Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-10-13
Topic: Agriculture
Questions: The Secretary of State will be aware that consent has been given for the first horizontal shale gas site at Preston New Road in my constituency. Will she assure me that the Environment Agency will conduct immediate on-the-spot inspections, and that many of them will be unannounced? What powers does the Environment Agency have to close down a site if it finds it to be in breach of regulations?; My constituents and those of my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Amanda Milling) and my right hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire (Gavin Williamson) enjoy the wonderful Cannock Chase, so we were delighted by the Conservative manifesto commitment to plant trees. May we have an update on how many have been planted?; Over the summer, the European Union announced proposals to bring 100 megabits to all EU citizens by 2025. The Tory party talks about 10 megabits but has no plan and no funding. Will the Secretary of State join the Countryside Alliance, the National Farmers Union, the Labour party and millions of frustrated would-be rural digerati in condemning the disgraceful state of rural broadband in our country, and say what she is going to do about it?; The common fisheries policy is among the very worst aspects of our membership of the European Union. Our waters have been invaded by European trawlermen and there has been vast overfishing. What plans do the Government have to repatriate Britain’s territorial fishing waters and revive the great British fishing industry?; In Wales, the common agricultural policy provides £200 million a year, in part to protect the long-term future of the Welsh countryside. Will the Secretary of State or one of her Ministers be meeting representatives of the Welsh Government, including the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, to ensure that EU funding to protect the Welsh environment is replaced pound for pound by the UK Government?; Parts of my constituency were devastated by the Boxing day floods last year, and the council is still struggling to restore the damaged infrastructure. It calculates that even after the £750,000 it has received from the Department for Transport, it faces a £2.6 million shortfall in repairing the damage. Will my right hon. Friend speak with Ministers across Government to see what further help they can provide to speed up the reinstatement process?; Will agriculture and fisheries powers be devolved to the Scottish Parliament after we leave the European Union—or do the Government want to repatriate those powers to Westminster, bypassing the Scottish Parliament?
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an important point. Lots of farmers have been affected by the challenges we face in this first year of the new, more complex common agricultural policy scheme. A number of farmers —several thousand—had to go through a reconciliation process where we had to match some of the land-use codes they had with the land maps, which caused some complexity. I believe that the issue has now been resolved, but if she has any specific cases that are still a problem I am happy to meet her to discuss them.