AGRICULTURE (TUBERCULOSIS ORDERS) (Hansard, 7 May 1958)

§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. J. B. Godber)
I beg to move, That the Draft Tuberculosis (Extension of Payments Period) Order, 1958, a copy of which was laid before this House on 12th March, be approved. May I suggest that it might be convenient for the House if the Order relating to Scotland were taken with this one?

§ Mr. Speaker
Yes; they seem identical.

§ Mr. Godber
I am very grateful, Sir. Section 3 of the Diseases of Animals Act, 1950, enables the Minister of Agriculture, in acordance with a scheme made by him and approved by the Treasury, to make payments to cattle owners for eradicating tuberculosis from their herds. The current scheme made under that provision is the Tuberculosis (Attested Herds) Scheme, 1950. This provides for the payment of bonuses to owners of attested herds either on the basis of milk sales or on a capitation basis. The power to make these payments ends on 30th September of this year, but the Act provides that it may be extended for any one of three five-year periods. The power to extend the period is now being sought for the first time in the present draft Order, which provides that the period shall be extended for five years, until 30th September, 1963. Since 1950, approximately £70 million has been paid to farmers under the bonus provisions of the scheme. These payments will continue to be made for the authorised period of six years to farmers whose herds qualify voluntarily for attestation by March, 1960, when the free tuberculin testing programme recently announced for the last areas of England ceases. Bonus payments under the scheme will accordingly continue for a few years after the disease has been completely eradicated, and the last bonus payments will fall to be made in the year 1965–66. The Order which I ask the House to approve will expire in 1963, and it will, therefore, be necessary to have a further Order merely to complete the matter.
1372 This scheme marks the final stage of what I think one can say has been an unremitting struggle over the past 23 years to free the herds of this country from bovine tuberculosis. At the same time as this scheme started, a plan was introduced for the eradication of the disease by areas until the whole country was cleared. We have made great progress under these arrangements. In 1950, about one-fifth of the cattle in England and Wales were attested, but by the end of last year about three-quarters were. The end of the campaign is now in sight. On 1st March this year, the last areas of the country were brought in under the area plan. Farmers in these areas whose herds are not attested will be given two years in which to qualify voluntarily under the attested herds scheme and to earn the bonus provided for. If all goes well, there is every reason to hope that by 1960, or 1961 at the latest, the whole of Great Britain will be an attested area, and bovine tuberculosis will then for practical purposes be a thing of the past.
This is a really splendid achievement of which we can all be proud. I am sure that hon. Members on all sides of the House will wish to join me in paying tribute to the farming community, to the veterinary profession, and to the staff concerned in my Department. Without the willing co-operation of all these partners, this magnificent result could not have been achieved. This is something of which we can all be extremely proud; a most noticeable improvement in the position of our cattle herds, reacting on the health of the whole nation. I am very glad to be able to move the adoption of this Order tonight.

§ Mr. A. J. Champion (Derbyshire, South-East)
I, like the Joint Parliamentary Secretary, believe that this money will be well spent. I am sure that the £70 million which has been paid since 1950 will be returned many-fold in the health of the herds of our country and I certainly welcome the introduction of these extension Orders as they apply to England and Wales and to Scotland.
I am certain that the most enthusiastic hon. Member of this House, when the financial incentives under the Diseases of Animals Act, 1950, were introduced never expected so great an advance in so short 1373 a time. This country had a not altogether attractive record so far as bovine tuberculosis was concerned, but now we are on the way to seeing a complete eradication of it by 1961. It is a matter for congratulation to everyone concerned; the farmers themselves, who have seized on the assistance given to them under the Act; the Ministry which has so wisely used the powers granted to it, and the Ministry's officers because they have done a first-class job of work. We certainly must not leave out the veterinary profession, because without its aid and assistance we should never have achieved such a lasting and satisfactory result.
Finally, I should like to record some credit to my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Mr. T. Williams) who introduced the legislation in this House. I think that the battle cry for the industry now must be, "Forward to 1961 and to the complete eradication of bovine tuberculosis".

§ Mr. Anthony Hurd (Newbury)
I should like to add a few words from the Government back benches. I think that both sides of this House can congratulate themselves, and the veterinary profession, on clearing this country of bovine tuberculosis. Speaking for myself, not only as a farmer, but also as a parent, I say that this is a remarkable achievement. It is not so many years ago that my three boys suffered from tuberculosis caused by foul and infected milk—not milk which I had produced, but milk which they had had when they went away on a holiday and from which they picked it up. That scourge—because tuberculosis brought by milk to children is a scourge—is being banished; and our cattle herds will live longer and healthier lives.
We can all feel well satisfied with the progress which is being made. I look forward to 1961 when we shall be able to say that we have no more bovine tuberculosis in this country.

§ Sir James Duncan (South Angus)
I shall not make a speech at this late hour, but I should like simply to ask what is the present position in Scotland. I think that the progress there has been very remarkable. The health of the people has been enormously changed. I was at one time the candidate for Caithness 1374 and Sutherland, and in Sutherland, in particular, the tuberculosis rate was enormously high. I succeeded you, Mr. Speaker, and you will remember the very high rate in those days; but, when I go back there now, I find that not one single child has died of tuberculosis in the last few years. That is a remarkable tribute to what has been done among those isolated crofting communities.
Like other hon. Members, I want to pay a tribute to all concerned who have made the scheme such a speedy and successful affair, and I should like my hon. Friend the Joint Under-Secretary to pay a tribute to what has been done in Scotland.

§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Lord John Hope)
I am very glad to do so. I pay that tribute to our own people in Scotland with the same sincerity as my hon. Friend the Member for South Angus (Sir J. Duncan) has done. I can answer quite shortly concerning the situation in Scotland. We shall be completely attested by October, 1959.