Agriculture

The UK needs to present a "united front" to the European Union to protect the future of fishing fleets, MPs have said. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee accused Brussels of "micro-management" in setting catch quotas and added EU member states should be permitted to set them "as locally as possible".

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman is hosting a drought summit today as parts of England struggle with the lowest groundwater levels since 1976. Water companies, farmers and wildlife groups will meet Ms Spelman to discuss the situation, which has mainly affected south-east England, East Anglia and the east Midlands.

£1.4bn has been spent on the EU’s fishing policy, the Daily Express has revealed. The European Court of Auditors' report, released today shows that in the last decade this large sum of money has been used to decommission boats, 100,000 jobs have been lost, and stocks have been fished close to extinction.

Climate change will be good for British farming, Caroline Spelman has said. Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference, the Environment Secretary said that whilst problems such as drought would become more frequent, warmer weather would lead to a longer growing season and less frost damage.

Agriculture Minister Jim Paice has attacked the fox hunting ban and called for a free vote on repealing the Hunting Act. Ahead of visiting the Boxing Day hunt near Peterborough. Mr Paice said the law "simply doesn't work" and added: "I personally am in favour of hunting with dogs".

Mr Paice also said: "the Coalition Agreement clearly states that we will have a free vote on whether to repeal the act when there is time in the parliamentary calendar to do so."

Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Mary Creagh criticised Mr Paice's comments and said: "There is no place for animal cruelty in a civilised society and most people back Labour's ban on hunting wild animals with dogs. People are worried about their incomes falling, prices rising and losing their jobs, yet this out of touch Tory-led Government want to bring hunting back."

The Telegraph reports that despite Mr Paice's comments, any Commons vote on the issue is unlikely to be held next year or in 2013. Over 300 hunts are expected to take place today and the Countryside Alliance estimates that as many as 250,000 supporters will join those hunting with dogs.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which is responsible for promoting British produce, only bought 30% of the food consumed in the department from Britain, according to The Mirror. A Defra spokesperson said: “We can’t insist that our caterers only use British produce as it would be illegal under EU rules. And not all foods are grown here."