Given my hon. Friend’s surname, I am sure that he will be declaring his interest. I assure him that the Government fully understand the importance of pigmeat to the economy of this country. I have had a meeting with the National Pig Association, and I am glad to say that it is very positive about the future .

I am grateful to you, Mr Speaker. I had earlier wished to ask about the pig industry, a very important industry across East Anglia. Can the Minister tell us what prospects he sees for the industry? It is an industry that does not have

subsidy from the public purse, but which has made huge gains, particularly in China where the pigs’ ear deal added £5 per carcass? What prospects does he see for this important sector?

At a recent meeting of the EU Standing Committee for Veterinary Medicinal Products on 20 January, the UK presented the view that withdrawal of these products may have a significant negative impact on pig production.

The scientific basis for recommendation of withdrawal of the products is to be re-examined by the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Veterinary Use. This process is expected to take two months.

We will continue to engage with UK stakeholders and the Commission to ensure that the wider context of the impact of a withdrawal is fully considered, and to achieve the best outcome for all stakeholders, balancing availability of medicines with the need to manage all associated risks.

Defra’s Code of Recommendations for pigs, which all pig-keepers must be familiar with, provides guidance on how to comply with the legal requirements in relation to environmental enrichment and routine tail-docking. When carrying out an inspection of a pig unit, the Animal Health and Plant Health Agency evaluate the provision of enrichment material and whether pigs are routinely tail-docked without a justifiable reason and will apply breaches where non-compliances are found.

There are health and welfare reasons for continuing to tail-dock in certain circumstances, but we and the pig industry recognise a need to improve the quality of enrichment materials available for all pigs and increase opportunities to stop tail-docking.

Defra contributed to a European Commission research project by Bristol University which informed the EU Commission’s recently published guidance on tail docking and enrichment materials. We are working with the industry to implement these recommendations on tail docking and enrichment which were published earlier this year.

Defra collects data on cases of notifiable or reportable diseases, as per a legal requirement. The department does not estimate the number of all cattle or all pigs which have died of disease or were put down on account of disease as the department does not collect cattle or pigs death data.

There have been no pig deaths due to notifiable disease in Great Britain in the last 5 years. There were two cattle deaths in 2015 from Anthrax. The most recent data on Bovine Tuberculosis is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/incidence-of-tuberculosis-tb-in-cattle-in-great-britain

A UK-wide baseline survey to look for the presence of livestock associated meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) in UK pigs was performed in 2008 in line with European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) protocols. At that point, none of the farms tested were found to be positive for MRSA. Since then, the organism has been detected in livestock in the UK. Current advice from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Public Health England (PHE) is that LA-MRSA poses a low risk to human health.

The people that are most likely to become colonised by LA-MRSA are those who work with livestock. Defra is therefore undertaking a study with Public Health England (PHE) to investigate the occurrence of LA-MRSA in veterinarians and livestock workers. The results of this study will be used to inform the need for future surveillance.

The Department has no plans to make such an assessment.