Asked by: Michael McCann (Labour - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effects on school milk provision in the UK of the announcement by the EU Commission in December 2014 that the EU School Milk Scheme will be evaluated as part of CAP simplification.
Answered by George Eustice
In principle, I support the reform of the EU scheme which the Commission first proposed in January 2014. However, work on this dossier has become bogged down on a number of important issues, including Member State concerns about the correct legal basis for the proposals, the nature of their objectives and scope, and the main financial provisions. I therefore support the Commission’s decision to review it. Defra will engage constructively with this process. In the meantime, the existing arrangements for school schemes – agreed during CAP reform and set out in Regulation (EU) No 1308/2103 – will continue to apply. Under the EU scheme, UK school children benefit from subsidies worth approximately £3.5 million a year.
In addition to the EU subsidy scheme, all pre-school children in England, Scotland and Wales who are under 5 and in day care are eligible for free milk under our domestic nursery milk scheme. The total cost of the scheme was £61 million in 2012-13.
Asked by: Michael McCann (Labour - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions officials in her Department have had with stakeholders on development of a national strategy for implementation of the European School Milk Scheme.
Answered by George Eustice
The development of a national strategy to implement the existing, long-established EU School Milk Scheme is not expected to involve substantive changes of policy or of practice. On this basis, a formal consultation is not envisaged. However, Defra officials are engaging with a range of stakeholders in the interests of transparency and to set out our approach. The EU Commission has proposed a more substantial overhaul of the scheme which, if agreed, would take effect from 2016 onwards. The Department intends to consult on this wider process although no timescale has yet been established.
Asked by: Michael McCann (Labour - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to consult stakeholders on the development of a national strategy for implementation of the European School Milk Scheme.
Answered by George Eustice
The development of a national strategy to implement the existing, long-established EU School Milk Scheme is not expected to involve substantive changes of policy or of practice. On this basis, a formal consultation is not envisaged. However, Defra officials are engaging with a range of stakeholders in the interests of transparency and to set out our approach. The EU Commission has proposed a more substantial overhaul of the scheme which, if agreed, would take effect from 2016 onwards. The Department intends to consult on this wider process although no timescale has yet been established.