That this House notes that Rose County Foods Ltd., operators of a licensed slaughterhouse in Sawley, Clitheroe, has been charged with contravention of the Specified Risk Material Regulations 1997; notes that the first hearing will be at Blackburn Magistrates' Court on 1st February 1998; and notes that the case relates to BSE enforcement.

That this House notes that Rose County Foods Ltd., operators of a licensed slaughterhouse in Sawley, Clitheroe, has been charged with contravention of the Specified Risk Material Regulations 1997; notes that the first hearing will be at Blackburn Magistrates' Court on 1st February 1998; and notes that the case relates...

That this House expresses its strong support for rural communities throughout Britain; deplores the negligence of the previous government which led to the BSE disaster and recognizes the crises now facing agriculture and the beef industry; welcomes the action taken by the Labour government to implement the selective cull, to establish a national cattle traceability system, to guarantee the safety of food, to halt imports of potentially risky beef from 1st January, to restore consumer confidence and to make the case for the beef export ban to be lifted for cattle born after August 1996; notes the massive investment of public money to eradicate BSE and to support an industry which is vital for rural employment and for the rural landscape; calls on supermarkets to promote quality British beef; and urges the Government to do everything possible to help the industry to keep Britain farming and to reopen the export market for the best and safest beef in the world.

That this House expresses its strong support for rural communities throughout Britain; deplores the negligence of the previous government which led to the BSE disaster and recognizes the crises now facing agriculture and the beef industry; welcomes the action taken by the Labour government to implement the selective cull, to...

That this House is extremely concerned that a mere 3.8 per cent of the 1,139,799 cattle slaughtered under the over 30 month scheme have been disposed of by high temperature incineration; notes that a quarter of a million carcasses are still in cold storage and that the meat and bone meal rendered from 848,798 cattle is still in 11 warehouses, that storage costs are over a quarter of a million pounds per week, that at this incineration rate the process could take years; notes with concern that 30,000 tonnes of beef and 9,000 tones of products such as beef burgers have been landfilled; recognises that the official Government view, backed by European Commission Regulations 716/96 and 1484/96, is that the only safe way of disposing of potentially infected material is by high temperature incineration; believes that dither and mismanagement has led to this disgraceful situation which will be exacerbated by any further cull; and calls for the Government to make a statement to the House on the disposal of BSE-related waste at the earliest opportunity.

That this House is extremely concerned that a mere 3.8 per cent of the 1,139,799 cattle slaughtered under the over 30 month scheme have been disposed of by high temperature incineration; notes that a quarter of a million carcasses are still in cold storage and that the meat and bone...

That this House, whilst welcoming the recent decision of Mr Justice Morland in the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease litigation, nevertheless notes with concern that it was necessary for this forensic judicial inquiry to take place because of the failure of the Secretary of State for Health to order a public inquiry akin to that undertaken by the Allars Inquiry between May 1993 and June 1994 in Australia and that such a judicial inquiry into the shortcomings of the working of a branch of the Scientific Civil Service was necessitated by the absence of independent scrutiny by any Government or other watchdog of safety standards and risk management in that service; deplores the fact that such scrutiny by litigation will become rare, if not impossible in future because of changes to legal aid eligibility and cost rules set out by the Lord Chancellor's recent White Paper on The Future of Legal Aid in England and Wales; further notes that the judicial inquiry has left some of the plaintiffs without compensation for loss of loved ones at a time when the Government has promised ex gratia payments of 2.5 billion pounds to dairy farmers for the loss of their cattle from the equivalent bovine disease, BSE; and call upon the Government to make payment of an appropriate sum of compensation to all of thoe who have lost loved ones to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease following a growth hormone treatment before 1985.

That this House, whilst welcoming the recent decision of Mr Justice Morland in the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease litigation, nevertheless notes with concern that it was necessary for this forensic judicial inquiry to take place because of the failure of the Secretary of State for Health to order a public inquiry akin...

That this House notes that of the 256 throughput licensed slaughterhouses in the United Kingdom, 41 have been allocated work in connection with the over 30 months slaughter scheme and that of these 41, 19 have been allocated 82 per cent. of the total work; is concerned that these slaughterhouses were selected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food without any resort to any process of tendering and that the price per head negotiated with them is ??87.50, plus retention of hide for future use; is advised that this rate grossly exceeds the reasonable commercial rate for the work of around ??30 per head including value of the hide, and that on an estimated throughput of 20,000 head per week, this represents a weekly excess charge to the taxpayer of ??1.5 million; fears that this distortion of costs could have a disruptive and destructive effect throughout the meat market and could drive out of business many operators who have not had the opportunity to tender for participation in the scheme; and therefore calls upon Her Majesty's Government, as a matter of urgency, to review the present scheme and replace it with a scheme based on a tendering process, in respect of participation to achieve more reasonable market rates per head for cattle included in the cull.

That this House notes that of the 256 throughput licensed slaughterhouses in the United Kingdom, 41 have been allocated work in connection with the over 30 months slaughter scheme and that of these 41, 19 have been allocated 82 per cent. of the total work; is concerned that these slaughterhouses...

That this House notes with interest and concern the findings of the joint Observer/World in Action investigation into the relationship between Mr John Whitefield, the honourable Member for Dewsbury from 1983 to 1987, and Prosper De Mulder, the rendering company whose products are believed to have been a major source of BSE in cattle; notes that during his time in the House Mr Whitfield acted as the company's solicitor and arranged lobbying meetings on their behalf with Government Ministers geared to persuading the Government not to abandon the use of meat and bone products in animal feeds and that the Dewsbury Conservative Association received a donation of ??1,000 from Prosper De Mulder in 1992 at a time when Mr Whitfield was seeking re-election as that constituency's honourable Member, calls upon the company to make public all its donations to, and connnections with the Conservative party; and calls upon the Law Society to investigate whether Mr Whitfield's lobbying activities were consistent with their procedures governing proper professional practice; and calls upon the Minister of Agricutlure, Fisheries and Food to place in the Library c opies of any correspondence of minutes of any meetings between Mr Whitfield or Prosper De Mulder and the Government.

That this House notes with interest and concern the findings of the joint Observer/World in Action investigation into the relationship between Mr John Whitefield, the honourable Member for Dewsbury from 1983 to 1987, and Prosper De Mulder, the rendering company whose products are believed to have been a major source...

That this House condemns the Government's policy of non-co-operation with its partners in the EU; regards the policy as counterproductive and as detrimental to Britain's vital national interests; considers it likely to delay rather than hasten the complete lifting of the beef ban; notes with concern that, amongst other things, the policy has already led to the blocking of measures designed to combat racism, crack down on fraud and support small businesses; further notes that these were all policies previously supported by this Government; urges the Government to drop the policy forthwith and to start working co-operatively with its partners to achieve a lifting of the ban; and calls upon the Government to make time for a debate on the effects of the policy.

That this House condemns the Government's policy of non-co-operation with its partners in the EU; regards the policy as counterproductive and as detrimental to Britain's vital national interests; considers it likely to delay rather than hasten the complete lifting of the beef ban; notes with concern that, amongst other things,...

That this House takes note of recent news reports that fragments of spinal cord continue to remain in beef carcases leaving slaughterhouses; is concerned that the proprietors of slaughterhouses may be held responsible for this, whereas in fact every carcase must be passed and stamped for a fee, by an inspector of the Meat Hygiene Service; and views this as yet another demonstration of the inefficiency of the Meat Hygiene Service whose charges are nevertheless crippling the fresh meat industry.

That this House takes note of recent news reports that fragments of spinal cord continue to remain in beef carcases leaving slaughterhouses; is concerned that the proprietors of slaughterhouses may be held responsible for this, whereas in fact every carcase must be passed and stamped for a fee, by an...

That this House is reminded of the response of the Committee of the Food Safety Bill on 19th March 1990 by the then Agriculture Minister, the honourable Member for Penrith and The Border, on the risk that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) might jump species to cats due to infected offal in pet food, that 'I do not want to get into the position where I as a politician go into a crazy panic over pet food, when all the evidence is against there being any risk whatever of the disease jumping species to cats and dogs. I could ban the pet food for no good reason and scientists could a year later say I was wrong' and that policy on bovine spongiform encepthalopathy should not be based on the love of the honourable Member for Leyton for his cats; notes that parliamentary answer by the current Minister of Agriculture on 30th March, that her Department has been notified of 47 cases of feline spongiform encepthalopathy, even thought the disease is not a notifiable one, and that reported cases are at the rate of one a month; and considers that the failure to act by the honourable Member for Penrith and The Border when he had the opportunity to take this matter seriously was a lamentable error of judgement.

That this House is reminded of the response of the Committee of the Food Safety Bill on 19th March 1990 by the then Agriculture Minister, the honourable Member for Penrith and The Border, on the risk that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) might jump species to cats due to...

That this House condemns the relentless attack on British farmers and food-producers by professors who display symptoms akin to BSE; and calls on the Department of Health to investigate the mental state of Professor Lacey who, having helped to destroy the egg industry, is now turning his attention to beef.

That this House condemns the relentless attack on British farmers and food-producers by professors who display symptoms akin to BSE; and calls on the Department of Health to investigate the mental state of Professor Lacey who, having helped to destroy the egg industry, is now turning his attention to beef.

That this House notes the exchange in the committee on the Food Safety Bill on 29th March, between the honourable Member for Leyton and the Agriculture Minister, the honourable Member for Penrith and the Border, in which the former said, at column 123, 'I feed my cats every day; no doubt the cat food contains a lot of offal and much of that might well be infected.' and called for a straight answer from the Minister on whether that was so; and that the Minister replied, at column 125, 'I do not want to get into the position where I as a politician go into a crazy panic over pet food, when all the evidence is against there being any risk whatever of the disease jumping species to cats and dogs. I could ban the pet food for no good reason and the scientists could a year later say I was wrong' and stated that policy on a serious issue such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy should not be based on the love of the honourable Member for Leyton for his cat; notes the reports of 10th May of the cat in Bristol with the species equivalent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and calls for immediate action to ban any potential infected offal or meat from pet food or, failing that, that the Minister considers his position and resigns.

That this House notes the exchange in the committee on the Food Safety Bill on 29th March, between the honourable Member for Leyton and the Agriculture Minister, the honourable Member for Penrith and the Border, in which the former said, at column 123, 'I feed my cats every day; no...

That this House expresses its great concern at the spread of mad cow disease as highlighted by Zoo Check; is horrified that five animals, an eland, gemsbok, nyala, kudu and endangered Arabian oryx have died since 1986, with the most recent cases, the oryx and kudu being recorded at London Zoo in March and October 1989, respectively; notes that while steps have been taken to limit the outbreak, the secrecy surrounding this devastating situation should be of great concern to all involved in wildlife conservation; calls upon the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, to act urgently to ensure that bovine spongiform encephalopathy in zoo stock should be an internationally notifiable disease to be registered with the Ministry of Agriculture, the World Health Organisation, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the International Union of Directors of Zoological Gardens; that there should be an immediate ban on the movement of all potentially at risk species between collections, both nationally and internationally, pending further information about the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and use of infected foodstuffs; that the National Federation of Zoos, immediately release details to all zoos, federation and non-federation , about the cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy so far uncovered; that urgent recommendations be made to zoos around the world concerning the recycling of zoo animals; and that all animals from recognised at risk species which to this date, have been transferred between collections in this country and abroad should be located, identified and monitored.

That this House expresses its great concern at the spread of mad cow disease as highlighted by Zoo Check; is horrified that five animals, an eland, gemsbok, nyala, kudu and endangered Arabian oryx have died since 1986, with the most recent cases, the oryx and kudu being recorded at London...

That this House notes with concern the escalation in confirmed cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and endorses the calls from the British Veterinary Association, the National Farmers' Union, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Country Landowners' Association and others for an increase in compensation payable on affected cattle to 100 per cent.; notes the acknowledgement by the honourable Member for Penrith and the Border that infected cattle are getting into the foodchain; and calls for the extension of the offal ban to calves of less than six months of age, the introduction of random sampling of the brains of slaughtered cattle, as recommended by the Tyrrell Committee, to determine the extent of sub-clinical infection and detect the earliest signs of vertical transmission, the implementation of the EC requirement for compulsory veterinary ante-mortem inspection of cattle, the prohibition of the feeding of ruminant-derived meat and bonemeal to all farm livestock and the termination of the irresponsible practice of exporting infected meat and bonemeal for consumption by livestock abroad.

That this House notes with concern the escalation in confirmed cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and endorses the calls from the British Veterinary Association, the National Farmers' Union, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Country Landowners' Association and others for an increase in compensation payable on affected cattle to...