Examination of Witness (Questions 80-83)
RT HON
MARGARET BECKETT
MP
2 NOVEMBER 2005
Q80 David Lepper: Can I come back
to my original point about supermarkets? Do you think a revised
regional food strategy will take into account the increasing pressures
on local suppliers in their relationships with the multiple retailers?
Margaret Beckett: I think we never
ignore those pressures, but you will appreciate that, although
we understand the concerns that are sometimes expressed, these
are commercial negotiations in the contracts to which we are not
a party.
Q81 Sir Peter Soulsby: I would like
to return to another issue of public education and understanding
this time on the question of beef. I understand it is next week
that the "over 30 months rule" ends and the public are
going to be reliant on comprehensive testing of cattle over that
age. There are two parts to this: (1) is it the case that you
are 100% convinced that testing will ensure the safety of British
beef and (2) what steps are you going to take to make sure that
the public have confidence in it in the way that I understand
the producers have?
Margaret Beckett: First of all,
can I say that it is quite specific and deliberately not the role
of my department to satisfy ourselves about the safety of British
beef. That role was taken out of the hands of our predecessor
department. It is the Foods Standards Agency who will be the monitors,
the overseers of the safety regime, and they, of course, report
to the Department of Heath. Indeed, it was a condition, a part,
of the agreement to begin to close down the "over 30 months
scheme" that the FSA was satisfied about the testing regime,
about how it would be implemented so that it could be to a higher
standards and so on, otherwise we would not have got agreement
to bring the "over 30 months scheme" to a close. All
of those considerations were very much in our minds and in the
mind of the Food Standards Agency when that decision was taken.
As for the issue of confidence, I think I am right in saying that
beef sales are very much recovered in this country, and, for my
own part, I would freely confess to the Committee I would rather
and have more confidence—I hope I am not going to get into
trouble for saying this—in eating British beef than any
other, because we have been through the mill. We have had to eradicate
and to deal with what was a very dangerous situation and I have
confidence that that has been done here with absolute thoroughness.
I know that there are other Member States where people who are
potential purchasers of high quality beef have long rather lamented
the disappearance of British beef from some of their markets and
would be keen to reinstate it.
Q82 Mr Williams: Very quickly can
I congratulate you on the last sentiments you have expressed and
also you and your department on working to bring out a system
where we can bring over 30-month old beef into the food chain,
but we have gone through a period of very low prices for beef.
This will bring a lot more beef on to the British market. In order
that the market stabilises we need to export our beef. Can you
give us any confidence that the present system for export, which
is very restrictive, can be relaxed, with the agreement of EU
partners, because that is absolutely essential to the beef market
if it is it is going to be stabilised and kept at a reasonably
profitable level.
Margaret Beckett: I understand
the concern that is being expressed and obviously we are working
with the Commission and with fellow Member States to address these
issues. We very much hope that common ground will be found.
Q83 Chairman: Secretary of State,
thank you very much indeed for extending your stay to answer our
wide range of questions. We look forward to the additional information
that you very kindly offered us. I think we realise you have got
a busy time ahead, so we wish you well in terms of achieving results
in the presidency, both in the collective sense and in the United
Kingdom sense. The Committee is minded to do some further work
in the field of climate change, so I hope you will accept, if
we decide to do that, an invitation to come back and talk to us
in more detail about some of the events which are what I might
call the forthcoming attraction in this. May we thank you and,
indeed, your officials for the help and co-operation that you
give the work of the Committee as we now prepare in this Parliament
to lay out our own work schedules. So thank you very much for
coming before us.
Margaret Beckett: Thank you, Chairman.
I am very mindful of the events a year ago at Buenos Aires when,
as ever, the climate change talks had dragged on past their deadline
and the negotiations had been left in the hands of the troika,
and, as we trooped out of the room, leaving our Dutch colleagues
to spend a happy night negotiating, my colleague said to me, "This
will be you this time next year"!
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