Day 102 - 13 Mar 95 - Page 59
1 hard work. I do not think anybody would deny that.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: When the Farm Animal Welfare Council in the actual
4 report on broiler chickens talks about, it says about a
5 forum that is held before publication, it says the Council
6 also held a forum which invited experts from industry and
7 research bodies?
8 A. Yes.
9
10 Q. That is a host draft pre-publication forum, is it?
11 A. I cannot remember at what stage that was held. It was
12 certainly an opportunity to discuss certain areas that
13 would be related to in the report. I would have thought it
14 would have been done pre- or may be only at the sort of
15 very earliest drafting stage. I am not sure exactly.
16
17 Q. So does that mean that the top experts from industry and
18 research bodies would have been invited to comment on the
19 proposals which you had drafted up in your Council
20 meetings?
21 A. Yes. As I remember it, certain research bodies were
22 consulted as a group and industry were also consulted as a
23 group, but I seem to remember there was a meeting when all
24 parties were present as well.
25
26 Q. So would that be one of the meetings that Clare Druce was
27 invited to attend?
28 A. Well, as I remember there were also consultations with
29 the various welfare organisations and I certainly remember
30 that they came as a group. I think probably they were
31 actually consulted on a separate day or at a separate time
32 at least to industry and research. That is my
33 recollection.
34
35 Q. So when the Council or its working group of the Council
36 were preparing their report and had a draft, and then they
37 invited the various welfare experts, welfare organisations
38 experts to come along, what was the purpose of that?
39 A. I think the purpose was a consultation exercise to find
40 out the areas of concern and to give a rough outline of
41 what the report would include to try to get some views, and
42 to get as wide a range of views as possible.
43
44 Q. So the Council did want to take the views of experts from
45 welfare organisations; it wanted to take them seriously?
46 A. Yes, I think it is the duty of the Council to get as
47 many views as possible from as a wide range of people as
48 possible.
49
50 Q. That was part of the official process in developing the
51 report?
52 A. Yes. I think there was consultation at the start and
53 at the end of the report as far as I remember.
54
55 Q. Mrs. Druce was invited to give written evidence before the
56 drafting of the report in the first place by your
57 committee?
58 A. Yes. I think there were a whole range of organisations
59 that were invited to submit written comments for
60 consideration.
