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Agricultural Policy

The hon. Gentleman makes a valid point, and I hope that people who read the Committee’s proceedings will take note of it. I visited a business in Wales that is doing a tremendous export job, and I asked, ““What is your biggest problem?”” The reply was, ““Well, when I have a customer here from overseas, and he is ready to ring back head office to make a decision, he finds he does not have a mobile phone signal, and he is not going to wait until he is half an hour down the road to get that acknowledgement. So an opportunity will perhaps pass us by.”” That is a prime and practical example. I want to do everything I can in the Wales Office to encourage increased and better coverage, because the lack of coverage inhibits our businesses. We have taken action on fuel prices. In last year’s Budget, we immediately reduced fuel duty and replaced the fuel duty escalator with a fair fuel stabiliser to encourage fairness and stability by raising fuel duty only with inflation. We took further action in the autumn statement to defer the January fuel duty increase and cancel the August inflation-based rise.