asked the Minister of Agriculture if he will make a statement on the results of the trial of the Imbra humane rabbit trap.

These trials will be going on throughout the current trapping season and I do not expect to reach any definite conclusions until the end of April or early in May, when the trapping season ends.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that there is widespread feeling about the continued use of the gin trap, and will he kindly speed up the provision of any humane alternative?

Yes, and whilst I entirely sympathise with the House and am doing my utmost to speed up some alternative to the gin trap, we must be certain that before we discard it we have an effective substitute. I had hoped to be able to report to the House this month but, owing to the recent hard frost, as I have said, I shall not be able to report to the House on the latest experiments before April or May.

Is the Minister aware that his Joint Parliamentary Secretary recently implored this House to give him every assistance in preventing disease from killing off the rabbits which ought to be preserved for the rabbit and fur trade? Could the Minister explain the contradiction between the two policies, where on the one hand the Ministry is trying to preserve rabbits for the market and on the other is trying to invent traps to kill them?

My hon. Friend said nothing of the kind. This is an entirely different question. As the House knows, I set up a committee under my hon. Friend the Joint Parliamentary Secretary on the curious disease of myxo-matosis, which I hope will report in the early spring.