Agriculture Bill

Commons Amendments

My Lords, I have it in command from Her Majesty the Queen to acquaint the House that Her Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Agriculture Bill, has consented to place her prerogative, so far as it is affected by the Bill, at the disposal of Parliament for the purposes of the Bill.

Motion A

That this House do not insist on its Amendments 16B and 18B, to which the Commons have disagreed; and do agree with the Commons in their Amendments 18C and 18D in lieu of Lords Amendments 16B and 18B.

18C: After Clause 39, Page 36, line 24, at end insert the following new Clause— “Reports relating to free trade agreements (1) A free trade agreement that includes measures applicable to trade in agricultural products may not be laid before Parliament under Part 2 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 unless the Secretary of State has first laid a report complying with subsection (2) before Parliament. (2) The report must explain whether, or to what extent, the measures referred to in subsection (1) are consistent with the maintenance of UK levels of statutory protection in relation to— (a) human, animal or plant life or health, (b) animal welfare, and (c) the environment. (3) In subsection (2) “UK levels of statutory protection” means levels of protection which, at the time the report is made, are provided for by or under any legislation which has effect in, or in any part of, the United Kingdom. (4) In preparing the report, the Secretary of State may seek advice from any person the Secretary of State considers to be independent and to have relevant expertise. (5) When the Secretary of State lays the report before Parliament the Secretary of State must also provide a copy of it to— (a) the Scottish Ministers, (b) the Welsh Ministers, (c) DAERA, and (d) any Committee of the House of Commons or the House of Lords or any Joint Committee of both Houses that appears to the Secretary of State to have an interest in the subject matter of the report. (6) This section does not apply in relation to a free trade agreement if— (a) each party to the agreement (other than the United Kingdom) is a member State or the European Union, or (b) the following conditions are met— (i) the negotiations for the agreement were concluded before the second anniversary of IP completion day, (ii) each party to the agreement (other than the United Kingdom) and the European Union were, immediately before exit day, parties to another free trade agreement which includes measures applicable to trade in agricultural products, and (iii) the other free trade agreement was, immediately before exit day, in force for, or being provisionally applied by, each party to that agreement. (7) In this section— “agricultural products” means products of a kind which, at the time this section comes into force, is listed in— (a) Annex 1 to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; (b) Annex 1 to Regulation (EU) No 510/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2013 laying down the trade arrangements applicable to certain goods resulting from the processing of agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EC) No 1216/2009 and (EC) No 614/2009; (c) the first two columns of Annex 2 to that Regulation; “free trade agreement” means an agreement that is or was notifiable under paragraph 7(a) of Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, part of Annex 1A of the WTO Agreement (as modified from time to time); “legislation” means primary legislation, subordinate legislation or retained direct EU legislation; “the WTO Agreement” means the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation signed at Marrakesh on 15 April 1994.”

18D: Title, line 11, after “carcasses;” insert “to make provision for reports relating to free trade agreements;”

My Lords, I beg to move Motion A. At this juncture, I should declare my farming interests, as set out in the register.

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, for the time and thought he has spent on Amendments 16 and 16B. The Government have listened and come forward with an amendment requiring a report to be made to Parliament on whether, or to what extent, provisions in new free trade agreements relating to agricultural goods are consistent with maintaining our existing levels of statutory protection in relation to human, animal and plant life and health, animal welfare and environmental protection. A report must be laid before any new free trade agreement is laid before Parliament under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act procedures. An FTA containing measures applicable to trade in agricultural products may not be laid unless a report has first been laid. The report will explain whether and how FTAs negotiated by the Government are consistent with our ability to maintain our domestic standards, materially enhancing transparency during the ratification process and accountability for what has been negotiated.

The Government have also carefully considered Amendment 18 on the Trade and Agriculture Commission, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Curry. The Government will go further than the noble Lord’s amendment and put the commission on a permanent statutory footing, subject to review in three years. We will implement this by tabling an amendment to the Trade Bill on Report. We are preparing the terms of reference for the prolonged commission, and there will be more detail shortly when the amendment to the Trade Bill has been tabled. The commission will complement existing scrutiny provisions, ensuring Parliament is amply equipped to hold the Government to account.

I will turn to Amendments 18E, 18F and 18G, with which I will also discuss Amendment 18H. As I have explained, the Government’s new clause will enhance scrutiny by ensuring that Members have clear information on each FTA and its impact on our standards to inform their actions under the CRaG procedure. Moreover, the Trade and Agriculture Commission will be able to feed into these reports, as seeking independent, expert advice in this manner is provided for under subsection (4) of the new clause. Parliamentarians will therefore have a range of sources of evidence to enhance their scrutiny of FTAs under CRaG. These include reports under the duty I have described, reports of the Trade and Agriculture Commission, reports from the relevant Select Committees of both Houses, and of course any other reports produced by our expert bodies, such as the Food Standards Agency. Together, these reports will shine a spotlight on the negotiation of agri-food products in FTAs. Any concerns raised by these reports will inform the decision by Parliament on whether to ratify a treaty under the CRaG procedures.

At end insert “and do propose the following amendments to Amendment 18C—

18E: In subsection (1) leave out “the Secretary of State has first laid a report complying with subsection (2) before Parliament” and insert — “(a) the Secretary of State has laid a report complying with subsection (2) before Parliament, and (b) the House of Commons has approved that report by a resolution on a motion moved by a Minister of the Crown.”

18F: In subsection (2) leave out “are consistent with the maintenance of” and insert “achieve equivalence to”

18G: In subsection (7) insert ““Minister of the Crown” has the same meaning as in the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975;””

My Lords, the Agriculture Bill is before your Lordships’ House once more. We do not apologise for that, as food standards remain a clear priority for the great British public. I declare my interest and my farming background as recorded on the register.

I start by thanking the Minister and the Minister in the Commons, Victoria Prentis, for the extensive discussions conducted with me and my colleagues, my noble friend Lady Jones of Whitchurch, the shadow Defra Secretary of State Luke Pollard and the shadow Minister for Food and Farming Daniel Zeichner, which were conducted immediately before the tabling deadline for amendments in the Commons. They were difficult discussions because the Government would not share the text of their amendment with us, as well as deeming it non-negotiable. We all know that Governments do not conduct negotiations. It was a bit like wandering around in the dark looking for a bag to be able to release the cat. When the full light of day came, there was no cat to be found. However, those discussions identified what the cat should look like, and it was very disappointing to discover that the amendment did not resemble what we thought had been agreed between us.

We commend the Government on moving from their previous position and conceding that the Trade and Agriculture Commission be set up in the Trade Bill. Discussions focused on the TAC—its independence, membership and reporting structure within the CRaG process—and the underpinning of standards. How this will be shaped largely moves to the Trade Bill, but the amendment to your Lordships’ previous resolutions regarding standards reporting and the CRaG process is here now in response to Labour’s previous amendments. Sunday’s joint ministerial statement also did not entirely resemble the conclusions we considered had been agreed with the Government.

We understand and agree that, under subsection (4) of the new clause inserted by the Government’s amendment, the advice that

“the Secretary of State considers to be independent”

is a legal definition that is challengeable in the courts, and we have no quarrel with that. However, the clear differences appear in our amendment to the text of the Government’s amendment. Under Amendment 18E, it is most important that the TAC’s report has merit and it should be guaranteed that it will be placed independently before the Commons and must not be subsumed as merely part of the overall report that committees of both House may make. Food standards remain a clear commitment that must be maintained and must be seen to be maintained by so many organisations, individuals and farmers in all corners of the United Kingdom. It is very important that the Trade and Agriculture Commission is an expert body. Its voice must be heard clearly. Its voice must not be supressed. Every voice must count, and it must be clear as a statutory body among the plurality of views that come before Parliament. It can then be properly assessed with the resolution to be moved by the Government.

The second adjustment to the Government’s text before your Lordships this afternoon, Amendment 18F, concerns the meaning of standards maintenance as recognised by the World Trade Organization. The word is “equivalence”. It is disappointing that the Government continue to represent the intentions, workings and understanding of this term portrayed in the joint ministerial statement, but now is not the time to repeat previous debates.

Since the Commons proposal, the debate has continued, and I am extremely grateful to the Minister for the way he has engaged with me and the time he has given so that we understand each other. I am pleased that he has responded further in his opening remarks to the Government’s proposal to your Lordships’ House. He is an excellent Minister and much admired around the House for the way he represents the Government.