§ 5. Sir T. Beamishasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if, in view of the evidence confirmed in the Second Report of the Joint Committee of the British Trust for Ornithology and other bodies of the damaging effects of toxic chemicals, a copy of which is in his possession, he will now take urgent steps to control their use in agriculture and by highway authorities; and to what extent his own investigations confirm the conclusions of this report.
§ Mr. SoamesAs my hon. and gallant Friend will have noted, the report which he mentions refers to the spring of 1961. Investigations carried out then by my Department confirmed that certain cereal seed dressings were the main cause of bird casualties. I therefore took steps long before this report was published and in agreement with, among others, the authors of the report, to restrict the use of these dressings. As a result there 37W has been a marked reduction in the number of bird deaths this spring. We have, this year, intensified our survey of bird deaths and the results of this will be published in about a month's time. This will be quickly followed by a meeting with the interests concerned to review the effect of our new arrangements.