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Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what the period of notice provided to owners of facilities licensed to quarantine animals entering the UK before inspections are carried out is; [150790] (2) what the minimum number per year is of inspections of facilities licensed to quarantine animals entering the UK; [150793] (3) how many inspections of facilities licensed to quarantine animals entering the UK were carried out in each of the last five years. [150794] Mr. Bradshaw: Under Article 9 of the Rabies (Importation of Dogs, Cats and other Mammals) Order 1974, which covers Great Britain, quarantine premises are required to be authorised by a licence issued by a Defra Minister. In order to maintain their authorised status, quarantine premises for companion animals are required to be inspected by the State Veterinary Service. If the inspections are satisfactory, they are issued with an authorisation licence by Defra. The target for inspections is quarterly visits, that is four visits annually, two of which are pre-notified and two which are unannounced. Pre-notified visits are usually arranged two to four weeks in advance. There are normally, at least, three visits a year to authorised premises, and for some, there may be more than four annually. In addition to these, when a complaint is received from the public, an unannounced visit is made to investigate the complaint. Detailed records of inspections are kept for individual authorised quarantine premises, but are not collated centrally.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

417 c534W; 150790;150793;150794

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Animals Inspections Disease control Quarantine

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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