Member

The noble Lord, Lord Dodds, asked about the foot and mouth outbreak and issues with Germany. As he said, measures were announced on 14 January that applied to imports from Germany into Great Britain, and he rightly laid out the situation that Northern Ireland is in as being part of the EU regulations and the fact there is a surveillance zone in Germany. I want to stress that the EU takes its biosecurity responsibilities for something like foot and mouth extremely seriously. There had not been a foot and mouth outbreak in Germany since 1988, so this is very significant for them. We are in regular contact with Germany. It will not want that disease to spread anywhere, so it has brought in what it considers to be the most stringent measures that are required without impacting too many other farms unnecessarily. We are in regular contact with German officials and the chief veterinary officer there, because we do not want to see any impacts into Northern Ireland any more than the noble Lord does.