§ Mr. Ron Daviesasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what monitoring activities are presently carried out on a regular basis by his Department of pesticide residues in food; and what resources have been devoted to these activities on an annual basis for the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe working party on pesticide residues which reports to the interdepartmental steering group on food surveillance, the advisory committee on pesticides and the veterinary products committee continuously monitors both home-produced and imported food for residues of pesticides. A report of its activities for the period 1977 to 1981 was published in 1982 — the Ninth Report of the Steering Group on Food Surveillance, London, HMSO—and I expect a further comprehensive report of the more recent work proposed and co-ordinated by the working party to be published later this year. This will present inter alia the results of a three-year survey of residues of pesticides on United Kingdom and imported fruit and vegetables and of post-harvest fungicide treatments of cereals in store.
The estimated expenditure for the financial year April 1984 to March 1985 is £505,000, and the expenditure for the year April 1983 to March 1984 was £449,000.
§ Mr. Ron Daviesasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make available in the Library the pesticide usage survey report, produced by his Department, for the latest available dates.
§ Mr. MacGregorYes. A copy has now been placed in the Library.
§ Mr. Ron Daviesasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what information is available, through his Department, of regional pesticide usage in agriculture in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. MacGregorPesticide usage surveys are designed to derive national figures on pesticide usage. Some of the reports give indications of differences in usage in different parts of the country which were surveyed. Copies of recent reports are being made available in the House Library.