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Address in Reply to Her Majesty's Most Gracious Speech

My Lords, before attending to the business in hand, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, on her move to her new department. We wish her well. I also welcome the noble Lord, Lord Rana, who will make his maiden speech. We are looking forward to hearing what he has to say. It is strange to be facing someone other than the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, with whom I have jousted gently over these past six years. I have enjoyed our verbal tussles, and I wish him well for the future. In his place, I welcome the noble Lord, Lord Bach, also from the county of Leicestershire, and I hope that he will bring to his new position the same level of dedication and willingness to judge the arguments presented to him on their merits. I also remind noble Lords of our family farming interests, which are recorded in the Register. The briefing that was given to members of the press last Tuesday states: "The Government's strategy for rural areas is to ensure that communities benefit from its programmes to modernise, improve, and protect public services". That implies that rural communities have public services in place; in fact many villages have none left. The doctor went when pressure to reduce the number of single-GP practices was stepped up. Recently, the British Medical Association has expressed concern about the ability of the new systems to provide adequate medical cover in rural areas. Local post offices have had to close as the Government have spent hundreds of millions on IT in an attempt to save a few pence per transaction across their counters in the way that benefits are paid. Shops have succumbed to competition from area supermarkets and even some pubs have had to shut down. So my question has to be, do the Government intend to renew those services in some way, or is their commitment to supporting rural services merely a holding operation? Is the Government's stance on climate change, to which the noble Baroness has just referred, also a holding operation? The Prime Minister, due to take over the EU presidency, has stated that climate change control is a priority. The gracious Speech, however, refers only to securing progress in tackling it. Could it be that the Government's ability to achieve their own targets on reducing emissions is in question, or is it simply that there is no plan? My noble friend Lord Dixon-Smith and others will speak at greater length on both climate change and energy resources. The civil aviation Bill, although not mentioned in the gracious Speech, will create powers to reduce aircraft noise and provide a system for local emissions charging. We await the details but wonder how the Government will reduce pollution in the face of continued air traffic growth, affecting those living near to airports and placing additional pressure on surrounding roads. Minor roads are becoming overused because of the increase in both number and usage of cars. Speeding traffic in country lanes causes difficulties for rural dwellers, whether they are trying to walk safely or use their cycles. In most areas, new restrictions have not followed the Prime Minister's promise back in March 2000 to reduce rural speeds on some of those roads. The Minister spoke about the Road Safety Bill, which ran out of time having been through the Commons. We look forward to debating it. It contains a number of measures that have our support, especially those concerned with drink-driving. In 2003, 3,508 people were killed in road accidents—too many, and an increase of 2 per cent on 2002. Will the Minister give us a total breakdown of the causes; for example, how many were drink related and how many drug related—I do not think that that is in the Bill—and how many of those deaths happened on motorways compared with the more rural lesser roads in the countryside? That would help the House greatly. The Crossrail Bill, carried over from the previous Session, will enable the construction of a new link between east and west London. In general we support it, but we are dismayed that it is 15 years delayed since it was first mooted at the end of the Thatcher era. That has meant overcrowding on existing Underground services, tedious road journeys and yet more cars on our over-pressed roads. The merchant shipping Bill, also left out of the gracious Speech, will deal with compensation following an oil spill from a tanker and enable the UK to reduce marine air pollution by implementing measures to control emissions from ships. Do the Government intend eventually to subsume the Bill within a full marine Bill? It is not clear to us at this stage whether there will be an overlap between the two Bills, and since we are going to have a draft Marine Bill, but do not know exactly what is in it, it is difficult for us to comment. My noble friend Lady Hanham is not to be burdened with legislation this time round—a welcome respite after an exhausting round with a heavy load in the previous Session. But the Government's regional agenda is in tatters following the rejection of the proposed elected assembly for the north-east. A question mark still hangs over unelected regional bodies in general. What is the Government's future thinking on that issue? Mr Prescott proposes housing expansion, particularly here in the south-east. That raises both alarm and questions concerning the adequacy of infrastructure and the ability of the water supplies to cope with our increased demand in the face of climate change. We are all agreed that we will see peaks of longer extended drought and also greater water fall. We welcome the recent announcement on the extension of shared home ownership schemes, having promoted it in our own housing policy. Planning law affects us all. We encourage the Government to tackle Travellers setting up illegal sites and causing major problems of fly-tipping, anti-social behaviour, noise and education provisions for itinerant children. The majority of Travellers respect our laws, but unfortunately increasing numbers of new ones cause damage to private property and the people living in those new camps refuse to conform to the rules governing settled communities. Surely that situation cannot be allowed to continue. Will the Minister expand his thinking when he comes to respond? The Government have asked Sir Michael Lyons to examine how council tax may be made fair and enduring. His report is not due until the end of the year. In the meantime, however, the Government keep placing increasing responsibility on local councils without voting them enough money to discharge their new duties. That is particularly true in rural areas, where the cost is greater. Local authorities are also adversely affected by the pension situation. The Government are investigating the possibility that the state pension will have to be delayed until the age of 70, while local government employees are fighting proposals that they should work until the age of 65. We await with interest to see how the Government resolve that situation. I turn to the burden of red tape and regulation. People in businesses, whether they are urban based or rural, complain of the ever-increasing cost in time and money of complying with the regulations that keep being imposed on them. It must be reduced to a minimum, as the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, said, if businesses are to be profitable. Even when it is not a business, volunteers who run recreational or educational activities must be able to continue their worthwhile work. Only if businesses grow and thrive will sustainability be a viable goal. Without profit it is unreachable. That is especially true in agriculture. Water, food, warmth and shelter are prerequisites for life and, as an island race, we should ensure that we produce enough food to feed ourselves. Our self-sufficiency provision keeps falling each year and is something between 64 per cent and 68 per cent. Will the Minister tell us where the Government propose to draw the line? I understand that a conference is planned or has been held to consider food security. Will the Minister confirm that and explain its raison d'être? Recently our agriculture has faced many threats. The first, which has been referred to, is the changes within the single farm payments and the danger that that poses to cash flow. The performance targets for the Rural Payments Agency were published last Wednesday and include, "to commence payments under the Single Payments scheme by February 2006 and pay 96% of valid claims by 31st of March". Many of us have grave doubts that that will be achieved. Will the Minister confirm whether he thinks that the IT systems in place will be ready and can cope? Another major challenge to agriculture is the ever-running sore of bovine TB. It continues to increase at the rate of 20 per cent year on year. The Krebs trials are discredited and vets are fighting the problem with one hand tied and with severe new challenges to their own financial ability. They are struggling to cope and to help to contain the outbreak. They also have a threat held over them that their incomes will very much be affected by the employment of lay testers, to help with the testing, and the removal of the right to dispense their own prescriptions. The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill will, at a cost of £8 million, enable the creation of a new administrative system. The result is intended to reduce duplication and deliver improvements to nature conservation and many ways of rural life. Our policy would have resulted in a simple, more cost-effective and less bureaucratic approach but, sadly, we did not win the election so we cannot put it forward. We fear that the Bill will set up another talking shop in the form of the Commission for Rural Communities, and extend intrusion and bureaucracy elsewhere. As the Minister will know, we do not believe that the regional development agencies are close enough to the local areas. We would have put forward the payments system in a different way. We will welcome the common land Bill if it improves the rate of recovery of the SSSIs, if it results in genuine progress in land management, and particularly if it corrects the records of land that has been wrongly registered. Will the Minister give us an assurance that corrections to include land wrongly classified under the CROW map exercise will also be rectified? I understand that the Bill will set up a commoners' association, which will enable common land to be organised, maintained and managed locally, yet it will enable them to take action and be more than a talking shop. I move finally to the animal welfare Bill, which has been promised for so long and subordinate to so much else—including the Hunting Act—that it is hard to believe in its existence. We are concerned that, in the draft Bill, powers were given to animal welfare inspectors whose status was undefined, and that a large number of other details in the Bill were left to secondary legislation. Having read the report of the EFRA Committee, I look forward to seeing precisely which recommendations the Government will take up. The marine Bill is long overdue; I gather that it will be a draft Bill. It should cover all activities between the high water mark and the 12-mile limit, be they commercial, industrial or recreational. The gracious Speech has set a crowded timetable before us. On these Benches, we shall endeavour to ensure that the resulting legislation is capable of effective implementation. For my part, I shall work to maintain pressure on the Government to tackle at least some of the pressing issues facing our agriculture, horticulture and fishing industries. This afternoon we will cover three important topics; I know that colleagues will speak in greater detail on them, but I fear that we have a lot of work ahead. I look forward to the days to come.