Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Mr. Speaker, thank you for pulling me up. I commend the book to the House as a damning record of MAFF under the Conservative Government. I contrast that book with the 2007 DEFRA national statistics book ““The Environment in your Pocket””, which is produced by independent statisticians—the very civil servants whom Conservative Members have condemned tonight. On every page, there is a record of success. Recycling in 1996-97 is compared with that in 2007, and it has increased from 51 to 88 per cent. Glass recycling has increased from 47 to 80 per cent. The recycling of tins and cans has increased from 34 to 68 per cent. Let us turn over the page to consider the impact of our climate change policy. Despite the Opposition's warnings, we are one of the few countries in the world that is on target to fulfil its Kyoto objectives. That is hardly the action of a Department that is unfit for purpose, as the Opposition claim. Other pages cover the wider environment, such as coastal and marine waters, which sustain our fish. In 1996, only 5 per cent. of fishing stocks were sustainably harvested. The figure has increased sevenfold under the Department's successful policies. On every page—