Agricultural Products: Smuggling

Mr. Paice
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much was spent on (a) leaflets, (b) posters, (c) other advertising, (d) the branded mobile unit and (e) merchandising to support outreach activity on the risk from illegal imports of products of animal origin in each year since 2001.

Jonathan Shaw
The following figures refer to money spent by DEFRA:

-----------------
|       |£      |
-----------------
|2002-03|421,000|
-----------------
|2004-05|37,991 |
-----------------
|2005-06|28,906 |
-----------------
|2006-07|28,013 |
-----------------
|2007-08|27,926 |
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-----------------
|       |£      |
-----------------
|2004-05|334,189|
-----------------
|2005-06|243,853|
-----------------
|2006-07|361,521|
-----------------
|2007-08|354,738|
-----------------


----------------
|       |£     |
----------------
|2004-05|76,286|
----------------
|2005-06|57,178|
----------------
|2006-07|70,538|
----------------
|2007-08|57,967|
----------------


----------------
|       |£     |
----------------
|2004-05|0     |
----------------
|2005-06|0     |
----------------
|2006-07|17,010|
----------------
|2007-08|8,235 |
----------------


Since April 2003, HM Revenue and Customs has also undertaken a number of publicity activities as part of its Products Of Animal Origin (POAO) anti-smuggling responsibilities.

Mr. Paice
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate his Department has made of the amount of illegally imported meat entering the UK which was (a) contaminated with virus and (b) not detected in the last 12 months.

Jonathan Shaw
The endemic nature of exotic diseases in many countries around the world results in a continuous but low risk of infected meat reaching the country through illegal routes. This means that all such seizures are treated as an animal health risk and destroyed, by incineration, in the shortest possible time. 

The risk of disease relates to the possibility that animals may consume infectious material in illegal imports. Very small amounts of infectious material may cause disease and are likely to form only a very small proportion of any illegal import. There is thus very little chance of finding infected material by testing samples. Discovering whether any individual seizure is infected is unlikely to contribute significantly to the way that the restrictions relating to imports are enforced.

It is not possible to make an accurate estimate of the amount of illegally imported meat entering the UK which was not detected in the last 12 months because they are illegal and, therefore, clandestine.