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15 Oct 2009 : Column 1002W—continued
Departmental Manpower
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many staff there were in his Department (a) in 1997 and (b) on the latest date for which figures are available. [292068]
Paul Goggins: The total number of staff in the Northern Ireland Office (excluding agencies, executive and non-departmental public bodies) on the dates requested is set out in the following table.
| NIO staff numbers | |
The September 1997 information is held in terms of full-time equivalent staff. The September 2009 information is held in terms of actual numbers of staff employed. The increase in staff numbers is largely due to the expansion of the Public Prosecution Service.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Agriculture: Subsidies
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost of the satellite photographs produced by the Rural Payments Agency as part of the Single Payment Scheme Remote Sensing project has been in 2009 to date. [293146]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The raw satellite images used by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) for controls with remote sensing are provided, without charge, to participating member states by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. There is therefore no cost incurred by RPA for the images themselves.
However, processing these images requires RPA to engage a specialist contractor. The total contract budget for this specialist work in 2009 is £518,520. The processed images are used not only to check SPS applications but also to inform updates to the Rural Land Register.
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the average change in Single Payment Scheme payments per holding as a result of the Single Payment Scheme Remote Sensing exercise. [293147]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Work on the 2009 remote sensing exercise is still under way.
In 2008 95 per cent. of all land remote sensed was found to be correct. Since each customer's entitlement value is different the scale of change in payment will vary from customer to customer.
However, using the average farm size for remote sensing in 2008 of 63.35 hectares, this meant an average change per farm of three hectares. At flat rate payment values for 2008 this equates to a £336.51 payment reduction per holding (before modulation).
Animals: Exports
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many live (a) cattle, (b) horses, (c) sheep and (d) ponies were exported in each of the last five years. [291916]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Data collected from the EU Commission's Trade Control Expert System (TRACES) indicate that the following number of live cattle, equines (including both horses and ponies) and sheep were certified by official veterinarians as meeting the intra-Community trade rules for dispatch from the United Kingdom to other EU member states in the specified year:
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
The available TRACES data do not distinguish between horses or ponies, therefore the figures for these animals is combined under the heading of 'equidae'. In addition, the Tripartite Agreement between the UK, Republic of Ireland and France allows most equidae to move between these countries without the need for the movement to be recorded on TRACES. Therefore, these movements are not captured in the above data.
Data for earlier years have not been provided because they are not currently available in a format which allows any direct comparison to that supplied above.
The figures are subject to updating and amendment.
The number of animals certified for export from the United Kingdom to countries outside of the EU is not recorded centrally, meaning that it is not possible to provide these data.
Farming Link
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost was of producing and distributing the Farming Link publication in each of the last five years. [289680]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The information is included in the following table. Farming Link was not published prior to spring 2007.
| Design (£) | Print (£) | Postage (£) | |
| (1) Figure not available.( 2) This edition was not distributed as it fell between the lifting of the first foot and mouth disease outbreak restrictions and the second outbreak on 12 September, 2007. | |||
Farms: Inspections
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farm inspections were conducted by each inspection body in each of the last five years. [291905]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The information requested is as follows:
The RPA Inspectorate conducted the following inspections in each of the last five years:
| Year( 1) | Number of inspections |
| (1) RPA Inspections are detailed by financial year, therefore the table refers to inspections made from 1 April to 31 March in each year. | |
In addition our Horticultural Marketing Inspectors, who merged with the RPA Inspectorate on 1 April 2006, carried out the following inspections at the premises of glasshouse growers, market gardeners etc:
| Year( 1) | Number of inspections |
| (1) RPA HMI Inspections are detailed by financial year, as above. | |
| Year | TB | Welfare |
| Notes: 1. 2009 data cover the period 1 January to 30 September 2009. 2. TB inspections include all tests carried out by AH Staff and OV's. | ||
Figures for Veterinary Medicines Visit Management System for medicines farm visits, including revisits, are:
| Visits | |
There would also be many other farm visits carried out e.g. animal by-products visits, disease surveillance for salmonella, sheep surveys, avian influenza surveys etc. There are also visits carried out by Egg Marketing Inspectorate and Dairy Hygiene Inspectorate. We have been unable to provide details of these due to disproportionate cost.
Veterinary Medicine Directorate
VMD's contribution to this reply based on calendar years is as follows:
| Number | |
| Note: Inspection of fish farms mixing medicated feeds began in 2006, but inspection of such premises were not separately identified. | |
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