In the Hotseat: Caroline Spelman
DEFRA secretary Caroline Spelman hasn’t exactly had the easiest ride in office. Johann Tasker tackles her on a range of farming issues
How do you respond to fears that farmers will bear the brunt of a supermarket price war, fuelled by Tesco’s latest £500m cost-cutting exercise?
In the context of food price inflation, supermarkets cutting the price of food would be good news for consumers, but obviously I don’t want to see that at the expense of farmers.
Farmers are facing inflationary input costs – quite a lot of which are related to the rising cost of energy – so it is going to be important that we keep a close eye on how the supermarkets go about cutting prices.
Government plans for a supermarket watchdog seem to be taking longer and longer to become reality. Isn’t there any way you could speed it up a bit?
I assure you I want to see it as soon as possible. The bill has been published and that is important. What we are looking for is a slot in the legislative programme. This is a bill that is sponsored by the Department for Business, not by DEFRA, but I am keeping the pressure on and I would like to see that bill through parliament as soon as possible.
How confident are you that your plans for a badger cull to combat bovine TB in England will become a reality?
I’m reasonably confident because we have gone about the process extremely carefully. We’ve taken our time to make sure that we do this correctly – and take account of all the different points of view – and we’ve listen to all the stakeholders, sometimes more than once as part of being very thorough in the way we approach this process.
You say reasonably confident – does that mean it might not happen?
Reasonably simply reflects the proper process that we need to undertake. It is a process that has to be thorough and I’m just making sure that I do things absolutely correctly.
Farm leaders have voiced concern that some of the conditions attached to the cull are too onerous.
The NFU will have fed in its observations about the practicalities of the proposed method of culling as part of the consultation programme. We will take their concerns into account as we weigh up the responses to the consultation. That’s why I am saying to you that it is very important to take account of all the responses to the consultation and see what can be done to optimise and ensure that we’ve covered all people’s concerns.
What’s your feeling about the recommendation by MPs that more DEFRA staff should have first-hand experience of farm work?
The suggestion for DEFRA officials to have the opportunity to go and experience farming directly is a good one. I know that some officials in the department have already taken advantage of that opportunity.
A number of initiatives and organisations – for example the Campaign for the Farmed Environment and Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) – have made it possible for some of our officials to experience different types of farming.
You’re due to respond to recommendations aimed at reducing red tape in agriculture. Can you tell me what you’ll be implementing?
We are the first member state in the European Union to come up with a comprehensive list of recommendations on how to simplify red tape without compromising the purpose for which it was created.
Early actions which we believe we can proceed with quickly include removing the duplication of animal welfare inspections for livestock farmers, simplifying record-keeping in nitrate vulnerable zones and exempting organic farmers from NVZ requirements.
We also intend to change six-day standstill rules so they no longer apply to animals moving directly between farms, rationalise the allocation of county parish holding numbers and move towards a computerised database for sheep movements.
Are there any recommendations you won’t be implementing?
We want to explore all the recommendations that the red tape task force has made and, where possible, implement them all. But we’ve got to do them sequentially, starting with the ones that are easiest – the quick wins that we can get on with.
You’re phasing out laboratory work at eight veterinary centres – including those involved in the early detection of diseases such as swine fever and bovine TB.
We’ve merged the animal health and veterinary laboratory agencies – they were two of DEFRA’s arm’s-length bodies – and there was a strong case for merging them.
Some of the lessons learned from the foot-and-mouth outbreak were that if you had one coordinating body you would streamline the process. Having made it possible for the two arm’s-length bodies to merge, I think you have to accept that their own management must come forward with suggestions about how best to do that.
The objective is to ensure we have a robust defence against animal disease in this country.
What is your view on suggestions that CAP reform will see farmers required to place 7% of their land under environmental management?
One of the things I want to impress upon the European Commission is that we’ve worked very hard in the UK with environmental measures with our agri-environment schemes and I want those to count – I don’t want any double counting.
It is quite clear that the reformed CAP will be greener, but the commission needs to take into account that UK farmers already do more than any other member state to combine environmental protection with high-quality food production.
All DEFRA ministers have strong rural backgrounds. Is that a help or a hindrance?
It is definitely a help, because agriculture and the countryside is something we live, eat and breathe. I think it is good that this department has ministers with a really good technical understanding of the pressures on the industry.
Hasn’t it made it hard to live up to expectations?
I think we’ve delivered against those expectations. One illustration of that is that farmers have been waiting for a very long time for a decision to be made by the government of the day to tackle the onward march of bovine TB.
We’ve had over a decade of dithering – during which time that disease has marched inexorably up the country, laying waste to thousands of cattle – so I think we have demonstrated our determination to grip difficult issues and make decisions.
Caroline Spelman in a minute
Last book read? One Day by David Nicholls – although I haven’t quite finished it yet. It’s a good read and I’m an avid reader. The last book I completed was The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
Where did you go on holiday? We always go on a family bucket-and-spade holiday to Portugal. We’ve been going for many years.
Your favourite place in the countryside? When I come over the top of the Chilterns on my way home. The countryside opens up over the Aylesbury Plain and I know that I’m halfway home.
Last time on a farm? I’m on a farm more or less every other week. The last time was Friday afternoon. It was not so much to talk about agriculture; I was seeing a local farmer in my constituency about a planning issue.
Facebook or Twitter? I don’t do either – I think I’ve learned the hard way as a politician that you need to be careful about what you say in public. But I’ve three teenagers who make up for it, certainly sharing with me their panorama of Facebook photos.