§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who provides a fallen stock service free of charge to the farming industry. [176781]
§ Mr. BradshawOne would normally expect those providing such a service to make a charge. However, there may be examples where charges are waived or are negligible for certain types of livestock and where farmers and those providing the service have other informal arrangements, e.g. some hunt kennels may collect calves at no cost in return for farmers allowing hunts to use their land.
§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost to(a) farmers and (b) the Government are of the fallen stock disposal scheme; whether the deadline for the scheme has been met; and if she will make a statement. [179596]
1291W
§ Mr. Bradshaw[holding answer 21 June 2004]: The cost to farmers will be a small annual subscription fee to cover administration costs, likely to be around £25 in the first year, and thereafter will depend on their usage of the Scheme. The Government, including devolved administrations has said it will put £20 million into the Scheme over its first three years. The Scheme is scheduled to start in the autumn of this year.
§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has for the pre-testing of fallen stock; and if she will make a statement. [179597]
§ Mr. Bradshaw[holding answer 21 June 2004]: I assume that the hon. Gentleman is referring to plans for testing of fallen stock that enter the proposed National Fallen Stock Scheme in which case the government has no plans to do so. There are already arrangements in place for testing for TSEs in fallen cattle and sheep.