§ Mr. GillTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total tonnage of rendered bovine material currently held in store; and what plans he has for its disposal. [25877]
§ Mr. RookerSome 307,700 tonnes of meat and bonemeal (MBM) and 159,500 tonnes of tallow from cattle rendered under the Over Thirty Month (OTM) and Selective Cull (SC) Schemes are being safely and securely stored in the UK. The Government are considering a number of options for the disposal of these products. I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Mr. Dawson) on 15 January 1988,Official Report, column 294, in which I stated that the Intervention Board has now terminated the restricted stage of its 1997 incineration tender in order that it can pursue disposal options which appear to offer a better prospect of safe, prompt and economical disposal of waste from these schemes. In the interim some MBM is already being burned in high temperature waste incinerators and a number of rendering plants are burning tallow produced from the OTM and SC Schemes as a fuel to power the rendering process.