Chapter 16
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (including the Intervention Board and Forestry Commission)
The Government is committed to protecting public health, to sustainable development and aiding agricultural restructuring and reform, and to delivering service modernisation by:
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16.1 MAFF plays a key role in facilitating the development of modern, sustainable and competitive farming and fisheries businesses which can successfully adapt to change, and in achieving reform of the CAP which gives a better deal to consumers and taxpayers, while paying regard to the needs of the environment. The Department also fosters the protection of the rural and marine environments and promotes thriving rural economies and communities. Responsibility for food safety transferred to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on 1 April 2000, but MAFF continues to have an important role in ensuring that there is good quality, safe food which meets consumers' requirements.
16.2 In March last year, reforms of the CAP were agreed as part of the Agenda 2000 reform package. A reduction in price support for cereals, beef and dairy products over a period was agreed, with farmers partially compensated through increases in direct payments. The Agenda 2000 Rural Development Regulation (RDR) was introduced, integrating structural and rural development and agri-environment instruments, together with horizontal rules allowing the modulation or reduction of direct payments. These reforms will produce overall benefits of £100 million in 2001 rising to £250 million in 2005 in the UK. The seven-year England Rural Development Plan (ERDP) for implementing the RDR in England was submitted to the European Commission for approval early this year.
16.3 By the end of 1999-2000 a greater area of farmland than ever before was being enhanced and protected by the Environmentally Sensitive Areas and Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) and approved for conversion to organic farming.
Investing to improve quality of life
Box 16.1: Key PSA targets - Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
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16.4 In the next three years, the Government will deliver substantive reforms which will protect public health, serve the wider interests of the public, and help the agriculture industry to modernise. MAFF, working with DETR, will meet key targets to improve public enjoyment of countryside and rural life.
Rural development
16.5 The Government will fulfil its commitment in the ERDP to introduce a significant programme of measures to implement the rural aspects of the CAP under the Agenda 2000 RDR.
16.6 The Government will spend over £600 million in total in the next three years as envisaged by the ERDP to deliver environmental and economic outputs. This will allow more conversion to organic production, an increase in the area protected and enhanced under the CSS, more for marketing and training and help for projects under the Rural Enterprise Scheme. The Government will also carry forward measures announced earlier this year as part of its Action Plan for Farming.1 The Government's scheme to encourage the restructuring of the pig industry to help its long-term viability will continue for another two years. Business advice for farmers will be provided through the Farm Business Consultancy scheme.
16.7 There will be a shift away from production-related payments to farmers to measures which will aid industry restructuring and diversification, and benefit rural economies and the environment. Direct payments will be modulated (or reduced) from 2001-02 initially at a rate of 2.5 per cent. Every pound resulting from modulation will be recycled into co-financed rural measures - up to amounts envisaged under the ERDP - and matched by domestic money.
Modernising administration and reforming the CAP
16.8 The Government will set up a new CAP Payments Agency (CAPPA) which will bring together the CAP payments functions of MAFF and the Intervention Board. This project will make a major contribution to the Modernising Government programme, delivering significant benefits to farmers and traders and savings for taxpayers. By March 2004, CAPPA will have 95 per cent electronic service delivery capability. The more rapid and efficient processing of payments will offer the farmers and traders who receive them real economic benefits. In parallel MAFF will restructure its regional organisation to enhance its contribution to regional policy-making and to facilitate effective implementation of the ERDP.
16.9 Agriculture receives more support than any other industry and the Government will work with its European Union partners to secure agreement by March 2004 to reforms which reduce the cost of the CAP to consumers and taxpayers.
Protecting public health and the environment
16.10 The protection of public and animal health continues to be a top priority. MAFF will continue its work on the eradication of BSE and testing for cattle tuberculosis (TB). The annual incidence of BSE is set to fall to below 650 cases by 2001, with MAFF on track by 2004 for fewer than 30 cases by 2006. Additional funding will be provided for more testing of cattle for TB and associated compensation.
16.11 MAFF will introduce a ram genotyping programme as a precautionary measure aimed at the long term eradication of scrapie. This work will run in parallel with a new testing and control programme, the Department's ongoing programme of scrapie controls and research work on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) in sheep.
16.12 There will be investment in new and improved scientific facilities at MAFF's Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) which will contribute to MAFF's work on research on TSEs in sheep and research, diagnosis and surveillance for other major animal diseases, including those transmissible to humans.
16.13 MAFF will complete the procurement of a new marine research vessel which will be used by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture (CEFAS) to contribute to the Government's objectives on fisheries and the environment through the delivery of annual fishing and environmental monitoring surveys and research voyages. These voyages will provide better information about the state of commercial fish stocks and the presence of chemical and biological contaminants in the seas around the UK, and results which should provide a better scientific basis for fisheries management and actions to protect the marine environment.
16.14 The spending plans provide for an increase in grants to local flood and coastal defence operating authorities to replace existing defences. An in-depth review of the current arrangements for the funding of flood and coastal defences will be completed in 2001.
Forestry Commission
16.15 The welfare of farmed animals will be improved through a 5 per cent reduction in the time taken to clear up cases of poor welfare by March 2004.
16.16 The provision available to the Forestry Commission for its England and core Great Britain functions will be increased to assist sustainable forest management, community forests, new woods in priority areas and restoration of native woodland, as well as to reflect the loss of income associated with reductions in timber prices.
Spending plans
16.17 The 6.3 per cent annual average real terms increase in spending on MAFF and the Intervention Board is shown in Table 16.1 below. This reflects the Government's determination to protect public health, modernise service delivery and radically redirect agricultural spending to aid industry restructuring and to serve the wider interests of the public, the environment and the rural economy.
Table 16.1: Key figures
| £ million | ||||
| 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | |
| MAFF (Domestic Programme) | 804 | 963 | 1049 | 1081 |
| Intervention Board | 179 | 222 | 201 | 189 |
| Total* | 983 | 1185 | 1250 | 1270 |
| of which: Resource Budget | 813 | 997 | 992 | 1030 |
| Capital Budget | 170 | 188 | 258 | 240 |
| Forestry Commission** | 59 | 73 | 78 | 78 |