§ Mr. Martyn JonesTo ask the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how his Department plans to enforce legislation making it illegal for farmers to have outstanding stocks of banned feed on their premises when that legislation comes into force; and if he will make a statement. [37354]
§ Mrs. BrowningOn 29 March, the sale or supply of any mammalian meat and bone meal, MBM, for the purposes of feeding to farmed animals, including poultry, horses and farmed fish, was prohibited. From 4 April, it has also been an offence to use any MBM, or feed containing it, for feeding to farmed animals.
The 4 April ban was set around a fortnight after the feed compounders announced an immediate voluntary ban on the incorporation of MBM in farmed animal feed. Advice from the industry supported our understanding that little MBM would, accordingly, be left on farms by 4 April.
Our enforcement strategy in ensuring that the prohibition from farms, feed mills and feed merchants of MBM and feed incorporating it from 1 August has three primary strands.
First, on 10 June we launched the Government-funded feed recall scheme to give farmers, feed compounders and feed merchants every opportunity to dispose of MBM and feed containing it before its presence on their premises became illegal.
By the end of this month we shall have collected over 10,000 tonnes of this material, mostly, as we expected from feed compounders, with only small residual amounts to be collected from farms.
700WSecondly, since the Government introduced temporary financial assistance to the rendering industry from 1 April, we have detailed information on the disposal or incorporation into pet food of all the MBM produced in the UK. Continued access to this information is to be confirmed in law from 1 August with the establishment of record keeping requirements on MBM produced in the UK or entering the UK from elsewhere, covering dispatch, transportation and receipt.
Finally, the State Veterinary Service inspects all rendering plants at least weekly which, combined with extensive inspection and sampling of feed compounders, should provide every confidence that no MBM is going to farms, feed mills or feed merchants and that no feed being produced contains MBM.