Poultry (Hansard, 22 March 1993)

§ Mr. Morley
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to ensure that imported poultry is produced meeting the same standards as United Kingdom poultry and meets the same requirements for health marking.

§ Mr. Soames
Imported poultry meat is required to comply with the Imported Food Regulations 1984, which includes a requirement for health markings.
506W

§ Mr. Morley
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what effect he estimates the latest EC directives on poultry hygiene will have on the number of poultry meat inspectors currently employed.

§ Mr. Soames
My previous answer on this subject (Official Report, 8 March 1993, column 465) described the Government's plans for implementing EC Council Directive 92/116/EEC on poultry meat hygiene. Our officials have established a working group of representative interests to advise on the controls to be applied to the new system of inspection involving the use of plant staff to carry out on-line poultry meat inspection. Our detailed proposals for implementing the new directive will be issued for public consultation in due course.
No reliable estimate can be made, in advance of the work described above, of the extent to which the responsibilities of poultry meat inspectors employed by local authorities will be taken over by trained plant staff acting under the supervision of the official inspection team. However, it is likely that poultry meat inspectors will increasingly assume a supervisory role in those plants permitted to use plant staff for on-line inspection, with a consequent reduction in their numbers, in those plants.

§ Mr. Morley
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what records are kept of the number of diseased birds that are identified at individual slaughterhouses.

§ Mr. Soames
The Department introduced last year a statistical survey of the numbers of poultry condemned on the grounds of disease or other reasons, in the majority of licensed poultry slaughterhouses in Great Britain. This survey has improved the collection of information about condemnations by individual local authorities, which was not previously compiled on a systematic basis.
Our officials will shortly be sending to participating local authorities and other interested organisations the preliminary results of this survey.