| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
22 Jun 2009 : Column 568W—continued
Dairy Farmers of Britain: Insolvency
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the number of (a) farmers and (b) farm businesses which are at risk of entering administration as a result of Dairy Farmers of Britain being taken into receivership. [281356]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Dairy Farmers of Britain had 1,800 members when they went into receivership on 3 June. The vast majority of those members have succeeded in finding new outlets for their milk. We were informed by the receivers (PwC) at a meeting on 17 June that 190 members have yet to find a new buyer, so PwC are collecting their milk at present.
Demos
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether his Department has any contracts with the think-tank Demos. [279507]
Dan Norris: The core-Department's financial system records expenditure in 2008-09 with Demos of £922.87 categorised as Training in People Management Skills.
Departmental Billing
Mr. Oaten:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the average number of days taken to pay an invoice by (a) his
Department and (b) each of its executive agencies was in each month since November 2008. [279526]
Dan Norris
[holding answer 12 June 2009]: Following the statement by the Prime Minister at PMQs on 8 October 2008, central Government Departments were asked to
make payment of SME supplier invoices within 10 days. From information held centrally the 10 day payment performance for all supplier invoices from November 2008 for the core-Department and Executive agencies and NDPBs that utilise core-DEFRA’s financial system is as follows:
| Percentage | |||||||
| 10 day performance | |||||||
| 2008 | 2009 | ||||||
| Organisation | November | Decembe r | January | February | March | Apri l | May |
| Note: GDS merged into FERA from 1 April 2009. | |||||||
Departmental Official Hospitality
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much his Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09. [277871]
Dan Norris [holding answer 3 June 2009]: From information held centrally, the core-Department's financial system records expenditure on hospitality in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09 of £441,259 and £132,414 respectively.
Departmental Press
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what (a) newspapers and (b) periodicals are delivered to the private office of each Minister in his Department; and at what cost in the latest period for which figures are available. [279426]
Dan Norris: For the period October 2008 to June 2009, DEFRA Ministers had the following newspapers and periodicals delivered to their offices:
Financial Times
Times
Daily Telegraph
Guardian
Independent
Daily Mail
Mirror
International Herald Tribune
Evening Standard
Farmers Weekly
Spectator
New Statesman
Economist
New Scientist
Financial Times
Times
Daily Telegraph
Guardian
Independent
Daily Mail
Farmers Weekly
Farmers Guardian
Fishing News
Guardian
Independent
Farmers Weekly
Farmers Guardian
Times
Daily Telegraph
Guardian
The Sun
Daily Mail
Mirror
Evening Standard
Farmers Weekly.
Newspapers were, and continue to be, only delivered Monday-Thursday, with no papers or magazines being delivered through recess periods. Costs for these publications are grouped within a single departmental invoice, so an indicative weekly cost (based on the cover price of each publication) is £109.70, with zero cost during recess periods.
Entec
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) purpose and (b) monetary value is of each contract his Department has with Entec UK environmental consultants. [280352]
Dan Norris: The core-Department's financial system records the following expenditure categorisation and values with Entec UK in 2008-09.
| Description | Value (£) |
Floods
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when his Department plans to publish its next progress report on implementation of the urgent recommendations of the Pitt report on flooding. [281649]
Huw Irranca-Davies: In line with our commitment, the Government will very shortly publish its six-monthly Pitt progress report.
Floods: Bournemouth
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans there are to improve sea defences at Hengistbury Head in Bournemouth. [280910]
Huw Irranca-Davies [holding answer 18 June 2009]: The plans to improve defences at Hengistbury Head will be based on the current policy review for the local Shoreline Management Plan (SMP). This is being led by Bournemouth borough council and is approaching a public consultation stage. The SMP will be adopted later this year and published in June 2010.
Within the SMP the Environment Agency is reviewing the coastal processes and associated risks at Hengistbury Head. Once the SMP policies are determined and published, the Environment Agency has plans to develop a programme to re-evaluate its approach to improve the coastal defences for Poole Bay, including Hengistbury Head.
Floods: Property Development
Bob Spink:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what proportion of local planning authorities have granted planning permission
for a development against an Environment Agency flood risk objection in each of the last five years; [279436]
(2) what proportion of planning applications have been granted against Environment Agency advice on flood risk in each of the last five years. [279446]
Huw Irranca-Davies [holding answers 12 and 15 June 2009]: The following table shows the proportion of local planning authorities (LPAs) who have given planning permission for a development against an Environment Agency flood risk objection.
| Proportion of LPAs who made decisions against Environment Agency advice | |
| Percentage | |
The following table shows the proportion of planning applications that were approved against Environment Agency advice on flood risk.
| Proportion of decisions against Environment Agency advice | |
| Percentage | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |