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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer to the hon. Member for Richmond Park (Dr. Tonge) of 13 May 2003, Official Report, column 166W, what research her Department has carried out into the effectiveness of the testing of labelling schemes dealing with the importation of cat and dog fur; and what the estimated cost is of such schemes. [118259] Ms Hewitt: Mislabelling can already be prosecuted: it is an offence under the Trade Descriptions Act of 1968 to apply, by any means, false or misleading statements to goods including about their composition. However, the Trade Descriptions Act is difficult to enforce in the case of made-up goods containing fur until we can ensure a robust testing method for such products. We are working with other governments and scientific advisers to develop such an enforcement mechanism as soon as possible. The Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC Ltd.) have provided advice detailing why DNA testing of these products is both difficult and, as yet, unreliable (copies of this advice are available in the Libraries of the House). However, we have identified an alternative testing method (based on mass spectrometry) that may be more reliable and are working to determine whether this is the case. The cost of mass spectrometry testing is currently è200 per sample. However, the overall cost of any scheme to test labelling of products containing furs cannot easily be estimated. The cost would be dependent on the level of testing of products that the authorities responsible for enforcing the Trade Descriptions Act considered to be necessary.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

118259; 406 c999W;406 c1003W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Costs Dogs Furs Labelling Import controls Imports Pets Research Cats

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk