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Treasury

Answer

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how the effectiveness of Customs and Excise's detection of illegal meat is measured; and by whom. [205981] Dawn Primarolo: Customs' role is to deter and detect illegal imports of meat and other products of animal origin imported from outside the European Union and thereby reduce the risk of disease from such imports. The strategy delivers this aim through: increasing passengers' awareness of the rules and regulations, encouraging the voluntary surrender of any illegal meat on arrival and discouraging the public from embarking on their journey to the UK with illegal meat in their possession; anti-smuggling checks to detect illegal imports on the basis of risk assessment and intelligence; seizing imports surrendered by passengers in the Red Channel or detected in the possession of passengers in the Green Channel; Refocus our efforts in response to diseases notifications from Defra and the Food Standards Agency. In the absence of detailed outcomes that Customs believe are the most effective ways of measuring their performance, Customs and Defra have identified a number of areas such as public awareness surveys and benchmarking that could serve as useful performance indicators. At this early stage, most emphasis is placed on the number of seizures, which are monitored by Customs and Defra and overseen by Departmental Ministers and in progress reports to the Cabinet Committee on illegal imports. However, Customs and Defra recognise the limitations of using such output data in determining overall impact.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

205981; 428 c1591W;428 c1589W

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Import controls Imports Meat Smuggling

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk