HC Deb 29 February 1996 vol 272 cc986-7
5. Mr. Peter Ainsworth

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress he has made recently in allocating money under the environmentally sensitive areas scheme. [16101]

The Minister for Rural Affairs (Mr. Tim Boswell)

Payment in English ESAs will total £30.5 million this year.

Mr. Ainsworth

Does my hon. Friend agree that, in an age of food production surpluses, there is very little logic behind continuing to pay farming subsidies other than those related to environmental protection? I congratulate my hon. Friend on the fact that, during a very tight public spending round, he has managed to find another £5 million over two years for countryside stewardship schemes. Is that not a clear example of the Government's determination to protect and enhance our green and pleasant land?

Mr. Boswell

I am grateful for my hon. Friend's comments. We certainly wish to emphasise increasingly the environmental role in public support for agriculture. The environmentally sensitive areas scheme was wholly devised and brought into effect under the present Administration, and we are already beginning to see its benefits.

Mr. Ainger

Is the Minister aware that approximately half my constituency has been designated an environmentally sensitive area but that, because of the disaster caused by the massive spillage of 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes of oil from the Sea Empress, fishery products from my constituency are basically—sometimes literally—blacked? The National Farmers Union, hundreds of constituents of mine and many other Members and organisations, including fishery and farming organisations throughout the country, are demanding an independent inquiry into the disaster. Will he join them and try to persuade his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport that an internal inquiry carried out by his Department is totally unacceptable and will not carry the confidence of my constituents or anyone else? Will he urge the Secretary of State to accept that if the report is to have any credibility, it must be independent and, ideally, controlled by Lord Donaldson, who conducted the excellent inquiry into the Braer disaster?

Mr. Boswell

I am very sorry about the position in which the hon. Gentleman's constituents find themselves. The environmentally sensitive areas regime to which he referred is terrestrial, but that in no sense takes away the problems that apply to his fishermen, who are of course now excluded from a certain fishing zone. My hon. Friends and I are very concerned, and I shall convey the thrust of the hon. Gentleman's interest in an independent inquiry to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport.

Mr. Ian Bruce

My hon. Friend will know that, during a tight settlement by the Government this year, £5 million extra has been put into the countryside stewardship scheme. I congratulate my hon. Friend on that. Does he agree that the best friend of the countryside is our farming community? It takes a responsible view of what it is doing—despite the sort of criticism that we constantly hear, especially from the animal rights lobby, who sponsor even Labour Front-Bench spokesmen, to the tune of £15,000, which explains why we hear such daft, mad policies from Labour.

Mr. Boswell

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for pointing out that we are providing an additional £5 million for countryside stewardship for the year that begins in April, and a further £5 million for the following year. That is because, like my hon. Friend, we believe that farmers are the best custodians of the countryside and should have every practicable incentive to carry out that task. We firmly reject the philosophy based on control, regulation and interference that characterises Opposition policies.