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Opposition day on Wednesday, 17 October 2007, in the House of Commons, led by James Paice. The answering member was Hilary Benn.

Foot and Mouth/Bluetongue

Foot and Mouth/Bluetongue. Twentieth opposition day debate. Main question negatived on division (232 to 280). Amendment agreed on question.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
464 c845-900 
Session
2006-07
Department
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Speaker | 464 c870 (Link to this contribution) Order. Before I call the next speaker, I remind the House that Mr. Speaker has placed an eight-minut...
Chris Huhne | 464 c866-8 (Link to this contribution) This year has been a disaster for our farmers. Farmers are always at the mercy of the weather and ot...
Show all contributions (149)
Hilary Benn | 464 c866 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman will bear with me, I shall conclude. Many Members want to speak and I do not w...
Lord Beith | 464 c868 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend not find it surprising, given that every hill farmer is known to and registered ...
Damian Green | 464 c865 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Secretary of State for the advance notice his office gave me of that distressin...
Hilary Benn | 464 c865 (Link to this contribution) I shall certainly try to do so and I shall come to that point in a moment.
Bernard Jenkin | 464 c865 (Link to this contribution) I echo the thanks of my hon. Friends who have been so well supported by the Secretary of State's Dep...
Hilary Benn | 464 c865-6 (Link to this contribution) I accept the point the hon. Gentleman makes. We have talked carefully to the industry and the consen...
Eric Martlew | 464 c866 (Link to this contribution) During the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, the decision was taken not to vaccinate because the industr...
Hilary Benn | 464 c866 (Link to this contribution) We do not have a vaccine at present, but consumers regularly eat other meat from vaccinated animals,...
Daniel Kawczynski | 464 c866 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Chris Huhne | 464 c870 (Link to this contribution) As the right hon. Gentleman knows, the degree of damage to hill farmers across the UK associated wit...
Chris Huhne | 464 c869 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. He is absolutely right: the amount of compens...
Alan Reid | 464 c869 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that the Secretary of State should have announced both a light lamb and an...
Tim Farron | 464 c868-9 (Link to this contribution) Will my hon. Friend acknowledge that, although the additional top-up payments to the hill farm allow...
Lord Blencathra | 464 c870 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman seems to be arguing for payments to be made for an economic cull in Scotland, Eng...
Chris Huhne | 464 c869 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a good point. It is clear that we need a welfare scheme. It is not enough merel...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 464 c869 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for pointing out the non-devolved aspect of the budget and I draw attenti...
Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown | 464 c876 (Link to this contribution) Surely the Secretary of State should do something about the issue. Cannot he encourage his European ...
Lord Blencathra | 464 c873-4 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has got that quite wrong. Where did that filthy food come from in the first place...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 464 c874 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Lord Blencathra | 464 c875 (Link to this contribution) No. The hon. Gentleman will be glad to hear that I am running out of time. I am glad that the Gover...
Geraldine Smith | 464 c875-6 (Link to this contribution) I welcome this opportunity to contribute to the debate. I will be brief, as I know that many other M...
Jonathan Shaw | 464 c872 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has asked about Cheale's abattoir in Essex—I think that the hon. Member for Eastleigh...
Ian Cawsey | 464 c872 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the Minister's remarks. I will await developments with great interest, although an...
Lord Blencathra | 464 c872 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the chance to participate in the debate. The Opposition have accused the Governmen...
Ian Cawsey | 464 c870-1 (Link to this contribution) Having broken out of the Whips Office, I wish to use my re-established ability to address the House ...
David Jones | 464 c880-1 (Link to this contribution) The Prime Minister broke off his holiday, halfway through his scone, to hotfoot it back to London in...
Lembit Opik | 464 c881 (Link to this contribution) Furthermore, without such an explanation would it not be reasonable for the farmers of Wales and Sco...
David Jones | 464 c879-80 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to contribute to this debate, particularly since I represent one of the foremost lamb-p...
Oliver Letwin | 464 c878 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend recognise that there are many people in my constituency, and no doubt in the con...
Humfrey Malins | 464 c879 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is right. He refers to problems in his constituency, and there are other people...
Lembit Opik | 464 c878 (Link to this contribution) The question of compensation goes back to the last foot and mouth outbreak and we have had many prob...
Humfrey Malins | 464 c878 (Link to this contribution) I recognise the hon. Gentleman's deep interest in these matters and accept his point entirely. I hop...
Geraldine Smith | 464 c876-7 (Link to this contribution) Those issues should definitely be taken up. We owe our farmers a great deal for what they do, and fo...
Humfrey Malins | 464 c877-8 (Link to this contribution) The outbreak of foot and mouth in the village of Normandy in my constituency of Woking was confirmed...
David Jones | 464 c881 (Link to this contribution) That is a fair point. I do feel that the Government have shown a certain lack of respect to farmers ...
Anne Milton | 464 c884 (Link to this contribution) I wish to raise two main issues—why this happened and who is responsible, and the individual concern...
Elfyn Llwyd | 464 c882-3 (Link to this contribution) I follow the hon. Member for Clwyd, West (Mr. Jones), whose constituency borders mine, and I agree w...
Anne Milton | 464 c884-6 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes a very good point. It has emerged during today's debate—I welcome it for ...
Oliver Letwin | 464 c884 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that another troubling aspect of this is the suspicion, at the very least,...
Alan Reid | 464 c887 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that throughout the whole of Britain we need a welfare disposal scheme for...
Tim Farron | 464 c887 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for his observation, and I agree with him. I shall give one graphic illustrat...
Tim Farron | 464 c887-8 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend that the Government should be pursuing all those measures. It would be a...
Adam Afriyie | 464 c889 (Link to this contribution) I share my hon. Friend's view that farmers do the best that they can but that it is often DEFRA's op...
Brooks Newmark | 464 c889 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point—the same point made by all Opposition Members. I complet...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 464 c889 (Link to this contribution) Given what the hon. Gentleman said about the Prime Minister's hubris, does he agree that the Prime M...
Brooks Newmark | 464 c888-9 (Link to this contribution) I have often said that Mystic Meg would have done a better job of economic forecasting than the Prim...
Bill Wiggin | 464 c890-4 (Link to this contribution) We have covered an important subject today. My hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire ...
Brooks Newmark | 464 c890 (Link to this contribution) I have not got the time, so I am not giving way. The latest foot and mouth outbreak has indirectly ...
Eric Martlew | 464 c890 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Brooks Newmark | 464 c889-90 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a good point, but I need to move on. As I said, farmers are not irresponsible....
Jonathan Shaw | 464 c894 (Link to this contribution) This has been an important debate for our agricultural industry and our farming communities. It foll...
Lord McLoughlin | 464 c896 (Link to this contribution) rose in his place and claimed to move, That the Question be now put. Question, That the Question be...
Speaker | 464 c900 (Link to this contribution) Order. Would Members who are leaving please do so quietly.
Jonathan Shaw | 464 c894-6 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not give way; I have not got sufficient time. [Interruption.] I am not frit; I have got a...
Hilary Benn | 464 c863 (Link to this contribution) No, I have been generous in giving way and I want to turn to bluetongue. As the House recognises—[Ho...
Ian Davidson | 464 c863-4 (Link to this contribution) I am very grateful indeed to the Secretary of State. When I and a number of other Members met repres...
Hilary Benn | 464 c863 (Link to this contribution) In the end, it is about making choices and trying to give help in the most effective way. I listened...
Ian Davidson | 464 c863 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Hilary Benn | 464 c863 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman should not be so sensitive, as I was referring to the Liberal Democrat Benches in...
Paddy Tipping | 464 c863 (Link to this contribution) In his remarks at the start of the debate, the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice)...
Hilary Benn | 464 c863 (Link to this contribution) I have answered the second question already. Drafts are prepared, options are looked at, colleagues ...
Hilary Benn | 464 c864 (Link to this contribution) It is the responsibility of all of us. From the Scottish Executive's budget this year of about £26 b...
Hilary Benn | 464 c859 (Link to this contribution) I said that I had seen no evidence of negligence, but I did not advance an argument about what liabi...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 464 c860 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Hilary Benn | 464 c860 (Link to this contribution) No; I shall make progress now, as I have been generous in giving way. I shall come to bluetongue in...
Simon Burns | 464 c860 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 464 c861 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State has said that FMD has not escaped beyond the confines of Surrey and Berkshire...
Hilary Benn | 464 c861 (Link to this contribution) There is always a case for using the light of experience to reconsider whether decisions about such ...
Simon Burns | 464 c861 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. Bluetongue was discovered in my constituen...
Hilary Benn | 464 c861 (Link to this contribution) I am indeed. The hon. Gentleman raises an important point and I shall respond directly to it when I ...
Hilary Benn | 464 c861 (Link to this contribution) I think that I can anticipate some of the questions that certain hon. Members want to ask. We are co...
Lord Beith | 464 c861-2 (Link to this contribution) Does the Secretary of State realise that hill farmers in Northumberland have not yet received any we...
Hilary Benn | 464 c862 (Link to this contribution) I accept that and, as I said to the House last week, we will seek to make payments to those in recei...
Elfyn Llwyd | 464 c862 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State has been in discussions with the farming Minister in Wales, but his suggestio...
Alistair Carmichael | 464 c862 (Link to this contribution) May I place on record my gratitude to the Secretary of State for making time available last night to...
Hilary Benn | 464 c862 (Link to this contribution) It is true that the Treasury reserve met the costs in 2001, because the sheer scale of the outbreak ...
Alan Reid | 464 c862 (Link to this contribution) I draw the Secretary of State's attention to the concordat between the Ministry of Agriculture, Fish...
Hilary Benn | 464 c862 (Link to this contribution) Under the concordat, DEFRA has agreed to fund compulsory slaughter for disease control purposes. Tha...
Mark Williams | 464 c863 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State will know that the Welsh Assembly does not have the contingency funds to deli...
Lord Benyon | 464 c848 (Link to this contribution) As a dairy farmer close to the exclusion zone, I must refer Members to my entry in the Register of M...
Speaker | 464 c845 (Link to this contribution) We now come to the main business: the Opposition day. Mr. Speaker has selected the amendment in the ...
James Paice | 464 c848 (Link to this contribution) Anybody who has read the Spratt and the Health and Safety Executive reports will have come to the co...
James Paice | 464 c848 (Link to this contribution) Any risk is worrying, and I can well understand the hon. Gentleman's concern, which has been express...
Daniel Kawczynski | 464 c848 (Link to this contribution) I listened to the Secretary of State address the House last Monday on the issue of the pipes in Pirb...
James Paice | 464 c848 (Link to this contribution) I am very willing to engage the hon. Gentleman and anybody else on the subject of the incompetent wa...
David Heath | 464 c848 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps I might return the hon. Gentleman to foot and mouth, which is the worry for most of my farme...
David Jones | 464 c857 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State has dealt at length with the question of the degree of knowledge or otherwise...
Hilary Benn | 464 c857 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way to the hon. Member for Clwyd, West (Mr. Jones) and then to the hon. Member for Sout...
Hilary Benn | 464 c856 (Link to this contribution) I am happy to consider the issue raised by the hon. Lady. If I may, I shall respond directly to her,...
Baroness Browning | 464 c856 (Link to this contribution) In the light of the Secretary of State's comments, will he take a serious look at the arrangements i...
Hilary Benn | 464 c857 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for putting that hypothetical question to me. All that I c...
Lord Blencathra | 464 c856-7 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is an honourable and decent man and comes to the problem with fresh hands a...
Hilary Benn | 464 c856 (Link to this contribution) I hear what the hon. Gentleman says. There have been no resignations, and there will be none. I will...
Daniel Kawczynski | 464 c855-6 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State is putting a robust case, but is he telling the House that there will be no r...
Hilary Benn | 464 c856 (Link to this contribution) I am happy to give my hon. Friend that assurance. In accepting the recommendations of the HSE and Sp...
Viscount Hailsham | 464 c859 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State has been extremely generous in giving way. One matter is troubling me. He sa...
Hilary Benn | 464 c859 (Link to this contribution) I am duly chided by the right hon. Lady.
Baroness May of Maidenhead | 464 c859 (Link to this contribution) It may seem a small point, but the Government have consistently said that the second outbreak has be...
Bernard Jenkin | 464 c858 (Link to this contribution) I feel that I must take the Secretary of State back. The House is entitled to an answer to the quest...
Hilary Benn | 464 c858 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way, but then I shall make some further progress.
Hilary Benn | 464 c858 (Link to this contribution) We will both be able to check Hansard to find out whether the hon. Gentleman used the word ““damage”...
James Paice | 464 c857 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State has repeatedly said that, despite what I have stated, there is no evidence th...
Hilary Benn | 464 c857 (Link to this contribution) I agree with the hon. Gentleman that those who regulate and license, and those who have the responsi...
Baroness May of Maidenhead | 464 c849 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has been generous in taking interventions. On Saturday, I had a meeting with farmers ...
James Paice | 464 c849 (Link to this contribution) My next sentence was going to be, and will be, that DEFRA appeared to assume that every farmer spent...
Eric Martlew | 464 c850 (Link to this contribution) I have two questions for the hon. Gentleman. Would the Opposition have vaccinated in this situation?...
James Paice | 464 c850 (Link to this contribution) As my right hon. Friend knows, I am aware of that meeting and those allegations. Many more exist, an...
David Heath | 464 c850 (Link to this contribution) On pigs, has the hon. Gentleman noticed something that was brought to my attention by a small farmer...
James Paice | 464 c850 (Link to this contribution) I am coming to bluetongue. On vaccination, we would have taken more notice of the scientist who told...
Paddy Tipping | 464 c851 (Link to this contribution) I always listen carefully to the hon. Gentleman, because he commands great respect in the House on f...
James Paice | 464 c851 (Link to this contribution) As the hon. Gentleman probably realises, I am not in a position to give the answer to that question....
Lord Boswell of Aynho | 464 c849 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that one problem that DEFRA has, and which Whitehall has more generally, i...
James Paice | 464 c848-9 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that. As I pointed out earlier, the director of the institute sa...
Peter Ainsworth | 464 c854 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State is a decent man, but I fear that he is avoiding answering the question that I...
Hilary Benn | 464 c853-4 (Link to this contribution) I will respond directly to that point, if the hon. Gentleman will bear with me. It became apparent ...
Peter Ainsworth | 464 c853 (Link to this contribution) Before the Secretary of State moves on to the causes, could he return to the issue raised by my hon....
Hilary Benn | 464 c853 (Link to this contribution) Well, I heard someone mutter the words ““the election””, but I take this opportunity to put it on th...
Hilary Benn | 464 c854-5 (Link to this contribution) In the Government's response to all of these reports, I accepted the recommendations that were made....
Peter Ainsworth | 464 c854 (Link to this contribution) In that case, when he answers he might like also to deal with the point that DEFRA inspected the sit...
Elfyn Llwyd | 464 c853 (Link to this contribution) Why is it that the Secretary of State's speech on Friday 5 October contained details of compensation...
Hilary Benn | 464 c852-3 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, To leave out from ““House”” to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:"“...
James Paice | 464 c851-2 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman holds fire, I shall come to that. I turn to bluetongue, which hit us in Septe...
Hilary Benn | 464 c864 (Link to this contribution) No. I shall now conclude my remarks as many Members want to speak.
Hilary Benn | 464 c864 (Link to this contribution) I have been generous in giving way, including to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland. The whole...
John Whittingdale | 464 c864-5 (Link to this contribution) On a positive note, I can tell the Secretary of State that the farmer in my constituency who suffere...
Hilary Benn | 464 c865 (Link to this contribution) I am coming to that point directly. Before doing so, I have to inform the House that as a result of ...
Hilary Benn | 464 c865 (Link to this contribution) I know that the hon. Gentleman is affected. I give way.
Hilary Benn | 464 c862 (Link to this contribution) I hear what the hon. Gentleman says, but my Department, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Executiv...
Hilary Benn | 464 c858-9 (Link to this contribution) Under the 1998 order, the responsibility is for the licensor and regulator to specify the outcome th...
Chris Huhne | 464 c869-70 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I merely add to the arguments that we did not hear...
Robert Smith | 464 c887 (Link to this contribution) The important message for those not in a rural area is that this is not just about the jobs on the f...
Tim Farron | 464 c886-7 (Link to this contribution) We are clearly discussing a matter of enormous concern to rural Britain, but it should also be of en...
Hilary Benn | 464 c860 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to both hon. Members.
David Drew | 464 c847 (Link to this contribution) We all know that this is a dreadful situation—as, indeed, a number of other animal disease outbreaks...
David Drew | 464 c856 (Link to this contribution) Unfortunately, some of us have acquired a lot of expertise in drains over the past couple of months....
Chris Huhne | 464 c868 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that intervention, because the truth is that we were discu...
Eric Martlew | 464 c873 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman, like me, was deeply involved in the 2001 situation. Surely the farmer livi...
James Paice | 464 c845-7 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House notes the swift action taken by the Department for Environment, Food ...
Subjects
Inspections Diseases Disease control Foot and mouth disease Livestock Standards Laboratories Bluetongue disease
Link
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