Andrew Pakes

I welcome the Minister’s actions over the summer. First, may I put on record my empathy and thanks to farmers and vets around the country who are dealing with this desperate situation on top of an already horrible year with harvests, the weather and other challenges facing the farming community? I spoke to a farmer in my constituency in Cambridgeshire before this urgent question this morning, and we are looking across the border to Norfolk and other challenges there. There is a question around access to vaccines and the speed of testing, and I urge the Minister to speed that up, but to be honest, there is a bigger issue here. It is not a question of the immediate response, although that is important. For far too long, DEFRA has been unprepared for the resilience we need to face biosecurity threats in this country. We have had a decade of cuts. Frankly, it is not about what has happened this year, but about what we inherited and how DEFRA’s budgets have been prioritised by lots of previous Governments. Can he reassure me that as we face a changing climate, which makes these situations more likely, the machinery of government in DEFRA will be up to the job in preparing for these challenges, so that farmers are supported in years to come when we face these risks?