Animal Welfare

I agree. When DEFRA is seeking cuts and reallocating resources, it tends to concentrate too heavily on rural payments—a point that I shall refer to later. I was considering how the ERDP measures up against other RDPs. With devolution, probably more than 50 RDPs will be drawn up in the EU. Most are still in consultation, but some have been announced and show how innovation can help. The Scottish RDP has three budget lines for encouraging animal welfare, including membership of an assurance scheme, completing a veterinary health plan and training. The response to those measures has been extremely positive, and they form the second most popular of all incentives given under the development plan. The existing Welsh RDP has animal welfare measures such as payments to reduce stocking levels, membership of an assurance scheme, improving knowledge of animal welfare through training and investing through the farm improvement grant to improve welfare standards in holdings. Finally, it has measures to improve the marketing of farm products that adhere to minimum animal welfare standards. The consultation on the Welsh RDP highlights the animal welfare pyramid scheme and the intention to give incentives to farmers who enter into agreements committing to higher welfare standards than the baseline ones under agri-environmental schemes. Finally, to deal with our third fellow country, the Northern Ireland draft plan has three measures for animal welfare, including marketing and processing grants and grants to change over to higher standards of animal welfare. In Germany, the RDP provides intensive grants for investment costs in nine sectors: laying hens, turkeys, pigs, beef and dairy cattle, broilers, suckler cows, goats and sheep—this sounds like a farming report—providing that higher welfare standards are met. Those standards include not exceeding stocking densities of 25 kg per square metre for broiler chickens, as opposed to the proposed 38 kg per square metre under the draft directive. Another example is Austria, which recently submitted its RDP for agreement with the Commission and highlighted a number of ways to promote innovation and the marketing of higher welfare products. As a final exemplar, the RDP budget in France has rewarded farmers who have produced a higher welfare standard. The animal welfare measures that have been used have again included reducing stocking density, enlarging pig stalls, reducing live transport times and giving access to green pastures. Incidentally, all those measures have proved successful and—this is an important characteristic—cross over into promoting French produce. I feel that the ERDP as drafted is unimaginative in comparison with many others in Europe and the UK, and that it risks putting English farmers at a competitive disadvantage. We would expect the draft ERDP to align closely with DEFRA strategy, would we not? So let us just see whether it does. One of the measures in the DEFRA animal welfare strategy is higher animal welfare incentives. The strategic policy driver is the sustainable food strategy PSA 9. What action is mentioned in the ERDP? None. The second of the four measures is a more competitive farming sector, as set out in the sustainable food strategy PSA 5. How much reference is there in the ERDP? None. The third of the four measures is sustainable farming, including animal health and welfare, which is again a DEFRA strategic priority, addressed in PSA 5. What reference is made in the ERDP? None. Fourthly, encouraging innovative approaches to farming, such as knowledge transfer, skills training and so on is part of the UK sustainable development strategy, in article 201. What ERDP action is there? Not none, but it is unclear whether any will be animal welfare specific. The ERDP as drafted is a poor match with the strategic drivers for animal welfare policy. What other drivers are there? The ERDP has no measures for supporting animal welfare, yet there are many other drivers for improved standards that have economic implications for farmers. Many directives have started to phase out certain intensive methods of farming, such as 1999/74 and 2001/88, which phase out the battery cage system and sow stall respectively, and directive 1997/2, whose prohibition of the veal crate system is finally fully operational in member states. Itis important that we measure and ensure cost-effectiveness. All those changes have economic implications for farmers. They have all been costed, but the legislative drivers are currently missing from the consultation. I conclude with the tightness of the budget, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) referred. For the ERDP, the provisional figures show that £1.48 billion of payments are committed for 2007-13, and that £1.8 billion is available. There is therefore still some scope, despite a cut of 22 per cent. for the pillar 2 budget, as announced and agreed in December 2005, which means that some €19 billion will not be available. There is a tight budget, but there are still some incentives that have win-win consequences for more than one issue, and which deliver measurable goals against the national agricultural strategy. There is no section in the ERDP that shows howthe measures will have more than one positive consequence. I fear that no imaginative thinking has gone into establishing how that could occur. Naturally, any policy suggestions must be carefully costed if they are to be proposed as effective measures. The RSPCA has provided costed figures for four measures that have been proposed as indices for inclusion in the ERDP. I will only list those indices, and not indicate the nature of the costings. They are as follows: first, the animal health plan; secondly, training for stockmanship; thirdly, conversion of slatted floors to solid; and fourthly, improved forage for pigs. So there are clear economic data on which to base policy. Do the public care? EU citizens regard animal welfare as an important part of rural development responsibilities. A recent survey showed that 88 per cent. of the public regard animal welfare as a priority issue of funding for RDPs. In the UK, protecting animal welfare was seen as the most important issue for the public under the RDP. Farmers also want the measures. They are not being dragged into this unwillingly. The review of the Welsh RDP scheme, Tir Mynydd, found that schemes concerning two of the three animal welfare objectives—stocking density and assurance—had the highest numbers of uptake of the seven options available. That is a small example to show that farmers are seeking such measures, and will warmly sign up to them. What will the Minister say in a moment or two? Of course, he might now be tempted to say, ““Well sit down and let me say it.”” He will probably argue that England already has excellent standards of animal welfare—I have not seen his civil service brief lying on a photocopier on an upper floor—and that further improvements will be delivered by the market. He may claim that English farmers already exceed EU baseline standards. In anticipation of those remarks, I ask him to address three key points. First, I ask the Minister, who has a highly urban seat—I know that he will get out a lot from now on—what is the evidence that farmers exceed baseline standards? Secondly, does he agree that there is a significant risk that the ERDP as drafted will disadvantage English farmers? Finally, does he agree that it is important that policy should continue to develop under his stewardship, with his talents, perception and energy, to demonstrate a commitment to higher welfare standards to join the pantheon of successes that we have proudly witnessed under this Government in the past nine years?