Dr. Tony WrightTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the public consultation exercises on policy matters carried out by his Department and its agencies in each of the last five years; who was consulted and by what means; how responses were analysed; how and in what form the results were transmitted to those responsible for the consultation; how the results of the consultation were published; and what analysis has been carried out of the extent and nature of policy changes resulting from the consultation. [106305]
§ Mr. MorleyThe information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
MAFF and its agencies are committed to listening to what people have to say. In addition to consulting in accordance with statutory obligations on new legislation, we regularly consult on new proposals and polices to ensure that industry, other interested parties and the general public are given the opportunity to make their views known. All responses to consultations, which are received through a variety of means, are given very careful consideration and taken into account by Ministers when making policy decisions. Responses are treated as confidential where the respondent has asked the Department to do so.
746Wan inter-departmental liaison group on OP research. An extract of work relating to human health in the MAFF programme is shown in the table. Listings of recent and current MAFF funded projects on OP research can also be found on the MAFF intemet website at http://www.maff.gov.uk/r&d/projects/pp105.htm.
The report by the Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment on organophosphates, published on 26 November, made a number of recommendations for further research. I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to him on 20 December 1999, Official Report, column 446W, for details of how we propose to carry forward these recommendations.
Consultation exercises are, in the main, carried out by the issue of documents, on which comments are invited, to interested parties known at the Department or agency. As a matter of course, consultation documents, along with lists of recipients and respondents, are placed in the Libraries of the House, with the exception of the individual responses which are available for viewing, by appointment, in MAFF's Whitehall Place library. The MAFF library can also supply copies of consultation responses on request to personal callers or telephone inquirers for a small administrative charge.
Details of current and recent MAFF consultations can also be found on the MAFF website at http://maff.gov.uk/corps/consexer/default.htm.