§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on progress in her Department's bovine TB cattle testing programme; when she expects the TB testing programme to be brought up to date; and how many of(a)her Department's staff and (b)the State Veterinary Service are employed directly in the testing programme. [46390]
§ Mr. MorleyThe vast majority of TB testing is carried out on behalf of the State Veterinary Service (SVS) by private vets from local large animal practices, who work for the SVS as local veterinary inspectors (LVIs). Nearly 4,000 are approved to carry out this testing. For February 2002 nearly 3,000 hours of veterinary and technical time was spent on TB testing within the SVS and just over 11,500 hours of administrative time.
We cannot yet say when the backlog of overdue TB tests will be cleared.