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Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Michael Lord): Order. Before I call the next speaker, may I say to the House that we have had a statement on a very important matter today, and that a large number of hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye? Unless questions, and perhaps answers, are shorter, an awful lot of hon. Members will be disappointed.
Paddy Tipping (Sherwood) (Lab): Does the Secretary of State accept that she has made some difficult but decisive and correct decisions? It is decisive to change the CAP radically, it is right to decouple entirely, and it is different to accept that less favoured areas should be compared with the rest. I am sure that she knows that the announcement will not be universally welcomed in the farming community. Will she therefore ensure that the details are publicised to farmers as quickly as possible, that the Rural Payments Agency is in a position to make the changes and, most importantly, that she speaks loudly and clearly about the reforms so that the general public know that they will benefit in terms of both public good and environmental enhancement?
Margaret Beckett: My hon. Friend echoes a remark made to me a couple of days ago by an experienced individual in the farming community, who said that in his judgment this was the most difficult decision that any Agriculture Minister has ever had to take—as hon. Members can imagine, that made me feel good. My hon.
Friend said that the decision would not be universally welcome. I shall be honest with him and the House: I expect it to be universally condemned, because people who want us do more on environmental issues will say that we are not doing enough, and people who want us to do something different on farming will also say that we are not doing enough. That is life, is it not? I assure him that we have carefully discussed the matter with the RPA. Whatever we do, the RPA must begin by establishing a system based on historic payments, and the pace of transition will assist it in making the scheme work efficiently.
Mr. Michael Jack (Fylde) (Con): In welcoming the new opportunities for farmers to move closer to the markets, may I follow the comments made by the hon. Member for Sherwood (Paddy Tipping) by pointing out that if the Secretary of State is right to say that she wishes to introduce the proposals from 2005, nine months is a somewhat heroic timetable in which to introduce a change of such enormity? At this stage we do not know the shape of the final regulation or the cross-compliance requirements, and we have received no detail from the RPA about the procedures that will be involved. When will such details be made available to farmers, and in what form?
Margaret Beckett: I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman, because his question allows me to clarify one or two points. The closing date for applications to take part in the scheme will be 15 May 2005. During this year, the RPA hopes to issue to all farms, particularly those who are in receipt of subsidy—obviously people who receive nothing at the moment and who will get something under the new scheme will have to apply—an illustrative outline of what they can expect to get under the new system. It hopes to begin making payments in December 2005 and issue them between then and June 2006.
Mr. Kelvin Hopkins (Luton, North) (Lab): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on negotiating this significant change. I am one of those who were sceptical about previous statements, which did not seem to change very much, but this statement is clearly very different. I am also one of those who have called for a long time for a shift from price maintenance to income support systems for agriculture, and this statement seems to be a decisive shift in that direction, in which I hope that we will make further progress later. The statement also seems to be a step towards the dissolution of the CAP and the beginning of a gradual move towards national systems of agricultural support. I wonder whether my right hon. Friend will comment on that point. Will she also comment on how this decision might affect the rest of the world in the wake of the Cancun debacle, and on how poorer producers across the world react to the CAP and other unjustified systems of agricultural support that benefit only richer countries?
Margaret Beckett: May I begin where my hon. Friend ended, by saying that this decision will help to get across the message that a great deal is changing in the CAP? I had a conversation in Geneva in January with the Brazilian ambassador, who said that one of the reasons
why countries such as his own had not fully realised or accepted the scale of change in Europe was because the negotiating mandate for the world trade talks had not changed, which is testament to the flexibility that the commissioner negotiated for himself. None of us realised that that signal had been taken in quite that way.My hon. Friend is not right to say that this is basically the dissolution of the CAP, because there is still a great core of common provision and common circumstances. On 10 February, Commissioner Fischler said that it did not matter if different states went down different routes because that is allowed and is part of the compromise, and that the challenge was to get the best model for each situation. He also made the point that redistribution in, for example, the UK might be limited compared with that in countries with varied climates such as those bordering the Mediterranean. There is still a core element to the CAP, but I share my hon. Friend's view that the change is big and that it will be beneficial in the long term.
Mr. Douglas Hogg (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con): May I remind the right hon. Lady that one of the anxieties faced by British farmers is that they are confronted with a raft of animal welfare regulations that are not matched in third countries that export products to the European Union? One of the important changes that should be made is to enable the EU to impose restrictions on imports into the EU of products that are not produced in accordance with animal welfare regulations imposed within the EU.
Margaret Beckett: I understand that British farmers are concerned about whether there are welfare requirements here that are not imposed elsewhere. I touched on cross-compliance but I did not deal with it in great detail. Every member state—there will shortly be 25—will, of course, be required to meet cross-compliance measures in order to obtain entitlement to payment. Many of those measures are contained within existing directives, but there is also the requirement to maintain land in a generally good agricultural condition. Events are moving in the direction of narrowing the previously perceived gap between standards in this country and those elsewhere.
Alan Simpson (Nottingham, South) (Lab): The Secretary of State is right to turn her back on the historic system of funding agriculture, which was effective at shovelling bucketfuls of money into the pockets of a small number of grain barons as opposed to the larger number of working farmers. What assessment has she made of the danger of falling into the different trap of moving from funding the richest farmers to funding the richest landowners? She will know that under the proposed scheme the Duke of Westminster will probably be entitled to subsidies of £1,000 a day whether he bothers to get out of bed in the morning or not. Will she re-examine the EU proposals to impose a ceiling on the land-based subsidies so that the money clearly goes into sustainable farming, rather than sustainable and profitable landholding?
Margaret Beckett: I hear what my hon. Friend says, and obviously I am familiar with the argument on the
issue. It is fairest to have a system that pays the same on each hectare—which it broadly will, within the two different regions—irrespective of the nature of the ownership. I repeat that it is the public goods that will be required for which public money will be paid. Although the SDA—severely disadvantaged area—split will make a difference to the receipts of the richest landowners, I urge my hon. Friend to look at the wider impact of the redistribution and not just at that one comparatively narrow point.
Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con): I am sure that the Secretary of State will be aware that the south-west branch of the NFU calculates that the scheme announced today will mean a reduction of £18.6 million a year in payments to the south-west area, primarily because it is a livestock and dairy area. She said earlier that some sectors would be adversely affected. Will she do an analysis of self-sufficiency in the livestock and dairy areas, and put it in the Library? The key test of the changes announced will be whether we produce more of our own food as a result, or suck in more imports. UK self-sufficiency has dropped in the past 8 years, from 75 per cent. to 65 per cent. Will the changes improve that situation or make it worse?
Margaret Beckett: Frankly, it would be hard to assess what impact the changes will have on self-sufficiency, because the effect on the marketplace will make an enormous difference. I recognise the concerns that the hon. Lady expresses about the impact in the south-west, but it will not be disadvantageous to everyone. People on Exmoor, Dartmoor and Bodmin moor, like those in the north Yorkshire moors, will benefit—
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