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Marriage Support
Maria Eagle: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when the Government intend to publish Sir Graham Hart's report on the funding of marriage support, and the Lord Chancellor's response. [100434]
Jane Kennedy: Copies of Sir Graham's report, and the Lord Chancellor's response to him of yesterday, have today been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
The Lord Chancellor agrees with Sir Graham's conclusion that public funding of marriage support agencies is highly appropriate and worth-while. The Lord Chancellor has considered Sir Graham's recommendations in detail, and accepts them.
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Beef
12. Mr. Swayne: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what recent advice he has received from the Chief Medical Officer regarding the safety of eating beef on the bone. [98848]
Mr. Nick Brown: I announced on 20 September that I and my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State for Health had accepted the Chief Medical Officer's advice that it is now possible to lift the ban on retail sales, but desirable to retain it for manufacturing uses.
17. Dr. George Turner: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress he has made in enabling British farmers to sell their beef overseas. [98853]
Ms Quin: As part of the progressive lifting of the beef export ban, the Government secured the adoption of the Date-based Export Scheme in November 1998. After demonstrating that we had the procedures in place to run the Scheme, exports were permitted from 1 August 1999. So far, two establishments have sought and gained approval to operate under the Scheme, and have begun exporting British beef to several EU member states.
21. Mr. Pike: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress has been made in respect of the export of beef (a) within the EU and (b) to the rest of the world. [98858]
22. Dr. Iddon: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress is being made on the resumption of British beef exports. [98859]
Ms Quin:
So far, two establishments have sought and gained approval to export British beef under the Date-based Export Scheme. While details of their
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activities are commercial-in-confidence, I can say that these establishments have been exporting British beef to several EU member states. As yet, no consignments have been sent to non-EU countries, but the Government have approached countries with a view to ensuring that they will accept British beef. To date, we have agreed export certification with Cyprus, the Falklands, Hong Kong and Mauritius and are at different stages in concluding certification with other countries. Only Russia, Singapore and Malta have said that, at present, they will continue to not admit British beef.
23. Mr. Bradshaw:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress he has made in getting the beef export ban lifted for non-EU countries. [98860]
Ms Quin:
We have approached the authorities in non-EU countries to lobby them to lift their import bans, where they exist, or to agree the necessary export certification. This is a concerted campaign which follows up, and builds upon, earlier approaches to key markets. So far, we have agreed export certification with Cyprus, the Falklands, Hong Kong and Mauritius, and are at different stages in concluding certification with other countries. Only Russia, Singapore and Malta have said that, at present, they will continue to not admit British beef.
24. Mr. Wyatt:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the level of domestic consumption of home-produced beef since the BSE crisis. [98861]
Ms Quin:
Domestic consumption of beef has recovered sharply from the depressed levels following the BSE crisis of 563 thousand tonnes in 1996 to 707 thousand tonnes in 1998.
28. Mr. Gray:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what scientific analyses he has received on the presence of (a) human and (b) animal excrement traces in French beef; and if he will make a statement. [98865]
Ms Quin:
The summary of advice provided to Ministers included an analysis of the report prepared by the European Commission, which confirmed that all material was heat treated before use in animal feed. The advice was drawn up in consultation with the chairmen of three scientific independent advisory committees and concluded that there is no immediate public health risk from the use of sewage sludge in French animal feed.
13. Mr. Heppell:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what representations he has received from animal welfare organisations on the ending of fur farming in the UK. [98849]
Mr. Morley:
The Ministry has received representations from five animal welfare organisations.
14. Mr. Crausby:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much his Department is spending on food safety and standards surveys in the current year. [98850]
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Ms Quin:
My Department has a wide-ranging food surveillance programme to protect consumer safety, food authenticity and nutritional quality of the UK diet. In 1998, MAFF spent more than £10.5 million on these surveys, carrying out over 190,000 analyses on more than 63,000 food samples. Similar figures are anticipated for the current year.
15. Mr. Hoyle:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the level of the UK's allocation of EU funds under the rural development regulation. [98851]
Mr. Morley:
The UK allocation of 154m euro a year for the Rural Development Regulation is very disappointing. This has been based on low spending levels on rural programmes in past years. We will be pressing the European Commission quickly and comprehensively to fulfil its commitment to review allocations.
16. Mr. Bob Russell:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to encourage all those involved in the United Kingdom food industry to label clearly food which originates in the UK. [98852]
Mr. Nick Brown:
Consumers have a right to clear and unambiguous labelling of all the food they buy in order to make an informed choice. This is why we are consulting all those involved in the food industry on the need to ensure that origin markings do not mislead consumers when such information is provided.
18. Mrs. Virginia Bottomley:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the trends in farm incomes in South-West Surrey. [98855]
Mr. Morley:
While we have no specific farm income figures for South-West Surrey, I have little doubt that farmers there have been suffering from the same adverse economic conditions in agriculture as elsewhere in the country.
19. Mr. Ian Bruce:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when was the last time the green pound was adjusted; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the weak euro on the incomes of farmers. [98856]
Mr. Nick Brown:
The last time the Green Pound was adjusted was on 11 October 1998.
The present depressed state of farm incomes results from various factors, including the strength of sterling, the collapse of world prices and the loss of some key export markets. It is difficult to single out one factor in isolation and assess its impact when the factors are to an extent interlinked.
20. Mr. Pickthall:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the cost effectiveness of the organic farming scheme. [98857]
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Mr. Morley:
On 4 October we announced a review of the Organic Farming Scheme, which provides aid to farmers converting to organic farming. The cost effectiveness of the scheme is an issue which will be considered in this review.
Mr. Sheerman:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what has been the change in the amount of land under organic conversion since the start of the Organic Farming Scheme. [99214]
Mr. Morley:
To date, farmers have entered some 75,000 hectares into conversion under the Organic Farming Scheme since its launch in April 1999.
25. Mr. Jack:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on his Department's latest assessment of the financial strength of the pig industry. [98862]
Ms Quin:
The market price for pigs has been below the cost of production since May 1998. At its present level of 77 p/kg, pig producers are, on average, losing around £9 on every pig sold.
26. Mr. Malcolm Bruce:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what measures he proposes to take to support the British pig industry. [98863]
Ms Quin:
In discussions with the representatives of the British pig industry, we have developed an action programme aimed at helping pig producers through this very difficult period. This includes:
(a) making available an extra £6 million for marketing and promotion from which the pig industry should benefit significantly;
(b) promoting animal welfare and other standards of UK pigmeat.
(c) writing to MPs and Local Authorities to emphasise importance of sourcing to British standards;
(d) writing to Commissioner Fischler arguing the case for re-opening EU private storage aid scheme and restoring special refund on exports to Russia;
(e) going back to next meeting of SEAC to consider whether current ban on use of MBM from pigs is still justified.
(f) tackling misleading labelling. Revised guidelines on origin marking have gone out to public consultation;
(g) better auditing of claims on welfare and other standards of imported products;
(h) meeting individual retailers and caterers to insist they reaffirm their commitment last December in sourcing from stall and tether and MBM free production systems and on misleading labelling.
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