HC Deb 08 July 1996 vol 281 cc93-4W
Mr. David Nicholson

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the reasons for, and the consequences of, the halving of allocations of cattle under the 30-month scheme to the St. Merryn, Cobden's and West Devon meat abattoirs. [30802]

Mr. Baldry

[holding answer 4 June 1996]: I have asked the chief executive of the Intervention Board to reply direct.

Letter from George Trevelyan to Mr. David Nicholson, dated 8 July 1996: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply to your Parliamentary Question about reduction in the allocations of cattle under the Over 30 Month Slaughter Scheme (OTMS) to St Merryn, Cobdens and West Devon Meat.[30802] The number of cattle that can he slaughtered each week under the OTMS is limited by the rendering capacity that is available. In the first two weeks we operated the scheme in England and Wales on the basis of around 20 abattoirs. However, that was a "pump-priming" exercise and it was quite clear that it was necessary to increase the number of participating abattoirs in order to provide more equitable geographical coverage for producers. From week commencing 27 May, therefore, the number of plants was doubled and, as a consequence, it was necessary to reduce the allocations to the original abattoirs. Nevertheless, even under the new arrangements around 20% of the English allocation is in the West Country.

Since slaughtering under the scheme began more than 208,000 animals have been processed and in each of the last four weeks the throughput has averaged more than 28,000 limited only by rendering capacity. We are beginning, therefore, to make significant inroads into the backlog.

We are exploring all possible means of stepping up the rate of slaughtering. The renderers themselves are increasing their capacity over a period of time and we are bringing on stream cold storage capacity to allow carcasses to be stored prior to rendering. As a result, St Merryn Meat are now slaughtering additional cattle each week. We are also investigating the possibility of making more use of direct incineration. In combination these measures will allow us to increase the present allocations to abattoirs on the list over the coming weeks.

I am sending a copy of this letter to the House of Commons Library and the Public Information Office.