§ Mr. Roger WilliamsTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much her Department spent in the last three years on(a) food security measures, broken down by type and (b) research on priority threat agents against terrorist action. [105075]
§ Mr. MorleyIn the last three years the Department has spent
On food security measures, £160,000 on a biennial Food Stocks Survey. This voluntary Survey provides locations and average stock figures by product group for much of the UK food industry. It allows Defra to make rapid assessments of the impact of a variety of disruptive challenges to food supplies.On public water supplies research against potential contamination has been on-going since 2000 and costs about £160,000 per year.On animal disease research, Defra is spending £16 million on areas such as exotic animal disease detection, diagnosis and control. Details of all the animal disease research programmes are available on the Defra website.All of this work is carried out to address all forms of threat and not just targeted at terrorist issues.