Written Answers to Questions
Monday 27 April 2009
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Bovine Tuberculosis
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 25 March 2009, Official Report, columns 377-9W, on bovine tuberculosis, in how many (a) counties and (b) parishes in England bovine tuberculosis had not been confirmed in the preceding four years in (i) 1997 and (ii) 2008. [269321]
Jane Kennedy: Total numbers are as follows:
(a)(i) Counties(1) in England where bovine tuberculosis had not been confirmed 1994-97: 14.
(a)(ii)Counties(1) in England where bovine tuberculosis had not been confirmed 2005-08: six.
(b)(i) Number of parishes in England without a confirmed bovine TB incident 1994-97: 10,199.
(b)(ii) Number of parishes in England without a confirmed bovine TB incident 2005-08: 8,670.
(1) Counties as recorded on the Animal Health Vetnet system.
Source:
Data for these answers have been drawn from the Animal Health Vetnet system, the TB in Cattle System and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency’s TB Culture System.
Departmental Computers
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many laptop computers have been provided to (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants in his Department in each year since 2005; and at what cost. [268279]
Huw Irranca-Davies: DEFRA outsourced IT provision to IBM in 2004, where the Department pays a service charge for provision and maintenance of desktop systems based on a usage model, i.e. we are charged for the number of laptops used on the estate each month as staff numbers change. DEFRA monitors the consumption of services rather the stock holding of laptops. Service consumption is managed in accordance with a device policy that limits users to a single laptop by default. Exceptions to the single device policy will include kit available for hot desks, training rooms, special needs/power users.
We are unable to provide a breakdown of past usage as this would require a manual trawl of historical data that would incur disproportionate cost. We have provided the usage figures for March 2009 for the core-Department for information:
(a) Ministers: two;
(b) Special advisers: two
(c) Civil servants: 3,301(1)
DEFRA cannot provide information on the costs associated with IBM's laptop services, as this would put the Department in breach of its confidentiality undertakings to IBM.
(1) On the assumption that civil servants equates to end users—i.e. both civil servants and contractors working within the Department.
Departmental Personnel
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with reference to the answer of 29 September 2008, Official Report, column 2413W, on departmental personnel, how many staff without posts there are in (a) his Department and (b) its agencies; how many of the staff without posts were classified as such upon return from maternity leave; and how many of the staff without posts have been classified as such for at least (i) six and (ii) 12 months. [250040]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The number of people in the Department and our agencies without posts has reduced significantly since our answer of 29 September 2008 from 89 to six. Five of these staff are in core DEFRA and one is in the Animal Health Agency.
With regard to these six that remain without posts:
(a) None of the people were classified as being without posts as a result of returning from maternity leave.
(b) (i) None have been classified as such less than 12 months; (ii) six have been classified as such for at least 12 months.
All of these individuals are actively undertaking job search opportunities, have been offered outplacement support and, where possible, have been undertaking short-term assignments.
We are, in the near future, expecting this total of six without posts to reduce further still. This is due either as a result of the individuals being successful in finding a new role within the civil service or, where this proves not possible, moving towards redundancy.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 16 March 2009, Official Report, columns 826-7W, on economic situation, what expenditure under what budgetary heading (a) his Department incurred in relation to its internal conference for members of the senior Civil Service held in October 2008 and (b) follow up workshops expenditure. [268172]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The cost of the senior civil service conference in October 2008 was £16,064.76. £6,687.11 was spent on venue hire and catering and £9,377.65 was spent on facilitation of the event.
There were no costs incurred for the following workshops.
Domestic Waste: Fixed Penalties
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when information on the number of fixed penalty notices issued for household waste receptacle offences in 2007-08 will be published. [270129]
Jane Kennedy: Figures for fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for waste receptacle offences in 2007-08 are not yet available.
We expect to publish figures on FPNs issued for these and other environmental crimes for the years 2007-08 and 2008-09 on the DEFRA website in June 2009.
Domestic Waste: Waste Disposal
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether his Department’s research project WR0105 “Project REDUCE monitoring and evaluation—developing tools to measure waste prevention” has been completed; and what funding the EU INTERREG programme provided for the project. [269891]
Jane Kennedy: Output from the project (WR0105) “Project REDUCE Monitoring and Evaluation: Developing Tools to Measure Waste Prevention” has been incorporated into the review study referred to in the response to the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mr. Jackson) on 14 October 2008, Official Report, column 1050W, on Domestic Waste: Waste Disposal, and will be published at the same time, later in 2009.
No funding from the EU Interreg programme was provided for the project.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which local authorities are participating in the research project, “Understanding waste growth at local authority level” WR0121; and what budget his Department has set for the programme. [269974]
Jane Kennedy: The local authorities providing case study information for “Understanding waste growth at local authority level” (WR0121) are:
Ribble Valley Borough Council,
East Riding of Yorkshire Council,
Hambleton District Council,
Broadland District Council,
Hart District Council,
London Borough of Islington,
South Norfolk District Council,
Hyndburn Borough Council,
Mole Valley District Council,
Milton Keynes Council,
Basildon District Council,
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council,
Wakefield Council,
Sandwell MBC,
London Borough of Sutton,
Birmingham City Council,
Tonbridge and Mailing Borough Council,
Somerset County Council,
Stirling Council,
Cardiff City Council,
Powys County Council,
Derby City Council,
Rother District Council,
Rhondda Cynon Taf,
Flintshire County Council,
Belfast City Council,
Down District Council; and
West Dunbartonshire Council.
The budget for this project is £90,585 in total (£85,585 from DEFRA and £5,000 from the Welsh Assembly Government).
Fisheries: Western Sahara
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what guidance his Department has issued to the fishing fleet on the status of (a) Western Sahara and (b) waters off Western Sahara; and if he will make a statement. [268190]
Huw Irranca-Davies: DEFRA has not issued any information to the UK fishing fleet operating in Morocco about the status of Western Sahara or waters off Western Sahara. UK vessels that fish in these waters do so under the provisions of the EU/Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement, and are advised to ensure compliance at all times.
Fruit
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the (a) quantity and (b) monetary value of soft fruit produced in England in each of the last 10 years. [270644]
Jane Kennedy: Data are available for England and Wales combined rather than just for England, but since the majority of the soft fruit is grown in England these figures will largely reflect soft fruit grown in England. The estimates for quantity and value are presented in the following table. Figures for 2008 are provisional. Quantity information is in thousand tonnes and the value of production is in £ million.
| Production of soft fruit in England and Wales, 1998 to 2008 | ||
| Soft fruit value (£ million) | Volume (Thousand tonnes) | |
Incinerators
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his Department’s policy on the incineration of household waste in municipal incinerators is. [269887]
Jane Kennedy:
The Government believe that household waste should, where possible, be minimised and then reused, recycled or composted. Waste remaining after
these processes is termed residual waste; the Government are committed to maximising energy recovered from residual waste.
Recovering energy from residual waste avoids the methane emissions arising from sending it to landfill. It also generates energy, which can offset power sourced from fossil fuel.
DEFRA has not generally expressed a preference for one technology over another, with the exception of anaerobic digestion, for treating food waste. Any given technology is more beneficial if both heat and electricity can be recovered. The technology choice needs to reflect local circumstances, which will vary, but we expect greenhouse gas emissions to be a key consideration for those developing waste to energy plants.
Noise: Airports
Sir John Stanley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he expects the final guidance to airport operators on preparing noise action plans in accordance with the European environmental noise directive to be published. [270363]
Huw Irranca-Davies: [holding answer 23 April 2009]: DEFRA consulted on Guidance for Airport Operators on noise action plans in September 2008. The consultation period finished at the end of November and the responses received were evaluated. After making some amendments the final version of the guidance was published in March and copies have been placed in the Library of the House.
Parish Councils
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which parish councils have been awarded quality parish status to date. [269889]
Huw Irranca-Davies: Currently there are 681 Quality Parish Councils. A regularly updated list of all Quality Parish Councils can be found on:
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