Chamber and committees

Tracing of cattle which have moved off Roslin Institute farms over the past three years is being carried out by the State Veterinary Service. To date investigations have revealed that 217 of the 400 cattle are no longer alive. Of the remainder, movements have been recorded to farms in both Scotland and England. Tracing these animals will be completed soon. Thereafter all farms where these cattle are located will be visited to carry out full investigations and to collect blood samples for testing.

Oil from the affected crop planted and harvested in 1999 will have been mixed with oil from other sources before being widely dispersed. In these circumstances there is no obvious way now to be able to identify for consumers those products which might contain minimal traces of GM derived oil. Scottish Ministers are fully committed to receiving rigorous testing and safety analysis of new food products derived through biotechnology.

Under EC and international agreements seed imported from non-EC countries is subject to equivalent standards of field inspection and certification. These arrangements do not include separation distances between GM crops and non-GM crops. Spot checks of imported seeds to ensure that they do not contain GM material were introduced on 1 June.

The recent incident involving conventional seed accidentally containing a small proportion of GM seed has highlighted the question of separation distances between GM and other crops. The circumstances of the contamination are still being investigated but the evidence which emerges will form an important element of the UK review of separation distances which was announced on 8 June. The review, which aims to report in August, will consider whether existing arrangements are satisfactory but at present we have no plans to legislate in this area.

The rural and urban parts of Scotland are given equal priority by the eight Scottish police forces, all of which have a mix of communities to police. The existing formula for distributing resources to individual forces makes an allowance for the additional operational costs of policing sparsely populated areas.

The circumstances which have given rise to the contamination of the seed in Canada are still being investigated. It remains to be determined with certainty that the contamination was caused by cross-pollination. The UK is working closely with the Canadian authorities to obtain this information.

We have received information on contaminated seed lot numbers which will help farmers confirm whether they have sown a contaminated crop but that is principally a matter between Advanta and farmers. As the farmers are the innocent party in this matter I do not think any public interest would be served by publishing any information we have obtained from Advanta.

We have had a seeds inspection system in Scotland for many years. However, the EU Commission recently published proposals to tighten up seed purity legislation which will be discussed in the Commission and the EU Council before being negotiated through the OECD. The proposals are at an early stage and do not contain any details on the cost of the system or its funding.

I can confirm that only one plant in Scotland is approved to export beef under the provisions of the Date-Based Export Scheme.

At present the plant is able to deal with the current volume of exports. Additional participation in the scheme is a matter for the commercial judgement of each abattoir company. Efforts will continue to be made to persuade the European Commission and other member states to make changes to the scheme to help encourage increased participation in the beef export market.

The Executive attaches high priority to assisting the industry to regain lost beef export markets. We have supported the industry's efforts to build up a brand of integrity; I have briefed influential European journalists, attachés and others on the measures now in place to ensure the health and quality of our beef; and I have ensured that our grant schemes continue to support, where possible, the marketing efforts of those who have committed themselves to lead the Scotch beef industry back into Europe. I welcome the formation of Quality Meat Scotland which will give further emphasis to the industry's export efforts; and, with other UK Agriculture Ministers, I am keeping under careful review our approach to the Date Based Export Scheme in the light of the continuing fall in numbers of cases of BSE.