This morning saw the new government’s first Defra oral questions in the House of Commons.
Secretary of State, Caroline Spelman and her ministerial team of Jim Paice and Richard Benyon were present to take questions, with Hilary Benn returning on the other side of the House as shadow Secretary of State and Jim Fitzpatrick lining up shadow farming minister.
Encouragingly, farming and agriculture dominated the hour-long question time in a well-attended Commons chamber.
Two areas drew significant attention from MPs: the industry-led review of regulation and CAP reform. Other issues debated included rural broadband, bovine TB, sheep EID, the RPA, flood defences, the Agricultural Wages Board, super dairies, bee health and the Campaign for the Farmed Environment.
Review of regulation
Jim Paice assured MPs that the newly-announced Task Force on Farming Regulation did not mean the government had any intention of reducing standards. He explained that a review was necessary because the country had ‘become obsessed with the view that to maintain standards, we must have high levels of intervention in how people comply with regulations’. He said that the aim was to ‘reduce the burden’ on the industry.
Following this up with a specific example, Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale, LD) questioned whether the six-day movement rule was not an unnecessary burden on the farming industry and called for it to be scrapped. Replying, Mr Paice said that he shared his doubts about the rule, but explained that the advice he had received so far is that ‘there is a very sound reason for it’. He assured MPs that it would certainly be one of the issues considered by the task force.
Later, Mr Paice identified another area of interest for the task force - the fact that ‘some EU countries are less vigorous in enforcing regulations’ and the disparity that this causes. He also confirmed, in answering a question from Guy Opperman (Hexham, Con), that the Agricultural Wages Board is being considered in Defra’s review of 'arm’s length bodies'.
Cap Reform
Shadow farming minister Jim Fitzpatrick pointed out that any reductions in the overall CAP budget might be attractive to the Treasury, but ‘would be to the detriment of British agriculture’. He asked whether the Secretary of State would assure MPs that she will defend the interests of British agriculture, in both Brussels and Downing Street. Responding, Mrs Spelman gave her unequivocal assurance and insisted that she would be seeking to get ‘a better deal for farmers, consumers, taxpayers and the environment’.
She also pointed out that Defra, as an economic department, would have ‘a very clear role in the economic recovery that this country needs’.
Flood Defences
Quoting a commitment in the coalition's Document for Government, the Secretary of State gave her assurances to MPs that they would be ‘taking forward the findings of the Pitt review on the 2007 floods’. She explained that this would be hard given the state of public finances, but said that they would ‘give priority to flood defences’ in the spending review.
Earlier, newly elected chair of the Efra Committee, Anne McIntosh asked whether the government would review the policy of urban areas being favoured, to the detriment of rural parts of the country, when it comes to flood defences. Responding junior minister Richard Benyon said that while he could not talk in specifics on such a general issue, it was 'an absolute priority' to address.
Bovine TB
The shadow Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, challenged the government on their decision to introduce a targeted cull of badgers in hotspot areas. He questioned whether there was a difference of opinion between the Secretary of State and the minister. He asked why, if a decision had been taken that there will be a cull, were there announcements that 'all the evidence would be considered before taking a decision'. Answering, Mr Paice said that Mr Benn was trying to create a division where none exists.
The considerations, he explained, referred the details of ‘how, where and who, along with all the other issues that have to be addressed in working out how to do a cull of badgers and how to integrate it with the badger vaccine deployment project’.
Sheep EID
Responding to a question on what one MP called the ‘hated rules’ of compulsory EID, Mr Paice acknowledged that he indeed could not find any ‘sensible justification’ for them. However, he accepted that they were ‘nevertheless… in place’. He said he planned to speak to the relevant commissioner about it in Luxembourg next week.
Rural Broadband
A number of MPs questioned the Secretary of State about broadband, particularly following the announcement of recent initiatives by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to increase access to broadband in rural communities. Caroline Spelman welcomed the recent announcements and recognised what this could mean for farmers. She explained it is wrong to ‘simply assume that farmers will have access to broadband in order to complete form-filling online’.
To watch this debate, clickhere.
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