To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many regulations originating from the EU have been implemented by the Department over the last five years. [120848]

Regulations are, in general, directly applicable in the member states, without the need for implementation in national law.The total number of EC Council Regulations made in areas covered by this Department and its predecessors over each of the last five years is estimated to be:

	Number of EC Council Regulations
	Regulations
1999	42
2000	28
2001	41
2002	42
2003 (up to and including June)	19

It should be noted that many of these are small or technical regulations to amend, implement or indeed repeal existing measures.Details of all Regulations adopted can be found on the Eur-Lex database available on the European Union's website.