§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what recent representations she has received about foot and mouth spot checks, conducted by police and trading standards officers, on farmers moving stock in the Vale of York; [62260]
(2) what recent representations she has received about the interruption of the moving of farmers' stock by police and trading standards officers conducting foot and mouth spot checks in the Vale of York; [62262]
(3) what recent representations she has received about the use of the police and trading standards officers to conduct foot and mouth spot checks on farmers moving stock in the Vale of York. [62261]
§ Mr. MorleyThe Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not received any representations on this matter.
Across the country, trading standards officers, with police support, are carrying out spot checks on animal movements as part of their enforcement responsibilities for the post FMD interim movement arrangements and I know that checks were carried out in the Thirsk area on 30 May, but we have not received any representations about them. My Department is encouraging local authorities to undertake these checks, based on local assessments of risk from the illegal movement of animals.
§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many sheep were disposed of at Great Orton, Cumbria; how many of those sheep tested positive for the foot and mouth virus; and if she will make a statement. [61603]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 19 June 2002]: During the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease, 448,508 sheep were disposed of at the Great Orton burial site, Cumbria.
We are not able to say whether any of the sheep were from premises that returned positive laboratory results as this specific set of information has not been collated.