Mr. Gareth ThomasTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the projected expenditure of the Meat Hygiene Service from 1 April. [38076]
§ Mr. RookerThe latest estimate of the total gross expenditure of the Meat Hygiene Service for 1998/99 is £62 million.
The Meat Hygiene Service is required to recover the full costs of providing its inspection service. Approximately half of these costs are recovered from the industry for meat hygiene and inspection controls and the remainder from government, predominantly for specified risk material controls.
Forecasts of Meat Hygiene Service expenditure for future years are not available.