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Animal Carcases
Mr. McKelvey : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will provide financial assistance to farmers to deal with the problem of disposal of animal carcases.
Mr. Maclean : No. As with all other industries it is the responsibility of the livestock sector to find ways of handling its waste within existing health and environmental controls.
State Veterinary Service
Mr. McAvoy : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give the number of people employed in the state veterinary service in 1980 and 1990.
Mr. Gummer : The number of people employed in the state veterinary service on 1 January 1980 was 1,652 and on 1 January 1990, 1,402.
Fishing, North-East Scotland
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he next intends to visit the north-east of Scotland to study the local fishing industry.
Mr. Curry : I shall meet the Scottish Fishermen's Federation in advance of the next Council of Fisheries
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Ministers. My right hon. Friend the Minister visited Scotland last week and met fishermen in the course of his tour.Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
Mr. Pike : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what recent representations his Department has received on methods of disposal of bovine spongiform encephalopathy-infected carcases.
Mr. Maclean : We receive a number of representations on methods of disposal of carcases affected by BSE.
Birds (Imports)
Mr. Oppenheim : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on his recent decision to suspend imports of captive birds from Tanzania.
Mr. Maclean : In my reply of 20 February to the hon. Member for Harrow, West (Mr. Hughes), Official Report, column 166, I explained that veterinary officials from the Ministry had visited several major exporting countries in order to impress upon their veterinary authorities the need to fulfil our import requirements and to follow International Air Transport Association standards during flights to the United Kingdom. I also made it clear that we would cease to authorise the import of birds from any country which failed to co-operate in implementing our requirements.
The issue of licences for import of captive birds from Tanzania was suspended because of the failure, despite numerous reminders, of the authorities there to respond to our request to send a veterinary official of the Department to discuss with them various animal health and welfare matters, the standard of health certification and the conditions under which future imports of captive birds would take place.
We have recently had a positive response from the authorities in Tanzania and one of our veterinary officials is arranging to make a visit this month. We have decided that, until we receive his report and are satisfied that imports of captive birds from Tanzania can take place under satisfactory health and welfare conditions, it would not be appropriate for the suspension of the issue of import licences to be lifted.
Mrs. Ann Taylor : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the number of humming birds imported into the United Kingdom in 1988 and 1989, indicating in each case the number dead on arrival and the number of deaths while in quarantine.
Mr. Maclean : The information is given below. Copies of the reports from which the figures are taken, "Imports of Birds--Mortality Statistics from Quarantine Returns", have been placed in the Library of the House.
|1988 |1989
--------------------------------------------------------
Humming birds imported<1> |128 |158
Found dead on arrival |24 |2
(Percentage dead on arrival) |(18.75)|(1.26)
Died in quarantine |62 |51
(Percentage died in quarantine) |(48.44)|(32.28)
<1> Includes all species in the family Trochilidae (
Humming birds).
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Mr. Gould : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many (i) green-cheeked Amazon parrots and (ii) grey parrots were imported into the United Kingdom in each year since 1988.
Mr. Maclean : The information is given below. Copies of the reports from which the figures are taken, "Importation of Birds--Mortality Statistics from Quarantine Returns", have been placed in the Library of the House. Figures for the year 1990 are not yet available.
Number of
|birds imported
|1988 |1989
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(I) Green-cheeked Amazona (Amazon
Viridigenalis) |22 |17
(II) Grey parrot (Psittacus Erithacus) |5,565 |6,043
Mr. Ron Davies ; To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will estimate the annual running cost of the regional veterinary investigations centres relating to investigations of mortalities among imported birds.
Mr. Maclean : The estimated annual running cost of the veterinary investigation centres relating to investigations of mortalities among imported birds for the year April 1990 to March 1991 is of the order of £350,000 at full economic cost.
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his estimate of the number of imported wild birds which died after leaving quarantine for the most recent period for which data are available.
Mr. Maclean : Data on the number of imported birds which die after leaving quarantine are not collected by the Ministry.
Common Agricultural Policy
Mr. Wray : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what has been, for each year since 1984, the cost to the European Community of the common agricultural policy.
Mr. Gummer : Expenditure from the European Community budget on the common agricultural policy was :
0 Year |billion ecu|£ billion ------------------------------------------------ 1984 |19.0 |11.1 1985 |20.5 |12.0 1986 |22.9 |14.8 1987 |23.8 |17.2 1988 |28.8 |19.6 1989 |27.3 |17.9 <1>1990 |28.2 |19.7 <1> provisional
Mr. Teddy Taylor : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps have been taken by the Council of Agriculture Ministers to ensure that spending is maintained within the legal limits in the current calendar year ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Curry : The Agriculture Council is currently considering agricultural price proposals for the 1991-92 marketing years which are intended to keep CAP expenditure within the agricultural guideline in 1991.
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Multi-annual Guidance Programme
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proposals he has to bring into effect in England the new multi-annual guidance programme from the European Commission.
Mr. Curry : No such programme yet exists.
Agricultural Land (Ownership)
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what percentage of agricultural land in England and Wales is owned by overseas investors ; and if he will list (a) the countries concerned and (b) the percentage of land owned by each.
Mr. Curry : I regret that no official statistics are available on such ownership of agricultural land.
Whaling
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if his Department has commissioned or published any research regarding the penthrite explosive harpoon method of whaling.
Mr. Curry : No, the United Kingdom ceased whaling in 1963. We have examined the reports made to the International Whaling Commission and see the need for a further review.
Flavoured Potato Crisps
Mr. Wilshire : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to resist the European Commission's proposal affecting the sale of flavoured potato crisps after 1992.
Mr. Curry : We are pressing the Commission to accept the amendment to that proposal which was put forward by the European Parliament. We shall take the matter up again in discussions in the Council if the Commission's revised proposals do not include the provision we are seeking.
Gumboro Disease
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the incidence of Gumboro disease in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Maclean : As Gumboro disease is not notifiable, accurate figures on its incidence are not available. Latest estimates suggest that there has been a slight improvement in the situation in the last year.
Sweeteners
Mr. Teddy Taylor : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he will make a statement outlining the procedures which Her Majesty's Government will be subject to in raising at the European Council of Ministers the issue of the exclusion of snack foods from the directive on sweeteners ; and when the meeting will take place ;
(2) what is the timetable of further procedures which the draft directive on sweeteners in food will undergo before coming into effect.
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Mr. Maclean : The proposed directive on the use of sweeteners in foods is subject to the procedure for consultation with the European Parliament laid down in the Single European Act, a copy of which is in the Library of the House. Following the European Parliament's first opinion, the Commission is now engaged in preparing a revised proposal for the Council. The Council will then seek to adopt a common position by qualified majority, after which the Parliament will have three months to reconsider it. Depending on the outcome of the Parliament's consideration, the Council may adopt the proposal, or the Commission may again amend it within one month. The Council must then act within three months or the proposal lapses. No more precise timetable can be given.Quarantine Stations
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many Ministry-approved quarantine stations are owned or managed by importers or traders in wildlife.
Mr. Maclean : All Ministry-approved quarantine premises, whether for foot and mouth disease, rabies or Newcastle disease, are privately owned, but information as to owners/ownership is not available in the precise form requested. However, in 1990, the Ministry approved 137 premises in England for the quarantine of small mammals, other than domestic dogs and cats, imported under the rabies import controls. In the same year the Ministry issued a total of 644 import licences in respect of consignments of captive birds to be landed in England. In
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each case the quarantine premises would have been subject to prior inspection and approval by the Ministry before the issue of a licence. Some of the bird quarantine premises will have been used, and thus approved, more than once during 1990.Animals (Live Exports)
Mr. Roy Hughes : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many representations he has received concerning the export of live horses and ponies ; and what action he proposes to strengthen European legislation on this matter.
Mr. Maclean : The Government continue to receive many representations on this subject. Negotiations have recently resumed on the Commission's proposals for a new Community regulation on protection of animals during transport. The Government are pressing hard for the retention of measures which will prevent the export of horses and ponies for slaughter.
Nitrogens
Mr. Colvin : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has for reducing nitrogen use in farming ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Curry : We continually emphasise the need for farmers to avoid nitrogen fertiliser applications beyond good agricultural practice and we are pleased to note the reduction in autumn and total applications to key crops that has occurred since 1985.
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