Speeches by Zeichner.

“There is unhappiness, clearly, within the agricultural sector about the way they are sometimes treated. But I would not want to characterise the food system as being anything other than actually, overall, successful. We do have a successful food system in this country. I am trying to choose my words carefully here beca…”

“Yes.”

“I understand, and I might actually pass over to one of my colleagues here who is more engaged in the detail of how the scheme is administered.”

“I think you will find there have been a lot of debates in this place.”

“I totally understand people’s frustration with this, and believe you me, I share the frustration too, because we basically inherited a scheme that did not have a mechanism for resolving and prioritising.”

“The assessment the Treasury did is detailed in a letter that the Chancellor published to the Treasure Select Committee. I have not seen any evidence to suggest that those figures have changed since then.”

“I understand that, but in the meantime, remember, there are tens of thousands of farmers who are benefiting from these schemes, and we are getting the environmental benefits that they are purchasing. This is a huge change. I do not underestimate how difficult change is. This is a very big transition from one system to …”

“I do not agree that that puts food security at risk, but I do agree that, for individuals, it can be really, really hard. I am totally sympathetic to that, but it is important to stand back and look at the system as a whole, which is what the food security report looks at. I cannot quite remember the terminology from t…”

“My understanding from the previous Government’s approach is that it has never been fixed. It goes right back to the passage of the Agriculture Act, when we discussed in some detail in these Committee Rooms the tier 1 level agreements, which are effectively the SFI, the nature recovery element and the landscape recovery…”

“Again, I am going to seek expert advice on that one.”

“I have not had any communication so far.”

“As I say, Chair, I believe we have robust supply chains, and I encourage people to have a reasoned dialogue, very much as we have had this morning, about the way forward for the future. The overwhelming message should be that this is a really important sector all the way through the food chain. It does a magnificent jo…”

“Thank you for inviting us this morning. I am Daniel Zeichner. I am the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs.”

“As always with data, you need to understand the context it is within.”

“It does not tell the whole story, because we are working, as I say, within the legislative framework that was agreed by Parliament under the Fisheries Act. Our task is to make those judgments.”

“It absolutely does, but it shows the complexity of the decisions that are being made. As a Minister, I can only follow the scientific advice we are being given.”

“May I look to you for that one, Mike?”

“Well, the French will say what they will say, but we are aptly determined to stand up for the interests of the UK fishing industry.”

“Underspend in that sense is a slightly movable feast. The overall amount—the £5 billion for the two years—is what we are dealing with. As I say, we pushed as much money out to SFI as we could. We could have shut the scheme much earlier, but we chose not to because we were pleased that people were taking the scheme up, …”

“That will depend on the spending review, which is why we are constrained to some extent about what we can say about the future. We will know more about that in July.”