§ Mr. John BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the mandate of the Standing Committee on agricultural statistics 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 increaseits accountability and transparency to Parliament; and if she will make a statement.[58438]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Standing Committee on Agricultural Statistics was set up by a Council Decision (72/279/EEC) on 31 July 1972. It makes detailed decisions on implementing EU legislation as set out in each case using the delegated authority provided by the EU "Comitology" process.
Together with Member States, the Commission is currently conducting a review to bring existing legislation on the conduct of comitology committees into line with Council Decision 1999/468/EC, to "simplify the requirements for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission". As an obligation to this Decision, the Commission undertook to publish an annual report on the working of committees. The first report was deposited in the Libraries of both Houses on 26 February 2002 (Com (2001) 783 Final).
The Standing Committee on Agricultural Statistics includes representatives from all member states and is chaired by the Commission. Separate meetings are set up for each subject normally linked to the appropriate working group or meeting of officials. The appropriate statisticians from the UK departments attend.
There have been 2 Standing Committee meetings this year. The forthcoming items for decision will include the definition and deadlines for statistics in the forthcoming 2005 EU Structure Survey; the development initiatives on 282W the "Improving Community Agricultural Statistics Programme"; the 2003 survey of ground points across the EU and the rules of procedure of the Standing Committee.
The work on Agricultural Statistics is subject to the Direction of the European Parliament, Council, the Statistical Programme Committee meeting of heads of each National Statistical Services and the Agricultural Statistics Committee Meeting.
It is not possible to separately identify the specific annual cost of the Committee's work to public funds without incurring disproportionate costs.
New or significant changes to EU legislation are already subject to Parliamentary Scrutiny. We provide information on agricultural statistics work in National Statistics reports and plans, which are published, on the Internet.