Food Security

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way to me a second time. One of his examples was the NVZ—nitrate vulnerable zone—regulations. Is he aware that the cost of gold-plating is met on the ground, when farmers have to go to the expense of digging their pits and fencing them to ensure that they are not a danger—even though someone falling in would be trespassing on their land? The real issue is seen in my constituency, where the river Weaver has for the last 12 years recorded reduced nitrate levels in the water from the natural fall-off, yet the farmers have to meet this enormous expense for a nitrate problem that does not exist.