§ Mr. David ShawTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the work his Department has carried out in the past 12 months in making information about his Department available to the public via the Government world wide web server known as "www.open.gov.uk" and his plans and policies to make additional and new information available electronically on the server in the next 12 months. [34714]
§ Mr. BoswellThe Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food participated from the outset in the Government world wide web, server project. As a result, WWW users can access the UK food and farming in figures pages on the server to retrieve series of agriculture and food data drawn from the Department's major statistical compilations. There are additional pages with background 969W information about the Department's responsibilities, aims and objectives and contacts, including the MAFF helpline which has an e-mail number for communicating with inquirers over the Internet.
The Department is aiming to build on the experience gained through its participation in this project by introducing a dedicated MAFF world wide web server. There are a number of security and technical issues still to be addressed but, when fully implemented, MAFF divisions will be encouraged and supported in the use of the system to disseminate a wider range of information about MAFF services, activities, contacts and publications to WWW users.