Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

HC Deb 19 September 2002 vol 390 cc277-8W

Mr. Sheerman

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) if her

Mr. Morley

The marketing of food products is a commercial matter for the companies concerned. But we have extended the remit of the Milk Development Council to allow it to undertake generic promotional activities, funded by levy payers.

Jeremy Corbyn

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what figures she collates on the level of the urban fox population; and what the population was in each of the past five years. [71115]

Mr. Meacher

[holding answer 19 July 2002]: The Department does not routinely collate data on the levels of urban fox populations, but commissions research into the subject from time to time. A report issued in 1997 estimated the UK urban fox population at 33,000. In a survey of 139 councils conducted in 2001, most expressed the opinion that the urban fox population density in their area had risen.

The Department holds no figures on the levels of urban fox populations for each of the past five years.