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Industry and the Environment

I must correct my hon. and learned Friend. We have studied the ratio, and it is not quite as he says. It is only true that there are more officials in DEFRA and its satrapies than there are dairy farms in England. It is not, however, just a matter of the number of people. It is a matter of the number of bodies, of the interlocking structures that they create, and of the forms and the regulation that they produce. It is a matter of the fact that our farmers and rural communities are being driven mad by over-regulation. That is not because Ministers want to over-regulate to such a degree. It is not because Ministers want to create administrative chaos. It is because they have not managed to find a means of slimming down a leviathan. Let me say something about how we intend to pursue these matters in the coming months. This is a new Parliament. The Government have a new mandate: they have a mandate to rule. It would be absurd if we spent the next few months talking about what we would do four or five years from now, but we want to be constructive. We will present proposals in the spirit of applying constructive pressure on Government in the national interest. Let me describe some of those proposals. In relation to energy policy, we put pressure on the Government to create more incentives for cleaner cars. We will put pressure on the Government to implement the renewable transport fuels obligation, which our colleagues in the other place installed in the Sustainable Energy Act 2003 and which was originally suggested by my right hon. Friend the Member for Fylde. We will put pressure on the Government to promote micro-generation, as provided for in the 2003 Act. We will put pressure on the Government to work with house builders on zero emissions developments, which could make a major contribution to energy efficiency. We will put pressure on the Government to open up competition in the energy efficiency commitment, so that the scheme begins to produce the dividends that I believe it could produce. Most important, my hon. Friend the Member for Havant and I will put pressure on the two Secretaries of State for a full review of the electricity supply industry, taking full account of both the environmental and the economic constraints so that we can try to achieve a national consensus on a way forward that can reconcile our economic requirements with our environmental obligations. In relation to agriculture and fisheries, we will put pressure on Ministers to simplify the cost compliance regime massively, and we will make specific proposals. We will put pressure on Ministers to improve the labelling regime, so that consumers in this country can know for the first time where their food comes from, what they are eating, whether it meets the animal welfare standards imposed in Britain, and how far it has travelled. We will put pressure on Ministers to take real steps to improve public purchasing of meat and other commodities so that it does not disadvantage our farmers. We will put pressure on Ministers to come up with a serious solution to the bovine tuberculosis problem, using culling licences under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. We will propose, and put pressure on Ministers to implement, revisions of the fallen stock scheme to solve the fallen stock problem. Most immediately, we will put sustained pressure on Ministers to provide relief under the single farm payment scheme through interim payments in the next few months, based on historic grants, and a set of guarantees that farmers will not be penalised for submitting forms based on faulty data from the Rural Payments Agency. In relation to rural communities, we will press Ministers for a serious approach to shared ownership. We will press Ministers for a new look at village facilities and at the unfairness of the grant regime to rural areas. Finally, we will put whatever pressure we can on the Government as a whole to devolve power to counties and districts and away from the rural development agencies and other large and unnecessary regional bodies. I hope that, over the coming months, we will be able to persuade the Secretary of State to adopt increasing proportions of that agenda, because we do not want another four years of wasted opportunity.