Ruddy Duck (Hansard, 6 December 1999)

§ Mr. Menzies Campbell
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what the direct cost is to his Department of each ruddy duck shot this season as part of the Central Science Laboratory's culling programme. [99592]

§ Mr. Mullin
The cost of the control trial is approximately £800,000 over four financial years. The aims of the control trail are to test the feasibility of eradicating the UK's population of ruddy duck within ten years, determining the financial cost of such a programme and indicating the number of birds needed to be culled each year to achieve this.
Additionally, the control trial aims to identify the factors which will impact on any national programme, such as whether compulsory access to land would be necessary, the distribution and numbers of ducks at various sites, methods of control dependent upon differing habitats and the number of visits needed to individual sites. Due to the many varied aspects and requirements of this control trial, a cost of controlling each individual duck was not requested from the contractors.

§ Mr. Menzies Campbell
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many ruddy duck have been shot by the Central Science Laboratory this season. [99598]

§ Mr. Mullin
The control trial is being undertaken in three areas of the country: Western Midlands, Anglesey where the control is all year round, and Fife, where the control is post-season only. The control trial does not focus on the numbers of birds culled, it looks at the wider picture of how the control is progressing given the various conditions, such as habitat, numbers of birds at each site, migratory movements, access to land, and number of site visits. However, between March and end of September 1999, with control only taking place in two of the regions, 423W over 12 per cent. of the total national ruddy duck population was culled. At the conclusion of the first year, the contractors will produce a detailed report one aspect of which will be the number of birds culled.