Select Committee on Agriculture Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witness (Questions 120 - 139)

TUESDAY 23 MAY 2000

RT HON NICHOLAS BROWN, MP

  120. What they will get is a holistic approach, a one-stop shop for their needs in which the person they speak to may be well versed in both the aid packages they may be entitled to but also the assistance they might have for setting up a bed and breakfast operation or for something more?
  (Mr Brown) There are a series of specialisms involved in this and the idea would be that the Business Service would be able to call on specialist advice for particular farm clients where appropriate. The intention is to offer a very thorough package of business support.

  121. That might include not just diversification but including the quality of their farming operation.
  (Mr Brown) That is perfectly possible.

  122. This is certainly going to be a very complex package of advice delivered by some extremely skilled people.
  (Mr Brown) Yes. What is intended is radical and broadly focused and I think absolutely right not just in what we are doing but the time at which we are doing it.

  123. These individuals certainly do not exist just at the moment.
  (Mr Brown) We are very aware of that. The money that is being spent will expand the advice service, there is no doubt about that.

  124. When will the business angels descend from on high and start to become available to farmers in my area?
  (Mr Brown) We are targeting the autumn but I do not want to go further than that at the moment.

  125. I am sure the Committee listened to your offer to share some more information. I think all of us who represent farmers will be delighted to hear more before these people hit the streets.
  (Mr Brown) As soon as I can put the details into the public domain I will do so. I hope all of you who have farm constituents will encourage them to take up the offer. This is free. There is no cost.

  126. Certainly I will. To give a concrete example: if a group of farmers were wishing to establish an enterprise to process some of the product they produce locally and develop new products from it, that would be the kind of initiative in which you would expect—
  (Mr Brown) The business advisers will be able to explain what support measures are available. As you know there are a range of grants which can be attached across Government.

  127. Certainly under the new plans.
  (Mr Brown) That is true. There are some supports already available under the Department of Trade and Industry projects but of course the Rural Development Regulation, as it comes on stream, will offer a steadily increasing stream of funds for farm diversification projects and, indeed, marketing projects.

Dr Turner

  128. I want just to follow up on this. I was at the meeting with the new head of Small Business Service and basically, as in many businesses, you need to be in IT or you will not be in business. I just wondered, I saw there was a study being done of farmers, users of and the need for IT, I wondered what assessment you make of the current state of play? Does the Department have some feel of how many farmers are in fact users and how much work has to be done in that area?
  (Mr Brown) There are two studies under way at the minute designed to get the answers to the question you have just posed. The studies have not come to a conclusion yet. As soon as they do, again I am happy to share the fruits of them with the Committee. As well as that there is a trial project being undertaken in the area you represent, in the Eastern Region, on the administration of the Common Agricultural Policy electronically rather than by paper transfer. That experiment is working very well.

  129. A relatively modest number of participants compared with the total number of farms.
  (Mr Brown) That is true.

  130. In other work we were doing it was suggested by the representatives of the tenant farmers that the Government was being very unrealistic in expecting farmers to have access—fairly universally admittedly—to the use of IT for submissions and communications by 2008.
  (Mr Brown) Yes, many small businesses, of course, do now use computers to administer their own businesses. It is not an unusual thing.

  131. As an advocate for the industry within Government, would your advice be that 2008 is a long way away, they need to act quicker than that from where you see farming heading?
  (Mr Brown) We have two projects under way at the minute to establish how much use is made of the new technologies now. I think before making the decisions, it is quite a good idea to establish the hard evidence. Rather than be drawn on specific dates, I would like to establish the evidence first and, again, I am quite happy to share it with the Committee when we have got it.

  132. I was accepting that it was sensible to make a proper assessment of the starting point. I was really trying to get a feel for your feeling of its importance to farming in the future and how quickly movement would be desirable to the use of IT so that with the help of intelligent forms, quite simpler forms and less bureaucracy, farmers can spend more time farming and in their other business activities? I just wondered how urgently you see farmers needing to address the issue?
  (Mr Brown) There is no doubt whatsoever that the new technologies can bring enormous benefits to farm business, I am convinced of that. How far farm businesses are at the moment making use of the new technologies is what we are seeking to discover.

Mr Marsden

  133. Do you surf the net?
  (Mr Brown) I can do, yes.

  134. I just wondered how you knew what it was like.
  (Mr Brown) My civil servants say "There is no need for you to do that, Minister, we will do that for you".

  135. Can I just ask, coming back to the Small Business Service, is the funding for it going to be spread equally across the country? Are small businesses going to bid for the allocation or is it going to be targeted geographically where it is felt that there may be a greater need or greater demand from farmers?
  (Mr Brown) Clearly it depends on take-up by individual farmers but the offer of a free business adviser, a chance to pause and take a really hard strategic look at how a business is going, is open to every farmer.

  136. Basically it would be used on a "first come, first served" basis until the funds are exhausted?
  (Mr Brown) Yes, clearly if the scheme is heavily subscribed there will be a need to prioritise the work. The offer is there for every farmer. It will depend on take-up.

  137. I think this will be one of the most important steps in terms of better advice for farmers. I can imagine for the future this has got to be one of the priorities for the Government, would you agree?
  (Mr Brown) Yes, I strongly agree with that. I think the time is right to think about where individual businesses are going. There are certain changes which are foreseeable but, with respect to Mr Jack, not quantifiable.

  138. Sure.
  (Mr Brown) That in particular involves the support regimes. The current situation is not going to endure.

Mr Öpik

  139. Environmental groups can act as a very useful business agency at times to help farmers restructure but they were not included in the Downing Street summit.
  (Mr Brown) All sorts of people wanted to be invited to the Downing Street summit and could not be. I regret that. We did try to put the information that came out of that into the public domain as soon as we could and to share it with others with a legitimate interest.


 
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