The Agriculture Bill was set before Parliament on the 16th January. This will set the framework for agricultural policy in England for the foreseeable future.
The legislation is largely the same as in the original Agriculture Bill published in September 2018 – which ‘fell’ with the end of the previous Parliament prior to the General Election. Generally, it gives Ministers broad powers to undertake certain activities, without necessarily setting out in any detail how those powers might be used. For example, in terms of direct payments, it states that the ‘Agricultural Transition’ will commence in 2021 and last for seven years. It provides powers to ‘delink’ direct payments from the requirement to occupy land, and to capitalise future payments into a lump sum. However, the Bill gives no details on if, when or how this all might be done. A Policy Statement, similar to that which was published alongside the original Bill, was expected this time too. It might have provided more information on matters of detail. However, it has not yet appeared – it is reported that it may be published when the Bill enters the Committee stage in Parliament.
One point that can be taken from the Bill is the Agricultural Transition will happen, and looks certain to begin in 2021 – the NFU had been calling for a year’s delay. Therefore the BPS will start being reduced from next year. Some people have mistakenly taken the announcement on the guarantee of funding for the next five years (see other article) as a guarantee of BPS funding for that period. This is not the case; it is merely the total ‘pot’ of money available to the farming sector. Over time, much of this will be paid in other ways – for example ELM.
The new Bill does contain some changes from its predecessor. Many of the alterations are to address criticisms of the original legislation – not least the minimal mention of food production. The most notable are;
- in the areas that Government may ‘give financial assistance’ to in future (e.g. under ELM) there is now a specific mention of soil quality and preserving the genetic resources of livestock (native breeds). Upland farming also gets a more prominent mention (although largely in the explanatory notes).
- under the new legislation, any financial assistance scheme ‘must have regard to the need to encourage the production of food in England and its production in an environmentally sensitive way’.
- multi-annual ‘financial assistance plans’ will have to be drawn up. This will set out what support the Government intends to operate under its financial assistance powers. The first plan will run for seven years from 2021, and then each plan will be for a five year period.
- every five years the Government must produce a statistical analysis of the food security of the UK. This is not just self-sufficiency, but will look at issues such as global food supply, resilience of the supply chain, consumer spending etc.
- there is a new section of the Bill (Part 4) that might be thought of as dealing with miscellaneous issues. These include the power to change fertiliser regulations, setting rules for animal ID, amending the red meat levy (mainly to address the issue of Welsh lambs being slaughtered in England) and changes to agricultural tenancies legislation. The changes to the tenancies legislation are relatively minor, but are covered in the following article.
With a large Government majority, it is expected that the Bill will pass into law relatively easily, although minor elements may be amended during the Parliamentary process. It is likely to be the Parliamentary timetable that is more of an issue, with many pieces of legislation having to be dealt with. Theresa Villiers, speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference, suggested that the legislation would be passed by ‘late spring’. Whilst this may slip, the Bill looks set to become law in plenty of time for the Agricultural Transition to begin in 2021.
A full copy of the Bill can be found at – https://services.parliament.uk/Bills/2019-20/agriculture/documents.html
