§ Mr. PageTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to make compensation available to egg producers in respect of the capital cost of converting from egg production in cage systems to egg production in non-cage systems. [70334]
§ Mr. MorleyThe EC CAP regime for this sector is a light one and no grants are currently available as these would contravene existing rules on state aids. Any compensation would need to be laid down by measures that apply fairly across the EU. The long implementation times for the regulations mean that the industry has a lengthy period over which to write off the required capital investment.