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Bovine Tuberculosis

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Hilary Benn) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. On Friday 16 October the European Commission’s Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health (SCOFCAH) agreed to provide up to €10 million of EU funding to support the UK’s Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) Eradication Programme for 2010. Its decision to provide financial support to the UK is welcome assistance to our efforts to tackle this worrying, complex and costly disease. The UK eradication plan, submitted to the European Commission on 15 September, sets out the planned programme of TB surveillance, control and eradication for England, Wales and Northern Ireland during 2010 (Scotland is not required to submit a plan, having achieved officially TB-free status). The EU funding can be used to offset the costs of TB testing and compensation for cattle slaughtered within this programme. Defra will work with the Administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland to agree how this funding will be shared. I would like to take this opportunity also to acknowledge the excellent work of the TB Eradication Group for England, whose recommendations on strengthening the eradication programme in England helped ensure the approval of the UK’s plan. The group’s first report has recently been published and I am placing copies in the Libraries of the House.