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Civil Service Relocation
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on her Department's plans to relocate jobs from London and the South East to Yorkshire. [185756]
Alun Michael:
The Department's Spending Review settlement includes a commitment to relocating 390 posts out of London and the South East by 2007–08. The Department is currently reviewing which posts will be relocated and exactly where these will be located.
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Common Fisheries Policy
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the Government's policy is towards the planned change in the European Common Fisheries Policy. [184261]
Mr. Bradshaw: In line with the UK's negotiating objectives we agreed important and wide-ranging reforms to the Common Fisheries Policy in December 2002. The reformed CFP provides a strong framework for policies and decisions which are more environmentally and economically sustainable. It provides for a stronger regional dimension, better stakeholder involvement, and better integration of environmental concerns. We remain committed to building on this reform.
Cormorants
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 20 May 2004, Official Report, column 1084, on cormorant predation, when she expects to announce extra measures to help fishery owners and angling clubs to deal with the problem of predation by cormorants. [182312]
Mr. Bradshaw: We are currently considering the extra measures we can put in place to help inland fisheries. I expect to be able to announce these before the seasonal influx of cormorants from coastal areas which takes place during the autumn.
Curry Commission Report
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent progress has been made by the Government in response to each of the recommendations of the 2002 Curry Commission Report. [184764]
Alun Michael: The Government accepted 101 of the 105 recommendations in the report of the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food. These are being taken forward through the Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food. However, the onus is not on Government alone to deliver these changes: many of the Commission's recommendations were targeted wholly or partly at industry, which has a pivotal part to play in this process.
We are making good progress towards delivering the Strategy's objectives, most significantly through implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy reform agreement in June 2003. The deal will provide a more sustainable basis for European agriculture and reflect the wider environmental and rural development objectives which society seeks to achieve. The decoupling of payments will break the link between subsidy and production, so the farming industry will be free to react directly to market signals, not encouraged to follow the unsustainable production patterns of the past. CAP reform is expected to deliver significant economic benefits for the UK. These are estimated at between £400 million to £550 million a year at present exchange rates. The introduction of the Single Payment means that farmers will be freed from many of the bureaucratic rules associated with production linked subsidies and will have greater opportunity to
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restructure their businesses to best meet the needs of the market. We estimate that overall there will be an increase in farm incomes up to £150 million which represents around 5 per cent. of UK Total Income From Farming in 2003.
Enhancing our environment is central to the vision set out in the Strategy. A new agri-environment scheme, Environmental Stewardship, is being introduced in England in 2005 and this includes the new Entry Level Stewardship (ELS). The ELS will be at the heart of improving farming's environmental performance. It will be open to applications from all farmers, enabling them to deliver what society wants: the sustainable management of our countryside as a whole.
A series of initiatives in the food chain is designed to achieve a more efficient and competitive supply chain. These include the Food Chain Centre and English Farming and Food Partnerships, two industry bodies set up with Government support to increase competitiveness and encourage co-operation.
The Government recognise the need for smarter regulation of agriculture, focusing on outcomes rather than processes in order to minimise burdens on the industry. We are working to join up regulatory requirements into a whole farm approach which will reduce bureaucracy. The Whole Farm Appraisal is one of the key initiatives being developed to assist the farming industry in streamlining regulation; this has been successfully piloted and will be launched in autumn 2005.
Other initiatives being taken forward to deliver the Strategy include the establishment of a Non-Food Crops Centre to provide information and advice on non-food crop production; work on animal health and welfare, including the recent launch of the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy; consultation on the goals and priorities for the Food and Health Action Plan under the "Choosing Diet" strand of the Department of Health's "Choosing Health?" consultation and delivery of a Learning Skills and Knowledge programme.
The Government announced a sum of £500 million to implement the Strategy as part of the 2002 Spending Review, in addition to existing spending by Defra and other Government Departments which is already being used to deliver aspects of the Strategy. This sum covers a number of major aspects of the Strategy. These include the new Environmental Stewardship Scheme and the IT system to underpin all the England Rural Development Programme schemes; improvements in livestock traceability and other major animal health and welfare measures, and the new food chain initiatives.
Dairy Farmers
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of dairy farmers have shown profits in the last financial year; and if she will make a statement. [185231]
Alun Michael:
The latest available data on farm incomes is for the 2002–3 farm accounting year from the Farm Business Survey. This survey covers around 2200 full time farm businesses in England, of which around a fifth are classified as dairy farms. Based on this survey data, the average net farm income of dairy farms in
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2002–3 was £18,300 and 80 per cent. of dairy farm businesses showed a positive net farm income. Net farm income is defined as the return to the farmer and spouse for their manual and managerial labour and on the tenant type capital of the business. It does not include the cost of farmer and spouse labour.
Dairy farm incomes are forecast to rise slightly in 2003–4, principally due to an increase in milk prices although higher feed prices during the latter part of the year offsets some of this increase.
Departmental Buildings (Refurbishment)
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost has been of refurbishments to the fabric of buildings owned by her Department since May 1997. [185940]
Alun Michael: Expenditure on fabric refurbishment each year since Defra was established was:
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 2000–2001 | 2,351,000 |
| 2001–2992 | 850,000 |
| 2002–2003 | 3,525,000 |
| 2003–2004 | 2,464,799 |
Eggs
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who represented the United Kingdom at the Council of Ministers meeting that decided to remove the derogation from marking for ungraded eggs. [184191]
Alun Michael: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, and my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Commons) represented the UK at the meeting in question.
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the United Kingdom voted against the decision of the Council of Ministers to remove the derogation from marking for ungraded eggs; and if she will make a statement. [184192]
Alun Michael: Throughout the negotiations, the UK opposed the Commission's proposal. At the Council of Ministers, we abstained and gave the following statement formally to record our position;
"The United Kingdom has not felt able to support the proposal to require all eggs at local public markets to be marked. The Commission has produced no evidence demonstrating that there is actually a food safety or enforcement problem that needs to be addressed. The proposal is therefore likely to lead to unnecessary additional burdens on small-scale producers. A facultative provision, allowing those member states which do have concerns about local markets to take necessary action, would have been more appropriate."
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which member states (a) supported and (b) opposed the Council of Ministers' decision to remove the derogation from ungraded eggs. [184193]
Alun Michael:
The UK abstained from voting but all other member states voted in favour.
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