§ Mr. C. BATHURSTasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that in many districts the regulations of the Board in reference to sheep dipping, with a view to the prevention of sheep scab, are rendered superfluous and ineffective owing to the ignorance or carelessness of the police constable who supervises the process of dipping; and whether, in order to reduce the prevalence of this disease and so enable the stringency of the present regulations to be relaxed, the Board will appoint competent and experienced inspectors to undertake this work?
§ Sir E. STRACHEYThe administration of the sheep dipping order rests with the local authorities, and it is open to them to appoint special inspectors to carry out this duty if they think fit to do so. I may say, however, that the superivsion at present580W exercised by the police is, generally speaking, of a very satisfactory character.
§ Mr. C. BATHURSTasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that inconvenience is caused by the present sheep-scab regulations to flock owners in a non-infected area where the only sheep market of the district is just within the boundary of a large adjoining scheduled area; and whether the Board will consider whether the spread of sheep-scab would be as effectively checked without the present inconvenience if, except in districts where mountain sheep capable of jumping fences are kept, the scheduled area were in each case limited to a radius of five or six miles round the site of the outbreak of the disease?
§ Sir E. STRACHEYIf the hon. Member is referring in the first part of his question to the Board's Sheep Dipping Orders, certain difficulties arise as regards the exposure of sheep in markets adjoining dipping areas during those short periods of the year in which compulsory dipping orders operate. These difficulties cannot, however, be avoided if compulsory dipping is to be carried out effectively. The answer to the last part is that the Board do not see their way to carry out the hon. Member's suggestion.