To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the effect of a ban on the disposal of fallen stock. [129113]

The Animal By-Products Regulations 2003 permit hunt kennels to continue collecting fallen stock; however they will be required to upgrade to knackers' yard standards if they wish to collect fallen stock for the purposes of feeding to hounds. The effect of a ban on hunting would depend on decisions made by those who currently offer a service and on choices made by farmers leading to takeup of the national scheme. Most hunts already make a charge and there is no reason why such a service should not continue as a business opportunity when hunting wild mammals with dogs is banned.

	DEFRA		CEFAS		CSL		PSD
	FTE	%	FTE	%	FTE	%	FTE	%
Scotland	77.6	1.17	0.0	0.00	11.0	1.70	0.0	0.00
England, excluding G London	3,707.4	56.14	524.7	100.00	636.9	98.30	174.2	100.00
Greater London	2,680.8	40.59	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00
Wales	135.2	2.05	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00
Northern Ireland	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00
Overseas	3.0	0.05	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00
Total	6,603.9	100.00	524.7	100.00	647.9	100.00	174.2	100.00

	RPA		VLA		VMD
	FTE	%	FTE	%	FTE	%
Scotland	0.0	0.00	44.0	3.40	0.0	0.00
England, excluding G London	3,370.9	99.94	1,218.3	94.15	119.3	100.00
Greater London	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00
Wales	0.0	0.00	31.7	2.45	0.0	0.00
Northern Ireland	2.0	0.06	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00
Overseas	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.0	0.00
Total	3,372.9	100.00	1,294.0	100.00	119.3	100.00

Due to the complexity of the department and the wide range of business areas that it covers, a break down of these figures in terms of responsibilities that apply to geographical areas could be provided only at disproportionate cost.The following non-departmental public bodies and independent statutory bodies are under the remit of Defra: