§ Mr. Peter DuncanTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her assessment is of the number of incinerators using(a) over and (b) under 50 kg/fuel per hour available to the UK farming industry. [108962]
§ Mr. MorleyPrior to the introduction of the EU Animal By-Products Regulation on 1 May 2003, the Department was not responsible for the approval of animal carcase incinerator, with the exception of incinerators which dispose of Specified Risk Material. A central register of operators currently approved to operate SRM incinerators indicates that as at 29 April 2003 there were 306 approved incinerators in Great Britain.
However, we believe the number of low capacity animal carcase incinerator—those operating at less than 50kg/hour—to be around 2,500. 20 high-capacity incinerators are currently contracted to the Over-30-Months and Fallen Stock Survey schemes. No assessment has been made of the number of other high-capacity animal carcase incinerators in the country.