---

Avian Flu

My Lords, is the Minister aware that there will be widespread support for the view just expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Stratford? Widespread support, that is, not only in your Lordships’ House, but in the other House and the country at large. Can the Minister return to the point he made in his original Statement about the risk of cross-infection from migratory birds to, as I understood it, poultry farmed in the open air? This is obviously an extremely important issue but will only to be tackled effectively across the whole of the European Union. Is he satisfied that the experience of the Dutch over the past two or three years has been well understood? Is it being implemented in other EU countries, so that we have a robust biosecurity measure throughout the European Union on this particularly important issue?