Horsemeat

I do agree. The problem is that consumers cannot be sure what is going into the product they are ...

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. Does he agree that the Government’s scrappi...

I agree with my hon. Friend. I will come on to the national equine database and the risks that it...

I am listening carefully to the hon. Gentleman’s interesting speech on this extremely important s...

There are certainly issues to do with what the supermarkets are sourcing, which is contributing t...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will make progress, if I may. I have taken several interventions already.

Those failures ...

Like many others, I think that the debate is hugely important, and with my background in the live...

I agree with the hon. Gentleman; the standards of testing in Ireland seem to be admirable, and we...

I was not necessarily intending to speak at any great length, but I have been inspired by the spe...

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on making a very good speech. Local food provenance is importan...

I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman, and am about to discuss trading standards, and how we c...

I have taken the same view of horse passports as my hon. Friend, because I knew they would not wo...

My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point, and I was about to move on to it. He speaks fo...

I congratulate the hon. Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) on bringing this matter to the Hous...

Does my hon. Friend agree that what is important now is to restore the confidence of the wider co...

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that matter. The farming industry does its bit, and trading st...

There is a question to be asked about the degree to which the Republic of Ireland is guilty of lo...

The hon. Gentleman has illustrated that well. There is a question on the standards in neighbourin...

The hon. Gentleman makes an interesting point. At one end of the market, people are becoming very...

I do not always have solutions to the issues that come along. I hope the Government, in whom we h...

I hope the hon. Gentleman agrees that we should not create an impression that, just because a pro...

I accept that point. Cheaper does not always mean that the quality is inferior, but—this is why w...

I start by declaring an interest as a producer of beef and sheep, but not horses. The last time I...

The hon. Gentleman is making a good and intelligent contribution to this debate. I suggest that o...

The hon. Gentleman, because he is aware of these matters, will know that if meat or any other foo...

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) on securing this debate, ...

I apologise for not being here at the start of the debate, and I thank my hon. Friend for giving ...

My hon. Friend makes a critical point. There are technical issues that we need to consider and as...

The hon. Gentleman raises an important issue. He has been doing some work on bute. Animals receiv...

The hon. Gentleman tempts me to mention the Government’s own veterinary advice, although I was no...

Just to correct the hon. Gentleman on a small point, it is not a matter of fragmentation. When th...

This is fascinating, because that was why we introduced the national equine database, which centr...

Double passporting and fraud would occur whether or not there was a national equine database; tha...

I disagree with the hon. Gentleman. The Prime Minister was always opposed to the NED and spoke op...

The hon. Gentleman is right to say that the illegal meat trade has always involved criminal activ...

Indeed, hence my insistence on doing more. It is not sufficient just to say, “We have checks in p...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I would prefer not to take an intervention, because a separate debate is needed on the matter and...

I am extremely interested in the whole topic of horse passports, but it is a diversion and a red ...

Another debate is needed, but I can cite root and branch opinion, including from members of DEFRA...

I congratulate the hon. Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) on securing and introducing the deb...

I, too, welcome the announcement that Tesco will do DNA testing, but we should not be misled in t...

I am sure that that is absolutely true, as it is of other retailers. Waitrose, for instance, wish...

One confidence restorer that consumers will expect is that those responsible for the current adul...

The hon. Gentleman must be careful to distinguish between prosecution and litigation. Civil litig...

The Minister referred to cross-contamination being a source of trace DNA found in other food prod...

It is not uncommon in inexpensive burgers, for example, to use bulking material such as beef prot...

I hear what the Minister says about the reduced numbers of local authority food safety officers, ...

The distinction I was trying to make for the hon. Gentleman—I accept that he has been given figur...

The Minister has rightly drawn attention to the success of testing in the meat processing and aba...

I was going to move on to the issues about phenylbutazone and horse passports, as that was the ot...

Does the Minister not agree that it would make much more sense to prevent the transport of such m...

That would require all 9,000 horses that are killed for human consumption—the vast majority of wh...

I welcome the Minister’s candour. In the couple of minutes that are remaining, will he deal with ...

I am very happy to look at the operation of the horse passport. However, the national equine data...