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Mr. Curry : A moratorium on commercial whaling has been agreed by the International Whaling Commission and has operated since 1985. The United Kingdom strongly supports the moratorium. Its future will be a key issue for discussion at the commission's 44th annual meeting in Glasgow this month.
Ms. Walley : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make it his policy to promote at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Glasgow in June (a) a total and permanent ban on commercial whaling and (b) the declaration of Antartic waters as a whale sanctuary ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Curry : A moratorium on commercial whaling, promoted by the IWC, has operated since 1985. The moratorium has been supported by the United Kingdom which has banned whaling within British fishery limits since 1976. A proposal to establish a whale sanctuary in the southern hemisphere, south of 40 S, has been put forward by the French Government for discussion at the
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next IWC meeting. Details of this proposal have only just been received and will require careful study. The proposals address a number of questions to the International Whaling Commission's scientific committee whose advice we shall also need to evaluate.Ms. Walley : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to press the European Commission to draw up proposals for a permanent ban on whaling in EC waters.
Mr. Curry : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Southwark and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes) on 4 June, Official Report, column 642.
Milk Marketing
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to respond to the milk marketing board's proposals to turn itself into a single voluntary co-operative with pooled prices.
Mr. Curry : The Government have welcomed the board's proposals which represent a major step forward, and is currently considering them, together with equivalent proposals from the other four United Kingdom boards. We intend to introduce legislation this season to facilitate the conversion of the boards into non-statutory organisations.
Industrial Fishing
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proposals he has for phasing out industrial fishing ; and whether he will make it his policy for decomissioning grants to be concentrated on this area to reduce effort.
Mr. Curry : There is as yet insufficient evidence to win an argument in the Council of Ministers that industrial fishing harms human consumption fisheries and should be phased out. In the United Kingdom industrial fishery the Shetland sandeel fishery was closed in 1990 and remains shut. Access to the west coast of Scotland sandeel fishery is restricted by licence. The bycatch of human consumption species in industrial fisheries is considerably smaller than the discards of juvenile fish from the white fish fisheries. Very few United Kingdom vessels are involved in industrial fishing. Decommissioning funds will be used to target effort in order to maximise the value for money of the public funds available. All applications for decommissioning grants will be evaluated using the same criteria. Decommissioning funds will be used to target effort in order to maximise the value for money of the public funds available. All applications for decommissioning grants will be evaluated using the same criteria.
Sheep Scab
Mr. Tredinnick : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he is now in a position to make an announcement about the future of sheep scab controls.
Mr. Soames : Sheep scab is a disease which can be readily controlled at the individual farm level and sheep farmers are well aware of the preventative measures and procedures needed to deal with the disease in their flocks. Compulsory national dipping arrangements required all
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flocks to be dipped, whether or not infected or at risk of infection. In 1991 the disease was recorded by the State Veterinary Service in 116 flocks out of 105,000 sheep holdings in Great Britain.The Government decided that responsibility for action to deal with sheep scab should rest with farmers. The dipping of sheep will no longer be compulsory and shortly legislation will be put before Parliament proposing that the disease will cease to be notifiable or subject to statutory control measures when it is discovered. Legislation is already in place to protect the welfare of animals. We shall not hesitate to press for the prosecution of those who do not deal promptly and satisfactorily with outbreaks of sheep scab in their flocks. Field staff of the State Veterinary Service will, as in other cases where the welfare of animals may be at risk, look for evidence of sheep scab during their visits to markets and farms and will investigate all cases reported to them, where there is a potential welfare problem. Every sheep farmer will be contacted, in writing, to remind farmers of their responsibilities for controlling sheep scab and of the procedures they should follow should their flocks become infected.
Relocation
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when an announcement will be made on the choice of the site in York to which 600 headquarters posts from his Department will be relocating in 1994.
Mr. Gummer : I hope to make an announcement in due course.
CAP Reform
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what effect he expects the recent agreement on CAP reform to have on the price, over the next three years, of (a) 1lb of bacon, (b) a standard loaf and (c) lb of butter.
Mr. Curry : It is not possible to give precise estimates. The reform process will be spread over a number of years, and during this period retail food prices will be affected by a number of factors. However, at the end of the reform period the retail food price index could be some 2 per cent. lower on average than it would otherwise have been.
Mail Order Foods
Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what response he has made to the Mail Order Fine Food Association's "Proposals for Improving Safety Standards in Mail Order Foods", a copy of which has been sent to him ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Curry : I have recently written to the Mail Order Fine Foods Association outlining my response to that organisation's paper entitled "Proposals for Improving Safety Standards in Mail Order Foods". I welcome the formation of the association and applaud its primary objective of introducing and maintaining improved standards of food quality and hygiene throughout the mail order trade. Moreover, the association's initiative in drawing up a code of good hygiene practice for the mail order food industry is to be commended. Given the importance of temperature control and of scrupulous
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attention to hygiene at the production and packing stages of all foods, I shall be interested to follow the progress of this code and the extent to which, though voluntary, it commands general acceptance in the mail order sector.Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer of 22 May, Official Report, columns 322-23 , if he will list the locations of incinerators approved by his Ministry for the disposal of BSE cows ; and what is the weekly capacity for each one.
Mr. Gummer : The Ministry uses eight incineration plants in England and Wales for the incineration of suspect BSE carcases. They are located in Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Somerset, Nottinghamshire, Avon, Cornwall, Dyfed and Clywd. One of these is at a Ministry veterinary investigation centre located in Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire and has the capacity to incinerate 22 carcases per week. The others are privately owned and operate on a commercial basis. The Ministry cannot therefore disclose details, such as individual capacity, for these plants.
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will convene a working party of independent scientists to produce an updated report on bovine spongiform encephalopathy ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : I did so in 1990 and this committee, chaired by Dr. Tyrrell, has produced advice to Ministers on a number of occasions. In each case the recommendations have been made public and implemented in full.
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will show the number of confirmed cases of BSE in each county of England and Wales from May.
Mr. Soames : The number of cases confirmed for England and Wales from 1 May 1992 to 29 May 1992 is as follows. These cases will have a date of clinical onset of disease, and indeed date of report, before 1 May.
County |Confirmed cases
------------------------------------------------------------
England
Avon |46
Bedfordshire |8
Berkshire |10
Buckinghamshire |23
Cambridgeshire |10
Cheshire |176
Cleveland |4
Cornwall |258
Cumbria |103
Derbyshire |109
Devon |343
Dorset |164
Durham |19
Essex |6
Gloucestershire |49
Hampshire |42
Hereford and Worcestershire |56
Hertfordshire |5
Humberside |15
Isle of Wight |11
Kent |38
Lancashire |103
Leicestershire |58
Lincolnshire |11
London |3
Manchester |0
Merseyside |2
Norfolk |75
Northamptonshire |24
Northumberland |34
Nottinghamshire |24
Oxfordshire |42
Shropshire |81
Somerset |209
Staffordshire |95
Suffolk |27
Surrey |22
Susex, East |24
Sussex, West |52
Tyne and Wear |1
Warwickshire |30
West Midlands |3
Wiltshire |104
Yorks, North |152
Yorks, South |6
Yorks, West |24
Wales
Clwyd |52
Dyfed |199
Glamorgan, North |2
Glamorgan, South |11
Glamorgan, West |2
Gwent |21
Gwynedd |14
Powys |59
Myxomatosis Vaccine
Mr. Moate : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when stocks of myxomatosis vaccine for pet rabbits will be exhausted ; what assessment he has made of the likely consequences for domestic pets ; how this situation has arisen ; and if he will take steps to secure immediate production of this vaccine.
Mr. Soames : Discussions between licence holders and the licensing authority are confidential matters on which I am unable to comment under the terms of section 118 of the Medicines Act 1968. I can confirm however that a licence for myxomatosis vaccine was recently surrendered by the licence holder. Information on the stocks available is not held centrally but there will be no further supplies once those currently held by veterinarians have been exhausted. Informal discussions have taken place with representatives of the veterinary pharmaceutical industry about the possibility that other companies might wish to make applications for a licence but so far no applications have been forthcoming. This is a commercial decision for the companies concerned and will clearly be influenced by the perceived level of demand for such a product.
Any application would need to be considered against the scientific criteria of safety, quality and efficacy as required by the Medicines Act and would be assessed as speedily as possible.
Food (Radioactivity)
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what action he has taken on the recommendation by the Agriculture Committee that his
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Department should develop a monitoring system at key food outlets to give an indication of day-to-day levels of radiocativity in major foodstuffs.Mr. Soames : The Ministry's priority remains the monitoring of sheep at the point of production to ensure that contaminated animals or produce are identified and prevented from entering the food chain.
To supplement these live monitoring arrangements, the Department operates a programme of monitoring at a number of slaughterhouses which take sheep from the Cumbria restricted area. In addition, our terrestrial radioactivity monitoring programme involves the monitoring of milk at dairies covering 27 counties in England and Wales. The results of this monitoring are published regularly and copies are placed in the Libraries of the House.
Also, monitoring programmes for radioactivity in food operated by various bodies have been published in a compendium "Programmes to Monitor Radioactivity in Food : Food Surveillance Paper No. 28, HMSO, 1990". This report gives an indication of the further extensive monitoring of food that currently takes place.
Suckler Cow Premium
Mr. John Greenway : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the rate of suckler cow premium for the 1992 scheme year.
Mr. Gummer : At its meeting on 18 to 21 May, the Council of Agriculture Ministers agreed that the Community-funded element of the suckler cow premium for the 1992 scheme year should be 50 ecu--£39.77- -per head. There will continue to be provision for an optional national top -up to the Community-funded premium. I expect the Commission to produce a draft implementing regulation shortly. An announcement on the rate of premium to apply in the United Kingdom for the 1992 scheme will be made in due course. In the meantime, I have laid an amendment to the relevant statutory instrument--SI 1992/1210, the Suckler Cow Premium (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 1992--to make it clear that the rates currently set out apply only to applications in respect of the 1991 scheme year.
Meat Inspection
Mr. Clifton-Brown : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has now concluded the review of meat inspection charges which he announced on 9 March ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : I am today making available in the Library of the House copies of summary statistics collected by the review team, and of recommendations by the agriculture departments to interested local authorities and members of the meat industry. These are directed at clarifying the basis on which charges are calculated, and enabling co- operation between plant operators and local authorities to facilitate consistent and cost-effective inspection throughout Great Britain. I hope that they will help local authorities discharge their statutory responsibilities efficiently, in the period of transition until the new national meat hygiene service takes over these responsibilities. We wish to thank those local authorities and members of the industry who provided information to the review team.
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The Government remain concerned that the EC legislation under which meat inspection charges are required to be levied should be efficient, cost effective and applied on a uniform basis throughout the Community. In the light of the detailed findings of the review, we will be pressing the European Commission to bring forward satisfactory proposals for the revision of these EC arrangements for discussion by the Council of Ministers. This issue has important implications for fair competition in the single market, and we will press for it to be resolved in the forthcoming UK presidency.NATIONAL FINANCE
Brewing
Mr. Luff : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to review the impact of excise duty on smaller brewers.
Sir John Cope : The position of smaller brewers was considered during the pre-Budget review of indirect taxation, but my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer decided to make no change. However, small brewers should benefit from the forthcoming change in the method of taxing beer. The present wastage allowance, which often does not cover all their production losses, will be abolished, and they will pay duty only on the beer they actually despatch for sale. The Government have no present plans for a further review.
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Home Care Services
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received on the subject of VAT charges on home care services ; and if he will place the text of such representations and his reply to them in the Library.
Sir John Cope : Treasury Ministers have received a number of representations about VAT on the provision of domiciliary care. I have arranged for the text of a typical reply to such representations to be placed in the Library of the House.
Manufacturing Investment
Mr. Peter Bottomley : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of gross domestic product manufacturing investment, including leased assets, represented in 1979 and 1991.
Mr. Nelson : Estimates of manufacturing investment and gross domestic product may be obtained from the CSO database accessible through the House of Commons Library.
Exchange Rate Mechanism
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out for each month the variation of the pound sterling inside or outside the 2 per cent. and 6 per cent. bands since its entry into the European exchange rate mechanism.
Mr. Nelson : Sterling does not participate in the narrow band of the ERM. The table lists the average monthly percentage variation of sterling from its central rates against other ERM currencies since joining the exchange rate mechanism.
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|c|Sterling's percentage deviation from its central rates against the other ERM currencies|c|
|Deutschmark |Dutch Guilder|Belgian/ |Danish Krone |Irish Punt
|Luxembourg
|Franc
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 1990 |0.74 |0.78 |0.54 |0.77 |0.64
November |-1.07 |-0.96 |-1.04 |-0.58 |-0.99
December |-2.40 |-2.26 |-2.06 |-1.38 |-1.77
January 1991 |-1.10 |-1.04 |-1.19 |-0.16 |-0.70
February |-1.40 |-1.38 |-1.59 |-0.54 |-0.84
March |-0.65 |-0.61 |-0.77 |-0.02 |-0.12
April |1.02 |1.01 |0.46 |1.38 |1.17
May |0.47 |0.46 |-0.21 |0.79 |0.55
June |-0.36 |-0.36 |-0.47 |0.64 |-0.20
July |-0.12 |-0.14 |-0.32 |1.24 |0.03
August |-0.48 |-0.46 |-0.67 |0.88 |-0.29
September |-0.79 |-0.78 |-0.92 |0.41 |-0.58
October |-1.33 |-1.32 |-1.50 |-0.09 |-1.15
November |-2.19 |-2.17 |-2.31 |-0.42 |-1.88
December |-3.13 |-3.11 |-3.24 |-1.17 |-2.58
January 1992 |-3.19 |-3.23 |-3.34 |-1.50 |-2.58
February |-2.47 |-2.58 |-2.68 |-0.89 |-2.10
March |-2.90 |-2.99 |-3.12 |-1.24 |-2.49
April |-1.85 |-1.94 |-2.09 |-0.24 |-1.36
May |-0.50 |-0.59 |-0.71 |0.74 |-0.22
|c|Sterling's percentage deviation from its central rates against the other ERM currencies|c| ------------------------------------------ 1990 October |-2.74|- |0.85 |0.59 November |-3.67|- |-0.58|-0.67 December |-4.08|- |-1.64|-1.16 1991 January |-4.04|- |-0.62|0.18 February |-5.11|- |-1.08|0.07 March |-4.95|- |-0.97|0.82 April |-4.07|- |0.04 |1.79 May |-4.33|- |-0.34|1.55 June |-4.40|- |-0.99|0.78 July |-3.75|- |-0.59|1.07 August |-4.38|- |-0.57|0.84 September |-4.24|- |-0.85|0.68 October |-4.28|- |-1.39|0.30 November |-4.83|- |-1.53|-0.35 December |-4.88|- |-2.10|-1.30 1992 January |-5.63|- |-2.47|-1.54 February |-5.74|- |-2.06|-1.02 March |-5.74|- |-2.48|-1.71 April |-4.91|-3.52|-1.22|-1.03 May |-4.30|-4.72|0.10 |-0.26 Note: Sterling joined the exchange rate mechanism on 8 October 1990. The Portuguese Escudo joined the ERM on 6 April 1992.
Malawi
Mrs. Clwyd : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement outlining Her Majesty's Government's policy on commercial loans to Malawi.
Mr. Nelson : Her Majesty's Government's policy on commercial bank loans to Malawi is that such loans are a matter to be decided by the banks and the Government of Malawi.
Profit-related Pay
Mr. Ian Taylor : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employees participated in live registered profit-related pay schemes in the last period for which figures are available ; how many schemes are in operation ; and what is the estimated total value of those schemes.
Mr. Dorrell : There were 736,000 participating employees in 2,895 live registered profit-related pay schemes at the end of April 1992. On the basis of the latest information provided by participating employers, the total annual value of the distributable profit-related pay pool for these schemes is tentatively estimated at about £500 million.
Employee Share Options
Mr. Ian Taylor : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employees have received shares under qualifying employee share option trusts ; and what is the current total value of shares in such trusts.
Mr. Dorrell : The Inland Revenue may not learn of the establishment of employee share ownership trusts of the kind defined in the Finance Act 1989 until claims for the tax relief provided by the legislation are received. Such claims may be made up to two years after the end of the period of account in which the relevant contributions are made. A return seeking information on the operation of the trust will not be sent out for completion until confirmation that a claim has been allowed has been received centrally. No such confirmations have yet been received.
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Business Expansion Scheme
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many new lettings from investments under the business expansion scheme in 1990-91 there were in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) north-west England and (c) St. Helens ; and what percentage these figures represent of (i) all privately rented property and (ii) all rented property.
Mr. Dorrell : Provisional estimates for new lettings from investments under the business expansion scheme in 1990-91 are as follows. Separate figures for St. Helens could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.