§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the mandate 911W of the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Welfare is; how many times it has met over the last 12 months; what the UK representation on it is; what the annual cost of its work is to public funds; if she will list the items currently under its consideration; if she will take steps to increase its accountability and transparency to Parliament; and if she will make a statement. [61693]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Welfare (SCAHAW) is an advisory committee established under Council Decision 97/579/EC of 28 August 1997.
The committee has six scheduled plenary meetings a year. In addition there are also six scheduled subcommittee meetings dealing with animal health and animal welfare. The 16 members of the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Welfare do not represent their countries; rather they attend as individual experts.
The committee has no legislative function; it provides authoritative scientific advice to the Commission. This advice is published.
The members' travel expenses and travel costs are reimbursed by the European Commission.
The sub-committee on animal health deals with scientific and technical questions concerning all aspects of animal health, hygiene, animal diseases and therapies, including zones of non-food origin and zootechnics. The sub-committee on animal welfare deals with scientific and technical questions concerning the protection of animals, notably in regard to animal husbandry, herd management, transport, slaughter and experimentation.
Information relating to the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Welfare can be found on the following websites: http://europa.eu.int//comm/food/fs/sc; http://europa.eu.int//comm/food/fs/sc/scah/index—en.html.
§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the mandate of the EU Implementation Committee for Spirit Drinks is; how many times it has met over the last 12 months; when it is next due to meet; what the United Kingdom representation on it is; whether experts nominated by the Scottish Executive(a) have been and (b) are members of it; and if she will make a statement. [62921]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Spirit Drinks Implementation Committee (SDIC) is mandated by council regulation 1576/89 and is responsible for the implementation of the general rules on the definition, description and presentation of spirit drinks as laid down in that regulation. It considers draft Commission legislation and gives its formal opinion on Commission proposals.
SDIC has met twice during the last 12 months. It is next due to meet on 17 July 2002. One DEFRA official is expected to attend the meeting.
UK representation varies according to the agenda for each meeting and may include members of the Scottish Executive (and other devolved administrations) where there are items of sufficient interest. Members of the Scottish Executive did not attend the two SDIC meetings held over the past 12 months.
912W
§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the mandate of the EU Committee on Geographical Indications and Protected Designations of Origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs is; how many times it has met over the last 12 months; when it is next due to meet; what the United Kingdom representation on it is; whether experts nominated by the Scottish Executive(a) have been and (b) are members of it; and if she will make a statement. [62916]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Regulatory Committee on geographical indications and protected designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs has met three times over the last 12 months. The date and time of the next meeting is unknown at this stage. Its mandate is laid down in Article 15 of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2081/92. Its activities include helping the Commission to decide on the registration of protected food names and to draw up Commission regulations relating to the operation of the scheme.
UK representation varies according to the agenda for each meeting and may include members of the Scottish Executive and other devolved Administrations where there are items of sufficient interest. If Scottish Executive colleagues do not attend, they work closely with DEFRA officials to ensure that Scottish interests are fully taken into account.
§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the mandate of the EU Joint Meetings of Management and Regulatory Committees in the field of agriculture is; how many times such meetings have taken place over the last 12 months; when it is next due to meet; what the United Kingdom representation on it is; whether experts nominated by the Scottish Executive(a) have been and (b) are members of it; and if she will make a statement. [62922]
§ Mr. MorleyThere are many management and regulatory committees in the field of agriculture whose mandates stem from individual pieces of Council legislation relevant to those sectors. Details of the past and next meetings of these committees and any involvement of the Scottish Executive could be assembled only at disproportionate cost.
§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the mandates of(a) the EU Committee on conservation, characterisation, collection and utilisation of genetic resources in agriculture is; how many times it has met over the last 12 months; when it is next due to meet; what the United Kingdom representation on it is; whether experts nominated by the Scottish Executive (a) have been and (b) are members of it; and if she will make a statement. [62924]
§ Mr. MorleyThe purpose of the Committee on the conservation, characterisation, collection and utilisation of genetic resources in agriculture is to advise the Commission on draft measures made under Council Regulation 1467/94 on:
- (a) assisting the co-ordination, at Community level, of certain national measures for the conservation, characterisation, collection and utilisation of genetic resources in agriculture to permit the rational organisation of the means employed within the Community and the efficient utilisation of the results and to achieve an approach in line with the aims of the Common Agricultural Policy.
913W - (b) the development and implementation of programmes of measures for the conservation, characterisation, collection and utilisation of genetic resources in agriculture at Community level to support or supplement action taken in the member states; and
- (c) other relevant questions.
Regulation 1467/94 established a programme for the conservation. characterisation, collection and utilisation of genetic resources in agriculture for a period of five years. The Commission has made proposals for a successor regulation, which is currently under consideration.
The Committee has met once in the last 12 months. It was attended by officials from my Department. No decision has been made regarding the date of any future meeting. UK representation varies according to the agenda for each meeting and may include members of the Scottish Executive and other devolved Administrations where they consider that there are items of sufficient interest.
§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the mandates of(a) the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund Committee and (b) the working party on irregularities are; how many times they have met over the last 12 months; when they are next due to meet; what the UK representation on them is; whether experts nominated by the Scottish Executive (i) have been and (ii) are members of them; and if she will make a statement. [62923]
§ Mr. MorleyThe European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund Committee was set up under Council Regulation 17/64 EEC on the conditions for granting aid from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund. Provisions which currently define the role of the Committee, confer powers on the Commission and establish rules for consultation and adoption of legislation are contained in Articles 11 to 15 of Council Regulation 1258/99 on the financing of the common agricultural policy.
The Committee has both voting and non-voting functions. The procedures for adoption of legislation by the Committee are set out in Article 13 of Regulation 1258/99. This is a management committee procedure (variant IIa). The voting procedure is applied to regulations made under Articles 4 and 5 of Regulation 1258/99 (essentially concerned with accreditation of paying agencies and submission of annual CAP accounts). In addition, a number of other regulations require the EAGGF Committee to express an opinion via Article 13 procedures, in particular on measures adopted under the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS), some horizontal regulations, eg on calculating the costs of financing intervention measures, and certain commodity regime provisions which involve the grant of aid from EAGGF funds (in the latter case the sectoral management committee normally sit as a joint management committee with the EAGGF Committee).
The EAGGF Committee may also be consulted in circumstances set down in Article 14 of Regulation 1258/99. This provides for the Fund Committee to be consulted:
in cases where provision is made for it to be consulted;for the assessment of the Fund's credits to be entered in the Commission's estimate for the coming financial year and, if necessary. on additional estimates;914Won draft proposals from the Commission to the Council concerning the application of Regulation 1258/99 and on draft reports on the Fund to be submitted to the Council.The Committee may also examine any other question referred to it by its chairman either on its own initiative or at the request of a representative of a member state. It should be informed regularly of the activities of the Fund. Consultation is required by Article 6 of the Regulation (essentially concerning payment of monthly advances from the Fund and decisions on clearance of annual CAP accounts). Consultation does not involve a vote.
The Committee has met 13 times over the past 12 months. The next meeting is on 18 July. The UK representation on the Committee is led by DEFRA, and the UK Co-ordinating Body usually also attend. Additional UK representation varies according to the agenda for each meeting and may include members of the Scottish Executive and other devolved Administrations where there are items of sufficient interest. Members of the Scottish Executive have attended two meetings over the past 12 months.
The Irregularities and Mutual Assistance Working Group is a technical sub-group of COCOLAF (Advisory Committee for the Co-ordination of Fraud Prevention). This working group looks at issues arising from irregularities within EAGGF guarantee section schemes. This working group is chaired by OLAF (European Anti-Fraud Office), which operates under an independent director-general.
This working group met once in the last 12 months, in April 2002. It is due to meet again after the summer break.
The UK representation on the working group is led by DEFRA, however the total representation depends on the agenda. A briefing meeting, organised by DEFRA, is usually held before the working group to discuss agenda items and decide on representation. The Rural Payments Agency (responsible for submitting irregularities on behalf of all UK paying agencies) are invited to attend as well as Treasury, Customs and Excise etc., and various other Departments who may have an interest in an agenda item. No expert nominated by the Scottish Executive attended the meeting last year.
§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the mandate of the EU committee on organic production of agricultural products is; how many times it has met over the last 12 months; when it is next due to meet; what the United Kingdom representation on it is; whether experts nominated by the Scottish Executive(a) have been and (b) are members of it; and if she will make a statement. [62912]
§ Mr. MorleyThe mandate of the Regulatory Committee on Organic Farming is set out in Article 14 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91. Standard rules of procedure were adopted by the Commission on 31 January 2001 in accordance with Council Regulation 1999/468/EC.
The Regulatory Committee on Organic Farming met four times in the last 12 months and is due to meet next on 9 June. The UK is represented by officials from DEFRA but officials from the devolved Administrations are kept fully informed of the progress of the committee's 915W work. In the last 12 months DEFRA officials also attended a further 24 out of the 26 meetings held of the committee's associated working groups.