§ Mrs. GordonTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much has been spent on the(a) preparation and (b) implementation of the Krebs report to date. [79866]
§ Mr. Rooker(a) The cost of preparing the Krebs report, including the committee expenditure and publication, amounted to approximately £370,000.
(b) The cost of implementation to date is £3.5 million. This includes the culling trial and associated activities. The cost of some recommendations, such as the open competition necessary to ensure that research should be contracted with the people who are best able to carry them out, are met from central expenditure and cannot be separately identified.
§ Mrs. GordonTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what estimate he has made of the cost of fully implementing the Krebs report. [79867]
§ Mr. RookerWe have spent more than £3.5 million on implementing the Krebs report to date. It is estimated that £11.4 million will be spent on research and various projects recommended in the Krebs report in 1999/2000. I envisage that expenditure will continue at broadly this level for some years, but cannot provide a total figure, which will depend on the results and the speed at which those results are received and analysed.