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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what impact the decision by the EU to permit the feeding of animal remains to farm livestock will have on the importation of animal products into Great Britain from Northern Ireland.

The EU is introducing legislative changes which follow their agreed TSE roadmaps.

These proposals would authorise for the EU:

• processed animal protein (PAP) of porcine origin to be fed to poultry and PAP of poultry origin to be fed to porcine animals;

• animal protein derived from insects to be fed to poultry and porcine animals, under the same conditions as are already required for feeding aquaculture animals; and

• products containing ruminant collagen and gelatine to be fed to poultry and porcine animals.

The rules will still be more stringent than those required by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) which only ban the use of ruminant proteins in feed for ruminant animals.

Pigs and poultry have not been shown to be susceptible to TSE. The proposals will not affect the existing bans on feeding animal proteins to ruminants and on intra-species recycling (feeding an animal with a product derived from the same species), and they do not include high-risk animal by-products which are incinerated. Nor would they permit the feeding of animal remains to farmed livestock, which is banned in the UK and the EU.

The restrictions on feeding of livestock in England will not be altered by EU legislation. Before taking any policy decision, officials would obtain advice from Government scientists and from the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) regarding any potential risk to human or animal health; and engage closely with groups representing consumers, retailers, producers, farmers and other interested stakeholders.

Animal Health is a devolved matter, so this policy is devolved to the Scottish and the Welsh Ministers for their respective territories.

Under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the amendments will apply to Northern Ireland.

The UK does not ban the imports of pig and poultry meat products from countries where the feed rules comply with the OIE requirements. This means that imports of pig and poultry meat products from the EU or Northern Ireland will continue to be accepted into Great Britain.