Ash Dieback Disease Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Joan Ruddock
Main Page: Joan Ruddock (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)Department Debates - View all Joan Ruddock's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(12 years ago)
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Mr Heath
We certainly need to communicate with local people who have forestry interests and trees on their property about what they should be looking for. I will not pre-empt the discussions with the experts on the ground about precisely what is the right action to take, but I assure my hon. Friend that we will apply all available resources to the problem, because we do not want it to spread further if we can possibly avoid it.
Dame Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)
The Minister said that he had difficulty identifying the pathogen, but did he or his officials contact Danish scientists who have a decade of experience in the field? Will he publish the scientific research indicating that airborne spores could reach this country from continental Europe?
Mr Heath
It was not I who had a problem identifying the pathogen; it was the international authorities, including the Danish authorities that the right hon. Lady mentions, who had reason to suspect that the pathogen was not the one that was initially identified, and that it was less virulent. That was why Europe and the world, frankly, took their eye off the ball to a certain extent and did not recognise the threat that Chalara represented to the Danish forests, for instance. Of course we work closely with our colleagues in other European countries and learn from their information, but I am afraid we cannot second-guess the international consensus.