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14 Oct 2009 : Column 928W—continued
Badgers
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will publish the research on badger perturbation produced by the Woodchester Project. [292424]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Food and Environment Research Agency's Woodchester Park team has published over 100 papers on the relationship between badger biology and bovine TB dynamics. Research on the perturbation of badger populations, including work on the relationship between badger movement and TB dynamics at Woodchester Park, has been peer-reviewed and published in the following recent scientific papers:
Carter S, Delahay R, Smith G, Macdonald D, Riordan P, Etherington T, Pimley E, Cheeseman C (2007) Culling-induced social perturbation in Eurasian badgers Meles meles and the management of TB in cattle: an analysis of a critical problem in applied ecology. "Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences)" 274, 2769-2777.
Vicente J, Delahay R, Walker N, Cheeseman C (2007) Social organisation and movement influence the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in an undisturbed high density badger (Meles meles) population. "Journal of Animal Ecology" 76, 348-360.
McDonald RA, Delahay RJ, Carter SP, Smith GC, Cheeseman CL (2008) Perturbing implications of wildlife ecology for disease control. "Trends in Ecology and Evolution" 23, 53-56.
Further detail of the DEFRA funded Woodchester Park project (SE3032 The long term intensive ecological and epidemiological investigation of a badger population naturally infected with "Mycobacterium bovis") is available on the DEFRA website.
Beef: Brazil
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much beef was imported from Brazil in (a) May, (b) June, (c) July and (d) August in each year since 2005. [291919]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The following table shows the amount of beef imported from Brazil in May, June, July and August in each year since 2005.
| Month and year | Total number of consignments | Total quantity (kilos) |
| Note: Information obtained from TRACES. | ||
Bovine Tuberculosis: Hertfordshire
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farms in (a) Hemel Hempstead constituency, (b) Dacorum and (c) Hertfordshire were under bovine tuberculosis restrictions on the latest date for which figures are available. [289426]
Jim Fitzpatrick: TB statistics are available currently at county and regional level. On 30 June 2009 the number of herds under restriction in Hertfordshire was 13, with one new unconfirmed TB incident. It should be noted that herds under restriction on 30 June will include herds under restriction due to overdue TB tests.
Bovine Tuberculosis: Vaccination
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who his Department plans to contract to undertake the vaccination of badgers in the forthcoming bovine TB project; and if he will make a statement. [292423]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Contractors to undertake the vaccination of badgers for the Badger Vaccine Deployment Project will be recruited through an EU tender run by the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera). This is currently underway and will run until April 2010.
Fera will train the recruited contractors to trap and vaccinate badgers as part of the licensing and accreditation process.
Departmental Communication
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff in (a) his Department and (b) its agencies are classified as (i) communicators and (ii) have access to the Government Communication Network. [291843]
Dan Norris: There are currently 67 staff in the Communications Career Home within core DEFRA including individuals outside the Communications Directorate.
All UK civil servants can access the Government Communication Network (GCN) to view and receive e-mail alerts for job vacancies but they must be working as a communicator to register as a member and access networking areas of the site.
Information on Communicators in DEFRA Executive Agencies and NDPB's is not held centrally at present. However, these data are likely to become available over the next few months.
Departmental Electronic Equipment
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2008, Official Report, column 38W, on departmental electronic equipment, how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies have spent on (i) flat screen televisions, (ii) DVD players and (iii) stereo equipment since December 2008. [289171]
Dan Norris: The core-Department's financial system records expenditure of £18,024 on flat screen televisions since December 2008. No expenditure is recorded for DVD players and stereo equipment. Expenditure on electronic equipment by DEFRA's agencies is not recorded centrally outside of the core-Department's financial system and the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Energy
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to promote energy efficiency in its operations. [289529]
Dan Norris: We are taking the following steps to maximise our energy efficiency:
Interactive building management systems (BMS) linked to visual displays, informing staff of energy efficiency within the building and other sustainability indicators, e.g. CO2 emissions, water use, waste and recycling.
Adoption of the Carbon Trust Standard and Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme (EEAS)-both of these measure actual performance in terms of CO2 output.
Sustainability Champions have been appointed as part of the new Sustainable Workplace Management contract. They will work within each site to monitor energy use, identify and implement efficiency measures and report progress towards site energy targets on a quarterly basis.
This is supported by an ongoing programme of installation of energy efficient technologies. Initiatives which have already been implemented include: voltage regulation technologies, energy efficiency lighting, insulation and draught proofing, biomass, combined heat and power plants and automatic metering (AMR) of utilities. Thermal imaging surveys have also been undertaken at a number of sites, the survey results will form a programme of works to improve the thermal efficiency of the buildings.
Departmental ICT
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what IT systems have been in development for use within his Department in the last five years; what the reason for the development of each system was; how much has been spent on the development of each system; and which systems have been subsequently (a) implemented, (b) terminated prior to implementation and (c) terminated following implementation. [290522]
Dan Norris: Data on costs of IT systems could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Instead data has been provided for the entire project where IT system development costs are a significant proportion.
The projects listed are information technology projects in DEFRA that were estimated to cost more than £1 million over the life of the project. Costs listed exclude the day-to-day running costs after the completion of the project. The figures quoted are either the actual cost for completed projects or the latest forecast estimates as at April 2009 for those that are not yet completed. The estimated costs to completion are subject to change and the Department carries out regular reviews of the projects and their associated business cases at key strategic points.
Projects costing less than £1 million, those being carried out within Executive agencies, projects transferred to the Department for Energy and Climate Change and projects initiated after November 2008 have all been excluded as such data is not held centrally. Collection would incur a disproportionate cost to the Department.
No projects have been terminated following implementation.
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