Foot and Mouth Disease

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I cannot provide the noble Baroness with any specific dates on those agreements at present. All I can say to her at this stage is that it is very much a government priority and we are working closely with the EU to make progress as best we can.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

The Government have imposed a blanket ban on all livestock products coming from Germany to England, Wales and Scotland but it is a much narrower ban in respect of Northern Ireland, where the ban applies only to a restricted zone around where the outbreak took place. Can she comment on that, and say whether she and her colleagues have been in touch with her counterparts in the Irish Republic?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

We are of course regularly in touch with our counterparts across all the devolved Governments, and the Governments in Germany and the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland is subject to the EU import rules, which is why it is not included in the ban we brought in yesterday. This includes regionalisation requirements and is set out in EU legislation. Northern Ireland is protected from the disease coming in through being included in the EU ban, so Northern Ireland is as protected as the rest of Great Britain through those measures. The noble Lord can be certain that the EU would not want to see any spread of this disease to any other part of the European Union, and that includes the Republic of Ireland and, through the way the regulations are currently set up, Northern Ireland as well. I met yesterday with politicians from Northern Ireland and reassured them that we are as serious about stopping the disease entering Northern Ireland as we are in respect of any other part of the UK.