Speeches by Roca.

“The Class A offer involves an incentive scheme for executives that could be worth up to £1 million for yourself, I suggest, Chris. Is that correct?”

“But urgency will have worsened the conditions that you will have got from lenders, will it not?”

“We had very strong representations from the Fresh Produce Consortium and others. They said that they did not feel that they had enough notice to prepare for the new checks, and they were concerned that a lot of the trade, particularly European trade, is between small businesses that have not been involved in border pro…”

“That might be a rich vein of work to work with the LGA on. In one of our stakeholder surveys for this inquiry, the FSA used quite strong language. It said, “A lack of new entrants in the pipeline and declining options for education and training are threatening the future security of our food system”. It is a real issue…”

“My questions lead very well on from those questions, which are around trading fresh produce. I wonder whether you could just confirm what the situation is with the easement of import checks on medium-risk fruit and vegetables, which expires on 1 July. The sector and trade told us that they did not feel they had clarity…”

“We are going ahead in July.”

“Is your view that business and trade is ready for the implementation of these checks?”

“There has obviously been a lot of talk of a self‑regulation model in this area as well. Is this something that potentially the Department might consider, so an alternative approach for fresh produce, such as an authorised operator status and the use of control points?”

“How much trade will be affected come 1 July? Do you know? We have an overall figure of 3.5 million tonnes of fresh produce from Europe, but I presume most of that falls into the low-risk category, like you say.”

“I agree with the confidence point. Is trade right, though, when they have told us that border control posts are already at capacity, and that they are worried about BCPs meeting the additional demand that will now be created post July?”

“Can I suggest that there is more work to be done with the sector? As we heard on 25 March, which is not that long ago, being here on 6 May, they did not feel confidence in knowing what they had to do, and as to what will happen and when. That is something the Department could look at quite urgently, with this deadline …”

“We have had a hint at European negotiations. Is that what “wider circumstances” mean?”

“Minister, it is good to see you. There is a big role for inland local authorities. We know about the pressure that local authorities have been operating under financially, et cetera. They have a crucial role in terms of public health and biosecurity. What is your assessment of the demand on them at the moment in the pr…”

“I might turn to intelligence and sharing with local authorities in a moment, but are you seeing any trends in particular with inland seizures?”

“We have talked about the importance of intelligence sharing. At the moment, local authorities do not have real-time access to IPAFFS, do they?”

“But inland authorities do not at the moment.”

“Is that something that you might look at as a Department?”

“Are inland local authorities getting the same access to intelligence that the port health authorities are getting?”

“The NFU made the point before Christmas that the publication of data is really important in this space to build confidence and understanding of what is being seized, where and in what numbers, so that people can build a picture.”

“Is an assessment of what local authorities need in terms of intelligence something that you are working on as a Department?”