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24 Jun 2009 : Column 936W—continued
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average length of time is for which children were held on remand in custody in the last 12 months. [281504]
Maria Eagle: The Government believe that young people should only be sent to custody as a last resort. Young people aged 12-16 may be remanded to the care of a local authority with a requirement that they be accommodated in secure conditions. Boys aged 15 and 16 may be remanded to (prison) custody (in practice, a young offender institution) in certain circumstances. Young people aged 17 are treated, in legal terms, as adults, and may not be remanded to local authority care. (Again, they would be placed in an under-18 young offender institution.) Between 1 May 2008 and 30 April 2009, the average length of a remand in custody episode was 40 days and the average length of a remand to the care of a local authority with a security requirement was 47 days.
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many children who were held on remand in custody in the last 12 months were aged (a) 10 or 11 years, (b) 12 or 13 years, (c) 13 or 14 years, (d) 15 or 16 years and (e) 17 or 18 years. [281505]
Maria Eagle: The information in the following tables covers the period 1 May 2008 to 30 April 2009. It has been supplied by the Youth Justice Board from administrative systems. Section 23 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 empowers a court to remand a young person aged 12 to 16 to the care of a local authority, with a requirement that he or she is kept in secure accommodation. In certain circumstances, 15 and 16-year-old boys may be remanded to prison custody. In legal terms, 17-year-olds are treated as adults for remand purposes, but would be accommodated in an under-18 young offender institution. 18-year-olds are accommodated in the young adult estate: the Youth Justice Board does not collect data in respect of them.
The data in the tables cover each remand “episode”; some young people may have been remanded more than once during the period.
| Young people aged 12 to 16 remanded to local authority accommodatio n with a security requirement, 1 May 2008 to 30 April 2009 | |
| Age | Number |
| Boys aged 15, 16 and 17 remanded in custody, 1 May 2008 to 30 April 2009 | |
| Age | Number of remand episodes |
Young Offenders
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many children were overseen by each Youth Offending Team in the most recent year for which data is available. [276848]
Mr. Straw: The information for each youth offending team is not collected centrally. Youth offending teams oversee young offenders who receive an out-of-court disposal, such as a Final Warning from the police (but, not usually those who receive a police reprimand); appear in court; receive a community sentence; and come out of custody.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Bees: Research
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the funding required by the National Bee Unit from his Department to maintain its programme of research into honey bee health at 2008-09 levels in each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement. [278853]
Jim Fitzpatrick: DEFRA commissioned approximately £200,000 of research from The Food and Environment Agency's National Bee Unit (NBU) in 2008-09. DEFRA is contributing £2.5 million over the next five years to the insect pollinator initiative announced on 21 April under which up to £10 million will be available from a number of different funders. The initiative is being developed under the Living with Environmental Change programme and the NBU will be eligible to bid for funds. Decisions on what projects will be funded will be made by the Initiative's funders on the basis of whether they fulfil the eligibility criteria, address the issues outlined in the research call and on the basis of their quality. There is also a limited budget available to fund projects at the NBU to address urgent bee health needs.
Bovine TB Eradication Group
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many meetings the bovine tuberculosis eradication panel has had; if he will publish the (a) agenda and (b) minutes of each meeting; and what opportunities there have been for members of the public to make representations to the panel. [281358]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Bovine TB Eradication Group for England has had 13 meetings since it was established in November 2008. The group’s highlight notes are published shortly after every meeting and these are available on the DEFRA website.
The group has considered representations from a number of organisations or individuals and, where appropriate, invited them to a meeting to discuss further. The group will continue to invite other experts to contribute to its work as necessary. In addition DEFRA has set up a mailbox so that members of the public, industry bodies and wider interest groups can make enquiries and put forward views.
Bovine Tuberculosis: Vaccination
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress his Department has made in identifying pilot sites for the roll-out of badger bovine tuberculosis vaccines. [281357]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Badger Vaccine Deployment areas have been chosen based on specific criteria, which included a historically high incidence of bovine TB in cattle, and in liaison with the Bovine TB Eradication Group for England and other key industry and stakeholder groups.
Six catchment areas of 300 km(2) were identified, drawn from the worst affected areas of Staffordshire (Eccleshall area), Herefordshire and Worcestershire border (North of Bromyard, East of Tenbury Wells), Gloucestershire (Cotswolds, North-east of Cheltenham and North West of Stroud, towards the Severn Valley) and Devon (East and West of Tiverton).
Meetings are being held with key regional representatives and, separately, veterinary practices in each area and DEFRA, with Fera, will be working with local people and looking for participants within these regions to define up to 100 km(2) to be vaccinated. Regional meetings will be held with farmers in the autumn, with participants sign-up shortly thereafter.
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science: Consultants
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research spent on external consultants in each of the last five years. [280596]
Dan Norris: CEFAS expenditure on management consultancy is outlined in the following table:
| £ | |
This expenditure covers specialist external consultancy for the primary purpose of providing advice to CEFAS management. Examples include:
£132,000 spread across 2005-06 and 2006-07 in supporting a response to the DEFRA Laboratory Strategy Programme
Typically £50,000 specialist support for major procurement exercises each year from 2006/07 onwards
£30,000 to date for developing our safety and quality management systems.
The table excludes temporary staff and contractors providing specialised skills and experience under our supervision and guidance. It also excludes technical and scientific consultancy that CEFAS draws on to augment its in-house expertise.
CEFAS also forms part of a public sector partnership with local authorities to develop new office and laboratory facilities, for completion in 2011. CEFAS has committed costs within the partnership of : 2006-07 £549,658, 2007-08 £983,668 and 2008-09 £305,829 to cover design and development of this scheme.
Dairy Farming
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will request the supermarkets to assist in dealing with the consequences of the failure of dairy farmers of Great Britain. [281924]
Jim Fitzpatrick [holding answer 23 June 2009]: This is a commercial issue, and we have not specifically asked supermarkets to assist with the consequences of the closure of dairy farmers of Britain.
We have asked banks and others directly involved to be sympathetic in their dealings with those farms and businesses affected by the collapse.
Departmental Research
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much funding his Department allocated for research and development in each year since 1997. [279906]
Dan Norris [holding answer 15 June 2009]: DEFRA spent the following amounts on research and development:
| £ million | |
| (1 )Planned expenditure Notes: 1. These figures were taken from data available through DEFRA's Science Information DEFRA was formed in 2001 through the merging of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) with part of the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). Consequently, comparable figures are only available from 2002 onwards. 2. From 2008, responsibility for work on mitigating climate change was transferred to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Figures from 2008-9 onwards reflect this change. 3. These figures relate to Research and Development directly managed by DEFRA. Other Government Departments and publicly funded bodies, such as the Research Councils, also fund research which has policy relevance to DEFRA. For instance DEFRA is a leading participant in the Living With Environmental Change programme which aims to fund £1 billion of research between 2007-12 to provide the UK's decision makers with the best information to manage and protect vital ecosystem services in the most effective and practical ways. | |
Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether his Department plans to amend the Environmental permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007, Schedule 1, Part 2, section 1:1 in the light of the Court of Appeal ruling in the 2007 OSS Group v Environment Agency case; and if he will make a statement. [281488]
Dan Norris: With the aim of fulfilling the appeal court’s judgment in the OSS case, the Environment Agency carried out a public consultation on an end-of-waste protocol for:
“the production and use of processed fuel oil from waste lubricating oil”.
On conclusion of the Agency’s consideration of the responses to that consultation, DEFRA will submit a post-consultation draft of the protocol to the European Commission, and other member states, in compliance with the Technical Standards Directive (98/34/EC). However, DEFRA has no plans to amend the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 in the light of the court’s judgment in the OSS case.
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate his Department has made of the effects on levels of exports of used cooking oil to other EU members states of the provisions of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007, Schedule 1, Part 2, Section 1:1; and if he will make a statement. [281825]
Dan Norris: This threshold was contained in predecessor Regulations dating back to the last decade. No assessment of its impact specifically on the exports of used cooking oil has been carried out. DEFRA has no plans to change the threshold.
Food
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of (a) beef, (b) pork and (c) lamb consumed in the UK was produced domestically in each year since 1997. [281891]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Estimates of the percentage of beef and veal, pig meat and mutton and lamb consumed which were produced domestically in each year since 1997 are provided in the table. Figures for 2009 are not yet available. The figures provided are based on volumes of production and trade. The figures are affected by market conditions in the UK and abroad. Factors affecting market conditions include exchange rates, animal disease and consumer demand. When interpreting the figures it is important to look at the trends over time, rather than concentrating on figures for individual years.
For beef and veal and mutton and lamb the percentage has been relatively stable over the whole period. For pig meat the percentage declined from over 60 per cent. in 1997 to just over 40 per cent. in 2003 due to declining domestic production and increased imports, but has also been fairly stable since then.
| Estimate of the percentage consumed from domestic production | |||
| Percentage | |||
| Beef and veal | Pig meat | Mutton and lamb | |
| Source: Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2008, DEFRA | |||
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