Horsemeat Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Roger Williams
Main Page: Roger Williams (Liberal Democrat - Brecon and Radnorshire)Department Debates - View all Roger Williams's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(11 years, 3 months ago)
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Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)
Food safety and quality is an international matter and we need collaboration across borders. When criminal activity is involved, Europol has a particularly important role to play. Will the Minister ensure that we identify where this horsemeat came from in order to verify, for instance, that it was not slaughtered on unlicensed premises?
Mr Heath
That is why we need a European-wide criminal investigation and why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is at The Hague today talking to Europol. Europol can act only if requested to do so by member states, and the UK has made such a request, in company with Mr Le Foll, the French Minister. That is why it is proceeding and I think that that will add a lot of co-ordination to what otherwise might be a fragmented police investigation.