Checks on Goods Entering UK

Debate between Mark Spencer and Helen Morgan

Monday 29th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sir Mark Spencer]

I do not accept the hon. Gentleman’s characterisation. This is a pragmatic approach to keeping the country safe from animal and plant diseases while allowing the free flow of trade via a model in which people can get certification away from the ports to ensure that they can import products, and stamping down on those who want to act illegally.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

Obviously, these controls will introduce additional logistical steps, which are problematic for time-critical products. I recently met people from Maincrop Potatoes Ltd in my constituency. It trades potatoes to producers, so it has a deadline to hit on those production lines, and it will be importing more this year because of the disastrous potato harvest. Can the Minister provide any reassurance that that process will be streamlined enough to enable that business to continue to move its goods around in a timely way?

[Sir Mark Spencer]

I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. What the hon. Lady has described is exactly what we want to try to achieve: making sure that trade, particularly in goods such as potatoes, flows across the channel as freely as possible, but that we protect ourselves from diseases such as brown rot that could be devastating to the UK’s potato production.

Groceries Supply Code of Practice

Debate between Mark Spencer and Helen Morgan

Monday 22nd January 2024 Westminster Hall

[Mark Spencer]

That is slightly off topic, but I can assure the hon. Lady that we are doing quite a lot of work. Again, we are working with major retailers and producers across the food production sector to ensure, first, that we understand the impact of any changes that we might make. Secondly, I am personally concerned about the burden of those changes falling on primary producers, and about major retailers and processors taking any advantage, because the primary producers should benefit from the environmental improvements that they make within their own businesses. It is important that we get that right. I am also concerned about the offshoring of carbon. We must take into account the equation between what is produced here in the UK and what might be imported from abroad, and the carbon footprint that that might have. We are giving a lot of thought to that at the moment. I know that the hon. Lady is committed to these issues, and I am sure that she will have an opportunity to contribute to the debate as we move forward.

We have worked closely with the industry to ensure that the regulations are tailored and proportionate, and provide the flexibility required in a global commodity market. They will create a new enforcement regime, and we will appoint an adjudicator to oversee compliance for our sector-specific codes. The regulations are undergoing final checks before their planned introduction to Parliament, as I say, hopefully before the Easter recess.

In 2022, we followed our dairy review with a review of the pig supply chain, and we published a summary of responses in 2023. We have committed to developing similar regulations to those being introduced in the dairy sector to introduce new rules for supply contracts and to improve market transparency through better market reporting data. We have developed a proposal that sets out the main features of the new regulations. We have been discussing them with industry and we expect to introduce them in summer this year.

[Helen Morgan]

I am sure the Minister understands as well as everyone else does that it is very important that the regulations take effect before farming businesses go out of business. The barriers to entry are high, there is a high cost of investment and we need to keep people in business, because getting them to come back into the sector will be incredibly difficult. Does he acknowledge that problem?

[Mark Spencer]

I wholly recognise that challenge. I am an ex-dairy farmer, and we left the dairy sector as a farming family in 2001. We did that because it was economically challenging; we could not make it pay. I think the milk price at the time was around 28p a litre at the farm gate. I can say to her that if I were offered £5 a litre tomorrow, there is no way that I would go back into the dairy sector. Once someone has left the industries, getting back into them is very difficult, and that is recognised throughout the supply chain. Major retailers do recognise it, and it is particularly true for dairy and pigs. It is also true in the fresh produce sector, because the skillsets and machinery that are required take a lot to procure. Going back into those sectors is very difficult. We need to make sure we protect it, but processors and retailers recognise that they must not kill the golden goose that is the UK farming sector.

Last year, we launched two further reviews into egg and fresh produce supply chains. The public consultation on the egg sector supply chain closed on 22 December, and we are in the process of analysing the responses. As I said, the review into fresh produce was published on 14 December and closes on 22 February. Anything that hon. and right hon. Members can do to promote that to their constituents, so that they can feed into it, would be very welcome. We will publish the responses for each review within 12 weeks of the closing dates, and we will provide a summary of the findings and our next steps for each sector. We can only decide what action is needed once we have analysed the responses, but I can assure Members that we will use the powers in the Agriculture Act to introduce legislation wherever it is necessary. I hope this debate will encourage anyone with relevant views in the fresh produce sector to engage in the public consultation.

Farmers, Supermarkets and Food Supply Chains

Debate between Mark Spencer and Helen Morgan

Tuesday 16th May 2023 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries (Mark Spencer)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Gordon Henderson) for securing this important debate. I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, which is a matter of public record.

Food is part of our local and national identity, and farming is vital to our country. The food and drink industry contributes £30 billion to our economy and employs over 4 million people. As the Secretary of State has said, we want to support our farmers and fishermen to grow their businesses and to help our rural communities grow and thrive. I have just returned from the Prime Minister’s UK Farm to Fork summit in No. 10, which brought together the Government and the whole food supply chain. It was a great opportunity to boost co-operation and promote all elements of our world-renowned farming and food industries.

I recognise that this has been a challenging year for farmers and consumers alike. Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, aftershocks from the pandemic and a historic outbreak of avian flu are having a global impact. That is why we are supporting our farmers by reinvesting £2.4 billion per year into the sector through new farming schemes, and by paying direct payments in England in two instalments—the next one is due in July—to help farmers with their cash flow.

Responding quickly to global challenges, we continue to provide support through the energy bills discount scheme, and we have announced 45,000 visas for seasonal workers in the horticulture sector next year, to give security to those in the sector so that they can plan their business for the next 12 months.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

It has been widely reported by farmers in North Shropshire, particularly dairy farmers, that although their input prices are astronomically high, for all the reasons the Minister has mentioned, they are being squeezed by supermarkets and their milk prices are starting to come down. Does the Minister welcome the announcement by the CMA this morning that it is going to look into price gouging by supermarkets, which the Liberal Democrats have called for over the last few weeks?

[Mark Spencer]

We will look with interest at what the CMA finds. That is something we have looked at closely ourselves. It will require food producers and farmers to come forward with evidence to support the CMA, but that is why we launched our own investigation into the dairy sector. We are due to come back any moment with our findings and recommendations for how to support dairy farmers.

We have also indicated that we are going to support the pork sector and ensure that contracts are fit for purpose. Once we have delivered on that, we will be keen to look at the horticulture sector and the egg sector to ensure that the marketplace is working fairly for all in the industry. That demonstrates how seriously the Government take these challenges and issues. We will step in when we feel the market is not working equitably for all involved.

Last June, we published the Government food strategy, in which we set out our vision for a prosperous agrifood sector that ensures secure food supply in an unpredictable world and contributes to the levelling-up agenda through good-quality jobs all around the country. In the last year, farmers have continued to put great-quality food on our plates. The UK Farm to Fork summit is the next step in growing the thriving food and drink sector, with the aim of seeing more British produce on supermarket shelves in the UK and around the world. The summit focused on how Government and industry can work together to bring great British food to the world, build resilience and transparency across the supply chain, strengthen sustainability and productivity, and support innovation and skills—many of the things that my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey called for.

The Prime Minister has been clear that growing the economy is one of his top priorities, and growing the food and farming sector is key to that.

Agricultural Transition Plan

Debate between Mark Spencer and Helen Morgan

Thursday 26th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

First, I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend, who was the forerunner of many of these thoughts and schemes. The work he did in the Department has led us to this point, and I pay tribute to it. He is right to identify hedgerows as the corridors of wildlife. They are a huge source of biodiversity and a place where wildlife can thrive. We will, of course, do all we can to not only support individual farmers, but build that network of hedgerows and those corridors for wildlife.

All these schemes remain under review. One of the reasons we are here today and were not able to do this last year is because we were running pilot schemes with farmers and listening to the feedback they were giving us. The scheme we have today is in a much stronger place than it would have been if we had acted earlier. We will continue to have dialogue with NGOs and farmers to ensure we get the outputs we require.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

We obviously welcome the aims and objectives of today’s statement, but it has been a tough year for farmers, with cuts to their basic payment alongside the increasing cost of doing business. My farmers tell me that the SFI schemes are too complex and cost too much up front to engage with. That is why we have seen such poor take-up rates so far. Will the Minister consider halting the cut to the basic payment scheme until our farmers have had time to get to grips with the complexities of this new scheme and participation rates have increased to an acceptable level?

[Mark Spencer]

We should be clear that we set out our plan to reduce basic payments over a seven-year period and we are trying to ensure that, as those basic payments come down, we increase the environmental payments at the same rate, so that we maintain the same budget. The hon. Lady is fair in her criticism that some of the schemes appeared to be too complex. We have listened to that, and the schemes we are announcing today are much more simplistic in their approach and much more flexible in their delivery. I encourage farmers in her constituency in Shropshire to take a new look. This is a new approach, which builds in flexibility, particularly for tenant farmers, to step in and out of the SFI, and I sincerely hope that her farmers will be able to benefit from the new schemes announced today.

Business of the House

Debate between Mark Spencer and Helen Morgan

Thursday 7th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

I have not had the opportunity to read the report, which sounds harrowing. The hon. Gentleman is a true champion of religious freedom around the world, which the Government take seriously. I will pass on his comments to the Foreign Secretary, who shares his concern about the terrible actions that some states commit around the world.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

Since my election, I have been campaigning on ambulance response times in Shropshire. As a result of that campaign, local health leaders have been preparing for a visit from the Minister for Health, the hon. Member for Charnwood (Edward Argar), in the coming weeks to see how they have been doing to improve the situation. My understanding is that the Minister resigned yesterday evening, so that visit is on hold, postponed or maybe even cancelled. Can the Leader of the House bring forward a debate in Government time on the national ambulance situation? People are dying avoidable deaths not only in North Shropshire but across the country and it is time that the Government got a grip of it.

[Mark Spencer]

The hon. Lady will have the opportunity to question the Secretary of State directly at Health and Social Care questions on 19 July. I hope that she will recognise the huge investment that the Government have made in our health services up and down the country. We are working hard to improve ambulance waiting times and to support her constituents and those across the whole of Shropshire.