Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of labour supplies in the poultry sector on that sector's efforts to tackle the avian influenza outbreak.

We are in daily contact with poultry stakeholders as part of responding to the avian influenza outbreak and discussions include the labour supply.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) leads Government action on animal disease control and has outbreak response plans in place. These include measures to contract companies to support eradication and cover such matters as the deployment of non-Government vets and experts in culling and disposal of birds. APHA also works closely with other agencies from within the Defra group to provide additional capacity.