HC Deb 20 May 1996 vol 278 cc1-2W
Mr. Pickthall

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research his Department is undertaking to find a means of sterilising soil in which sugar been has been grown, to avoid the necessity for its disposal in landfill. [29766]

Mr. Baldry

Maximising potential uses for soil such as landscaping is more likely to be cost effective than sterilisation.

Mr. Pickthall

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he intends to take to relieve sugar beet growers of the landfill tax on soil. [29767]

Mr. Baldry

MAFF officials stand ready to explore with the sugar beet industry ways in which the volume of waste soil returned to farmland, and therefore not subject to the landfill tax, can be increased.