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Common Agricultural Policy

Mr. Cox: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the principal changes which he will be seeking in his discussions with EU ministers on CAP reforms. [63340]

Mr. Rooker: We are seeking the gradual reduction and eventual phasing out of price and production-related agricultural support.

We are also pushing for part of the savings from such a reduction in production support to be directed to measures which will protect and enhance the environment and help the rural economy adjust, particularly in more fragile rural areas.

Ministerial Visits

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the purpose of his visit to Welshpool on 7 December. [63407]

Mr. Nick Brown: To visit the market, and to meet with farmers, their representatives, and other members of the rural community.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many official visits (a) he and (b) the ministers in his Department have made to Buckinghamshire since 2 May 1997; and if he will list them. [64136]

Mr. Nick Brown: One. My hon. Friend the Minister of State gave an address at Buckinghamshire University on 26 June 1998.

Comprehensive Spending Review

Mr. Charles Kennedy: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much of the Comprehensive Spending Review moneys allocated to his Department has been allocated for the financial years (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01 and (iii) 2001-02. [63520]

Mr. Nick Brown [holding answer 14 December 1998]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North (Ms Keeble) on 27 October 1998, Official Report, columns 156-58.

Fisheries

Mr. Andrew George: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to ensure an equality of fisheries monitoring and enforcement work across EU fishing nations. [64164]

Mr. Morley: Effective enforcement of measures to conserve fish stocks, applied consistently throughout the Community, is a high priority for this Government. It was one of the main issues we focused on during our Presidency and as a result of our initiative new measures

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were adopted at the Fisheries Council in December 1998 which will improve fisheries control and enforcement in all Member States.

Mr. Andrew George: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on how many occasions British fisheries officers have visited fisheries enforcement officers of other EU nations in the last three years; and what reciprocal visits have taken place. [64163]

Mr. Morley: Since 1996 there have been some 20 occasions on which British Sea Fishery Officers employed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland have made official visits to other Member States. There have been 6 visits to the United Kingdom.

Mr. Andrew George: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has for future decommissioning schemes for the British fishing fleet. [64166]

Mr. Morley: I have already announced that, following our Comprehensive Spending Review, we will be making a total of £10.5 million available over the three years from 1999-2000 for a limited decommissioning scheme aimed primarily at those fleet segments where effort control is not an option under MAGP IV. I hope to be able to bring detailed proposals before the House early in the New Year.

Mr. Andrew George: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment his Department has made of the impact of decommissioning schemes in the last three years on the British fleet in terms of its (a) average age, (b) numbers of vessels, (c) overall effort of fleet, (d) effort of fleet by sector and (e) number of vessels by port; and if he will make a statement. [64165]

Mr. Morley: In the last 3 years, decommissioning schemes have removed 385 vessels, representing 11,802.28 tonnes, or approximately 5.5 per cent. of the fleet in capacity terms.

The effort of this on the average age of the fleet is difficult to determine because of other variables involved, for example vessels leaving the fleet through natural wastage, sales to third counties, licence aggregations resulting in replacement vessels entering the fleet etc.

There are similar issues in relation to the effect of decommissioning on fishing effort (which is the product of capacity, measured as vessel tonnage and engine power, and time spent at sea). In the absence of controls on time at sea under MAGP III, vessels remaining in the fleet were free to adjust their fishing patterns in response to circumstances and total fleet effort showed only a small decline in this period. Under MAGP IV arrangements, effective from the beginning of 1998, the UK has explicit fishing effort targets for most of the major fleet segments and is currently conforming with these. Full details of these targets, and of UK outturn by segment and in total against MAGP III capacity targets are set out in Commission Decision 98/124/EC.

Further information on the impact of the four decommissioning rounds in the period 1993-1996 is contained in the September 1997 Economic Evaluation of the Fishing Vessels (Decommissioning) Schemes commissioned by UK Fisheries Departments from

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Nautilus Consultants, copies of which are available in the House Library and on the internet. This includes specific information on vessel numbers by port, age and type of vessels decommissioned etc.

Mr. Andrew George: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment his Department has made of the merits of individual transferable quotas; and what plans he has to introduce such quotas to the United Kingdom fishing fleet. [64162]

Mr. Morley: Experience elsewhere has so far suggested that individual transferable quotas (ITQs) work best in single species fisheries or where stocks are under the jurisdiction of a single authority, though even in these cases they can lead to significant increases in enforcement costs, which are often passed on to the fishermen concerned in the form of licence charges. I am not currently aware of their successful use in the kinds of mixed fisheries typical of EU waters, or in situations where vessels of many countries fish the same stocks.

I do not therefore have any plans to introduce ITQs for the UK fleet, but remain willing to consider any viable option for improving fisheries management.

Mr. Andrew George: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on what basis (a) he and (b) his Department's fisheries scientists calculated the effect of the precautionary principle for the purposes of negotiating the setting of the total allowable catches for 1999. [64157]

Mr. Morley: Over the last two years the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has been developing a new precautionary framework to its annual advice on total allowable catches (TACs) for fish stocks. UK fisheries scientists have contributed to this work. Reflecting progress made, this year's advice contains explicit suggested precautionary reference points in terms of spawning stock biomass and fishing mortality. Further work is needed to refine and develop the application of the precautionary approach but UK Ministers have taken account of ICES' suggested reference points in developing the United Kingdom's approach to the setting of 1999 TACs.

BSE Inquiry

Dr. Cable: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many witnesses who have given evidence to the BSE Inquiry now work for (a) public sector agencies other than under his Department and (b) private sector employees. [64077]

Mr. Rooker: Of the 66 witnesses who are serving or former MAFF officials, two now work for non-MAFF public sector agencies and five are employed within the private sector.

Ethnic Monitoring

Mr. McDonnell: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to include Irish as a category in his Department's ethnic monitoring of staff recruitment. [63883]

Mr. Morley: The over-riding principle of Civil Service recruitment procedures is that they should be fair and selection should be on merit at each stage.

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Monitoring in this area is based on ethnic origin and not nationality. The ethnic origin categories monitored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food are those used in the 1991 census, which did not include an Irish category. They will be reviewed in the light of any suggested changes for the 2001 Population Census.

Antibiotics

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer of 7 December 1998, Official Report, column 103, what assessment he has made of the proposal from the European Commission to ban the use of four antibiotic growth promoters from 1 January 1999. [64123]

Mr. Rooker: The proposal was put to the Council of Agriculture Ministers on 14 December 1998. We supported the proposal, which is designed to reduce the risk of the build up of microbial resistance to antibiotics in animals and man. It was possible that the abrupt introduction of the ban would adversely affect animal health and welfare, leading to an unnecessary increase in the use of therapeutic antibiotics. The ban will not therefore come into effect until 1 July 1999, giving livestock producers time to adapt to the loss of the four growth promoters. The proposal, as agreed, is in line with advice the Government have received from the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF) and the Veterinary Products Committee that the use of antibiotics which may impair the efficacy of prescribed therapeutic antibiotics used in human medicine through the development of resistant strains of organisms should be phased out.

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