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Dairy Industry
10. Mr. Simon Thomas (Ceredigion) (PC): What steps she is taking to support the dairy industry. [160287]
The Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality (Alun Michael): In line with our strategy for sustainable farming and food, we are facilitating industry action, most notably through the dairy supply chain forum chaired by my noble Friend Lord Whitty. The forum seeks to improve efficiency and
increase innovation, and to help the industry adapt to the new environment created by the reformed common agricultural policy.
Mr. Thomas : The milk price report that DEFRA published yesterday showed that, even before this year's spring flush, milk prices have fallen over the past six months. In light of that, may I commend to the Minister the idea embodied in my private Member's Bill, which proposes the establishment of an independent milk ombudsman? That ombudsman would be a watchdog rather than a regulator, able to monitor the industry and report on its state, and to keep an eye on what the supermarkets are doing. In that way, the ombudsman would be able to determine whether a fair price was being paid to dairy farmers, in west Wales and throughout the UK. If the Minister is not in favour of that idea, what steps will he take to bring more transparency to the industry?
Alun Michael: I do not think that the hon. Gentleman will get far with that idea, especially given the Opposition's promise of a bonfire of the tsars. However, I point out that farm-gate milk prices have been rising since last June. The average price for deliveries in December was 19.54p per litre—1.81p above the price in December 2002. We must be careful not to treat a single month as having massive significance.
Secondly, we are working closely with the industry. I point out to the hon. Gentleman that the causes of low farm-gate prices are identified in the KPMG report, which examines the matter in detail, and are mainly for the industry to address. We seek to assist the industry in addressing those issues.
Paddy Tipping (Sherwood) (Lab): The real problem is that the industry is fragmented—relationships are often antagonistic and the operation of the supply chain is not transparent. Is not the Government's important role to bring all the parties together so that they can find a solution to the problems that they undoubtedly face?
Alun Michael: My hon. Friend is right, and that is the purpose of the forum chaired by my noble Friend Lord Whitty to which I referred. There are a number of explanations for low farm-gate prices—for instance, the low value of the product mix, the low level of product innovation within the UK compared with some other European states as well as the structure of the UK industry to which my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Paddy Tipping) referred. The forum is addressing all those points.
Mr. Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater) (Con): As the Minister knows, a proposal to reclassify yoghurt is going through Europe. Yeo Valley Organic yoghurt is based in my constituency, and dairy farmers throughout Somerset and the west are concerned that if the proposal goes through not only will they be unable to sell organic milk because yoghurt will be reclassified, but the dairy industry will have trouble selling milk into other yoghurt producing companies because of the reclassification in Europe. Will the Minister guarantee that the British Government will stand up to the proposal and not allow Europe to reclassify yoghurt?
Alun Michael: The hon. Gentleman may be referring to accounts of ongoing discussions rather than a
conclusion, and I am happy to write to him on the detail of the position. I congratulate him on representing not only his constituents but a very fine product in Yeo Valley Organic yoghurt.Dee Cockle Regulation Order
11. Mr. Ben Chapman (Wirral, South) (Lab): If he will make a statement on steps towards the implementation of the Dee cockle regulation order. [160289]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr. Ben Bradshaw): We will get on with the job of making a regulating order for the Dee estuary once the prospective grantee, the Environment Agency Wales, has submitted a formal application for an order.
Mr. Chapman : Does my hon. Friend agree that regulation is needed to control the numbers of people involved, to license individuals and to control the times at which cockles may be exploited and the number of cockles that may be exploited? Does he agree that that would allow us better to monitor and control the beds and to protect the environment and the individuals concerned? Given that my hon. Friends and I have literally been raising the matter for years, is it not time for some urgency to be injected into the process?
Mr. Bradshaw: Yes. I share my hon. Friend's frustration at the rate of progress. As he will understand, however, getting a regulating order off the ground is a complex matter. In particular, there is the need to consult so many different parties. There are still problems with one or two of the landowners concerned, including a couple of his local authorities, which he may like to encourage to speed up the process.
Mr. Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab): My hon. Friend will be aware of the progress that was made last year by strengthening the data protection legislation surrounding applications for permits to exploit cockles on the Dee estuary commercially. That significant change enabled the Environment Agency to transfer data to the Department for Work and Pensions and others to cut out some of the attempted frauds. Will my hon. Friend ensure that that principle is carried forward into the regulating order when it is introduced?
Mr. Bradshaw: I will certainly examine whether that is practicable. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate my hon. Friend on the role he played in helping to sort out the problem with the Data Protection Act 1998, which has helped to speed up the process.
Waste Management
12. Sandra Gidley (Romsey) (LD): What steps she is taking to reduce the amount of waste generated by (a) households and (b) businesses. [160290]
The Minister for the Environment (Mr. Elliot Morley): Current action to encourage waste reduction includes the waste and resources action programme on waste minimisation, funding for local authorities for waste minimisation through DEFRA's waste minimisation
and recycling fund and the envirowise programme, jointly funded by DEFRA and the Department of Trade and Industry, which aims to reduce the environmental impacts, including waste, of businesses and industry.
Sandra Gidley : The Minister mentions minimisation several times, and I hope that he agrees that that is an important part of the strategy, but the issue is a double whammy. Some years ago, the Women's Environmental Network highlighted the fact that a large percentage of packaging, particularly in supermarkets, is unnecessary. Some supermarkets have made great strides forward by introducing crates instead of generating cardboard waste, but what will the Minister do to put more emphasis on that? Would he support a repeat of the "wrapping is a rip-off" campaign, in which people were encouraged to leave excess waste at the checkout?
Mr. Morley: It is useful to raise awareness of the unnecessary use of wrapping and packaging; the Women's Environmental Network has done an excellent job on that and I meet its representatives regularly. The Government published a waste hierarchy in our strategy, and waste minimisation is at the top. The waste packaging directive applies to supermarkets and manufacturers and it is having an impact. However, I accept that there is more to be done, and we are addressing the issue.
Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab): Can the Minister get into a bit more of a campaigning mood on this issue? There is an almost impossible quantity of packaging from Sainsbury's, Tesco and—most importantly—the Co-op, and it is difficult for pensioners, many of whom do not have the manual dexterity of a younger person, to get into some of it. The worst example is CD packaging.
Mr. Morley: I accept that some packaging, especially bubble-wrap packages, are hard to get into, and it must be difficult for elderly people. The priority must be to minimise waste, and that means a change of culture in the way that products are packaged and offered to the public. Some big retailers have made genuine progress, and the Co-op is a case in point. We need to do more, including raising awareness and tackling the issue at every level—individual, company, retailer and manufacturer. I shall look seriously at what more we can do to support awareness-raising programmes.
Mr. Boris Johnson (Henley) (Con): Given that the ban on swill feeding is imposing extra costs on hotels of up to £1,000—not least in south Oxfordshire—and given that that necessitates the employment of a new council tax-funded waste inspector and that landfill sites have room for only another three years of waste, can the Minister say what steps he is taking now to reduce the baleful effects of that ill-thought-out, vexatious and bossy piece of legislation?
Mr. Morley: I was not aware that the pigswill industry was so important in Henley, but I will bear it in mind. However, whether we like it or not, there are major risks associated with the pigswill sector. I acknowledge that some people in that sector have acted responsibly and professionally, but the risk is considerable. On the issue of compensation, I have sympathy with the industry,
whose representatives are talking to the Department at present, but I remind the hon. Gentleman that it was a former Conservative Government who did not compensate the cattle head deboners for the ban that was applied to their work.
Mr. Peter Pike (Burnley) (Lab): Does my hon. Friend agree that while we need to continue to address the issue of packaging, one of the big growths in waste is the generation of paper by e-mails? Often, only one page is wanted but a whole mass is produced and tipped into waste bins.
Mr. Morley: My hon. Friend makes a good point. E-mail has the potential to enable us to make progress towards paperless offices. That is an issue for all of us, especially in how we deal with constituency cases. We all have a responsibility, as individuals—not just companies and organisations—to think of what we can do to minimise waste, and utilising new technology is one way to do so.
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