§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the effects on sheep farming of(a) the Groundwater Directive, (b) abattoir closures and (c) the costs of the proposed identification scheme. [118332]
§ Ms QuinThe information is as follows:(a) Under the Groundwater Regulations 1998, which implement the Groundwater Directive, sheep farmers wishing to dispose of any listed substance (including sheep dip containing such substances) to land will normally require a groundwater authorisation from the Environment Agency. Under the agriculture strategy package announced recently it is proposed to restrict charges to a single application fee (currently £92) for the first four-year period of an authorisation, rather than for farmers to have also to pay an annual charge. This will result in an estimated saving for sheep farmers of £428 at 1999 prices in respect of the annual charge.
(b) None. There remains considerable over-capacity in the mainstream sheep-slaughtering sector and as a result there is unlikely to be any measurable effect of abattoir closures on the majority of producers.
(c) We estimate that the initial cost of tagging all sheep in Great Britain will be a maximum of £12 million; in subsequent years this falls to £6 million. For around 80 per cent. of sheep holdings in Great Britain the cost of tags for the entire flock will be less than £200 in the first year.