Regulatory Reform (Deer) (England and Wales) Order 2007

I welcome this important order. I am glad of this opportunity to pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Byford. She and I have worked on the Defra brief for almost the same length of time. Perhaps the most memorable occasion that we shared was when we sat through the night and worked together on the Countryside and Rights of Way Bill. We very often did not work on things completely together, because there were many occasions when we could not vote on the same side; however, the triumph that emerged from our working together on that Bill was with Part 3, which will probably remain in my mind as one of our biggest joint successes in this Chamber. Probably nobody will equal the noble Baroness’s ability, for which she has been noted, to fire off questions to Ministers. As was recorded in Hansard not long ago, she is known as ““Mrs UK Agriculture””. I am sure that she will be able to retire with great honour and with that title well in place. I have a few questions for the Minister on the order. First, as he said, there has been a significant increase—a doubling—in the deer population in the past 20 years. One significant outcome of that, which has not been mentioned at all so far this afternoon, is the incidence of Lyme disease. Julia Goldsworthy, my colleague in another place, has put a number of Questions to the Department of Health and Defra on this issue. This order covers public health aspects. The question is very serious; I wonder whether the Minister has any comments on it. I presume that Lyme disease is covered by the reference to preserving public health. Is the department making any analysis, with the Department of Health or separately, of the incidence of Lyme disease and how exactly it relates to the density of deer? My second question relates to conserving the national heritage, in terms of interpretation and especially given the different pressures on areas that may have had stock removed following CAP reform but which need grazing and are subject to deer grazing, as opposed to new tree growth. Those are areas of potential conflict. I presume that the Minister will tell me that Natural England will decide the priorities there, but is there actually a definition of natural heritage? Will it be a grazed landscape or a treed landscape, and so on? The noble Baroness, Lady Byford, raised the issue of bovine TB, so I shall await the Minister’s answers on that. Finally, on the matter of serious damage to property, presumably with regard to deer that means damage to crops. What would constitute serious damage? Would it be 10 per cent of the crop or more than that? Is that being considered by Defra?