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Agricultural Policy

I agree that it is not the one magic bullet in terms of how we should deal with the work force. I understand that a debate may have been secured for when we come back from the recess, to which I am sure the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnorshire will want to contribute, on the future of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority. It is also subject to the current red tape review. There are a number of ways to approach the issue for agricultural workers, but consider this direct quote from the FUW: ““The Union has always supported the AWB and remains concerned that unless there are systems in place to protect payments to agricultural workers, the industry will not attract the highly skilled individuals it needs to thrive. As many farms in Wales run with relatively few staff, the AWB is considered an important means of avoiding potential conflict and lengthy negotiations with individual staff.”” I will leave that matter at that, but I ask the members of the Committee to do whatever they can at least to make sure that the AWB remains in Wales. Before I discuss CAP reform, I want to discuss battery hens. It is great to see the UK and Wales at the leading edge within Europe because of our investment over the past six years in moving to enriched cages and away from the old-style cages. It was disappointing and we did not expect it—I certainly did not—when on 1 January, the date on which the measure came in, we found that our position was slightly weakened, because there are still several hundred thousand hens unfortunately in the old-style cages in parts of the UK. I understand from the Minister of State, however, that that will not be the case within weeks or months. Wherever farmers are still using the old-style cages, we need to crack on rapidly and get on with their replacement, especially if we are going to negotiate powerfully with countries such as Spain, where probably only half of the hen farmers have made the more expensive investment in the enriched cages. In France, I understand that the replacement level is at about 75%. We are probably up there at over 99%, but we need to be at 100% so that we can be out in the EU negotiating from a strong position, saying, ““We want infraction proceedings brought against the other countries””. We do not want Welsh and other UK farmers finding in three months’ time, when the next trade figures are published, that there is an increase in imports of shelled eggs, liquefied eggs or powdered eggs. We know that those products would be coming from farms doing it cheaper, because their animal welfare standards are lower and they do not care. They would be dumping their products on the UK. I will look with interest to see what happens. There is one thing that the Secretary of State may be able to help with. We have already made our support for the measure clear to the Minister of State, and I know that, not only in opposition, but in recent months, he has also made it plain that he was exploring the avenue for a UK legal ban. In a recent debate in Westminster Hall, he made it clear that he had received official, legal advice from his Department. I was a Minister, so I know that he would have had to look at it and generally go with it. Although he cannot publish it, he says that the legal advice says clearly that there cannot be an enforceable UK ban on egg products from non-enriched cages. However, we know that the EU is committed to enforcing the ban on non-enriched cages at a rate of knots to bring Spain up to standard and to deal with those remaining in France and elsewhere throughout the EU. If we know that that is the direction of travel of the EU Commission, what is the risk of infraction if the UK Minister were to say, ““I’ll tell you what, we will ban any of those products coming in.””? We frequently had to make the decision not only on the legal advice in front of us, but on the advice given for the risk of infraction as well. If that advice were, ““Well, actually the EU Commission wants this. It has started infraction proceedings against other countries that are so far off compliance it’s laughable,”” what is the risk of infraction? Minister, go for it. No one will bring a multimillion-pound infraction case against him when in three or six months, hopefully, everyone else will be up to speed. If the Spanish were not up to speed by then, would we not want to see them infracted? Why should our farmers carry the cost of their investment, stand up proudly and say, ““We have done the best for animal welfare standards””, but know that they could be undercut by producers overseas?