§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether any compensation will be paid to the 73 pig swill feeding farmers whose businesses were abruptly closed when the pig swill feeding ban was introduced. [HL6208]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty):The Government do not consider that it is appropriate to compensate pig farmers for changes to the feed material available for their livestock following the introduction of the ban on swill feeding. However the Government are providing free business advice to those affected by the ban who have expressed an interest in receiving the advice.
§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
How they propose to dispose of catering waste and other food which would have previously gone into pig swill feed. [HL6209]
§ Lord Whitty:Before the ban on swill-feeding, only a small proportion (about 1.4 per cent) of catering waste from restaurants and other catering establishments was fed to pigs as swill. Since the ban on swill feeding the additional waste is currently disposed of to landfill or incineration, as is the case for the vast majority of catering waste.
The Government, however, take seriously their recycling targets and are moving towards reducing the 113WA amount of bio-degradeable waste sent to landfill. To that end we are currently drawing up legislation to allow the treatment of catering waste in composting and biogas plants. We intend to consult on the draft legislation shortly.