§ Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what measures her Department has taken to discourage the import of bushmeat into the United. Kingdom; and how much has been spent by her Department on those measures in the last 12 months; [105067]
(2) what measures her Department has taken in the last three years to discourage the export of bushmeat to the United Kingdom, broken down by region of origin; and how much her Department spent on those measures. [105066]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 27 March 2003]: 2.5 per cent. of seizures of products of animal origin reported to DEFRA. Since March 2002, the Department has put in place measures to tackle the disease risks posed by illegal imports of all types of meat and animal products under the Illegal Imports Action Plan. Just under £3 million has been spent this financial year on that plan. It is not possible to determine how much of this was spent to discourage the import specifically of bushmeat. We have made available a total of £25 million over the next three financial years for measures to tackle all illegal imports of animal and plant products.
In the current financial year, additional measures have been introduced at ports and airports to tackle illegal imports. Temporary agency staff, funded by DEFRA, have been recruited to carry out checks to detect smuggled goods—teams of six are based at our major airports and teams of two at major seaports. We are also paying for additional checks through overtime elsewhere. Further inspection resources have also been provided through the detector dog pilot, and a publicity campaign which has targeted ports, airports and overseas points of departure. We are working with airlines to get our message across through in-flight announcements and videos. We are also advertising on seven million ticket wallets to long-haul destinations.
The CITES Bushmeat Working Group is also making good progress towards developing strategies to overcome the unsustainable trade in bushmeat in central and west Africa within a proper legislative framework. We have recently contributed a further £15,000 to help the group carry forward its work in this area, bringing to £70,000 the amount contributed since the Working Group was first set up in April 2000.
On 25 March, the report on the risk assessment of the import of meat and meat products contaminated with foot and mouth disease virus was-published, along with a draft revised and updated action plan for 2003–04.