§ Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how often meat and bone meal storage facilities for material produced under the over-30-month scheme are inspected; when the last inspection for each facility took place; and if she will make a statement. [107812]
§ Alun MichaelOver-30-month scheme (OTMS) meat and bone meal storage facilities are subject to regular control visits, which are carried out by the Rural Payments Agency. The Agency undertakes quarterly Technical Inspectorate visits to such stores 10 check the integrity of the store, and that the scheme controls and paperwork are being correctly administered. In addition the Agency's OTMS operations team also carry out periodic site inspections on an ad hoc basis. This is the team responsible for the ongoing storage and disposal arrangements relating to OTMS meat and bone meal.
In addition, when stores are either taking in or outloading material, the Agency employs the Meat and Livestock Commission as its agent to provide daily controls. These include overseeing the integrity and security of the site, accounting for every kilogram of meat and bone meal held in stock, and monitoring all activity that takes place on the storage sites. All stores are currently outloading material, but the date of the last inspection at each store is shown in the following table:
274W
Store name Location Date of latest inspection
Glenrothes Glenrothes, Scotland 27 March 2003 Bonnington Kirknewtown, Scotland 6 February 2003 Blyton Blyton, Lincolnshire, England 18 March 2003 Barkston Heath Barkston Heath, Lincolnshire, England 18 March 2003 Preston Preston, Lancashire, England 19 March 2003 Longton Longton, Lancashire, England 3 April 2003 Widnes Widnes, Cheshire, England 5 March 2003 Alleena Prescott, Chesire, England 17 March 2003 Greendale Woodbury Salterton, Devon, England 1 April 2003 Wrangaton Wrangaton, Devon, England 1 April 2003 Supermix Newtonstewart, Northern Ireland 25 March 2003
Store name Location Date of lastest inspection
Maghaberry Ballinderry, Northern Ireland 28 March 2003 Mallusk Newtonabbey, Northern Ireland 20 March 2003 Castledawson Castledawson, Northern Ireland 25 March 2003
§ Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how old the oldest meat and bone meal produced as a result of the over-30month scheme is which is stored by her Department and its non-departmental public bodies. [107813]
§ Alun MichaelMeat and bone meal is stored in heaps and it is not possible to be precise about the age of that which remains in store. However it is likely that some of this material produced in the earliest weeks of the scheme (May 1996) remains in store pending incineration. To date the Rural Payments Agency has incinerated (for the most part with energy recovery) some 593,465 tonnes out of 736,797 tonnes of the material produced under the over-30-month scheme since its commencement in May 1996, this equates to 79 per cent. of the material produced. All of the storage sites are currently outloading the material to incineration plants.