§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many veterinary surgeons are employed by her Department. [120525]
§ Mr. BradshawThe number of veterinary surgeons employed by the Department as at April 2003 is 493.
£ Source 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 Food From Britain1 55,289 45,084 67,000 222,319 121,458 ERDP2 — — — 301,000 1,401,000 SEEDA3 — 30,000 90,000 20,000 55,000 1 The figures include funding under the Countryside Agency's Eat the View project (2000–01 to 2002–03), the Department's Foot and Mouth Recovery fund (2001–02) and start-up funding for the regional food group (1998–99 to 2000–01). 2 This covers funding under the Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) Scheme and Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES)—Marketing of Quality Agricultural Products. 3 Includes funding to support the marketing of local produce and support for the red meat sector. It does not include the £840,000 available for the development of food related enterprise hubs (as follows). For the future, as part of the Department's regional food strategy, Food From Britain will receive £1,260,000 per annum for this year and for the next two from Defra for the promotion of English regional food and drink. In the first year of the programme, the South East Food Group Partnership will receive £120,000 to implement a series of regional level activities in support of the overall regional food strategy. Under the ERDP, the following sums have been allocated for projects in the south east under the RES and the PMG: £1,468,000 (2003–04), £1,647,000 (2004–05) and £1,771,000 (2005–06). In addition, small on-farm food processing