Mr. Alan W. WilliamsTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will set up an inquiry to investigate the possible linkage between the Canterbury Mills animal rendering plant at Godmersham, Kent, the farm where the first BSE-infected herd was discovered in Ashford in 1985, and the cluster of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease cases in the Ashford area. [34510]
§ Mrs. BrowningExtensive epidemiological studies into BSE show no correlation between the incidence of BSE and any geographical features, including the location of rendering plants. The epidemiological surveillance of CJD is the responsibility of the national CJD surveillance unit funded by the Department of Health and the Scottish
Details of permits of exemption England Value of permit (per cent, of minimum rate/£/week) AWC 0–49 £0-£75.97 50–59 £77.52-£91.47 60–69 £93.02-£106.98 70–79 £108.53-£122.48 80–89 £124.03-£137.99 90–100 £139.53-£155.04 Total number of permits Avon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire 1 1 — — 1 1 4 Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Hertfordshire — 1 5 2 2 2 12 Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Oxfordshire — — 2 2 1 1 6 Cheshire and Staffordshire 1 1 — — — 1 3 Cleveland, Durham and North Yorkshire — — 1 2 — — 3 Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northants and Nottinghamshire 1 — 1 3 1 — 6 Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly — — — — 1 — 1 Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and West Midlands — — 2 1 1 — 4 Humberside — — — — — — 0 Kent, Surrey and East and West Sussex 1 — — 2 2 1 6 Lancashire, Manchester and Merseyside 2 1 1 2 1 1 8 Norfolk and Suffolk — — 1 — 3 1 5 Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and Cumbria 2 1 — 1 17 — 21 Shropshire — — 1 — — — 1 South and West Yorkshire — 1 2 1 1 — 5 362W
Wales Value of permit (Percentage of minimum rate/£/week) AWC 0–49 £0-£75.97 50–59 £77.52- £91.47 60–69 £93.02-£106.98 70–79 £108.53-£122.48 80–89 £124.03-£137.99 90–100 £139.53- £155.04 Total number of permits Gwynedd and Clwyd 3 — 1 — — 5 Gwent 1 — — — — 1 Dyfed — 1 1 — — 2 Mid, South and West Glamorgan 1 — — — — 1 Powys 1 — — — — 1 Office. The unit publishes annual reports and has considered geographical clustering of CJD cases, but has failed to find any of statistical significance. The unit continues to investigate cases of suspected CJD, including any of the new variant, and would report any significant findings.