| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Horse Passports
3. Mr. Roger Gale (North Thanet) (Con): What representations she has received on horse passports. [167005]
The Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality (Alun Michael): The Government have received a range of representations about horse passports. Some have been over-simplistic, opposing horse passports altogether—though they are a legal requirement—and others, particularly among the horse industry, have been constructive and have endorsed our approach of working with the industry to seize the opportunity to create a comprehensive horse database.
Mr. Gale : The Minister is aware that horses and ponies are kept in great swathes of the UK where the veterinary and other infrastructure is insufficient to satisfy the demands of the new bureaucracy. There are growing concerns on the one hand about the export of live equines for slaughter, and on the other about the imposition of a bureaucracy whose demands people have no reasonable way of meeting.
Alun Michael: The hon. Gentleman mixes two issues, the first of which is horse passports. Introducing the passport system and putting in place the necessary work to ensure that all horses have passports is a major issue. We are aware of that and we are talking to the industry about how best to ease the pressure. The second issue is the export of live animals for slaughter, which we have no intention of encouraging. The Under-Secretary and I have worked hard with the industry and animal welfare organisations, and Britain is taking a lead in ensuring, first, that we do not create a business in live horse exports and, secondly, that the welfare of animals in transport is protected and improved.
Richard Ottaway (Croydon, South) (Con): There is a link between the two issues of live exports and passports because a continental abattoir will not accept horses without a passport. The Minister must realise that. A million horse owners are going to have to pay up to £50 to have a compulsory ID card, all to pay for a huge DEFRA database that will be a bureaucratic nightmare. Does the Minister accept that the best way to protect our horses is to withdraw his regulations, stand up to the EU and be the Minister for the horse, not for Brussels?
Alun Michael:
I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his new duties. I hope that when he has played himself in by listening to the industry and understanding the issues, we can have more intelligent questions. We have no intention of creating what he described as a huge
22 Apr 2004 : Column 424
DEFRA database. Instead of leading a bureaucratic approach to the implementation of any such database, we are working with the industry and it will be industry-owned. In the fullness of time, I hope that Conservative Members will realise that they are losing their audience in the horse industry, whose people are increasingly recognising that it is this side of the House that is interested in the future of the horse and the industry, and that the Conservatives are doing them no favours.
Cider Orchards
4. Mr. David Heathcoat-Amory (Wells) (Con): What representations she has received on the exclusion of cider orchards from the proposed area payments under the mid-term review of the common agricultural policy. [167006]
The Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality (Alun Michael): This matter was the subject of an Adjournment debate on Tuesday, led by the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath). Some commentators feared that our orchards would be grubbed up in order to qualify for the new single payment. As such applications would qualify only for the new flat rate element, the financial benefits would be small, and I therefore believe the fears to be misplaced. We are working with the industry to make sure that traditional orchards and biodiversity are not damaged by the new arrangements.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: Is the Minister aware that Somerset's cider orchards are a vital asset, for the cider that they produce, for their appearance—especially at this time of year—and because they provide a habitat for many interesting species of insects, birds and so on? Those orchards miss out on the new area payments unless they are grubbed up and returned to agricultural use. Why is that? Contrary to what the Minister just said, there is a clear economic incentive to take the trees away and return the land to ordinary agricultural use. Why is he persisting in a scheme that is unfair to apple growers, and also a clear threat to the diversity and beauty of our environment? That is something about which his Department ought to be more concerned.
Alun Michael: There seems to be a clear trend today—Conservative Members who are not up to speed on the issues about which they ask questions. I recommend that the right hon. Gentleman read the interesting exchanges in the Adjournment debate held only two days ago. He made no distinction between commercial cider orchards and more traditional orchards, and he did not refer to stewardship, which provides more financial support to many traditional orchards than would be available through the flat rate element in the new single payment. I suggest that the right hon. Gentleman gets to grip with the facts.
Hugh Robertson (Faversham and Mid-Kent)
(Con): In common with other growers, cider apple producers are heavily dependent on legal labour, provided under the student agricultural workers scheme, to harvest their crops. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that the students who come from Romania and Bulgaria
22 Apr 2004 : Column 425
every year will arrive in time to harvest summer fruit in May and June, and that they do not get caught up in immigration chaos?
Alun Michael: I am not going to stray into areas that are appropriate for the Home Office and other Departments, but the hon. Gentleman will be aware that the Government are fully conscious of the need for seasonal workers to carry out the sort of activity that he describes. We will respond to a private Member's Bill shortly, but we want to encourage legal seasonal working and to discourage those who operate illegally. In that context, we understand the importance of the students and those who come through the avenues that the hon. Gentleman describes.
Farm Subsidies
5. Matthew Green (Ludlow) (LD): What discussions she has had on her proposals for single farm payments in respect of farmers in severely disadvantaged areas. [167007]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr. Ben Bradshaw): My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has had discussions with, and received representations from, a wide range of interests on this subject. As a result, and as my right hon. Friend the Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality noted earlier, she made a written statement to the House this morning. It changes the boundaries for the single farm payment from two regions—severely disadvantaged areas and non-SDA—to moorland within SDAs, the rest of SDAs, and non-SDA. That change has the support of all the main interested organisations, including the NFU, the Country Land and Business Association, the National Beef Association, the National Sheep Association, the Tenant Farmers Association, the dairy producers, and organisations such as the National Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and the Association of National Park Authorities.
Matthew Green: For once, I want to congratulate the Government on listening to farming organisations. I am grateful that they have taken a rational and sensible decision in this matter. I also congratulate the farming organisations that have managed to get together to speak with one voice for the industry. In particular, the NFU in my area did a wonderful job in keeping SDA farmers closely informed and aware of developments.
I turn the Minister's attention to the final paragraph of the Secretary of State's written statement. It states:
"I have therefore asked my officials to consider how the next round of rural development programming (from 2007 onwards) can better reflect the needs of upland communities".
Mr. Speaker:
Order. I am not going to allow long supplementary questions.
22 Apr 2004 : Column 426
Mr. Bradshaw: I think that the hon. Gentleman may be referring to the concerns of some moorland farmers who may lose out as a result of the adjustment made today. He is absolutely right to draw attention to that, and to the Government's very serious response to those problems. He is right that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has outlined a number of ways in which the Government will address some of the problems that poorer hill farmers might face in due course.
Paddy Tipping (Sherwood) (Lab): I very much welcome the Secretary of State's announcement this morning and the fact that she has listened to the consensus view of the farming industry. However, there is another consensus: the whole sector wants those payments to be made in 2005. Many of us have real concerns about the Rural Payments Agency, which is undergoing a big programme of change at present. Is the Minister confident that payments will be made on time next year?
Mr. Bradshaw: My hon. Friend is right to say that it is a challenging time scale, but we are confident that we can meet it and every effort will be made to ensure that we do so.
Mr. Patrick McLoughlin (West Derbyshire) (Con): Why will farmers in Parwich in my constituency be paid at two different levels?
Mr. Bradshaw: That is the inevitable consequence of having area-based payments and three different regions. If the hon. Gentleman has a better idea, perhaps he would let us have it.
Mr. John Whittingdale (Maldon and East Chelmsford) (Con): Although we welcome the announcement today, have not the four weeks that the Government have spent considering the industry's proposal further reduced the time available to set up the new arrangements? I share the concern expressed by the hon. Member for Sherwood (Paddy Tipping). There is real concern that the Rural Payments Agency will be unable to cope. Does the Minister understand that those concerns have been heightened by the delays this year, which have meant that some IACS—integrated administration and control scheme—forms have only just arrived, giving farmers only three weeks to complete and submit them in order to meet the deadline?
Mr. Bradshaw:
As I said in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Paddy Tipping), we are confident that the payments will be made in time. Over the next two weeks, the Government will write to every farmer and farming business in the country to explain how we have decided to implement CAP reform. The payments will be made, starting next year, as the Government proposed.
22 Apr 2004 : Column 427
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |