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 accessfairly
universally admittedlyto 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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