Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215064721
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 166
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Against a background where farm incomes are falling, the Government needs to recognise that cutting payments to England's farmers will reduce their ability to compete in the marketplace, will leave farmers less able to invest in vital infrastructure and may make them more vulnerable to shocks such as poor weather, higher input costs and price variations. The Committee also warns against plans to transfer more money away from direct payments to farmers by shifting it towards environmental schemes. It recommends that the Government maintains the current 9% rate of transfer away from the direct payment budget. This rate of transfer should rise to 15% in 2017 only if it can demonstrate that additional funds are required and that this change will deliver a clear benefit. Money should also only go to people who actually farm the land and meet an 'active farmer test'. From 2015, 30% of the direct payment will be conditional on farmers achieving basic environmental measures. A National Certification Scheme approach to 'greening' does not offer the flexibility to avoid the Commission's impractical crop diversification rule so the Government is right to dismiss this approach. A new, single IT system is being developed, and the Government want access to CAP funding to be 'digital by default', meaning farmers will have to apply online. A lot went wrong in the last round of changes, and these problems gave rise to £580 million in penalties. Does it make sense to introduce a new computer system at the same time as complex new payment rules?
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215066008
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 40
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The Committee has examined the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) annual report and accounts for 2012-13 (HC 40, session 2013-14, ISBN 9780102985672). Defra is one of the smallest of Government Departments but it has faced among the most substantial budget cuts, which are set to continue up to 2016. Defra relies on a large number of arms length bodies to deliver many significant areas of policy. Ministers must clarify how further budgets cuts of over £300 million over the coming 2 years will impact on the funding provided to these agencies and the ability of the Department to respond to emergencies, exemplified by the flooding over Christmas and the New Year. Among the most significant challenges facing the Department in the next 12 months is implementation of the new Common Agricultural Policy, and there are risks that the introduction of a new digital system for delivering payments to farms will cause problems for those farmers who do not have access to rural broadband. The Committee found that the results of the Defra staff survey revealed an increased lack of confidence in the management and leadership of the Department, issues which must be addressed. Further challenges facing Defra in the coming year include policy relating to bovine TB and badger culling, its proposals on biodiversity offsetting, the introduction of plastic bag charging, and examining the role and potential of GM technology in food production.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215065797
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 28
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Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215081420
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 36
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The Department's total expenditure for 2013-14 was £6.252 billion, taking into account both its activities funded directly by Parliament and grants made following the receipt of money from the European Union, predominantly to fund agricultural subsidies and rural development schemes. The Government budget allocated to and spent by Defra is known as the Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) and it is set at Spending Reviews. The Department has underspent its central Government funding allocation each year since the 2010 Spending Review. In 2013-4, Defra spent £2,433 million of its DEL to meet its strategic objectives which resulted in a £61 million (2 per cent) underspend compared to its budget. The Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2013-4 state that the £50 million underspend against resource DEL was due to the following factors: (a) £30 million was not spent as the UK Government challenged EU disallowance penalties on 2010 and 2011 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) scheme expenditure; and; (b) £20 million was intentional underspend following approval from HM Treasury to carry the funding into 2014-15 to spend on flood prevention
Author: Carsten Daugbjerg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351118285
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241
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Book Description
Western democratic welfare states often featured sectoral governance arrangements where governments negotiated policy with sectoral elites, based on shared ideas and exclusive institutional arrangements. Food and agriculture policy is widely considered an extreme case of compartmentalized and ‘exceptionalist’ policy-making, where sector-specific policy ideas and institutions provide privileged access for sectoral interest groups and generate policies that benefit their members. In the last two decades, policy exceptionalism has been under pressure from internationalization of policy-making, increasing interlinkage of policy areas and trends towards self-regulation, liberalization and performance-based policies. This book introduces the concept of ‘post-exceptionalism’ to characterize an incomplete transformation of exceptionalist policies and politics which preserves significant exceptionalist features. Post-exceptional constellations of ideas, institutions, interests and policies can be complementary and stable, or tense and unstable. Food and agriculture policy serves as an example to illustrate an incomplete transformation towards a more open, contested and networked politics. Chapters on agricultural policy-making in the European Union and the United States, the politics of food in Germany and the United Kingdom, transnational organic standard setting and global food security debates demonstrate how ‘postexceptionalism’ helps to understand the co-existence of transformation and path dependency in contemporary public policies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy.
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215084462
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 41
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Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215078322
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 44
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The Government must act to increase recycling rates across England by 2020. It also needs to be ensured that only genuinely residual waste is sent to energy-from-waste plants and to do more to encourage the use of heat outputs from such facilities to improve the overall energy efficiency of this waste management method. Defra 'stepped back' from waste management at a time when we need both a more ambitious approach to waste management and stronger Government leadership to drive up static recycling rates in England and make better use of energy recovery options such as local heating for homes. Ministers must now show that waste policy remains an important priority. On a household level there is too much confusion about what can or can't be recycled - and very little confidence in the process. Communication must improve and be tailored to local circumstances by local authorities, but Defra should provide support at a national level - particularly in relation to common issues and problems. The Committee calls for clear guidance from Defra on how much waste treatment capacity is needed in England to gain an optimal balance between the export of refuse-derived fuel and local treatment. MPs support the use of anaerobic digestion for processing waste, but not for use with purpose-grown crops. More work is also needed to address the issues surrounding separate food waste collections. MPs also call on the Government take action to curb the frequent occurrence of fires at waste management sites
Author: Joseph A. McMahon
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1781954623
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 609
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Book Description
Following the conclusion of the latest round of reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2013, the Research Handbook on EU Agriculture Law provides an up-to-date discussion of these reforms and the changing landscape in which the CAP now operates. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, and with international contributors from across Europe and the United States, the Handbook commences with analyses of the legal instruments which implement the reformed CAP, before moving on to consider questions of land use, the role of agriculture within the wider food chain and the international dimension. In these contexts, particular issues identified include: the environmental impact of past, present and future farming practices; the ability of the food chain to accommodate consumer preferences and scientific innovation; and the hurdles to be cleared before international consensus can be reached on a whole range of agricultural imperatives. As well as providing a state-of-the-art point of reference for academics, this comprehensive book will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers dealing with these new challenges faced by agriculture in the EU.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 021507288X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 44
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Urgent action is required to establish the numbers of primates kept in captivity by private individuals across the UK and to improve their welfare. Little is known about the types and numbers of primates being kept or traded by private individuals in the UK and about the manner in which they are being kept. A ban is not ruled out, but such a step must be based on solid evidence and cannot be imposed before every opportunity to improve the operation of our existing framework has been exhausted. Defra should commission independent research to establish the extent of the problems in this area and to report with a plan of action within six months of receiving the research results. The Government must ensure that standards for primates kept in private match those required in zoos. The quality of care that these animals enjoy should be the same whether they are kept in a circus, a pet shop, a private home or a zoo. If the Committee's suggested changes prove insufficient and the evidence for doing so proves compelling, then a ban on the trade and keeping of privately kept primates should remain an option for the future. The report also calls for the Government to: ensure that legislation governing pet sales is fit for the internet age; boost public awareness of existing regulatory controls and guidance; increase the utility and efficacy of the Primate Code; expedite the publication of guidance to local authorities on the Dangerous Wild Animals Act.
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215081072
Category : Food supply
Languages : en
Pages : 40
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Book Description
The myriad choices millions of people make every day over what food to buy and from where to buy it shape the nation's food production and supply systems. It is essential to harness these decisions to support the public policy goal of enabling all to access healthy and affordable food. Both supply and demand issues must be managed if a growing world population is to be fed at a time when environmental impacts, including those of climate change, are constraining food production. In this report the Committee make recommendations on managing consumer demand, such as by encouraging the purchase of sustainably sourced products or the most nutritious food in order to help to deliver environmental and health goals.
