§ Mr. Hoyleasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether regulations will be laid before Parliament in the forthcoming year which will transfer the responsibility for the engagement of veterinarians for red meat inspecition to local authorities; if he will give full details of these and when they will come into operation; what effect this will have on the meat inspection service as at present operated by local authorities; what will be the position following the transfer of power to the local authority environmental health officers; how many veterinarians will be appointed; what will be the cost of the scheme; and how much of this will be borne by the consumer.
§ Mr. StrangAs my right hon. Friend the Minister told the House on 15th February, the Government have decided that future action in the field of meat hygiene should be in accordance with the recommendations of the Meat Hygiene Working Group, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.
There are therefore no plans to alter the present arrangements for enforcement and execution of legislation on hygiene and meat inspection in slaughterhouses 382W operating only for the home market trade. The working group recommended that slaughterhouses exporting to EEC countries should be subject to additional regulations, based on the present administrative arrangements, which should require, inter alia, export standards of hygiene and inspection, including veterinary supervision, to be maintained at all times, and should assign the responsibility for maintenance of standards and appointment of veterinarians to local authorities. Proposals for regulations on these lines will be issued shortly to interested organisations for comment, and the regulations will be laid before the House when the consultations are complete.
The replies to my hon. Friend's detailed question must depend to a large extent on the outcome of these consultations. I would, however, emphasise that the proposed regulations would apply only to export slaughterhouses. Only 50 slaughterhouses in England and Wales out of a total of over 1,400 are at present approved to export to EEC countries.—[Vol. 944, c. 259]