Environmentally and Socially Responsible Investment (Hansard, 11 April 2002)

§ Malcolm Bruce
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps(a) her Department and (b) the Government have taken to encourage environmentally and socially responsible investments in least developed countries. [46561]

§ Mr. Meacher
There is an increasing understanding by institutional investors and financial service providers of the benefits of environmentally and socially responsible investment. The demand for more disclosure by investors on social and environmental policy has been stimulated by the disclosure requirements of the 2000 amendment to the Pension Act, and the debate about replicating these requirements in other areas.
The Department has taken the lead in working with the UK financial services sector on the "London Principles——finance and insurance for sustainable development". The Principles encompass three key areas: pricing asset and exercising ownership; providing new finance; and risk management. The Principles will be launched later this year as part of the UK's contribution to the World Summit on Sustainable Development. We hope that they will serve as a model for resolutions on financial sustainability at the World Summit.
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We and the Department for International Development are also working with the FORGE consortium of banks and insurance companies to develop management and reporting guidelines on corporate social responsibility for the sector, to follow up on their environmental management guidelines published last year.
The Department for International Development has also undertaken several studies and consultations to identify those tools which most effectively encourage equitable and sustainable investment in developing countries, and the best ways to mainstream them in the investment community. An example is the Just Pensions project which is concerned with encouraging trustees to use their influence to persuade fund managers to invest in socially responsible investment.

§ Malcolm Bruce
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the diseases and infections for which imported livestock is checked; and how many(a) positive results, (b) negative results and (c) dangerous contacts were identified through livestock tests in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [45841]

§ Mr. Morley
[holding answer 25 March 2002]: Livestock are inspected by an official veterinarian of the exporting country immediately prior to export in order to certify that the animals are free of the diseases mentioned in the export health certificate.
Post import checks on livestock are carried out for the following diseases and exposure to infections:
Cattle

Foot and Mouth Disease;

Enzootic bovine leucosis;

Brucellosis;

Warble fly; and

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia.

Sheep and goats

Contagious agalactia;

Brucella ovis;

Brucella melitensis;

Bluetongue.

Pigs

Aujeszky's disease;

Swine vesicular disease;

Classical swine fever.

Other ungulates

Trypanosoma;

Caprine arthritis-encephalitis syndrome;

Internal and external parasites;

Leptospirosis;

Johnes's disease;

Malignant catarrhal fever;

Piroplasmosis;

Yersiniosis.
Tests for other diseases may additionally be made if the veterinarian carrying out the post-import check suspects the presence of other diseases.
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The total number of positive test results on livestock imported into Great Britain for the period 22 March 2001 to 21 March 2002 was 14.
The total number of negative test results on livestock imported into Great Britain for the period 22 March 2001 to 21 March 2002 was 11,207.
No figures are available for dangerous contacts but all suspicious animals are isolated and placed under movement restriction.
All figures are provisional and subject to change.