we are working closely with the Council and other member states to support these efforts.
Soya: Imports
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of imported soya was produced in Bolivia in the latest period for which information is available. [264543]
Jane Kennedy: According to HMRC official overseas trade statistics, in 2008, no UK imports of soya were recorded as originating from Bolivia. In 2007, 0.02 per cent. of UK imports of soya were recorded as originating from Bolivia. This is based on the volume of trade and includes both soya beans and soya meal. 2008 figures are provisional.
Church Commissioners
Churches: Expenditure
Mr. Gibb: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners how much the Church Commissioners spent on church buildings in (a) 2006 and (b) 2007. [268848]
Sir Stuart Bell: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) on 20 March 2009, Official Report, column 1405W.
Wales
Departmental Public Expenditure
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what his latest estimate is of his Department’s capital expenditure in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10, (c) 2010-11 and (d) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement. [268129]
Mr. Paul Murphy: Our annual capital budget for the current spending review up to 2010-11 is £767,000 per annum and we have no plans to reprofile this.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Africa: Conflict Prevention
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 25 March 2009, Official Report, columns 17-19WS, on conflict resources 2009-10, what expenditure his Department had allocated to peacekeeping and conflict resolution in each country in Africa before the revision announced in his statement; how much such expenditure was incurred in each country in Africa in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08; and which programmes in West and Southern Africa will no longer be pursued. [267873]
David Miliband:
As set out in my written ministerial statement of 25 March 2009, Official Report, column 17-19WS, due to a large projected increase in the UK's assessed peacekeeping costs, £456 million of the £556 million available in 2009-10 for the Public Service Agreement
for Preventing and Resolving Conflict (PSA 30) under the Comprehensive Spending Review has been ear-marked to cover this projected increase. The remaining £100 million has been supplemented by £71 million from departmental budgets to give a total of £171 million from which all discretionary conflict prevention, stabilisation and peacekeeping activity will be funded. The Africa Programme has been allocated £43 million of this £171 million and spending under the programme has been prioritised to focus on the most pressing conflict issues within the continent.
In 2009-10, the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool will focus resources in West Africa on support to Sierra Leone, where the UK will continue to support reform of the security sector and the Sierra Leone armed forces through the International Military Assistance Training Team, and Nigeria where the UK will finance the establishment of a Joint Maritime Security Training Centre to enhance security in the Niger Delta, as well as conflict prevention activities in the Delta region. The UK will complete a phased withdrawal of the British Military Assistance Training Team and associated conflict prevention activities in Ghana. In Southern Africa, the UK will continue to support conflict prevention work in Zimbabwe, which focuses on fostering good governance, as well as maintaining co-operation with South Africa on peacekeeping training through the Peace Mission Training Centre (PMTC) and the British Peace Support Training Team (BPST) in South Africa, which will support regional conflict prevention activities.
Expenditure allocated by the Government to discretionary peacekeeping and conflict prevention in Africa in 2006-07 and 2007-08 broken down by country is detailed in the following table. UK assessed peacekeeping costs for missions in Africa were £149 million in 2006-07 and £172 million in 2007-08.
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