The statement said:

'Since the National Fallen Stock Company was set up in November last year a great deal of progress has been made with putting the arrangements in place for a national fallen stock collection and disposal service. The original intention was to launch the Scheme early this year in order to provide a service in time for the Spring lambing season. However, a number of complex issues have arisen which will require further time if they are to be resolved satisfactorily. These include finalising arrangements for subscriptions from farmers so that they apply fairly across all livestock sectors and putting in place all the practical arrangements with the collection and disposal industry. This has meant we could not guarantee that a full national service at an economic cost could be provided in the required timescale.

Although it might still have been possible to launch the service later in the Spring it was felt that the extra time would allow us to resolve outstanding issues and to provide a fully operational scheme for all livestock sectors. The Scheme must be practical, sustainable, user friendly and above all at an economical cost which represents best value to the farming industry. So while most of these matters could be solved relatively easily, it is important that the solutions are indeed best value and not just the easiest. For this reason a decision has been taken to start the Scheme in the Autumn. The Government and the Board remain fully committed to the Scheme and Government funding will be provided as previously announced for the first three years of the Scheme.

Enforcement agencies are being made aware of this change in the timetable and the practical difficulties this may create for farmers in disposing of their fallen stock in some circumstances and previous advice requesting them to take a pragmatic approach to enforcement will remain in place.'

Further information
For further details on the National Fallen Stock Scheme, including information on some of the issues that have affected its progress, please see the Question and Answer material on Defra's animal health pages – http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/by-prods/default.htm

The EU Animal By-Products Regulation, which banned the routine on-farm burial and burning of animal carcases, came in to force on May 1, 2003. For further details on the EU Animal By-Products Regulation see the following Defra pages – http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/by-prods/default.htm