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Accountancy Advice

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many contracts have been let by her Department in each financial year since 2001–02 to (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte and Touche, (c) KPMG and (d) Ernst and Young for advising her Department on private finance initiative and public private partnership contracts; and what fees were paid in each case. [182256]

Alun Michael: From analysis of information held centrally, no contracts have been let and fees paid by the Department in each financial year since 2001–02 to PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and Touche, KPMG and Ernst and Young for advice on private finance initiative and public private partnership contracts.

Aquaculture

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many Norwegian companies and operators are engaged in aquaculture in the United Kingdom; and how many people, in full-time equivalents, are employed by those companies. [176626]

Mr. Bradshaw: Data on the nationality of companies or individuals involved in aquaculture and their number is not available and we have no means of obtaining it. However, we estimate that Norwegian owned interests have a considerable share of salmon production.

Bovine TB

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many bovine TB reactor animals slaughtered in the last five years have subsequently been confirmed to have contracted the disease. [180364]

Mr. Bradshaw: Bovine tuberculosis is confirmed either by finding visible lesions during slaughterhouse examination, or by the subsequent successful laboratory culture of samples for Mycobacterium bovis (the causative organism for bovine tuberculosis). Failure to confirm the disease does not mean that TB was not present, or that the animal had not been in contact with M. bovis. It is important to remember that the intention is to confirm disease in a herd, not each individual animal, so that the testing regime for the herd can be tailored accordingly. Once disease has been confirmed in a herd, it is not necessary to refer samples for laboratory culture in every case.
 
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The following table presents the number of bovine TB reactor animals slaughtered and the number of those confirmed at post-mortem (either at slaughterhouse examination or laboratory culture) to have TB, in each of the last five years.
Table: TB reactors slaughtered and confirmed


Reactor animals slaughtered 1		Slaughtered reactors confirmed at post-mortem to have TB 2
19995,9082,835
20007,0323,636
20015,3472,332
2002(6)19,9016,963
2003(6)20,1146,278


(4) Data taken from National Statistics, published on 23 June 2004.
(5) Data downloaded from the State Veterinary Service database on 24 June 2004.
(6) Provisional data. Subject to change as more data becomes available.
Note:
In 2001, the TB testing and control programme was largely suspended due to the foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak. Since testing resumed in 2002, resources have been concentrated on herds with overdue TB tests which would have had a longer period in which to contract the disease. Also the proportion of high risk herds being tested post-FMD is greater than that prior to the outbreak. As a result, the number of TB reactors identified and slaughtered since 2002 is not comparable to those identified and slaughtered in previous years.



Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the tuberculin skin test for bovine TB is a validated test; and whether the test can distinguish (a) infected animals, (b) immune animals and (c) animals that have a hypersensitivity to the test. [180366]

Mr. Bradshaw: The tuberculin skin test is the official diagnostic test for bovine TB sanctioned by both the European Union and the OIE (the world organisation for animal health). This test, like most "in vivo" diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, detects an immune response by the host against the infectious agent (Mycobacterium bovis) rather than the infectious agent itself.

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the statutory basis for her Department's current policies for the control of bovine TB. [180367]

Mr. Bradshaw: The domestic legislation which provides for the notification of disease, compulsory testing, slaughter, valuation and compensation, and restriction of the movement of affected herds is set out in the Tuberculosis Orders (listed as follows), which are made under the Animal Health Act 1981.

The requirements for routine testing of cattle for TB are set out in EC Council Directive 64/432/EEC. This Directive deals with animal health problems affecting intra-Community trade in bovine animals and swine.
 
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This has been amended and updated, most recently by Commission Regulation EC/1226/02. Annex A sets out the criteria for maintaining Officially Tuberculosis-Free status, and Annex B lays down the procedures for carrying out the testing regime.

Also relevant is The Protection of Badgers Act 1992.

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what symptoms of bovine TB in an individual animal oblige the owner of that animal to report the possible presence of a notifiable disease. [180368]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Tuberculosis (England and Wales) Order 1984 (as amended) defines an "affected animal" as "a cow which is affected by tuberculosis of the udder or is giving tuberculous milk, or a bovine animal which is affected with tuberculous emaciation, or is excreting or discharging tuberculous material, or is affected with a chronic cough and shows clinical signs of tuberculosis, and includes a reactor". It then states that a "suspected animal" shall be construed accordingly.

In practice, clinical signs are not very specific, and clinical TB is not common nowadays because of the testing programme. This means that, in most cases, suspected cases in non-reactor cattle are notified by veterinary surgeons, usually after being summoned to a "poorly" animal by the owner.

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on her Department's current policy for the control of bovine TB; and whether that policy is intended to (a) contain, (b) control and (c) eradicate the disease. [180375]

Mr. Bradshaw: The current strategy for controlling bovine TB in Great Britain consists of five points, based upon the recommendations of the Krebs Report (1997):

This policy is successful in that the risk to human health remains low. However, the long term trend has been an increase in the incidence and the geographical spread of TB in cattle. The costs to industry and the taxpayer are also increasing. We need to apply to bovine TB the principles agreed in the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy—establishing targets against which we can measure our performance and formal agreements for working in partnership with the farming industry.

Evidence from other countries shows that, in the apparent absence of a significant wildlife reservoir, cattle controls along the lines of those used in Great Britain can be effective at controlling and eventually eradicating the disease according to the criteria defined in Council Directive 64/432/EEC.

Defra completed a consultation on 4 June on both short-term measures to control the geographical spread of the disease, and a revised long-term TB Strategy for England (parallel consultations took place in Wales and Scotland). We are currently analysing the responses.
 
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