| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley): Very sensible.
Mr. Alexander: Yes, they are very sensible to do so. They must know where they stand. In responding to the debate this evening, my hon. Friend has done much to give them the reassurance that they seek.
8.57 pm
Mr. A. J. Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed): There could have been no more cogent explanation than that by the hon. Member for Newark (Mr. Alexander) of the fact that there is concern, delay, difficulty and confusion arising from the administration of the scheme. That is precisely the motion that we have put before the House. It is nothing extreme--merely a statement that there is a great deal of concern and anxiety in the farming world, which has been hit so badly by the crisis, about the difficulties attendant on the scheme. The hon. Gentleman illustrated them in a practical and sensible way, and the Minister will need to take note of what he said.
The experience has been similar in my constituency. Two weeks ago, the impression was given that only Darlington and Carlisle would serve as mart centres for collection for the county of Northumberland. They are both a great distance from that county, which produces 8.5 per cent. of the national beef herd. That is not bad for one county. Representations have been made by a number of hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson), about the marts in our constituencies.I made representations about Acklington, Wooler and Belford and marts were then added to the list.
It was the beginning of a series of difficulties in a scheme for which farmers had already been waiting for some time. When the new marts were added, further confusion arose as to whether they could begin operation as collection centres before they had been registered through the state veterinary inspection scheme and given a registration number. Two of the marts in
my constituency--those at Wooler and Belford--were firmly of the impression that they could not begin operation until they had received a registration number. They and the local vets contacted the intervention board seeking clarification. On Friday, one of the marts found that the only person whom they could contact in the intervention board was a gallant 15-year-old trying to fill the breach--resembling the little Dutch boy putting his finger in the dyke--such was the chaos in the intervention board.
Today, my office spent the entire afternoon trying to get the intervention board to clear up the matter. Eventually, it became clear that registration was not required and the marts could start operating as collection centres immediately. However, somebody with authority should have made that clear to them and they should have obtained that information at the crucial stage. The fact that they were not able to do so further added to the delays and the problems.
We have also faced difficulties resulting from the reduction in supposedly available abattoir capacity, because the renderers are not prepared or able to service anything like the number of abattoirs that were supposed to be available.
The Minister of State said little tonight about the use of cold storage. We want clear assurances that there will be no delay in bringing that cold storage into use and in taking practical steps to ensure that the necessary rendering can take place of carcases that are left in cold storage for a period. Action must be taken and the process set in train without delay.
The hon. Members for Newark and for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton), among others, referred to the concern and anxiety about live versus dead weight disposal.I quoted an example showing that the premium on a700 kg clean beast could be about £200.
Hon. Members have quoted the National Farmers Union brief, but they have been anxious to quote one part of it, and not the rest. The NFU makes it clear that at the
That is potentially extremely disruptive, not so much to the large marts at Banbury, in the Minister's constituency, but to the smaller rural marts, which are a key feature of agricultural life in the beef-producing areas, as many of them operate at a much tighter margin than the very large marts to which reference has been made.
It also affects the hauliers profoundly if their regular business is conducted into and out of a particular mart. They may not get business from a farmer who takes his own animals directly to the abattoir. There are also animal welfare problems. If animals are not moved in reasonable quantities, as they would be from the mart to the abattoir, vehicles will be carrying relatively few animals. It is much more difficult to give animals a safe and comfortable journey if there are not many of them in the vehicle than if the vehicle is fully loaded, because there is movement of animals as the vehicle travels along.
What one would hope to achieve in getting the process right is that the normal balance of business between live weight and dead weight is not disrupted in such a way
that, when something like normal conditions return, we shall no longer have the facilities that are so important to the rural areas. Nobody is trying to push the balance between live and dead weight in one direction or the other, but the arrangements will do precisely that. It could be extremely damaging and detrimental to beef-producing areas. Hauliers are already going out of business. Marts could go out of business and they will not be replaced.
The NFU brief fully bears out the concerns that have been expressed. It continues:
It goes on to refer to the large and growing backlog of cattle on farms and the particular problems resulting from the fact that only 21 abattoirs are currently operating the scheme.
It will not do just to say that the crisis is unprecedented and nobody knows how to handle such schemes. In the old days, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was well accustomed to handling crises of one variety or another. That went right through the war and the post-war years, but in those days the Ministry had an infrastructure of offices designed to administer fairly complex systems. MAFF coped in the past with foot-and-mouth disease and all sorts of other crises. The Ministry is no stranger to putting together arrangements in a hurry, to deal with a crisis that could cause severe damage to the farming industry. It is reasonable to assess performance, even in circumstances as difficult as the present circumstances.
Mr. Paul Marland (West Gloucestershire):
Gloucestershire has a problem with debates such as this, in respect of the participation of hon. Members representing Gloucestershire constituencies. Two of my hon. Friends are ineligible to speak. I put this on record, for the interest of the local press. My hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Knapman) is a Whip, so is unable to speak in these matters, and my hon. Friend the Member for Cirencester and Tewkesbury (Mr. Clifton-Brown) is parliamentary private secretary to my right hon. and learned Friend the Minister, so is not allowed to speak in these matters either. However, I had a brief conversation with my two hon. Friends beforehand and--although they have not heard what I am going to say--they join with some of the remarks that I shall make. I am sorry that the hon. Member for North Cornwall(Mr. Tyler) is leaving the Chamber, because he was to feature in my remarks later.
I want to mention the Labour party's role in the matter, because it has been absolutely shocking. I said earlier in an intervention that there has been much fanning of the
flames, to create concern and anxiety among the citizens of this country. The hon. Member for Peckham(Ms Harman), for example, asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he acknowledged
and to confirm
"Beef Management Committee meeting on 26 April . . . the Management Committee rejected the proposals made by the slaughterers and ourselves of using an accurate conversion coefficient for steers and heifers (0.6 as opposed to 0.5 for cows). Accordingly, the scheme encourages farmers to enter all their steers and heifers into the scheme at abattoirs instead of using their normal marketing channels."
"The NFU is dismayed that a combination of delays in decision-making and an underestimate by the Government, in the face of repeated warnings from the NFU, of the practical difficulties involved in establishing fair arrangements for the collection, slaughter and disposal of tens of thousands of cattle a week has caused such a significant delay to the opening of the scheme."
"that public confidence on this issue is hanging by a thread",
"that SEAC members who are parents or grandparents are not giving beef to their children or grandchildren".---[Official Report,20 March 1996; Vol. 274, c. 376-77.]
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |