Debates on the UK Agriculture Bill came to an end when it received Royal Assent on 11th November and became The Agriculture Act 2020 following months of discussions and ‘ping pong’ between the House of Commons and House of Lords.
The Act outlines how future support for English farmers will be delivered as the UK leaves the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, while also setting out legislation relating to a broad range of agricultural and rural issues of relevance to Wales and the UK - including granting temporary powers to Welsh Ministers until a Welsh Agriculture Bill is brought forward.
Despite having had the most attention in relation to safeguarding Britain’s standards on food safety and animal welfare, an amendment put forward to require agricultural and food imports after Brexit to meet equivalent domestic standards was defeated.
Whilst the Agriculture Bill has finished being debated, the legal safeguards could still be incorporated into the new Trade Bill, which is still making its way into the report stage at the House of Lords.
Instead, in response to the level of interest in ‘saving our standards’, the newly formed Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) has been put on a statutory footing for the next three years, providing an extra level of scrutiny to negotiating trade deals. The TAC will be required to report to Parliament on how a new free trade agreement could impact the UK’s standards. However, this is not the red line preventing substandard food imports that farmers, environmentalists, animal rights campaigners and millions of members of the general public lobbied for.
Furthermore, the Act allows the Secretary of State to provide support in England for ten areas relating primarily to the environment, and while agricultural productivity and regard for food production do appear in the legislation, there is a significant shift away from the principles that underpin the CAP when it comes to protecting incomes and rural communities.
Alongside environmental policies, the Farmers’ Union of Wales continues to urge the UK and Welsh Governments to place issues such as rural employment and the economic wellbeing of farming families and rural communities at the centre of future policy development - something it appears Scotland has done, given that Scottish farming minister Fergus Ewing recently told the virtual audience at the AgriScot event that BPS support could be extended beyond 2024, and that he is personally committed to maintaining direct payments and believes it would be ‘unsustainable’ to cut all direct support because two-thirds of farmers would make a loss without it.