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Youth Training

Mr. Rowlands: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many youths started youth training in each year since 1990-91. [36584]

Mr. Paice: The number of people starting youth training in Great Britain in each year since 1990-91 is as follows:

1990-91: 347,800
1991-92: 290,400
1992-93: 286,700
1993-94: 290,300
1994-95: 303,600
1995-96: 304,400

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List 99

Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many inquiries have been made by voluntary-aided and grant-maintained schools to DfEE list 99 for each year since 1979. [36718]

Mr. Robin Squire: The information requested is not available. Voluntary-aided schools are maintained by local education authorities, which make List 99 checks on their behalf, and the Department does not have a record of the number of checks requested by grant-maintained schools.

AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

Mr. Cohen: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make samples from carcases in beef intervention stock held in the United Kingdom available to researchers investigating BSE. [24419]

Mrs. Browning: Community rules currently require that beef purchased into intervention must be derived from steers aged less than 30 months at slaughter, or 24 months in the case of bull beef. Beef stored in intervention is subject to regular and comprehensive controls, including analyses, to ensure that it remains safe to eat.

No BSE infectivity has ever been detected in the muscle of cattle. Moreover, all specified bovine materials must be removed from all cattle at slaughter and destroyed, this includes from those animals going for intervention. It is, therefore, not clear what use researchers investigating BSE would derive from working on samples of intervention beef.

Mr. Fisher: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish all the scientific evidence he has evaluated since 1992 on bovine spongiform encephalopathy. [24525]

Mrs. Browning: It is not possible for the Government to re-publish all the hundreds of scientific reports worldwide on BSE which are considered by experts and the members of the independent Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee, SEAC, many of which are published by scientific journals which hold the copyright. In other cases, interim results have been reported to the committee on a confidential basis by the scientists involved and it would be wrong for the Government to pre-empt the rights of those scientists to publish their results in the scientific literature in the normal way. In 1995 SEAC published a major report summarising present knowledge and research on BSE and similar diseases. A copy is available in the Library of the House (ISBN 0 11 242 9874).

A list of recent projects financed by the Government is given at appendix B of the "Programme to eradicate BSE in the United Kingdom" produced in May 1996 which is also available in the Library of the House.

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what estimate he has made of the number of (a) head boning firms, (b) food processing companies, (c) abattoirs and (d) other

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companies or organisations connected with the beef trade that have ceased trading as a result of the BSE crisis. [31106]

Mrs. Browning: Precise figures are not available. However we estimate that 30 head boning plants, 200 retail butchers, two livestock markets, and a total of 15 wholesalers, meat processors and exporters, may have ceased trading since 20 March. There are no figures available for food processing companies. We believe that only one abattoir has ceased trading as a direct result of the crisis.

Mr. William Powell: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many cattle (a) assessed to be incubating and (b) suspected to be incubating BSE have been imported into the United Kingdom from each EU member state in each year since 1990. [36677]

Mrs. Browning: No cattle imported into Great Britain have at the time of import been suspected of having BSE. However one animal which was reported to the Ministry as a BSE suspect in June 1994 and subsequently confirmed as a BSE case had been imported from France in April 1993. BSE has been confirmed in nine other imported cattle, originating from five member states. All had been resident in Britain for long enough to have become infected after arrival, and therefore no inquiries have been made in the exporting countries.

Mr. Ron Davies: To ask the Minsiter of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many cattle, born after the ban on ruminant remains in cattle food, have been confirmed as BSE cases in each of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England; what action his Department has systematically undertaken to determine the cause of such cases of BSE; and how many prosecutions or formal warnings have arisen from such cases. [31577]

Mrs. Browning [holding answer 10 June 1996]: The number of confirmed number of BSE cases born after the ruminant feed ban as at 10 July 1996 is:

	Number
England	24,944
Scotland	1,093
Wales	2,163
Northern Ireland	168

Detailed investigations of a significant proportion of all born after the ban cases--BABS--have been undertaken. In particular details on consumption of feed, particularly in the first year of life, risk of carryover on the farm of feed produced before the ban and the type and source of feed have been obtained. No farmers have been prosecuted for failure to comply with the feed ban because the incubation period of the disease makes it impossible to travel back to a particular feed source.

Mr. Davies: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what has been the date of birth by month and year of the 10 youngest cattle confirmed as BSE cases during 1996 in each of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. [31578]

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Mrs. Browning [holding answer 10 June 1996]: The date of birth by month and year of the 10 youngest cattle in each of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England for 1996 is:

Scotland	Wales	England	Northern Ireland
March 1991	November 1991	July 1992	February 1991
May 1991	February 1992	Jul;y 1992	August 1991
June 1991	February 1992	July 1992	September 1991
July 1991	March 1992	August 1992	September 1991
October 1991	March 1992	September 1992	October 1991
December 1991	April 1992	October 1992	October 1991
January 1992	June 1992	November 1992	December 1991
April 1992	June 1992	December 1992	January 1992
August 1992	September 1992	December 1992	January 1992
October 1992	September 1992	December 1992	January 1992

Mr. Campbell-Savours: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the confirmed percentage of the incidence of BSE in cattle for each year since 1989. [32268]

Mrs. Browning [holding answer 17 June 1996]: The percentage of confirmed BSE cases in adult animals, as recorded on agricultural census data, since 1989 by year of clinical onset is:

Year of onset	Percent of adult animals affected
1989	0.20
1990	0.37
1991	0.66
1992	0.97
1993	0.88
1994	0.56
1995	0.33

Mr. Tyler: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what criteria he proposes to use to establish whether a herd is BSE-free for the purposes of the exemptions from the 30-month cattle disposal scheme; and if he will make a statement. [33180]

Mrs. Browning [holding answer 17 June 1996]: Proposals for a beef assurance scheme for those herds which are considered a low risk to contracting BSE were issued for consultation on 3 May. The consultation demonstrated broad support for the introduction of such a scheme. The detailed rules are now being developed in conjunction with the advice of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee. I hope to announce full details of the scheme shortly.

Beef Disposal

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what estimate he has made of the cost of disposal of (a) beef, and (b) dairy cattle sent for slaughter in the United Kingdom (i) per head and (ii) in total; and if he will make a statement. [24494]

Mrs. Browning: On the question of costs, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to my hon. Friend the hon. Member for Southport (Mr. Banks) on 27 June 1996, Official Report column 234.

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Mr. Redmond: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what estimate he has made of the period of time over which all (a) beef and (b) dairy cattle aged over 30 months in the United Kingdom could be slaughtered; and if he will make a statement. [24495]

Mrs. Browning: No estimate has been made of the timescale in which all such animals could be slaughtered. The objective in the short term is to eliminate the backlog of cattle eligible for slaughter under the over 30 month slaughter scheme as my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made clear in his statement to the House on 24 June, Official Report column 21.

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