Clause 5 - Acquisition of information etc.
Finance Bill
5:30 pm
Mr Michael Jack (Fylde, Conservative)
The point that I made earlier, to which Cargill referred, was that going back to 1998 and 1999 planting levels of 543,000 hectares brings us, if my memory serves me correctly, within the envelope allowed by the controls in the common agricultural policy on the overall planting levels of oilseed rape.
I appreciate that there are different regional planting amounts, but I do not want to get too entrapped in a discussion of agricultural policy when the major focus of my remarks is the inducement to invest in capacity and to take advantage of what the UK agricultural sector clearly could produce—enough rapeseed oil to meet immediate demand. I do not think that Cargill is saying in any way that there is a shortage, although the hon. Gentleman rightly draws our attention to the fact that there is currently a
constraint, under CAP terms, on the overall planting of oilseed rape.
I hope that the Financial Secretary can share with those of us who support the project the reasons why the Treasury cannot go further at this stage and realise the investment that companies such as Cargill and, no doubt, others would like to put into it.