My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. It is a hugely important national resource, and I will be coming back to some of his points.

I thank my hon. Friend for that piece of information. It leads me neatly on to what I was going to say.

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for drawing that to my attention. It seems a typically Gladstonian move.

Does my hon.

I am grateful to the Minister for giving so much of his time.

As we move from non-statutory to statutory guidance, is the Minister conscious that some of the issues touched upon in the current non-st

My concern is not so much the gentleman in Whitehall as the gentleman in the courts, because what we are discussing is the creation of st

Does my hon. Friend accept that it is not just that the cost in total is higher?

Does my hon.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the Government's progress in