Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on creating a replacement for the European School Milk Scheme.
Answered by George Eustice
The Secretary of State and I have regular discussions with ministers in other government departments on a range of matters.
We want children to be healthy and well-nourished and the dairy industry makes an important contribution to this. Alongside the European Union (EU) scheme, the Government is already doing a great deal nationally to promote children’s dairy consumption through, for example, the much larger national free Nursery Milk Scheme, and by ensuring the availability of milk for pupils under the School Food Standards, including free milk for disadvantaged pupils. The longer-term approach to the EU Scheme is still under consideration.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of school children who will be affected by the discontinuance of subsidies from the European School Milk Scheme.
Answered by George Eustice
The Secretary of State and I have regular discussions with ministers in other government departments on a range of matters.
We want children to be healthy and well-nourished and the dairy industry makes an important contribution to this. Alongside the European Union (EU) scheme, the Government is already doing a great deal nationally to promote children’s dairy consumption through, for example, the much larger national free Nursery Milk Scheme, and by ensuring the availability of milk for pupils under the School Food Standards, including free milk for disadvantaged pupils. The longer-term approach to the EU Scheme is still under consideration.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the levels of bovine TB in areas which are (a) under and (b) not under badger control measures.
Answered by George Eustice
The report on the comparison of the effect of the first two years of badger control in the first two areas is available here:
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the largest single herds slaughtered due to the detection of bovine TB in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
In 2016 more than 29,000 cattle were compulsory slaughtered in England due to the discovery of bovine TB following surveillance testing. On average six reactors are found and slaughtered from testing where bovine TB is detected in a herd. As the comprehensive bovine TB testing surveillance regime ensures most bovine TB incidents are detected at an early stage, it is very rare for cattle herds to be fully slaughtered for bovine TB control reasons in England. There have been four such cases in England in the past five years.
Year of incident | Herd size |
2016 | 60 |
2015 | 0 |
2014 | 130 |
2013 | 0 |
2012 | 122 & 25 |
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the total value of cattle slaughtered due to the detection of bovine TB within the herd in each of the last five years.
Answered by George Eustice
Compensation for cattle which are compulsorily slaughtered for the purpose of controlling bovine TB in England is based on the actual market prices for 51 categories of bovines. Therefore, the total gross expenditure on compensation is the best measure of the value of those cattle, had they not been affected by the disease.
Total gross expenditure on compensation over the last five full financial years is set out below:
Financial year | Total gross expenditure for cattle compulsorily slaughtered for the purpose of controlling bovine TB in England (£m) |
2011/12 | 31.6 |
2012/13 | 33.6 |
2013/14 | 31.2 |
2014/15 | 29.6 |
2015/16 | 29.7 |