HC Deb 19 April 2004 vol 420 cc148-9W
Mr. Gummer

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the(a) funding and (b) resources provided for the peat replacement section of her Department. [163893]

Mr. Bradshaw

Since April 2002 the Department has provided some £15.97 million, and over the next two years will make available a further £3.01 million to English Nature, to support the conservation of peat resources by bringing to an end commercial peat extraction which was threatening three important nature conservation sites in the north of England.

We have also provided funding to the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to enable them to carry out work to develop markets for composted materials, which can be used as alternative growing media. The total budget for WRAP's Kerbside Collection and Organics Market Development Programme is £14.9 million spread over the financial years 2003–04, 2004–05 and 2005–06.

Staff resources involved in work on peat replacement issues represent a proportion of a single staff year, linked to broader biodiversity aims as set out in Working with the Grain of Nature—a Biodiversity Strategy for England. The team concerned will have some increase in administration resource in 2004–05 and we are considering how best to apply this.

Mr. Gummer

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the figures for progress on peat replacement for 2003 will be published. [164248]

Mr. Bradshaw

The latest information on monitoring of peat and alternative products for growing media and soil improvers in the UK was published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in 2003. My Department now has responsibility for this issue. We are considering arrangements for a further monitoring exercise later this year with a view to publishing the data in 2005.

In the meantime we have commissioned ADAS to produce a report this summer which will provide details of the current use of peat and growing media alternatives in the commercial horticulture sector in England.