§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking both domestically and in Europe to assist the British abattoir industry; and what steps he is taking to increase business for that industry. [16656]
§ Mrs. Browning[holding answer 22 February 1996]: MAFF Ministers support and encourage the work of British abattoirs through frequent trade visits to promote British meat both here and abroad. For example, I recently visited trade fairs in Cologne and Milan, and plan to visit the Paris fair next week.
On the export front, we continue to work to open up world markets closed to British meat because of unjustified public or animal health concerns. MAFF also encourages good applications for export initiatives to come forward under our marketing development scheme.
Domestically, for small abattoirs, the UK was instrumental in obtaining less onerous structural requirements and increase in the throughput limits from 12 to 20 livestock units per week under the single market fresh meat directive. More recently, the Government set up the Meat Hygiene Service, which has since April 1995 provided a more consistent, cost-effective inspection service to abattoirs than was possible under the previous local authority arrangements.