House of Commons Hansard Debates for 24 May 1990

Mr. Maclean : Since ataxia in hunting hounds is not a notifiable disease, no official statistics are available on deaths resulting from it.

The Department is not currently undertaking any research into hound ataxia.

Arctic Foxes

Mrs. Mahon : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food where he obtained the 1987 figures for the numbers of Arctic fox factory farms in England and Wales.

Mr. Maclean : Information on fur farms was collected in 1987 from representatives of the industry for the reviews of the 1982 mink and coypu keeping orders.

Mrs. Mahon : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will enact similar provisions to those in the Northern Ireland Arctic Fox Keeping Order for the rest of the United Kingdom.

Mr. Maclean : The Ministry is considering whether controls on the keeping of destructive non-indigenous animals should be extended to Arctic fox and other species. A long and expensive campaign has saved the Broads from destruction by the coypu and we would not want another destructive pest species to escape and become established in Britain.

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Research and Development

Mr. Andy Stewart : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he has received the third report from the Priorities Board for Research and Development in Agriculture and Food ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Gummer : The Priorities Board for Research and Development in Agriculture and Food has submitted its third report to the Agriculture Ministers and to the chairman of the Agricultural and Food Research Council. We greatly appreciate the work which Dr. Brian Smith and the members of the board have put into their report. The report gives advice to the sponsors about future resource allocations and priorities for the publicly funded agricultural and food research and development effort as a whole. It also discusses a number of matters related to the research and development programme. The board supports the Government's aims to encourage industry to take a greater responsibility for funding near market research and development. This will produce changes to the balance and content of the sponsors' research programmes, which the board has taken into account in making its recommendations on future resource allocations. These changes have also persuaded the board to reclassify the Government's agricultural and food research programme into four categories : natural resources, plants, animals and food. The report recommends that the allocation of expenditure to each sector should be as follows :


                  |Per cent.          

--------------------------------------

Natural resources |12                 

Animals           |38.5               

Food              |15

The sponsors are agreed that, subject to a full consideration of the resource implications, the recommendations should guide the allocation of resources to the future research and development programme. Discussions will be held between the sponsors to plan the implementation of the recommendations.

The sponsors have also agreed that the report should be published. This is now being arranged and advance copies are being placed in the Library of the House.

Agriculture Council

Mr. Butler : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the Brussels Agriculture Council held on 21 and 22 May.

Mr. Curry : I represented the United Kingdom at this meeting. I drew attention to the need for the Community to prepare for the agricultural consequences of German monetary union on 2 July and of German unification thereafter. The Commission undertook to make proposals as appropriate and to put forward a report for the next meeting of the Council.

At my suggestion, it was agreed that the potential consequences for agriculture of the draft proposal to

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protect water from nitrate pollution currently before the Environment Council should be assessed and reported on by agricultural experts. This will help the Environment Council to reach informed decisions on this matter.

On foot and mouth disease a large majority of member states indicated that they were now prepared to harmonise controls on the basis of a slaughter policy, as currently applied in the United Kingdom, rather than a vaccination policy, as currently applied in most continental member states. This represents a significant step towards resolving satisfactorily one potentially difficult problem posed by the single European market.

Ewe Premium

Mr. Amos : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will announce the final rate of ewe premium for the 1989 scheme.

Mr. Curry : I am pleased to say that the European Commission has now set the final rate of ewe premium for the 1989 scheme. The rates per eligible ewe are £6.94 in Great Britain and £12.78 in Northern Ireland, and £5.55 for those animals (Herdwicks and specified breeds of untupped gimmers in parts of Scotland) for which there are special arrangements and which would not otherwise qualify for premium. Producers in less-favoured areas who have already received an advance payment will now be paid the balance, while producers in other areas will receive the full final rate. Payments will be made as soon as possible. The 1989 premium will be worth in total around £140 million to United Kingdom sheep producers, which represents a very significant input to the sheep industry.

Cash Limits

Mr. Andy Stewart : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether it is intended to change the cash limit on any departmental vote for which he has responsibility.

Mr. Curry : Yes. Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the cash limit for class III, vote 4 (other agricultural and food services and support for the fishing industry) will be increased by £2,411,000 from £154,960,000 to £157,371,000 to make provision for payments to the British Society for Horticultural Research. The increase will be fully offset by a corresponding reduction to the cash limit for class III, vote 5 from £287,507,000 to £285,096,000 and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure. The Department's running costs limit will be decreased by £795,000 from £292,837,000 to £292,042,000.

As I announced to the House on 17 October 1989 at column 97, the British Society for Horticultural Research will carry out commissioned research and development on behalf of the Ministry. This work will be funded from class III, vote 4. The reduction in expenditure for class III, vote 5 reflects the savings accruing from the consequential reduction of in-house research and development, and increased receipts for this vote cover the attachment of Ministry staff and facilities to the BSHR.

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Furs (Factory Farming)

Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he has made an assessment of the implications for animal welfare of the procedures carried out in factory farming for furs.

Mr. Maclean : The Farm Animal Welfare Council has undertaken an assessment of fur farming and made a statement of its findings on 4 April 1989.

In addition, officers of the state veterinary service make visits to fur farmes as they do to other livestock farms to undertake welfare inspections. At these visits, the accommodation and management practices are taken into account when assessing the welfare of the animals.

Food Standards Agency

Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will set up an independent food standards agency.

Mr. Maclean : I have no plans to do so.

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Crown Estates Commission

Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will introduce legislation to require the Crown Estates Commission to publish minutes of all meetings and publish all working papers which lead to major policy decisions ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Major : I have been asked to reply.

No. I am satisfied that the provisions of the Crown Estate Act 1961 provide the necessary level of accountability for the Crown Estate Commissioners.

Beef

Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will agree to meet representatives from Mid Glamorgan county council to discuss the consumption of beef.

Mr. David Hunt : I have been asked to reply.

My Department has sent detailed information on this matter to the council. That information is both comprehensive and clear, and there is no need for such a meeting.

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