Cattle (Hansard, 25 May 2004)

§ Mr. Laurence Robertson
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what cost there will be to farmers from the cattle passports scheme; and if she will make a statement. [173679]

§ Alun Michael
The direct cost of running the cattle tracing system in Great Britain will be in the region of £23 million in 2005–6.

§ Mr. Laurence Robertson
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on(a) the effectiveness of the British Cattle Movement Service and (b) delays in processing records from farmers. [173680]

§ Alun Michael
The British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) operates against published service targets and reports against these both to the Bovine Industry Group (made up of farmers' representatives and others in the cattle business) and to the BCMS Management Board (made up of Government Stakeholders).
In the first quarter of this year BCMS issued 100 per cent. of passports followingreceipt of a valid and complete application within five working days.
Recently, the BCMS issued its first transaction statement to keepers that brought in over 68,000 returns allowing over 500,000 queries raised by the BCMS to be resolved.