Waste Management

Chris Huhne
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many civil servants are working on policy on aerobic composting, broken down by grade; and if he will make a statement.

Barry Gardiner
No DEFRA officials work exclusively on aerobic composting. However, a number of officials in the Waste Strategy, Waste Management, Air and Environment Quality, Waste Implementation Programme, and Endemic Diseases divisions work on issues relating to aerobic composting. These issues include policy and targets, the regulatory system for the composting process and its outputs, the demonstration of new composting technologies and animal by-product processing.