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Foot and Mouth Disease and Bluetongue

My Lords, I sympathise with the Minister as it is every Defra Minister’s nightmare to have a foot and mouth outbreak and the introduction of bluetongue into this country. I have three points to make. First, on the question of compensation, to my knowledge lambs have been selling at at least £10 a head less than they were at the same time last year—and I think that is probably an underestimate. There have been no reductions in price whatever in the supermarkets. There is still an enormous mark-up. Someone, somewhere, in the middle of the food chain, is making an awful lot of money. Will the Government please address that question? If the retail price at the supermarkets was lower, consumption would go up, which would help to solve some of the problems. Secondly, on Pirbright and the Institute for Animal Health, it seems wrong to me, as a scientist, that there is a research institute and a commercial company on the same site. I suspect that is as a result of something that goes way back about 15 years, when the then Prime Minister talked about ““near-market research””. I call that development. I cannot see how an out-and-out commercial company and a research body can be on the same site and there can be adequate control of the site and all the issues with the virus escaping. Why is not the virus sterilised and put in a particular place? Why is it going into the drains? That seems quite extraordinary. Finally, bluetongue is a very serious disease for agriculture. I make a plea to the Minister that he resists the extension of the bluetongue zones except for those circumstances affecting abattoirs, which need to be addressed. Unless there is another outbreak outside the zone, clearly that should be the only circumstances where the zone is affected because most of the cattle and sheep are in the west and the north of the United Kingdom.