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5 Mar 2004 : Column 1158W—continued
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Abattoirs
Mr. O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many prosecutions were brought by her Department against abattoirs for breaches of (a) fresh meat hygiene regulations and (b) animal welfare regulations in each of the calendar years 2002 and 2003; how many separate charges were contained within these prosecutions; on how many of the charges convictions were secured; how many charges were withdrawn by her Department before they were determined by the courts; and what the total sum of legal costs incurred by her Department in the pursuit of these charges was. [158071]
Mr. Bradshaw: Not all of the detailed information requested is recorded centrally, in particular how many charges were withdrawn, but a summary is provided in the following table. The information covers both this Department and the Food Standards Agency, which is responsible for meat hygiene prosecutions, as well as being involved with animal welfare cases.
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Animal Welfare
Mr. David: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to improve the welfare of animals in slaughterhouses. [158641]
Mr. Bradshaw: There are extensive provisions in the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 designed to protect the welfare of animals both immediately before, and during, the slaughter process. In addition the Farm Animal Welfare Council published a report in 2003 on the welfare of red meat animals at slaughter. The report included 94 recommendations for improving animal welfare. The Government will be issuing shortly for public consultation their draft response to these recommendations.
Mr. David: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans the Government have to make compulsory the stunning of animals before religious slaughter. [158640]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Government's draft response to the recommendations in the Farm Animal Welfare Council's report on the welfare of red meat animals at slaughter, including the recommendation that all animals should be stunned prior to slaughter, will be issued for public consultation shortly.
Bovine TB
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 11 February 2004, Official Report, column 1441W, on bovine TB, what criteria were used to assess the humaneness of the pesticide fumigants approved for the destruction of rabbits and moles. [158427]
Alun Michael: The Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 (COPR) requires pesticides to be humane and this issue in relation to approved vertebrate control agents was considered by the Advisory Committee on Pesticides in 1996.
Quantification of "humaneness" was attempted using the assumptions
(a) that the extent to which a fumigant is humane is universally related to the degree of distress,
(b) that increased severity of symptoms indicates the degree of distress caused, and
(c) that increased duration of symptoms increased distress. Since effects resulting in the death of an intoxicated animal will probably involve severe symptoms at least in extremis, the duration of severe symptomatology is used as a major determinant in assessment of humaneness. For judging the severity of symptoms reported among the following data listed, the criteria described in "Pain and Distress in Laboratory
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Rodents and Lagomorphs: Report of the Federation of Laboratory Animal Science Associations Working Group on Pain and Distress" have been used as a guide.
The Working Group on Methods for Assessing the Humaneness of Vertebrate Pesticides concluded that pain, distress and suffering could not be measured objectively but that a subjective assessment of humaneness was possible, based on physiological and behavioural data, knowledge of mode of action and post-mortem reports.
The Littlewood report (1965) recommended that procedures (or in this case conditions) which are known to cause pain in humans should be assumed to do so in other vertebrates unless convincing evidence is available to the contrary.
Cats
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many incidents of disease in humans have been attributed to TB infection in cats. [158006]
Miss Melanie Johnson: I have been asked to reply.
There have been no reported cases of tuberculosis infection in humans attributed to infection in cats.
Cetaceans
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the number of (a) dolphins and (b) porpoises killed each year (i) by British fishing vessels, (ii) in British waters, (iii) by vessels of other European Union countries and (iv) in European Union waters; and if she will make a statement. [156216]
Mr. Bradshaw: On the basis of research conducted on behalf of Defra by the Sea Mammal Research Unit, estimates have been made of bycatch in UK fisheries. In the offshore bass fishery total bycatches are of the order of 90 dolphins per year, which represents less than 0.1 per cent. of the most recent estimate of common dolphin abundance in the south-west. Annual porpoise bycatch totals for gill net and tangle net fisheries in the south west cannot be determined at present, but bycatch rates estimates are likely to be in the region of 500 porpoises per year. Porpoise bycatch estimates for the North Sea and the west of Scotland are around 490 animals per year.
However, bycatch information from other member states whose vessels operate in these fisheries and elsewhere around the UK is not available so it is not possible to produce reliable estimates of dolphin and porpoise bycatch deaths within the UK 200-mile limit. In particular, it should be noted that UK vessels in the offshore bass fishery in the south west represent only a small proportion of the total effort in the fishery.
Cockle Beds
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under what powers, and for what reasons, the North-West and North Wales Sea Fisheries Committee may close cockle beds. [156858]
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Mr Bradshaw [holding answer 27 February 2004]: The North-West and North Wales Sea Fisheries Committee may close cockle beds in their district for the purposes of fishery management or for controlling the rate of exploitation of the cockle stocks therein. The closure must be for a specified period and undertaken only after consultation with scientists and local cockle fishermen. Sea Fisheries Committees' byelaws are made under the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act 1966 (as amended).
Department Branding
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much her Department and its predecessors spent on branding the Department between 1997–98 and 2003–04, broken down by (a) consultancy fees, (b) design and orders for new stationery, (c) website design and (d) other material featuring new logos. [154068]
Alun Michael: Defra spent the following sums on establishing a new identity since the Department was created in June 2001. Details of expenditure on branding within the predecessor departments could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.
| £ | |
|---|---|
| Scoping/consultancy | 122,620 |
| Identity design and Brand architecture | 48,000 |
| Web design | 18,460 |
| Other brand activity | 139,977 |
| 2002–03 total | 329,057 |
| Estimated cost of replacing signage | 100,000 |
| 2003–04 total | 100,000 |
Horses
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many horses were (a) slaughtered for meat and (b) exported for slaughter in the last year for which figures are available. [157264]
Alun Michael: In 2003, 6,727 horses were slaughtered in licensed red meat slaughterhouses in England. I am advised that no live horses were exported for slaughter in 2003.
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who will administer the National Equine Database. [156653]
Alun Michael: The National Equine Database will be jointly administered by industry and Defra though the precise mechanism has yet to be decided.
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what plans she has to revoke the minimum values legislation; [156664]
- (2) if she will amend the minimum values legislation to prevent the export of live horses for slaughter. [156665]
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Alun Michael: I wrote to the hon. Member on 14 November 2003 explaining our intention to review the minimum values legislation in the light of proposed changes to the European directive on the welfare of animals during transport. There appears to be some misapprehensions about the existing legislation which has been in place for many years. The minimum values legislation applies to certain types of working horse (but only if they are exported for work) and to ponies. It does not apply to other horses. We have considered carefully whether we could ban the export of horses for slaughter but this would be inconsistent with the approach taken consistently by successive Governments and we believe that we cannot restrict the free movement of horses which is why our focus has been on achieving improved regulation in the UK and across Europe to reduce cruelty and improve the welfare of animals during transport.
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