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Written question asked by Mary Creagh (Labour) on Friday, 17 May 2013, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 3 June 2013. It was answered by David Heath (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 3 June 2013 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Phenylbutazone

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with reference to the answer of 25 March 2013, Official Report, columns 897-8W, on phenylbutazone, what the outcome was of the 12 investigations into the validity of horse passports from horse carcasses which tested positive for phenylbutazone.

[156733]

Answer

The investigations have shown that all horse passports submitted with these animals for slaughter were issued by authorised passport issuing organisations, and there was no evidence to question the validity of the information contained within the passports.

Summaries of the outcomes of follow-up inspections into non-compliant results under the UK's statutory residues surveillance programme, operated under Council

Directive 96/23/EC, are published in papers considered by the independent Veterinary Residues Committee (VRC). These can be seen at:

http://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/vrc/reports/surveillance.html

These are available in the Library of the House, as mentioned in the answer I gave on 18 March 2013, Official Report, column 530W.

Summaries of the results of. follow-up inspections of non-compliant results from the Food Standards Agency's 100% testing programme, introduced from 30 January 2013, will also be considered by the VRC and published. Information from these inspections, as well as previous ones, will provide more evidence on the most common reasons for these horses being presented for human consumption. This will help to target information campaigns to owners and their veterinarians.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
156733; 563 cc795-6W
Session
2013-14
Subjects
Import controls Horse meat Phenylbutazone
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk