§ 7. Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge)What assessment he has made of the operation of the regulatory framework in respect of pesticides use in the United Kingdom. [93391]
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Ms Joyce Quin)Pesticides are strictly regulated in this country under national and EU rules. The EU regime for plant protection products is intended to replace national rules but has made slow progress. However, we consider our national regime sufficiently strong to protect public health and the environment until the EU system is fully up and running.
§ Mrs. CampbellI welcome my right hon. Friend to her new responsibilities on the Front Bench, and I invite her to agree that genetic modification of crops offers a huge potential for a reduction in the use of pesticides in agricultural crops. Does she further agree that, for that reason if for no other, it is important that we resist the demands that are coming forward for the abandonment of genetically modified field trials?
§ Ms QuinAs my hon. Friend knows, we believe that the field trials are important and should be proceeded with. I have recently looked at some of the past year's debates in Hansard. We have had a good debate on these issues here, but often in the press there has been a great 563 deal of scaremongering and inaccurate reporting, which does none of us, and in particular the British public, a service.
I also agree with my hon. Friend that we need to consider evidence on the potential reduction in the use of pesticides. Information reveals examples of a significant reduction in pesticide use, and it is obviously important to encourage the development of technology that helps to reduce the use of pesticides generally by much better targeting and through the use of much more sophisticated equipment.
§ Mr. James Paice (South-East Cambridgeshire)On behalf of the official Opposition, I welcome the right hon. Lady to her new role in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food—we are pleased to see her. I also welcome the statement, which her right hon. Friend the Minister repeated last night, that the Ministry is opposed to a pesticides tax. We all welcome and support that position, but will she explain to us and to British farmers why the same arable and livestock pesticides are up to 30 per cent. cheaper in Europe than in this country? British farmers are being penalised by unfair competition because British regulations prevent them from importing those same pesticides to replace the more expensive ones available in this country.
§ Ms QuinThe regulations to which the hon. Gentleman refers were in force under the Conservative Government. I have described how we are taking those regulations forward at national and European level, although it is important to look at the cost structure in such issues—and we are doing so at present.