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Written Answers to Questions
Monday 18 November 1991
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Meat Production
Mr. Geraint Howells : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what representations he has made to the National Farmers Unions of England and Scotland and the Farmers Union of Wales to encourage their members to continue producing beef, lamb and pig production to meet consumers' requirements.
Mr. Curry : At the Prime Minister's seminar on food marketing on 15 November my right hon. Friend the Minister announced two important new initiatives to help farmers produce what consumers want. A new group marketing grant, worth £5.4 million over the next three years, is being introduced to encourage groups of farmers to develop and expand. Within the Ministry a new market task force has been set up to identify and disseminate information on broad market opportunities to farmers. All sectors of the industry have welcomed these new initiatives.
I am pleased that the National Farmers Union has also announced a new food from the countryside initiative to bring farmers and customers together, and to help farmers develop the necessary business skills.
The message to livestock and other producers is that they should collaborate and get closer to the market. That will provide opportunities to increase the market share for British food at home and abroad.
Milk
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will pay compensation to commercial producers of sheeps' and goats' milk who are suffering financial hardship.
Set-aside Scheme
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list each of the claims for set-aside which have been scrutinised during 1990-91 giving the location of the farm and the size of payment involved ; and if he will list the cases where the participants failed to receive the payment, with the reasons in each case why they did not comply with their undertakings ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : This information is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Moreover, data identifying individual farms cannot be provided without breach of
confidentiality.
All set-aside claims are properly scrutinised, but it is not my Department's policy to publish details of its inspection arrangements, as this could seriously impede effective enforcement. Inspections in England during the 1990-91
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set-aside year identified 18 serious irregularities and a number of additional cases involving minor breaches of the scheme rules. Payments were withheld or recovered in full or in part in 39 cases.Aerial Photography
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement about his Ministry's aerial photography, including the counties covered, the frequency with which the photographs are taken, what is identified, and to what use the photographs are put.
Mr. Gummer : The aerial photography unit, which is part of the Agricultural Development Advisory Service, undertakes aerial survey work both in support of the activities of my Department and as a commercial service. Aerial surveys have covered sites in all counties in England and Wales. Many sites are photographed only once, others at infrequent intervals. The environmentally sensitive areas have been photographed at three-yearly intervals to assist in my Department's long-term monitoring programme. Other work for my Department is used in a wide range of applications related to environmental monitoring, land use, crop husbandry and disease studies. Commercial applications include photography in connection with land use and planning, coastal and flood protection, conservation and landscape inventories and crop trials.
Property Sales
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list all the properties and their locations which he has sold during 1990-91 ; if he will list in each case their estimated value and the amount realised at the sale ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : Details of the property sold in the period 1 April 1990 to 31 March 1991 are as follows :
Property |<1>Estimated |Sale price
|value
|£ |£
385, Kirkstall road, Leeds |<2>550,000 |550,000
Land at Pill Heath Andover,
Hampshire |<3> |7,000
No. 2, The Cottages, Lee Valley
Experimental Husbandry Farm,
Hertfordshire |59,500 |51,000
No. 1, High Barns, Boxworth,
Cambridgeshire |<4>66,667 |70,000
No. 2, High Barns, Boxworth,
Cambridgeshire |<4>66,667 |67,000
The Hermitage, Batchmere,
West Sussex |<5>65,000 |65,000
Land at Bury Hill, Potton,
Bedfordshire |<6>500,000 |525,000
Notes:
<1> Estimated value when first marketed.
<2> Property sold to the Leeds Development Corporation at price determined by the District Valuer.
<3> Part of a larger piece of land offered for sale. Price agreed by the District Valuer.
<4> One of three identical houses valued together at £200,000.
<5> Property sold to sitting tenant.
<6> Sold by tender.
Surplus property is disposed of in accordance with Treasury guidelines. I am content that the prices achieved for these properties reflect their true open market values.
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Sea Defences
Mr. David Porter : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on his planned allocation of money to Suffolk and Norfolk for river and flood protection and sea defence coast protection, in the light of the autumn statement.
Mr. Curry : The provision for flood and sea defence and arterial drainage underlying the autumn statement announcement will facilitate an increase in grant to the National Rivers Authority in England from £30.1 million in 1991-92 to £37.7 million in 1992-93. This should fund an increasing capital works programme of about £80 million in 1992-93.
In recognition of the particular problems of that area, an increased allocation for capital works of £7 million will be made to the National Rivers Authority for Norfolk and Suffolk and the basic rate of grant in that district will be raised from 45 to 55 per cent., plus the existing 20 per cent. supplement for tidal and sea defence work. The increases in allocation and grant rate are conditional on the local flood defence committee, including county council members, agreeing to increase levies to fund the programme of works. The provision for grants to local authorities, internal drainage boards and maritime district councils in England for flood and coastal defence works amounts to £24.7 million in 1992-93. Such authorities within Norfolk and Suffolk will decide on priorities within their areas of responsibility and any scheme proposed will be considered for approval and grant aid by the Department.
TRANSPORT
Road Closure, Ealing
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will call in the application to Ealing council for the closure of Berkeley avenue from Oldfield lane, North to Greenford road.
Mr. Chope : If a private development requires the closure of a highway it is for the developer to make application to the Secretary of State for Transport for the necessary order under section 247 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. No such application has been made in respect of any development affecting Berkeley avenue.
Vehicle Safety
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he intends to publish the data received by the vehicle inspectorate on the incidence of safety-related defects in motor vehicles manufactured in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Chope : The Department publishes details of safety-related design and manufacturing defects which result in recall campaigns by the vehicle manufacturers. Details are published bi-annually and circulated to all major United Kingdom public libraries, the Consumers Association, trade associations, motoring journals and to the police and local authority trading standards departments.
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Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proposals he has to require motor manufacturers to provide information as to the number of complaints received as to defects in motor vehicles.
Mr. Chope : The Department and the vehicle manufacturers agreed in 1979 that manufacturers would provide information to the Department on safety defects in vehicles and components, under a voluntary code of practice. Since this and subsequent additional codes were put in place, 897 recall campaigns have been initiated by the manufacturers, involving 7.8 million vehicles.
Pedestrian Accidents
Mr. Rees : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what information he has on the proportion of the population in the higher age groups who are statistically shown to be involved in pedestrian accidents while crossing roads.
Mr. Chope : The police complete a standard report form for each injury road accident of which they become aware, in Great Britain. This report includes information on the age and activity of all casualties in those accidents. The table shows the number of people over 60, in five year age bands, who were injured while crossing roads in Great Britain in 1990, the resident population in each of those age bands, and the rate of casualties injured while crossing the road per 100,000 population.
Pedestrian casualties injured while crossing roads:
By age: Great Britain 1990
|Rate per
Number of |Population |100,000
Age |casualties |(thousands)|population
------------------------------------------------------------
60-64 |1,455 |2,828.4 |51
65-69 |1,605 |2,778.2 |58
70-74 |1,681 |2,116.9 |79
75-79 |1,898 |1,830.1 |104
80-84 |1,517 |1,217.4 |125
85 and over |952 |850.3 |112
Pelican Crossings
Mr. Rees : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will arrange for the control times on pelican crossings to be lengthened.
Mr. Chope : The timing of phases at crossings is set on the basis of traffic and pedestrian flows and the width and layout of the crossing. Trials have been carried out with new equipment that provides for the length of the pedestrian crossing phase to meet demand. The results of these trials are being evaluated.
Heathrow Airport
Mr. Pawsey : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Rugby and Kenilworth of 13 November, Official Report, column 522, on directional signing for Heathrow, if he will bring forward the planned 1994 revision to an earlier date.
Mr. Chope : I regret that as the planned revision is a complex project involving the redesign and replacement of 10,000 existing signs, it would not be practical to bring it forward, but if my hon. Friend has any specific problems with signing at Heathrow I shall be pleased to have the matter investigated.
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Freight Operations
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will discuss with the chairman of British Rail the number and location of continental-gauge freight terminals and depots required in the United Kingdom following the opening of the channel tunnel.
Mr. Freeman : British Rail has already announced the locations of the nine intermodal terminals it proposes to use to feed channel tunnel freight on to British Rail's existing track network. These will handle intermodal and other freight traffic which will be moved in wagons compatible with British Rail's existing structure gauge, subject to certain limited gauge enhancements on specific route sections.
Air Traffic Control
Mr. Arbuthnot : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the Civil Aviation Authority has made a further response to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission's report on the CAA's provision of navigation and air traffic control services to civil aircraft published in July 1990 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Rifkind : The Civil Aviation Authority publishes its second, interim, response today. I have arranged for copies to be placed in the Library.
The authority's initial response, made in December 1990, said that the authority had accepted all but one of the MMC's 40
recommendations and that work had already begun on implementing many of them. This work has continued, and the authority has made progress in such important areas as consultation with users on charges and airspace planning ; introducing improvements to project management ; and laying the foundations for more efficient and effective manpower planning.
I shall be keeping in close touch with the chairman of the CAA about the programme of change which the CAA has instituted in response to the MMC's recommendations.
Woolwich Ferry
Mr. Cartwright : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what are the latest available estimates of the number of vehicles using the Woolwich free ferry ; and what were the comparable figures at a similar point in each of the preceding five years.
Mr. Chope : The average number of vehicles carried per day was as follows :