To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on how many occasions in each of the last five years his Department was the subject of a case raised by the European Commission of infringement of European Law; to which directives such infringements were related in each year; and what fines the UK was required to pay in each case. (138709)

Between 1 January 2003 and 18 May 2007, DEFRA was the lead Department for 94 infringement proceedings initiated by the European Commission.

A member state can be infracted for a number of different reasons falling into the following categories:

(i) late transposition;

(ii) poor transposition; and

(iii) implementation issues.

A list of all infringements initiated by the European Commission against the UK can be found on the European Union website. The UK has never been fined.