§ Mr. CouchmanTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what arrangements he is making for the disposal of surplus stocks of animal feed containing mammalian meat and bonemeal, MBM, following the recent ban on feeding MBM to farm livestock. [32479]
§ Mrs. Browning[pursuant to her reply 10 June 1996, Official Report, column 2.]: The Government have today sent a letter to all livestock farmers, feed merchants and feed compounders in the United Kingdom offering to fund the collection and disposal of any residual stocks of MBM or feed containing MBM. Thereafter, after consultation with the appropriate organisations, an order will be laid to make it illegal to have MBM, or feed containing MBM, on farms or in the premises of feed merchants or at feed mills.
Parliamentary approval to this new service will be sought in a supplementary estimate for class III vote 1 (Intervention Board Executive Agency: CAP market support and administration) and for class III vote 2 (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: operational expenditure, agencies and departmental administration). Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £6 million in these votes will be met by repayable advances from the contingencies fund.