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4 Jun 2008 : Column WA51



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Written Answers

Wednesday 4 June 2008

Agriculture: Foot and Mouth Disease

Lord Taylor of Holbeach asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker): The package of measures announced on 8 October 2007 aimed at helping farmers most affected by the outbreak of foot and mouth disease were subject to the European Union's state aid rules. The Lisbon treaty does not change these rules or the requirement for member states to comply with them.

Agriculture: Pesticides

Lord Willoughby de Broke asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker): The Council of Ministers adopted a common position on a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action to achieve a sustainable use of pesticides. The Council also took stock of progress on a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market.

Airports: Heathrow

Lord Bradshaw asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Bassam of Brighton: There was a significant downward trend in annual mean concentrations of nitrous oxides (NOx) at the airfield perimeter in the period 1993 to 2004, and a small downward trend in nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Concentrations of particulates (PM10) remained broadly constant over the period

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2000 to 2004. These and other results were set out in the report of the Heathrow Air Quality Technical Panels in July 2006 published by the Department for Transport and available on its website at www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/environmentalissues/heathrowsustain/. Our recent consultation on adding capacity at Heathrow airport shows that concentrations of all these pollutants around the airport are predicted to be within allowable limits in the event of further development.

Airports: Iris Recognition

Lord Marlesford asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Bassam of Brighton: The iris recognition entry system (IRIS) is available at Heathrow airport terminals 1 to 5, Gatwick South and North, Manchester airport terminals 1 and 2 and Birmingham.

By 14 May 2008, 207,502 persons had registered on the IRIS scheme barrier crossings for the past 12 months are as follows:

PortNumber of barrier crossings for the past 12 months (April 07-April 08)

Heathrow terminal 1

164,061

Heathrow terminal 2

106,694

Heathrow terminal 3

180,643

Heathrow terminal 4

134,313

Heathrow terminal 5

22,356

Total for Heathrow

608,067

Manchester TN1

18,728

Manchester TN2

15,310

Total for Manchester airport

34,038

Gatwick North

78,180

Gatwick South

50,165

Total for Gatwick airport

12,8345

Birmingham

13,024

Total for 10 barriers

783,474

Animal Welfare: Wild Birds

Lord Moran asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker): My department will publish an impact assessment to accompany any statutory instrument that may amend Schedule 4.

Until a decision has been made on how to amend Schedule 4, it is not possible to say when the impact assessment will be prepared.



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Lord Moran asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Rooker: My department has no plans to carry out DNA testing on all birds that may be removed from Schedule 4. The department has no evidence to suggest that the population of birds currently listed in Schedule 4 is other than from primarily legitimate sources. The costs of DNA testing the whole captive population would be prohibitively expensive and would not be justified by any possible enforcement or conservation benefit. Any DNA testing to be carried out by Animal Health will be based on a risk and intelligence-led approach.

Modern breeding techniques use artificial insemination from a variety of possible male donors. The movement and death of many of the birds involved in this process means that any comprehensive testing scheme for all birds subject to registration would simply not be logistically possible.

Lord Moran asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Rooker: The prohibition on the import of wild birds into the EU was extended in July 2007 and with this prohibition likely to remain in force for the foreseeable future the situation in the commercial trade of wild birds has changed. My department therefore revised the criteria for the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) assessment of species to be listed in Schedule 4. The list of species provided by the JNCC was considered in terms of the proportionality of the burden that registration of these species would place on keepers, balancing any conservation benefit that may arise from registration against the regulatory burden imposed by registration.

Lord Moran asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Rooker: The UK CITES Management Authority (UKMA) makes every effort to ascertain the legality of acquisition of a bird before issuing a transaction specific certificate. However, if information came to the attention of the UKMA after issuing a certificate which led it to doubt the veracity of the original application, it would trace the ownership via the name

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and address in box 1 “holder”, as the certificate is re-issued every time the bird is used on a commercial basis by a new keeper. Applications for certificates will also contain details of parent birds, if known.

Lord Moran asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Rooker: Of the 12 species originally proposed by the JNCC for listing in Schedule 4, nine are non-EU species. Animal Health has issued CITES permits for six species (red-browed amazon; red-tailed amazon; hyacinth macaw; blue-throated macaw; red vented/Philippine cockatoo; and Bali starling) in the past 10 years, indicating that these species have been kept in captivity in the UK.

The EU ban on wild bird imports has meant that, other than birds imported for conservation programmes, only captive-bred birds from approved breeding establishments have been permitted for import into the EU. Any import of wild non-EU birds would be contrary to the ban and CITES regulations. I consider that these regulations maintain a satisfactory level of control on any trade in the nine species, and there is no evidence to suggest that these controls do not work.

I do not consider that the listing of the nine non-EU species in Schedule 4 in England would have any effect on any illegal take of these species that may occur from the wild in third countries.

Armed Forces: Pay

Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): The Government's acceptance of all the recommendations contained in the 2008 report of the Armed Forces' Pay Review Body was announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 7 February 2008. The decision to abolish the 10p starting rate of income tax was first announced in the 2007 Budget speech on 21 March 2007.



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Climate Change: Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Lord Dykes asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Baroness Vadera): BERR has regular contact with the UK aluminium industry's trade association, Aluminium Federation (ALFED) and UK aluminium companies such as Anglesey Aluminium. We have had insight through the data provided by the aluminium industry on the positive measures they are taking to reduce CO2 emissions.

We understand that the EU aluminium industry has reduced its total direct CO2 emissions from primary aluminium smelters by 49 per cent and its Perflouro carbon (PFC) emissions by 83 per cent between 1990 and 2005*. UK primary aluminium smelters are at or close to world leading CO2 efficiency for the technology employed. The sector as a whole is increasing international focus on the potential of industry sectoral agreements or approaches in delivering global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy: Nuclear Material

Lord Vinson asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Bach: No decision has yet been taken on the future of the UK's stockpile of nuclear materials.

Energy: Oil Prices

Lord Berkeley asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Bach: The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform does not publish oil price projections. It publishes oil, gas and coal future price assumptions for the period till 2020, which are disseminated throughout Whitehall and where relevant are used by government departments in their analytical work.



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The latest version of BERR's future fossil fuel price assumptions were published this month, following a consultation published in January. In order to capture some of the uncertainty around future oil prices, there are four illustrative scenarios: low, central, high and high-high. Further details are available at the following links at www.berr.gov.uk/energy/environment/projections /recent/page2639.html and www.berr.gov.uk/files/file46071.pdf.


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