HL Deb 26 July 1984 vol 455 cc520-1WA
Viscount Montgomery of Alamein

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What steps they propose to take to draw the attention of the farming community and local authorities to the need to reduce to a minimum problems arising from straw and stubble burning during this year's cereal harvest.

Lord Belstead

I am very conscious of the wide-spread concern that was expressed in many quarters about the effects of straw burning last year. The Government have acted to strengthen the controls that operate in this area. My right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announced on 20th March the issue by the Home Office of revised and strengthened model by-laws which had been prepared in consultation with my department. It is for local authorities in the areas concerned to adopt the revised model by-laws. Uptake has been encouraging, and now covers most of the main cereal growing areas. My department has also co-operated with the National Farmers' Union in revision of their Straw and Stubble Burning Code to accord with the new by-laws, and has arranged for copies of the code to be sent to all cereal growers. In addition to controls over the burning of straw and stubble, attention has been given to alternative uses and means of disposing of surplus straw. A revised version of an ADAS advisory booklet on Straw Use and Disposal has been published. A group of industrialists, research workers and farmers, has been meeting with the advisory staff of my department under my chairmanship to review the scope for development of alternative uses for straw. Their report will be published shortly, and a copy will be placed in the Library of the House.

My department will now be mounting an extensive publicity campaign starting at the beginning of August, immediately before the start of the main period for straw burning. It will make use of all the media including radio and television. I believe that this, together with the publicity which has already been given to the new model by-laws, the NFU code, and the training material recently issued by the Agricultural Training Board should help to reduce problems to a minimum, provided farmers strictly observe the new code and the by-laws where these have been introduced by local authorities.