Abattoirs (Hansard, 2 November 1992)

§ Mr. Pawsey
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what representations he has received about the closure of abattoirs.

§ Mr. Soames
Since the relevant EC directive 91/497/EEC was adopted in July last year, my right hon. Friend the Minister and I have received some 120 letters about its potential impact on British abattoirs.
The question of closure of abattoirs in the south-west was raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) in the Adjournment debate on 21 October 1992, Official Report, column 538.

§ Mr. Pawsey
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the impact of the new EC regulations on existing small abattoirs; what action he will take to minimise the effects of such regulations; and if he will monitor how the regulations are being adopted, implemented and supervised by each EC country.

§ Mr. Soames
The Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations, published on 10 September, extend to the domestic market the rules on the production and hygiene of meat which have existed for intra-Community trade since 1964. There is nothing in the regulations that is not in the EC directive or the existing Great Britain legislation and there are many areas where we have interpreted the directive as liberally as possible to minimise the compliance burden.
In addition, we successfully negotiated for extra time to be made available after 1992 for slaughterhouses which are committed to achieving the new structural standards, and for less onerous requirements for low throughput premises.
The abattoir industry has been rationalising steadily during the last 20 years. Slaughterhouse numbers have fallen from 1,890 in 1972 to some 600 now. It is clear that the trend towards fewer but larger and more efficient slaughterhouses would continue irrespective of the new legislation.
Each member state is required to implement the EC directive by 1 January 1993. The Commission has a team of inspectors who visit all member states to check compliance. If there is substantive evidence that another member state is failing to apply the rules correctly, I am ready to take these issues up with the Governments concerned and, when necessary, the Commission.