Crackdown pledge on defaulting abattoirs

19 February 1998

Crackdown pledge on defaulting abattoirs

By Trevor Mason, Press Association

A CRACKDOWN on abattoirs who refuse to pay inspection charges levied by the Meat Hygiene Service has been signalled by deputy agriculture minister Jeff Rooker.

In a short debate, Mr Rooker told the Commons refusal to pay existing charges on meat checks caused problems of “undercutting and unfair competition” for responsible abattoirs.

“Why should a good firm be undermined by other crooked companies, bucket shop companies, refusing to pay?” he asked.

“We are urgently looking at this situation of bad debt so far as the Meat Hygiene Service is concerned to see what action can be taken.

“I am not prepared to see the good side of the industry unfairly disadvantaged. The situation cannot be allowed to continue,” he added.

Mr Rooker was replying to Tory Christopher Gill (Ludlow) who complained that farmers were being driven to “death and despair” by the export ban on British beef.

Mr Gill said the livestock industry was in “dire straits” and less successful now than it was in the 1930s.

Accusing ministers of having failed with their “charm offensive” in Brussels to get the ban lifted, he protested that additional costs amounting to £79 million had been placed on the industry through initiatives like the cattle tracing scheme.

Mr Rooker said, however, that no final decision had been taken on how to charge for the cattle movement service.

He dubbed protesting farmers who barracked agriculture minister Dr Jack Cunningham outside a TV studio on Sunday as “hooligans”.

He added: “They do the farming industry no good whatsoever and if they had been outside a football ground, they would have been up on a charge before now.”