Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the minutes of the meetings he has had with stakeholders in the agricultural sector on the (a) design and (b) implementation of agricultural funding after 2022.
Answered by George Eustice
Ministers and officials are in regular contact with stakeholders and discuss a wide range of issues, including future funding. Details of meetings are published on the GOV.UK website, consistent with the Government’s policy on transparency and accountability.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many meetings he has had with stakeholders in the agricultural sector on the (a) design and (b) implementation of agricultural funding after 2022.
Answered by George Eustice
Ministers and officials are in regular contact with stakeholders and discuss a wide range of issues, including future funding. Details of meetings are published on the GOV.UK website, consistent with the Government’s policy on transparency and accountability.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the minutes of the meetings he has held with the (a) National Farmers' Union Cymru and (b) Farmers' Union of Wales on the (i) design and (ii) implementation of funding schemes for agriculture after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by George Eustice
Ministers and officials are in regular contact with stakeholders and discuss a wide range of issues, including future funding. Details of meetings are published on the GOV.UK website, consistent with the Government’s policy on transparency and accountability.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on the (a) design and (b) implementation of agricultural funding after 2022.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK Government has committed to protect the amount we allocate to farm support, in cash terms, until the end of this Parliament. We have also committed to introduce a new environmental land management scheme thereafter and, in England, we have already started detailed work on the design of that future scheme.
Outside of the Common Agricultural Policy we can have an agriculture and land management policy that works for the whole of the United Kingdom and we intend to give as much flexibility as possible for each devolved administration to design policies tailored to their own needs. We are working closely with the Devolved Administrations on the design of future UK frameworks.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on the (a) design and (b) implementation of agricultural funding after 2022.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK Government has committed to protect the amount we allocate to farm support, in cash terms, until the end of this Parliament. We have also committed to introduce a new environmental land management scheme thereafter and, in England, we have already started detailed work on the design of that future scheme.
Outside of the Common Agricultural Policy we can have an agriculture and land management policy that works for the whole of the United Kingdom and we intend to give as much flexibility as possible for each devolved administration to design policies tailored to their own needs. We are working closely with the Devolved Administrations on the design of future UK frameworks.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Producer Support Estimate is for beef, lamb and dairy products in the UK.
Answered by George Eustice
The Producer Support Estimate (PSE) is a statistic produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as part of its annual report “Monitoring and Evaluation of Agricultural Policies”. The PSE represents policy transfers to agricultural producers, measured at the farm gate and expressed as a share of gross farm receipts. Within the PSE the EU is treated as a single country; there are no figures for individual sectors or individual Member States.
In the OECD’s most recent report the PSE for the EU for 2013-15 was 19% (measured as a percentage of gross farm receipts) or €84.6bn.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Rural Payments Agency and the Welsh Government on delays in paying Basic Payments Scheme cheques to cross-border farmers.
Answered by George Eustice
The Rural Payments Agency has regular discussions with the Welsh Government and they are working together to get Basic Payment Scheme claims paid to cross-border farmers.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of when the ban on the export of Welsh beef and lamb to the US is likely to be lifted.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra has recently submitted detailed evidence required by the US authorities. My Right Honourable friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was recently in Washington DC to raise the importance of this agreement. We continue to press for expeditious consideration of the UK application to allow exports of UK beef and lamb to commence as soon as possible.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she expects a new Chair for the Environment Agency to be appointed.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra has appointed Emma Howard Boyd as Acting Chairman. She will lead the Board until a permanent Chairman is recruited in due course following an open competition.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government takes to help dairy farmers affected by reductions in the price of milk.
Answered by George Eustice
Farmers are under real pressure because of the fall in global dairy prices. There is no magic bullet, but the Government is doing all it can to support the industry and boost dairy exports which are now at record levels.
We have committed to extending the current system of tax averaging – for the first time farmers will be able to average out the tax they pay on their profits from two to five years which will help to manage the fluctuations in income caused by weather or global events.
We are encouraging farmers to unite in Producer Organisations which will give them more collective power. Producer Organisations are a good way of building greater resilience into the industry and individual businesses.
Consumers are increasingly looking for British produce on the supermarket shelves, and I would like to see better labelling on our dairy products to help them distinguish British cheese, cream and other dairy. This is something we have been pushing for in Europe and will continue to make the case.