To ask Her Majesty's Government why it took 15 months to publish the data for 2007 in Indicator 6.1.2 (greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture) in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' autumn performance report 2009; and why the data for 2008 will not be available before April 2010. [HL3051]

Indicator 6.1.2 on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture is compiled using statistics from the set of environmental accounts published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which in turn use statistics from the greenhouse gas inventory now published by DECC. The 2007 environmental accounts were published by the ONS in July 2009 and these were then used to update indicator 6.1.2 published in the 2009 autumn performance report in line with previous years. The 2008 data are expected to be available in the summer of 2010 and will be used to update the indicator within the 2010 autumn performance report.

The complex nature of the calculations for both the inventory and the environmental accounts and the timing by which the variety of data sources used in their compilation become available leads to an inevitable delay before indicator 6.1.2 can be published. But we will continue to look for ways to improve the timeliness of the publication of this indicator without compromising its accuracy.