Environment Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 22 March 2010.
Peter Robinson
DUP, Belfast East
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether it is his policy to support (a) the provision of direct payments to farmers under Pillar One of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and (b) a CAP budget of at least equivalent monetary value following reforms of the CAP with effect from 2013.
Jim Fitzpatrick
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) (Farming and the Environment)
holding answer
The UK Government's position on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was set out in the joint DEFRA/Treasury CAP Vision published in 2005. We want to see the elimination of all Direct Payments under Pillar I of the CAP. Direct Payments are an expensive and inefficient mechanism and undermine the ability of farmers to be truly competitive. They do not help farmers to tackle the challenges of the future and our policy is therefore to see them phased out by a carefully managed transition by 2015-20. A sustainable CAP would comprise of EU spending on agriculture that would be based on the current Pillar II, allowing a considerable reduction in total spending by the EU on agriculture and bringing this into line with other sectors.
Yes1 person thinks so
No1 person thinks not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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