§ Lord Marlesfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why, when they record the number of confirmed cases of BSE by county and by month, they have stated that the county figures by month could only be provided at disproportionate cost; why it took them four weeks to make that statement in a parliamentary Answer; and whether they will now provide the information originally asked for.
Lord LucasWe regret that it took four weeks, including the Easter recess, to provide an answer to the noble Lord's previous Question and apologise for any110WA inconvenience that may have caused him. However, the officials with the necessary expertise to supply an answer to the Question have been very heavily engaged over recent weeks in introducing various measures recommended by the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee to ensure that public health is protected from any risk from BSE and also to introduce measures to help the beef industry through the current immediate difficulties.
Information on every BSE case in the country is recorded on a computer database, which includes details of the date of slaughter of each BSE suspect and the full address of the holding on which the animal was resident. The database also maintains a cumulative record of the number of BSE cases in each county. To provide the information the noble Lord requested has necessitated a specific interrogation programme to be written for the computer database and a dedicated run of the computer assigned to providing the information.
A copy of the breakdown requested has been placed in the House Libraries.