HC Deb 24 January 2001 vol 361 cc596-7W
Mr. Curry

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he will take to ensure that farmers whose land has been affected by flooding meet the requirements of the IACS regulations. [144884]

Ms Quin

[holding answer 15 January 2001]In addition to the measures announced by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary on 7 November, we have been evaluating with fanning organisations here and with the European Commission in Brussels the extent to which further flexibility may be needed in applying certain CAP scheme rules.

The EU' s Cereals Management Committee has approved a derogation from Article 19(3) of Commission Regulation 2316/1999 to extend the latest date for harvesting crops from land to be set aside in 2001 from 15 January to 28 February, with a further extension to 31 March in the specific cases of sugar beet and potatoes.

We have also put to the Commission proposed changes to our national implementing rules for the Arable Area Payments Scheme (AAPS) designed to allow farmers on whose land winter crops have either been lost, or could simply not be planted, the option of trying to establish spring sown crops after 15 January, retaining the possibility of entering such land into set-aside up to the 15 May IACS claim deadline if the attempts prove unsuccessful. Similarly we are proposing to treat flood damaged winter crops which are either ploughed in or otherwise destroyed by 15 May as meeting our green cover requirements for entry into set-aside if no other crop is feasible. We will be making further detailed announcements about this in the light of the Commission's response.

We will be exercising our national discretion under Council Regulation 1251/1999 to extend the relevant latest sowing dates from 15 May to 31 May 2001 and will keep open the possibility of seeking extensions if necessary.

We have also requested that all farmers who consider their cropping plans to have been affected by the recent extreme weather conditions should let their local MAFF Regional Service Centre have details of the circumstances so that these are on record when subsequent area payment claims come to be assessed.

The position on other IACS schemes remains under review.