Illegal Meat Imports (Hansard, 18 July 2002)

§ Mr. Gummer
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions the British Government have had with African counterparts on the question of illegal imports of meat. [69990]

§ Mr. Morley
Since 1997, concern about the increasingly unsustainable nature of the bushmeat trade and its effects on endangered species led to my Department raising the issue within the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This resulted in the establishment of a Bushmeat Working Group to help Central and west African range states develop and implement their own solutions. We have contributed £55,000 to the working group to help the range states participate and to support the recruitment of consultants to revise and harmonise their own wildlife policies and legislation. Work on this is currently under way and progress will be reported to the next conference of CITES parties, to be held in Chile in November.
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We have also funded research analysing existing knowledge and expertise on the bushmeat trade, highlighting gaps in data and understanding, and making recommendations on further action. The results of this research have been made available to the CITES Bushmeat Working Group and we expect them to be discussed at the group's next meeting. This is due to take place in Brazzaville later this month and the UK will be represented at the meeting by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, we have also been using the UK diplomatic missions in Harare, Accra, Abuja, Cairo, Pretoria, Kampala, Abidjan, Maseru, Dakar, Luanda, Nairobi, Kigali, Mbabane and Tunis to raise the profile of UK import restrictions and rules.

§ Mr. Gummer
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her estimate is of the tonnage of illegal meat imports from Africa in the last five years. [69948]

§ Mr. Morley
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) set up a centralised database of seizures of illegal meat and animal products last year, receiving data from all the enforcement agencies. From 1 April 2001 until 12 July 2002, 797 seizures of consignments that included meat and animal products were reported to the database that had arrived on flights and ships from African countries. The volume of these seizures was approximately 1.58 tonnes.
However, under-reporting and differences in the reporting procedures of the different agencies mean that these are likely to be underestimates of both the total seizures that included meat and animal products and their volume.
The number of seizures does not reflect the total amount of meant and animal products brought into the country illegally. However, a risk assessment is currently being carried out by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency which will provide information on the likelihood of an animal disease outbreak linked to illegal imports of meat and animal products. The risk assessment will provide an estimate of the probable amount of illegally imported meat from a number of countries, including African countries, per year. This risk assessment is due to be completed in autumn 2002.