Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2017 to Question 67006 on bovine tuberculosis: dogs, whether her Department has carried out any research on diseases in packs of hunting dogs.
Answered by George Eustice
Bovine TB is a notifiable disease in all farmed and pet mammal species, including dogs. The disease has only very rarely been diagnosed in dogs, in this country and elsewhere, and investigations into bovine TB breakdowns in cattle herds have never identified the source of a breakdown as an infected dog.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February 2017 to Question 62238, on Pets: Imports, for what reasons the number of dogs reported as entering the UK non-commercially under the Pet Travel Scheme increased between 2015 and 2016.
Answered by George Eustice
There has been a marked increase in popularity of the Pet Travel Scheme in GB. In 2014 APHA issued 80,274 new pet passports to their official veterinarians, 119,704 in 2015 and 95,449 in 2016.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reasons her Department decided not to require Animal and Plant Health Advisory officers to deter illegal imports of puppies into the UK control zone in Coquelles, Calais.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government takes the illegal importation of puppies seriously and does put in place deterrents to the illegal import of puppies into the United Kingdom Control Zone at Coquelles. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is responsible for ensuring there are effective controls to prevent illegal movements into the Control Zone. APHA require approved carriers, in the case of Coquelles, Eurotunnel, to check 100% of animals travelling under the Pet Travel Scheme for compliance before they are permitted to enter the Control Zone. There is a formal agreement in place which details how Eurotunnel must carry out this function.
APHA has always carried out periodic inspections in the Control Zone to ensure that the carrier company’s checks are effective. Our approach to these pet animal checks and compliance monitoring has not changed. In addition APHA has also worked with carriers on specific intelligence led operations to identify and seize illegally imported puppies. APHA works with all carriers approved to transport pet animals and is currently in discussion on proposals to strengthen the effectiveness of the checks they are required to carry out.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the extent to which bovine TB is spread by dogs.
Answered by George Eustice
Evidence indicates that dogs play an insignificant role in the persistence and spread of bovine TB in Great Britain, including transmission of the disease to cattle herds.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the return to the UK taxpayer of each £1 invested in UK Farming.
Answered by George Eustice
UK taxpayers support the agricultural sector in variety of ways: through the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), spending on agricultural research and development, including the Agri-tech Strategy, and indirectly through wider programmes such as on skills development. The benefit of each pound spent on the Agri-tech Strategy was estimated to be £9 (BIS Evaluation Plan 2016)[1]. The estimated benefit, on average, for funds spent in England under Pillar 2 of the CAP is over £3 per pound spent according to the Rural Development Plan for England Impact Assessment 2015[2], but less than £1 per pound spent for Pillar 1 according to a report on implementation of CAP in England in 2013[3]. As a result of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union there is a real opportunity to improve returns to taxpayer support for agriculture.
[1] BIS Evaluation Plan 2016
[2] The Rural Development Programme for England, 2014 to 2020: Final Impact Assessment (2015)
[3] Implementation of CAP reform in England 2013
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many (a) dogs, (b) cats and (c) ferrets were imported (i) non-commercially under the Pets Travel Scheme and (ii) commercially under the Trade in Animals and Related Products Regulations 2011 into the UK in 2016.
Answered by George Eustice
The commercial data was extracted from the Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) and the pet data was taken from APHA’s system for recording pets entering the UK, based on information provided by pet checkers.
In some cases imports are recorded on TRACES as “Canis familiaris / Felis catus”, so APHA are unable to distinguish between cat or dog imports. These are included on the table in row “Mixed cats/dogs”.
| Pets | Commercial |
Dogs | 275,876 | 34,017 |
Cats | 24,145 | 2,572 |
Ferrets | 129 | 0 |
Mixed cats/dogs | N/A | 327 |
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