HL Deb 25 January 1988 vol 492 cc482-3WA
Lord Blease

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will confirm that measures are now proceeding to disengage the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland (DANI) from the commercial ownership, management and functions of the artificial insemination service, and from the pig carcass classification scheme and, if so, whether they will publish in the Official Report details of decisions and consultations concerning: (a) the number of posts that will be lost by DANI and in each of these two departmental schemes; (b) the number of staff to be declared redundant; (c) the number of staff to be displaced and redeployed to other Northern Ireland Civil Service duties; and (d) the number of DANI staff to be offered employment by the proposed new suppliers of these services.

Lord Lyell

Yes, the position in relation to artificial insemination is that the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland intends to disengage from the activity on 1st October 1988. There are approximately 90 technical staff and 20 administrative staff affected by this decision. It is hoped to redeploy all the administrative staff into other posts within the Northern Ireland Civil Service, and it may also be possible to do so in respect of a small number of the technical staff. The department is at present making available premature retirement on public interest terms to all the staff in the relevant technical group, and it will not be possible to state the extent of any compulsory redundancy exercise until these current measures are at a more advanced stage. It is not possible to state how many of the department's staff will eventually be recruited by any new AI operator.

Arrangements have not yet been finalised on proposals relating to the pig carcass classification scheme.

The department will be having detailed consultations with those concerned, including the industry and the trade unions.