Animal Welfare

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor) on securing this debate, which is timely given the end of the consultation and the importance of animal welfare to the Government and all hon. Members present. I am encouraged that our consultation on the priorities for the next rural development programme in England, which closed on Monday, has provoked a debate about the best way to use the funding available to tackle the challenges facing rural communities in England. In addition to the feedback that we have received from regional events during the consultation, I understand that at the last count we had received about 150 written submissions. Of course, we will carefully analyse those responses, and we will make our decision on the priorities for the next programme in the light of the comments received and my hon. Friend’s remarks today. In the consultation, we set out a number of key principles for the use of rural development funding. What I want to get across today is that one of the most important of those principles is that programme funding should demonstrably add value. I am sure that the budget available for the next programme will be limited, as budgets always are, so we must be aware of the need to spend money where it will have maximum impact. We are still not clear exactly how much will be allocated to the UK, and we have yet to take decisions on what use to make of voluntary modulation and associated match funding. My hon. Friends the Members for North-West Leicestershire and for Stroud (Mr. Drew) both asked about the December budget. I have received the RSPCA briefing on that issue, which I know other hon. Members have also received, but it does not take into account the fact that the budget is to be supplemented by compulsory modulation and the EU budget for rural development in the EU15. Because of that supplement, which must be co-financed by member states, we expect that the amount of EU funding available for the next RDP in England will be slightly higher than for current programmes. I want to correct any misunderstanding on that situation, because the briefing was perhaps misleading in that respect, although not intentionally, I am sure. The key point to stress is that we acknowledge that December was the occasion for cutting a deal and, as my hon. Friend suggested, whenever a deal is cut there are compromises to be made, but we must not lose sight of the great victory that we won then: the review of the common agricultural policy in 2008 and all that that will mean for the pattern of spending in rural communities that we have piloted. We are establishing the approach and we are at the forefront in Europe in trying to pull money away from pillar one and into pillar two precisely on the areas of spending that we have all said are so important. As my hon. Friends have highlighted, the framework for the next programme—the rural development regulation—is broadly drawn, allowing for a wide range of activities. That flexibility recognises that rural development needs vary across the EU. New member states may need to focus the available funding on achieving basic community standards, including those on animal welfare, but that may not represent the best value for money in other member states. I take up the challenge that my hon. Friend laid down in his three final points. I am happy to write to him on the first point: what evidence there is that farmers exceed baseline compulsory legal minimum standards of animal welfare in England. In my discussions with ministerial colleagues in the Department who have responsibility specifically for animal welfare, I was assured that they are confident that many farmers in England achieve higher—in some cases substantially higher—standards of animal welfare.