Questions and Answers

Meacher vow

on GM maize

THE VARIETY of genetically modified maize which may produce pollen toxic to the American monarch butterfly is unlikely to be grown here, Environment Minister Michael Meacher said in a Commons written reply. The pest that the maize was engineered to withstand, the European corn borer, "does not occur in the UK".

Prison deaths

THERE HAS been a dramatic rise in prison violence and self-inflicted deaths, including suicides, junior Home Office Minister George Howarth disclosed. Assaults in the past year leaped from 4,289 to 5,313 - up almost 25 per cent, and self-inflicted deaths were up from 74 in 1997-98 to 82 in 1998-99 - up 10 per cent.