Written question asked by Owen Paterson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 14 December 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 21 December 2004. It was answered by Baroness Primarolo (Labour) on Tuesday, 21 December 2004 on behalf of the Treasury.

Treasury

Question: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what funding was allocated to Customs and Excise in (a) 2000, (b) 2001, (c) 2002, (d) 2003 and (e) 2004; and how much is budgeted for (i) 2005 and (ii) 2006 for the detection of illegal meat imports; what estimate he has made of the proportion of the (a) time and (b) resources available to Customs and Excise which is spent on the detection of illegal meat imports. - Inc figures.

Answer: Mr. Paterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what funding was allocated to Customs and Excise in (a) 2000, (b) 2001, (c) 2002, (d) 2003 and (e) 2004; and how much is budgeted for (i) 2005 and (ii) 2006 for the detection of illegal meat imports; [205974] (2) what estimate he has made of the proportion of the (a) time and (b) resources available to Customs and Excise which is spent on the detection of illegal meat imports. [205986] Dawn Primarolo: No specific funding was allocated prior to April 2003 when Customs took over enforcement responsibility for illegal imports of products of animal origin from countries outside the European Union. Customs have been allocated £4 million; £7 million and £7 million respectively over the three financial years 2003-04 to 2005-06 and this represents the effort expended by Customs.

Secondary information