§ Mr. BorrowTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress has been made on the selective cull; and if he will make a statement. [12074]
§ Mr. RookerSince 1 May, progress with the selective cull has substantially improved. In Northern Ireland, the cull is complete except for six animals and any which have been imported from Great Britain. In Great Britain, we have completed nearly half of the natal herd visits. In Scotland, we have completed all of them. In England and Wales, all but a few of the visits have been made to farms with animals in the compulsory years. We have now slaughtered 15,000 animals in the UK—10 times the number that had been slaughtered when we came to office. This is good progress, but we need to do better still.
We have looked at all our procedures to see what more can be done to speed up. We have recently reached agreement with the Commission that farmers can choose a valuer from a list of valuers drawn up by the Ministry where the valuation is for 10 or fewer animals. Up to now, many owners have opted to have two valuers, which has created problems in arranging valuations and thus slowed down progress with the cull. This new procedure is already being put into practice.
Now that owners can choose the valuer, I do not consider it necessary to have two valuers for 10 or fewer animals. I therefore propose to amend the BSE Compensation Order 1996 so that the option of having two valuers for 10 animals or fewer is no longer available. We regard this as necessary, particularly to ensure that we make maximum progress with animals that have moved away from their herd of birth and will mainly be dealt with as single animals. Farming and valuers organisations will be consulted on the draft amendments to the order, which in the interests of making speedy progress on the cull I propose to lay and bring into force during the recess.
It is in everyone' s interests for the cull to be completed as soon as possible. That is the Government's aim and we will continue to look for ways to make faster progress. I hope that farmers will work with the state veterinary service to get through this difficult task as quickly as we can.