Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
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Thursday Volume 541 1 March 2012 No. 272 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Thursday 1 March 2012 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2012 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through The National Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/parliamentary-licence-information.htm Enquiries to The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 407 1 MARCH 2012 408 Rehman Chishti: With regard to regulatory burdens House of Commons on farmers, what steps is the Minister taking to ensure that a replacement seasonal agricultural workers scheme is in place when the current framework is removed at Thursday 1 March 2012 the end of 2013? Mr Paice: My hon. Friend is entirely right—the seasonal The House met at half-past Ten o’clock agricultural workers scheme is an essential source of labour, particularly for the fresh produce sector. We fully recognise its importance, and my Department is PRAYERS working closely with the Home Office to ensure that the industry’s labour requirements will be met after 2013. [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] Mark Menzies: Farmers in Fylde will welcome the Minister’s response, but can he assure me that he will resist any further measures from Brussels that seek to undermine the Government’s good work on deregulation? Oral Answers to Questions Mr Paice: I am glad that my hon. Friend added the last bit, because to say that we would not implement any further regulations might be counter-productive. I can assure him that we will fight very hard against ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS anything that we believe is against the interests of the British agriculture and food sector or the British economy. That has always been the case, and we will continue to The Secretary of State was asked— do our very best to oppose such measures. Farmers (Regulations) Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab): What steps 1. Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) will the Minister take to put in place regulations to (Con): What progress she has made in reducing ensure that the Schmallenberg virus is not extended and regulatory burdens on farmers. [97372] does not create problems for farmers who still have good-quality lamb available for sale? 11. Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con): What progress she has made in reducing regulatory Mr Paice: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for allowing burdens on farmers. [97384] me to address that issue, which also comes up later on the Order Paper. We do not believe that any regulation 12. Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con): What progress she on the Schmallenberg virus is necessary. The important has made in reducing regulatory burdens on farmers. point to note is that all the evidence of it that we are [97385] now seeing—the deformed lambs and a few deformed calves—is from infection caused last autumn in the The Minister of State, Department for Environment, midge season. We are working closely with the other Food and Rural Affairs (Mr James Paice): We published member states in northern Europe, where the disease the Government’s full response to the farming regulation was found earlier than in the UK, to develop the taskforce on 21 February. There were more than 200 science. A year ago we had never heard of the virus, so recommendations, and our response sets out clear we are having to develop all the basic science to move commitments to take action and to address most of the forward with tests and maybe vaccination. recommendations. We are already working to implement those commitments in partnership with the farming Mary Creagh (Wakefield) (Lab): I begin by wishing industry, and an implementation group chaired by Richard all Welsh colleagues dydd gwyl Dewi hapus, which my Macdonald himself will ensure that we deliver on them. hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies) reliably informs me is “happy St David’s day”. I hope Jesse Norman: I thank my right hon. Friend. The House I have not offended anyone with my pronunciation. will know that Herefordshire is blessed with some of the We are grateful to the Minister for his speedy offer of finest farmland and farmers in the country, but many a meeting with the chief vet on the Schmallenberg farmers in my constituency who are members of voluntary disease, which we hope to have early next week. As the schemes such as “Freedom Food” are keen to know Minister says, there is much that we do not yet know. whether such schemes will be given a lighter-touch Has the arrival of the virus in England led to any regulation and inspection regime, as recommended by changes or pauses in the implementation of the Macdonald the red tape review. report? Mr Paice: I cannot be specific at this stage about the Mr Paice: The short answer is no. At this stage, we do “Freedom Food” scheme, but the principle to which my not see any need to change the decisions arising from hon. Friend refers is absolutely correct. I assure him the Macdonald report. I am grateful to the hon. Lady that the principle of earned recognition, under which for her thanks for the briefing by the chief vet. It is farmers are already being inspected regularly in certain important that all Members are properly informed about farm assurance schemes, will be used as a form of risk the disease. When her party was in government it kindly assessment to minimise inspections on holdings. briefed me on such subjects, and it is only right to 409 Oral Answers1 MARCH 2012 Oral Answers 410 reciprocate. She will be aware that I wrote to all Members future generations if we do not significantly improve about a fortnight or three weeks ago with a very clear our water collection and storage, and the transfer of exposition of the situation. water from regions? Mary Creagh: I thank the Minister for those comments. Richard Benyon: I entirely agree. That is why the May I suggest that it might be useful for the chief vet to Government got a grip on the matter through publishing meet all Members of Parliament to give those with our water White Paper before Christmas. We need to badly affected constituencies the opportunity to question capture and use our water more efficiently. That means him? developing new water sources and greater interconnections, The Minister argued against the disease being made the need for which was never more apparent than now, notifiable in the EU. Will he explain why, when many when we face impending drought. I am pleased with farmers want it to be notifiable so that scientists can how water companies are working together and with build up the full picture and help develop the effective the Environment Agency, building resilience into our vaccine that we all want? What steps has he taken to systems for emergency procedures now, but also for the scale up the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories medium to long term, when we will face different climatic Agency so that it is not overwhelmed by testing as we conditions. enter the peak lambing season? How much will that extra resource cost and who will pay for it? Mr Holloway: In Kent, a lot of our water comes from an underground chalk aquifer. What is its long-term Mr Paice: On the last point, I assure the hon. Lady sustainability, and what can the public and local businesses that, as this is—I will not say it is an emergency—obviously do to help? very urgent, we are finding the necessary resources. It is only right and proper that we do so. I cannot give a Richard Benyon: My hon. Friend’s constituents, like figure because it is all changing as we go. The chief mine, depend on that extraordinary geological feature, executive of the AHVLA is addressing the issue of its which contains millions of gallons of water. However, it resources. I am afraid that I have forgotten her first is under real pressure at the moment, which is apparent point. from river flows. I had hoped that we would start to reverse the decline in some of our river flows this Mary Creagh: Notifiability. summer. Importantly, it is a demand as well as a supply situation, and we can all play our part in reducing the Mr Paice: I am grateful. The advice from the vets is impact on aquifers. We had our drought summit last that that is not necessary. We are receiving a tremendous week to get people thinking now about the measures amount of information from the private veterinary that they can take in their homes to reduce water usage. sector and, of course, samples from those in that sector and some directly from farmers, which all go into our Mr Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab): This is a labs for testing. As she implies, I urge all farmers to serious matter, and I hope that the Under-Secretary report any particular evidence. At the moment, we do read the speech that my hon. Friend the Member for not see any need for notifiability, but the matter is under Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) made yesterday, review. pointing out that there is an abundance of water in the north-east. I checked today, and Yorkshire Water’s reservoirs Mr Speaker: Order. We must move on. are 96% full. Is not the answer therefore to move more of our industry to the north? Perhaps we should relocate Water Resources Gravesham and its excellent Member of Parliament to the north of England, where he will be made most 2.