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1285W
Written Answers
6 JUNE 2013
Written Answers
1286W
cows or heifers. The Secretary of State for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs may by order add or remove
any breed from the list.
There are no prohibitions on other specific breeds of
cattle, as records kept by the Health and Safety Executive
indicate that there is no evidence that certain cattle
breeds are more dangerous to the public than others.
Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act
1974 requires farmers to ensure, so far as is reasonably
practicable, they do not put members of the public at
risk by their work activities. This section applies to
keeping any cattle that could be a known risk where
there is public access.
Floods: Greater London
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he
has made of the number of homes in London at risk of
(a) flash flooding and (b) other forms of flooding;
and if he will make a statement. [158434]
Richard Benyon: Flash flooding is caused by an intense
rainfall event, and in London this would be experienced
as surface water flooding. Drain London (the Greater
London Authority group) has estimated that up to 1.3
million properties are in areas at risk of surface water
flooding from a rainfall event with 0.5% probability of
flooding.
The Environment Agency’s National Assessment of
Flood Risk, states that in London 534,804 properties
are at risk from tidal and/or fluvial (river) flooding.
Food: Procurement
Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion
of food purchased by central Government Departments
was procured from UK food producers in the latest
period for which figures are available. [156804]
Richard Benyon: DEFRA does not hold figures relating
to the source of food purchased by central Government
directly or indirectly through its contractors. Figures
relating to the Department’s own contract show that
between July and December last year 100% of fresh
beef, fresh lamb and fresh pork (apart from gammon)
was UK sourced or produced. Gammon was EU sourced.
We do not at present have information relating to other
produce.
Raves
Andy Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what system his
Department has put in place to monitor the number of
illegal raves taking place on farms; and what advice his
Department gives to farmers and local police forces on
the prevention of illegal raves. [158052]
Richard Benyon: DEFRA does not have a system in
place to monitor the number of illegal raves taking
place on farms; there are sufficient legislative controls
in place at a local level to deal with these illegal events.
We do not give advice to farmers or local police on the
prevention of illegal raves; dealing with them is an
operational matter for the police and relevant local
authorities.
Recycling
Mrs Main: To ask the Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what procedures
are in place to allow the Environment Agency to
inspect sites with recycling permits. [153915]
Richard Benyon [holding answer 13 May 2013]: The
Environment Agency has a duty to carry out appropriate
periodic inspections of waste recycling facilities. It adopts
a risk-based approach to inspection and other forms of
compliance assessment and does so based on an assessment
of the nature, scale and location of the activity and any
previous compliance history. The Environment Agency
has powers of entry to the sites it regulates.
Copies of all inspection records are provided to the
site operator and also placed on a public register held
by the Environment Agency.
Regulation
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (1) what processes his Department
has put in place to (a) monitor, (b) collate cost information
on, (c) review and (d) respond to requests to amend or
revoke regulations introduced by his Department;
[155794]
(2) what the title was of each set of regulations
introduced by his Department in each month since May
2010; and which of those regulations have been (a)
subject to the (i) one in one out and (ii) one in two out
procedure and (b) (i) revoked and (ii) amended;
[155816]
(3) if he will provide the estimated cost of each
regulation introduced by his Department since May
2010; and what the estimated benefits of each regulation
(a) amended and (b) revoked were. [155960]
Richard Benyon: DEFRA introduced 192 statutory
instruments between May 2010 and 30 April 2013 but
no primary legislation. In addition, 211 regulations
were revoked either in whole or in part. A list of these
has been placed in the Library of the House.
Details of the costs to business are set out in the
individual Impact Assessments which can be found on:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk
where they are linked to the legislation.
Not all regulations require an Impact Assessment
and therefore no costs are available for these regulations.
Those regulations annotated with * denote those which
did not require an Impact Assessment.
Regulations that have a direct cost to business and
are in scope of one-in, one-out (OIOO) and one-in,
two-out (OITO) are published in Departments’six monthly
statements of new regulation (SNR). These are available
from BIS here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reducing-the-impactof-regulation-on-business/supporting-pages/operating-a-onein-two-out-rule-for-business-regulation