Animal Health Bill — Clause 7 — Slaughter: Power of Entry — 6 Nov 2002 at 22:30

I beg to move, That this House agrees with the Lords in the said amendment.

The Government agree that we must take action to minimise the risk of importing animal diseases that have the potential to do serious damage. That is why we are taking action to tackle the problem of illegal imports of meat and meat products, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State spelt out in some detail the kind of measures that we are taking. The illegal imports action plan covers a wide range of measures. It is expected that future action to combat illegal imports will be informed by the outcome of the assessment of disease risk and a review of how import controls can be better arranged.

I beg to move Government amendment (a) to the Lords amendment, leave out lines 12 to 29.

We are not disagreeing with the argument that there is a need for effective contingency planning. We have no argument with that. Indeed, the 2001 epidemic demonstrated very early on that the contingency plans that we had in place were clearly inadequate for dealing with an epidemic of that scale and type. We freely acknowledge that. Our experience in that epidemic has resulted in the rewriting of contingency plans by every country, as it is recognised that a complete rethink is required in organisational terms and in the way in which the matter is addressed.

Question put, That the amendment to the Lords amendment be made:-

The House divided: Ayes 286, Noes 164.

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