§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many abattoirs and meat processing plants have failed to pay inspection charges for completed inspections in the last year. [103352]
§ Ms QuinA total of 89 licensed slaughterhouses have failed to pay meat inspection charges in the last year for completed inspections. Meat processing plants are not subject to inspection charges.
Failure to pay has been defined as a slaughterhouse with an outstanding invoice dated October 1999 or earlier.
All 89 are subject to full debt recovery procedures within the terms of the new Civil Procedure Rules that came into force as of April 1999. At present these debts are regarded as civil cases and, where necessary, recovery will be pursued through the courts.
To address the problem of unpaid meat inspection charges, the Government has formally consulted on a proposal to amend the Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) (Charges) Regulations 1998. The proposed amendment would provide powers for the withdrawal by the Meat Hygiene Service of inspection services from individual licensed meat premises as a matter of last resort and in clearly defined circumstances.
§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what representations he has made to the European Commission concerning the levels of veterinary supervision in abattoirs and meat processing plants; and what response he has received. [103354]
§ Ms QuinIn 1997 the European Commission initiated legal proceedings against the United Kingdom for the under-implementation of the veterinary supervision requirements of EU meat hygiene legislation. Since then the Government have made a number of representations to the Commission about the level of veterinary supervision in licensed premises (abattoirs, cutting plants and cold stores) in Great Britain producing or handling fresh (red) meat. The Government have accepted the need to bring the UK's veterinary supervision levels into line with the EU requirements in as short a time as possible, but pointed to the shortage of veterinarians willing to undertake meat hygiene work in the UK as a key obstacle to immediate compliance. The Government therefore set out a plan for achieving full and complete compliance by stages, over a number of years, as additional veterinary resource became available to the Meat Hygiene Service.
The Commission has noted the UK's programme and has made clear that it expects all the relevant controls and supervisory measures to be in place in the UK, in accordance with EU legislation, by the middle of 2001.
188WSeparately, the Government also sought the European Commission's views earlier this year on the level and frequency of veterinary supervision required by the Fresh Meat Directive (64/433/EEC, as amended) for those low throughput (permanently derogated) slaughterhouses and cutting plants approved under Article 4 of the Directive. In summary, the Commission's advice was that the official veterinarian must carry out ante mortem inspections in red meat slaughterhouses, although post mortem inspections may be performed by either the official veterinarian or by an auxiliary. In addition, the hygiene rules must be monitored in all low throughput premises by either an official veterinarian or an auxiliary acting under his/her responsibility. Copies of the Commission's advice were placed in the Library of the House on 13 October 1999.
The Government are actively considering the veterinary supervision requirements for low throughput abattoirs and cutting plants in the light of the Commission's advice and will make an announcement on this in due course.