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Official Hospitality
Mr. Tony Banks: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much was spent on official hospitality by his Department and all associated agencies in the financial year 1995-96. [28578]
Mr. Willetts: Expenditure on official hospitality by the Cabinet Office, including the Office of Public Service, and its executive agencies, excluding HMSO and the Buying Agency, in the financial year to 31 March 1996 is estimated to be £53,900. This figure includes total annual expenditure of £5,000 on official hospitality by the Security and Facilities Agency, responsibility for which transferred to the Office of Public Service from the Department of the Environment on 1 January 1996.
Expenditure by HMSO and the Buying Agency, both of which have a different accounting year, was 38,500 and 4,000 respectively, covering the calendar year to 31 December 1995. Responsibility for TBA transferred to the Office of Public Service from the Department of the Environment on 1 January 1996.
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Young Bulls
Mr. David Nicholson: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what intervention proposals he has for young bulls aged around 12 months; what representations he has had on this matter; and if he will make a statement. [24465]
Mrs. Browning: There have been several representations on this matter, as a result of which young bulls were, at our request, added to the list of animals the meat of which is currently eligible to be sold into intervention in the UK. To date, intervention tenders for more than 500 tonnes of UK young bull beef have been accepted for purchase into intervention.
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Cattle Herds
Mr. Welsh: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the total number of (a) dairy and (b) beef cattle in England at the latest available date. [28144]
Mrs. Browning: The latest figures available are from the 1995 December agriculture survey--1 December:
| Thousands | |
|---|---|
| Total breeding herd | |
| Dairy herd | 1,838 |
| Beef herd | 798 |
| Total heifers in calf | |
| Dairy herd | 322 |
| Beef herd | 111 |
| Total other cattle and calves | |
| 3,591 | |
| Total cattle and calves | 6,661 |
Totals may not necessarily agree with the sum of their components due to rounding.
Please note that "other cattle and calves" includes bulls for service, and also cattle intended for replacements for the beef and dairy herds. Further breakdown of the figures are detailed in statistical notice 58/96/Survey of Agriculture: 1 December 1995 England--published on 9 April 1996--which is available from the MAFF press office.
Mr. Hain:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he expects the European Commission to publish its forthcoming consultation document on the availability of vitamin, mineral and other dietary supplements; and for what period of time he expects that document to be open for consultation. [28220]
Mrs. Browning:
I refer to the answer I gave the hon. Gentleman on 12 March in the Official Report, column 577.
Mr. Hain:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list for each other member country of the European Union the information which he has evaluated on the controls which are imposed upon the availability of vitamin, mineral and other dietary supplements. [28221]
Mrs. Browning:
Our understanding of the controls on the availability of vitamin, mineral and other dietary supplements in other member states is based on a number of sources, including the position member states took when this matter was previously discussed at EU level in 1992.
Mr. Hain:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to persuade his counterparts in other European countries to support his policies in respect of the continued availability of vitamin, mineral and other dietary supplements; what steps he has taken to encourage support for that policy at recent meetings of the Agriculture Council; and if he will make a statement setting out that policy. [28219]
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Mrs. Browning:
My Department takes every opportunity to ensure that other member states are aware of our views on dietary supplements. However, the matter is not one which is considered by the Agricultural Council.
Mr. Hanson:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress has been made with regard to investigations into the former MOD site at Rhydymwyn, Mold, Flintshire. [28271]
Mr. Boswell:
In April 1996, the Ministry, in conjunction with Flintshire county council and the Welsh Development Agency, commissioned AEA Technology to
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carry out a further assessment of the site to identify chemical and mineral residues. The results of its desk study are expected by late summer. Field work and chemical analysis will then follow, if necessary.
Sir Cranley Onslow:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many applications for a licence to shoot cormorants and saw-billed ducks were received by his Department in the year 1995-6; how many of these were refused; how many birds were licensed to be shot; and how many have been reported as having been shot. [28293]
Mrs. Browning:
The information requested is set out in the table for the period 1 May 1995 to 31 March 1996:
13 May 1996 : Column: 375
| Applications received(16) | Applications refused | Applications granted | Number of birds licensed to be shot | Number of birds actually shot(17) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cormorants | 90 | 32 | 52 | 341 | 121 |
| Goosanders | 25 | 19 | 5 | 19 | 2 |
| Mergansers | 1 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
(16) Some applications are still to be determined.
(17) Provisional figures.
13 May 1996 : Column: 375
BSE
Mr. Alan W. Williams: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many prosecutions there have been of (a) farmers, (b) cattle dealers, (c) auctioneers, (d) abattoir purchasers and (e) meat wholesalers concerning breaches of BSE regulations.[28529]
Mrs. Browning: One case has been successfully prosecuted under the Specified Bovine Offals Order 1995. The defendants were fined at total of £3,000 plus £2,000 costs for two offences under the order. There are no further cases before the court at present; a number of other cases are, however, under investigation.
Local government also plays a significant role in implementing the control measures on BSE. It is in part responsible for enforcing the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Order 1991, as amended, and the provisions of the new Specified Bovine Materials Order 1996 in relation to SBOs in non-food premises. We are aware that local authorities have taken several BSE-related prosecutions. We do not, however, hold details of these centrally.
Mr. Nicholls:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on (a) the incidence of BSE, (b) the steps in place to identify cases of BSE, (c) the steps taken to remove specified bovine offal from the carcases of animals believed to be affected and (d) the method by which the carcases of animals slaughtered because their herd was infected with BSE are disposed of in respect of each of the other EU countries; and what assessment he has made of the relative effectiveness of each country's programme to protect the public from BSE-related diseases. [28544]
Mrs. Browning:
Up until 3 May 1996, 160,032 suspect cases of BSE have been reported in Great Britain. All suspect cases of BSE must, by law, be notified to the Ministry. The Ministry's veterinary officers visit all
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suspect animals to make a clinical diagnosis. Animals subsequently confirmed by the Ministry's veterinary officer as being suspected of suffering from BSE will be slaughtered on farm and their carcase disposed of by incineration. Specified bovine material is not removed from these animals as the whole carcase goes for disposal.
We do not have details of the preferred method of disposal of BSE suspect cases in other EU member states. Details of SBO controls in other EU member states were given in my response to my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury, (Mr. Key) on 29 April, Official Report, column, 413-14.
Dr. Strang:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list all recommendations made since 1986 by the scientific committees advising the Government on spongiform encephalopathies, which have not been fully implemented. [23199]
Mrs. Browning
[holding answer 28 March 1996]: There have been four reports published by the various advisory committees on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies since 1989.
Recommendations were made in both the "Report of the Working Party on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Southwood Report)" dated February 1989 and the "Interim Report (Tyrrell Report)" dated June 1989. The only recommendation made to Government which has not been implemented is a low-priority research recommendation for the survey of brains of cattle routinely sent for slaughter to monitor incidence of unrecognised infection, which was contained in the Tyrrell report. This recommendation was of course superseded by regulations which protected human health by the exclusion of specified bovine offals from the food chain.
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The two later reports produced by the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee "Interim report on Research" dated April 1992 and the "Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies--A Summary of present Knowledge and Research" dated September 1994 contained no recommendations to Government. The interim report on research did, however, state that detailed examination of the relevant studies indicated that, in the Committee's view, there were no inappropriate overlaps; that all high-priority studies had been started, and that satisfactory progress had been made in implementing the recommendations of the interim report (Tyrrell report) (paragraph 4.1).
The committee has made a number of recommendations to Government on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies since the last set of published recommendations contained in the Tyrrell report were put to Government. The Government have acted swiftly to ensure that these recommendations were put in place with the minimum of delay.
Mr. Hinchliffe:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many BSE cases have been confirmed in animals aged less than 30 months old since 1988. [27978]
Mrs. Browning:
Since 1986 and up to 3 May 1996, the number of BSE cases confirmed in animals less than 30 months in Great Britain is 80.
Mr. Hinchliffe:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information he has evaluated on the distribution and timing of BSE infectivity in cattle before the final brain disease under farming conditions.[27979]
Mrs. Browning:
All details on BSE infectivity have been published in the latest progress report. So far, from confirmed field cases, the BSE agent has been detected only in brain, cervical spinal cord, terminal spinal cord and retina. Under experimental conditions, infectivity has also been detected in the distal ileum of calves 18 months after challenge, but in no other tissues. Assays of tissues collected at later stages of that experiment are still in progress.
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