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Gas Industry Emergency Committee

Lord Moynihan asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Lord Sainsbury of Turville on 19 March (WA 133), whether the Gas Industry Emergency Committee is considering the implications of possible terrorist attacks, including potential disruption to gas supplies through the Bacton and St Fergus terminals.[HL3441]

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: Yes.

Lord Moynihan asked her Majesty's Government:

What is the membership of the Gas Industry Emergency Committee; and what are the terms of reference under which it operates.[HL3442]

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: The terms of reference of the Gas Industry Emergency Committee are: Contingency planning and preparations for handling a large-scale gas supply failure

to provide expert industry-wide advice to the Government, regulators and civil authorities in their development of comprehensive, regularly-updated contingency plans (based on the Government's 'common architecture') for tackling a large-scale gas supply failure, the wider consequences of the state of emergency resulting from such a failure, and the safe restoration of supplies to individual consumers;

specifically as regards those aspects of the contingency planning which entail the gas industry: to represent the gas industry in the development of appropriate governance arrangements, including the necessary memoranda of understanding; in reviewing, adapting and where necessary developing, the principles and any related protocols for dealing with the suspension of normal commercial arrangements and the consequent problems; and in devising the arrangements for dealing with all consumer-facing activities, communications and safety procedures (this latter, in consultation with energywatch and the HSE, and in close coordination with the other utilities, notably electricity);

when these contingency plans have been prepared, to co-ordinate the programmes required to put the gas industry into a continuing state of readiness; and to this end, to promote a full understanding throughout the British gas industry of the responsibilities of the individual participants, so that collectively and individually they are ready and capable of playing their parts in contributing to the tackling of a large-scale gas supply failure;

and in the same context, to co-ordinate the regular review and updating of the contingency plans and the state of readiness of the industry's participants, taking full account of changes in the structure of the industry and the addition or departure of individual companies; and to test this and identify any shortcomings through simulation exercises undertaken in conjunction

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with the relevant parts of Government, central and regional, and the Civil Authorities;

to provide Transco and the Network Emergency Co-ordinator (resourced from Transco) with a forum for reviewing the procedures and priorities governing the reinstatement of gas supplies, having regard to the inter-relationships with electricity supplies, and to the trade-offs between the various threats to human life and safety in the state of emergency which would result from a large-scale gas supply failure. Mitigating the risk of a large-scale gas supply failure

working with the DTI, HSE and Ofgem, to provide expert industry-wide advice on factors—including any new or emerging developments—that could lead to large-scale gas supply failures, the related risks, and possible measures for mitigating the risk of such failures. The Membership Is: The membership includes representatives from DTI, Ofgem, HSE, Transco, offshore producers, gas shippers and suppliers, independent gas transporters, consumers, National Grid Company, Scottish Grid and electricity generators.

Buckfastleigh: Broadband Services

The Earl of Northesk asked Her Majesty's Government:

How they intend to link up the school, health centre, town hall and library in Buckfastleigh in Devon to broadband in the absence of any broadband infrastructure serving the town.[HL3448]

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: The UK Broadband Fund was set up to support innovative schemes to meet local requirements to see how we can ensure that as many people and businesses as possible across the UK have access to affordable broadband services.

The South West of England Regional Development Agency put forward an action plan under this fund including a project in Buckfastleigh. The implementation will be taken forward by the agency.

Carbon Savings

Lord Hardy of Wath asked Her Majesty's Government:

What are the estimates for the saving of carbon dioxide from the use of coal-mine methane and from wind power, both at the present time and at the end of the decade.[HL3464]

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: Carbon savings from individual renewable energy technologies and coal-mine methane are not available at present. There are no reliable figures of the amount of coal-mine methane vented at present upon which to base any estimates of emissions savings, although work on this has been contracted. It should be possible in future, once the

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renewables obligation is in place, to calculate the carbon savings by renewable energy as each renewable energy certificate will be assumed to have resulted in a saving of 0.12kg of carbon. The emissions savings resulting from coal-mine methane use are not as well defined, but for each kWh generated would be expected to be considerably higher.

We have estimated that 10 per cent renewables electricity by 2010 will lead to around 2.5 million tonnes of carbon savings a year by 2010. We have no equivalent figure for coal-mine methane as it is not clear how far the industry would have developed by then.

Illegal Meat Import Checks

Lord Marlesford asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many enforcement officers with responsibility for detection and interception of illegal imports of bushmeat and other illegal meat being carried by arriving passengers are currently employed at each of the three London airports; whether dogs are used in the detection of such meat; and whether these enforcement officers are employed in both red and green Customs channels.[HL3400]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty): The current breakdown of local authority enforcement staff undertaking checks on meat and food imports at the London airports is as follows:

	Environmental Health Officers	Official Veterinary Surgeons	Support Staff
Heathrow	10	3	10
Gatwick	9	5	1
Stansted	6	1	—

The majority of checks are undertaken on commercial consignments in the freight examination area.

Targeted checks on passenger's baggage involving enforcement officers are supported by HM Customs officers and may be undertaken in both red and green Customs channels.

Arrangements are being made to undertake a pilot study into the use of detector dogs in Great Britain to track down illegal imports of meat.

Rights of Way

Lord Greaves asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Answer by Lord Whitty on 18 December 2001 (HL Deb, col. 134) that "We expect to announce our intentions soon after the consultation on the draft maps in the first two mapping regions is complete in February next year",

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whether they have yet decided to open up open country and registered common land under Section 2 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 by way of commencement orders on a regional basis as and when the conclusive maps have been published for each region.[HL3480]

Lord Whitty: We are persuaded of the potential advantages to walkers of bringing the right of access into force on a regional basis but need to think further about the practical considerations in respect of, for example, managing access and ensuring that members of the public are properly informed of their rights and responsibilities. We are looking very carefully at this and will make an announcement when we have reached a decision.

Lord Greaves asked Her Majesty's Government:

When they will publish an analysis of responses to the consultation paper on the proposals on local access forums under Sections 94 and 95 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which was published in July 2001 and for which consultation closed on 23 October 2001; and when they intend to issue the draft regulations which the Minister for Rural Affairs said on 20 November 2001 he expected to come into force "early next year" (HC Deb, col. 203W); and[HL3481]

When they intend to publish an analysis of responses to the consultation paper on proposals for regulations on provisional and conclusive maps under Section 11 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which was published on 19 November 2001 and for which consultation closed on 8 February 2002; and when they intend to issue draft regulations.[HL3482]

Lord Whitty: We expect to make regulations in respect of local access forums in May this year. Regulations in respect of provisional and conclusive maps, including appeals against provisional maps, are scheduled to be made in June. An analysis of the responses to each of the preceding consultation papers will be published when the regulations are made.

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