§ 20. Mrs PeacockTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he has taken to ensure that the Government's BSE controls are rigorously enforced in the slaughterhouses. [3739]
§ Mrs. BrowningThe Government have made substantial additional resources available to the Meat Hygiene Service, which is responsible for enforcing the specified bovine material controls in slaughterhouses, to enable it to achieve our objective of full compliance with controls on SBM.
The State Veterinary Service also carries out regular unannounced surveillance visits to all plants handling SBM. This surveillance is now showing a consistently high level of compliance in slaughterhouses.
§ 21. Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what representations he has received from the National Farmers Union on matters relating to BSE in the last month. [3740]
§ Mr. Douglas HoggI have received a number of representations from the NFU both at meetings and in writing over this period.