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Dairy Farming
7. Mr. Gray: What steps he is taking to support the dairy farming industry. [17671]
Mr. Rooker: My right hon. Friend the Minister is pressing for radical reform of the dairy regime in Brussels. This will be in the long-term interests of the UK dairy industry as a whole.
Mr. Gray: Does the Minister not realise that the 250 dairy farmers in North Wiltshire are now close to desperation? Does he accept that his failure to apply for EU compensatory payments is painting the bleakest possible picture for mixed family farms in my constituency--the worst in the history of modern agriculture--and that his
mishandling of yesterday's announcement will contribute to that feeling of desperation among my farmers? I challenge the Minister to join me in Chippenham market, where I shall be tomorrow, to explain to those farmers why he chose the safest possible option under the SEAC recommendations--the option that will mean more desperation for beef and milk farmers?
Mr. Rooker: We plead guilty to choosing safest options. I do not know the specifics of the hon. Gentleman's farmers--he seems to claim ownership of them--but the fact is that dairy farming is one of the most profitable sectors of British agriculture--[Interruption.] I repeat, it is one of the most profitable sectors of British agriculture.
The EU dairy regime is a major obstacle in the way of our dairy farmers getting their products on the world market. That is why my right hon. Friend is working hard in Brussels to remove that obstacle.
Mr. Campbell-Savours:
Was not option 1 the easy option--the option that the Conservatives adopted over the past 10 years and which created the crisis in agriculture today? Now they complain about it and demand that we spend public money on it.
Mr. Rooker:
I completely agree with my hon. Friend.
Mr. Nicholas Winterton:
Does the Minister accept that dairy and beef farming go together and depend on each other? There are a great many dairy and beef farmers in Macclesfield and Cheshire, and my family have been involved in and associated with farming for more than 150 years. I am deeply depressed by the problems facing the industry at the moment. I am pleased that the Minister of Agriculture is on the Treasury Bench to hear me say that every sector of the UK farming industry is depressed--a phenomenon that I have never known in my 25 years in the House, and which my family have not known in their 150 years of association with farming. Will the Government do something to alleviate the plight of agriculture?
Mr. Rooker:
I will not bandy family memberships of this House with the hon. Gentleman, except to say that he does double up in a way that I cannot--
Mr. Rooker:
It was not cheap: the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton) raised the issue himself. There are problems with fluctuations in the currency. Livestock premium payments, however, will be wholly unaffected by the 14 per cent. change in the sterling rate this year, and arable payments for 1997 will be only 3 per cent. lower than in 1996. I repeat again: dairy farming is one of the most profitable sectors in British agriculture.
9. Mr. Coleman:
When he last met representatives of the major animal welfare organisations. [17673]
Mr. Morley:
My colleagues and I have had a number of meetings with the major welfare organisations.
Mr. Coleman:
I thank my hon. Friend for his reply. Will the Government be supporting the Bill introduced by
Mr. Morley:
I can confirm that, we support the principle behind the Bill--improving welfare standards in quarantine establishments. Furthermore, we shall publish a list of the establishments that have signed up to the MAFF voluntary code.
Mr. Blunt:
Is the Minister aware that, when I go to my constituency tomorrow to meet representatives of the National Farmers Union--the organisation that looks after more animals than any other--I shall take a copy of today's Hansard to show how much the Government care about agriculture?
Mr. Morley:
I am not sure what that has to do with the question. The message that the hon. Gentleman should take to the farmers is that the Government are aware of their concerns and are following the budget for farm support laid down by the previous Government.
10. Mr. Prior:
What assessment he has made of the impact of the strength of sterling on farm incomes. [17674]
Mr. Rooker:
Figures published earlier this week indicate that 1997 total income from farming in the United Kingdom has fallen by around 37 per cent. compared with 1996. It is exceptionally difficult to determine the extent to which that fall is due to currency factors or to predict how durable those income effects might be.
Mr. Prior:
The scale of the problem facing British farming today is exceeded only by the complacency and indifference of the Government. Does the Minister accept that we have lost vital export markets and that our farmers are having to compete with heavily subsidised imports from Europe? What is he going to do about that?
Mr. Rooker:
We are working for reform on a wide front. We are not wholly in control of the agenda. During our presidency next year, we shall push forward reform of many aspects of the common agricultural policy. The present system is unsustainable and very unfair to British agriculture. We believe that the Opposition agree with us on that.
Justice Ministry
29. Mr. Burnett: What discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues about the proposals to bring the justice functions of Departments which are at present separate under a single Ministry. [17694]
The Attorney-General (Mr. John Morris): I frequently discuss with colleagues possible ways of improving efficiency in the administration of justice. The Government have no plans to create a single Ministry of justice.
Mr. Burnett: During those discussions, I hope that the right hon. and learned Gentleman will be mindful of Sir Peter Middleton's recent report on the reform of legal aid and civil justice, which says:
- "A single Government Department should be responsible for all aspects of civil justice."
Sir Nicholas Lyell: Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman make clear what is happening in his Department, let alone any other justice Departments, in relation to the Crown Prosecution Service? Does he accept that it is in a thorough mess, following the U-turn that he announced last week on the appointment of the 42 Crown prosecutors--one for each police region? Does he accept that he was hasty in ordering the Director of Public Prosecutions to implement that at the same time as setting up Sir Iain Glidewell's inquiry? He has had to back-track on the policy on Sir Iain's advice. Will he clarify what is happening, when he expects action to be taken and what regard he intends to have to Sir Iain's report? Will he publish the correspondence between him, the DPP and Sir Iain, or put it in the Library?
The Attorney-General: I will certainly put in the Library the letter from Sir Iain Glidewell, which went to every senior member who had applied for one of the new posts in the CPS.
The mess was created, I regret to have to say, by the right hon. and learned Member for North-East Bedfordshire (Sir N. Lyell) himself and those acting under his stewardship. It eventually emerged under Sir Iain's interim conclusions that he realised that for the job to be carried out properly and to ensure that the mess that we inherited was dealt with adequately, more important and greater figures were needed in each of the 42 areas than had been envisaged when we took office.
The problem is the magnitude of the task, the need to devolve, and the need to ensure that each of the 42 areas has a figure comparable with a chief constable so that the public know who is in charge of prosecutions locally. It is entirely due to the situation that we inherited.
30. Mr. Baker:
in what proportion of police investigations into alleged cases of cruelty to animals referred to it, the case was prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service in the last year for which figures are available. [17695]
The Attorney-General:
The Crown Prosecution Service does not record the number of prosecutions by offence type. The information requested can be obtained only at disproportionate cost by a survey of case files held by the Crown Prosecution Service. Most cases of this type are investigated and prosecuted by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Mr. Baker:
Does the Attorney-General recognise that the public give a high priority to cases involving animal welfare in general, and especially to cases involving cruelty to animals? I am sure that hon. Members have postbags full of letters of concern from constituents about instances of animal cruelty. Does the Attorney-General share my disappointment that so many prosecutions are left to the RSPCA? That organisation does a wonderful job, but in a sense the fact that the RSPCA rather than the police undertakes the prosecutions downgrades the seriousness of the offences in some people's eyes. Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman make it clear that he and the Government take cruelty to animals extremely seriously, that they will do all that they can to ensure that there are more prosecutions with longer sentences, and that cruelty to animals will be eliminated as far as possible?
The Attorney-General:
I fully share the hon. Gentleman's concern about cruelty to animals. Traditionally, the RSPCA has carried out investigations thoroughly and has prosecuted. The hon. Gentleman may have seen in The Times today a report of a substantial prosecution carried out successfully by the Crown Prosecution Service in which the RSPCA gave evidence. I myself used to prosecute on behalf of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; prosecution was the society's role and it was happy to carry it out. I am sure that if there is a need for further co-ordination, it can be done. The Crown Prosecution Service plays an important part, with the voluntary organisations, in the law enforcement steering group which co-ordinates the approach of all the agencies involved. I fully share the hon. Gentleman's concern.
Mr. Kidney:
In Stafford the RSPCA does excellent work across the whole range of animal welfare including, as the Attorney-General said, the prosecution of cases of cruelty in the magistrates court. Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the answer to the question put by the hon. Member for Lewes (Mr. Baker) is that the Crown Prosecution Service should work closely with the RSPCA and similar organisations to ensure the prosecution of cases of cruelty?
The Attorney-General:
I can assure my hon. Friend that the Crown Prosecution Service does so. As I said, there is a group called the wildlife law enforcement steering group, which was convened by the Department of the Environment some years ago. The Crown Prosecution Service is a member of that group, as are the Association of Chief Police Officers and the relevant statutory and voluntary agencies. I am confident that regular work has been done in the field; I rely on my professional experience as a young man.
Mr. Sayeed:
I am sorry that the Attorney-General is following the example of his ministerial comrades and not answering the substantive question, which was a simple one about how many cases of animal cruelty were
The Attorney-General:
I am sorry to say that the hon. Gentleman either was not listening or is hard of hearing--[Interruption.] I am giving him the benefit of the doubt. I said specifically that the figures are not available. They were not available under the previous Administration, and they are not available now.
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