§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she plans to implement the recommendations of the Food Standards Agency's report on BSE and Sheep, May 2002 relating to the(a) content and (b) timing of the National Scrapie Plan; and if she will make a statement. [64115]
§ Margaret BeckettI assume the hon. Member refers to a report by the Food Standards Agency's Core Stakeholder Group on BSE and Sheep. The report does not recommend any changes to the content of the national scrapie plan. It recommends that the Food Standards Agency should support acceleration of the plan and should encourage sheep farmers to participate. The recommendations were directed at the Food Standards Agency itself, and I understand that the Agency's board adopted them at its meeting on 13 June. The recommendations are in line with existing Government policy.
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§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will commission and publish an assessment of the impact on British industry of adding the intestines of all sheep to the list of specified risk material. [64114]
§ Margaret BeckettWe have no immediate plans to commission such an assessment. The proposal to add the intestines of all sheep to the current list of specified risk material arose in a recent report from a core stakeholder group commissioned by the Food Standards Agency. The group's recommendations have since been endorsed by the Board of the Agency. Before such a measure could apply in the UK, it would need to be agreed on a European Community-wide basis. To that end, the Agency has formally written to the Commission, to register the recommendation. We will keep the situation under review. If the European Commission make a proposal for regulation we would commission a regulatory impact assessment.