§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
In light of the reported figure of 10 million animals slaughtered during the recent foot and mouth outbreak, whether they will amend livestock numbers published in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Agricultural and Horticultural Census of 1 June 2001. [HL2514]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food arid Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)The estimates of livestock numbers from the Agricultural and Horticultural Census of 1 June already take account of slaughterings up to that date and do not need amending.
The figure for animals slaughtered during the foot and mouth outbreak is approximately 6.5 million. This figure is made up of some 4 million slaughtered for disease control purposes and a further 2.5 million slaughtered as a result of eligible applications received under the Livestock Welfare Disposal Scheme and the Light Lambs Disposal Scheme.
The figure of 4 million was taken from Defra's Disease Control System Database (DCS) on 24 January 2002 and may be subject to revision as more information becomes available. In particular, for the earlier part of the period accurate records of very young animals were not always taken and hence this figure could rise a little. A quality assurance exercise on the data within DCS is currently being carried out.