Mark Spencer: Is my hon. Friend aware that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has funded a higher-level entry scheme, which includes educational visits to farms by schools? I understand that the scheme is now closed to new entrants. May I take this opportunity to encourage the Minister to pressure DEFRA to clarify whether that scheme is indeed closed to new entrants?
Mark Spencer: What plans he has to meet representatives of the heating industry to discuss the proposed green deal for energy efficiency.
Mark Spencer: I am grateful to the Minister for his response. I was interested to hear his response to the question from the hon. Member for St Helens North (Mr Watts) on the consideration of glazing in the green deal. Will the Minister confirm that he will consider the replacement of old and inefficient heating systems in the green deal?
Mark Spencer: I am grateful for the opportunity to debate this important issue. I want the debate to be fact-based and to be about the science. I want it to be an unemotional and genuinely open debate about the future of this country's food security and how we ensure that the people of the United Kingdom are well fed into the next generation. I acknowledge that this issue is not the responsibility of the...
Mark Spencer: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. He is correct, in that we need to harness new technologies if we are to solve the problem. I will talk about that a little more later. We have clearly been effective since the second world war in harnessing such technologies and in scientific advancement. The common agricultural policy, which came out of the post-war period, is often ridiculed as...
Mark Spencer: I thank you for that intervention. Those are exactly the concerns that I am expressing. You sum up very neatly what will happen to global markets. We have been importing from south America, Africa and many other places. When the almighty dollar takes hold, and China tells countries, "Don't export your meat products to the United Kingdom. Export them to China and we'll pay you a dollar a kilo...
Mark Spencer: I am grateful to you for your intervention, Mr Streeter. World energy prices are very much linked to the issues that we face. The simple fact is that the price of petroleum directly affects the price of agricultural fertilisers and pesticides and has a knock-on effect on them. Energy production itself requires land usage. Erecting a wind turbine takes out land that could be used for...
Mark Spencer: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. What he says is true, and the purpose of today's debate is to have a much more mature, science-based, focused discussion, which looks at the facts rather than the hysteria. My hon. Friend will recall headlines such as "Frankenstein foods", which do nothing to inform people, and only make them scared of new technologies. To a certain extent, that...
Mark Spencer: The hon. Gentleman is correct that we need to invest. We are actually reducing the amount that we are putting into research and development in the industry. We have not been very good at that. This Government are assisting a little bit, but it is a small step back in the right direction. We have not put enough into research and development. The amount that we spend is dwarfed by the amount...
Mark Spencer: I am aware that a number of universities are participating in research, and I appeal to those institutions to give the universities the support that they require to continue with it. It emphasises the fact that the United Kingdom has the scientific brains to do this. We have the willingness and the intellectual power. What we need now is a fair crack of the whip-a bit of financial support and...
Mark Spencer: If the model that the hon. Lady is talking about is so impressive, does she advocate using public money to purchase private sector woods back into the public sector?
Mark Spencer: There was the case of a taxi driver who attacked female passengers, and when he was arrested other victims came forward. The publicity surrounding the case assisted other victims in doing that. What does my hon. Friend say to people who cite such instances?
Mark Spencer: What sort of weight does my hon. Friend think the general public attach to such information? Would they consider a report on the BBC or in a newspaper as factual but a report on a social networking site as perhaps not based in fact?
Mark Spencer: I do not intend to speak for too long, but I feel the need to be here to support my hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), not only because her constituency is adjacent to mine, but because her Bill has great merit. She will be aware of how busy I am in my constituency office, given the debate over the forestry proposals and the fact that my constituency is Sherwood. None the...
Mark Spencer: Unfortunately, as a 15-year-old boy, I could not get there on my scooter. Clearly publishing those names was interesting to the public, but was it in the public interest? The honest answer is: probably not. Did it add anything to the criminal justice system? Probably not.
Mark Spencer: I concede that my hon. Friend's knowledge about this issue is superior to mine. I merely make the point about what is interesting to the public and what is in the public interest. My hon. Friend has referred to celebrities and TV personalities. The recent case that comes to mind is that of the Sky football commentators. Although they were not charged with any crime, there was large furore...
Mark Spencer: May I draw my hon. Friend's attention to the weight that the public attach to a news report? If that report is on Sky News or the BBC, or in a newspaper, the general public will attach great merit to it and expect it to have been researched. However, if it has been posted on a social networking site by, say, my brother's uncle's mate's niece, it will simply be viewed as gossip and will have...
Mark Spencer: What recent progress he has made in his discussions with representatives of the banking industry on increasing levels of lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Mark Spencer: Will the Secretary of State assure me that he will take no lessons on the banking system from the shadow Chancellor, who designed the system that failed us so badly, and who did nothing to encourage transparency and control bonuses? Will he ensure that banks start to lend to small businesses?
Mark Spencer: May I put on record my thanks to the Secretary of State for listening to me and my constituents over the past month, and may I encourage her not to listen to the Opposition, who sold off woodland greater in area than the city of Nottingham during their term in office? I wonder whether this is an opportunity to increase the biodiversity of woodlands such as Sherwood in Nottinghamshire, by...