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Agriculture Act 2020

Contents

Part 4: Matters Relating to Farming and the Countryside

Section 33: Fertilisers

  1. Subsection (2) amends the definition of a fertiliser under section 66 of the Agriculture Act 1970 to enable a broader range of materials to be regulated as a fertiliser in the UK.
  2. Subsection (3) amends section 74A of the Agriculture Act 1970 to enable the regulation of fertilisers on the basis of their function. This will allow different requirements to be set, for example, for biostimulants, soil improvers and traditional mineral fertilisers to ensure the safety and quality of the various types of products marketed as a fertiliser in the UK.
  3. Subsection (4) allows for regulations to set out an assessment, monitoring and enforcement regime for ensuring the compliance of fertilisers with composition, content and function requirements and for mitigating other risks to human, animal or plant health or the environment presented by fertilisers.
  4. New subsection (1A) inserted into section 74A of the Agriculture Act 1970 will enable the Secretary of State, Welsh Ministers, Scottish Ministers and a Northern Ireland department to put in place the infrastructure for conformity assessment procedures to be carried out on fertilisers and to confer market surveillance functions on a public authority. It will also enable requirements to be placed on manufacturers and others involved in the supply of fertilisers to keep and, where required, provide information relating to fertilisers to the market surveillance authority for traceability purposes and to assist the authority in its role.
  5. New subsection (1B) inserted into section 74A of the Agriculture Act 1970 sets out the matters relating to the conformity assessment process for fertilisers which may be provided for in regulations made by the Secretary of State, Welsh Ministers, Scottish Ministers and a Northern Ireland department. These matters relate to creating and mobilising the structures and processes required for an effective and workable assessment system, recognition of a person or organisations to undertake assessments, the creation of an appeals system, charging regime or framework, and recognition and registration processes.
  6. New subsection (1C) inserted into section 74A of the Agriculture Act 1970 sets out enforcement powers which may be conferred on a public authority with market surveillance functions, including powers to undertake further assessment of fertilisers, to prohibit the sale of certain fertilisers, to impose fines on those who breach regulations, and conferring powers to enter and inspect, take samples or seize and destroy materials if necessary.
  7. New subsection (1D) inserted into section 74A of the Agriculture Act 1970 provides that fertiliser regulations must not impose or confer a power or duty requiring or authorising the disclosure or use of information that would contravene data protection legislation.
  8. New subsection (1E) inserted into section 74A of the Agriculture Act 1970 provides a power to make regulations that amend or repeal Regulation (EC) No. 2003/2003 relating to fertilisers and other retained direct EU legislation relating to fertilisers.
  9. Subsection (5) amends section 84 of the Agriculture Act 1970. It provides that the first regulations made by the Secretary of State, Welsh Ministers, Scottish Ministers and a Northern Ireland department under section 74A (1A) to (1E) of the Agriculture Act 1970 are subject to the affirmative procedure. Subsequent regulations made by the Secretary of State, Welsh Ministers, Scottish Ministers and a Northern Ireland department under section 74A (1A)(b) (conferring on a public authority functions relating to market surveillance and regulation) and (1D)(a)(i) and (ii) (amending and repealing retained EU law relating to fertilisers) are also subject to the affirmative procedure.
  10. Subsection (6) amends section 86 of the Agriculture Act 1970 to amend the modifications for Northern Ireland in section 84 of that Act to take account of the new subsection (2D) in subsection 33(5).

Section 34: Identification and traceability of animals

  1. Section 34 amends the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 (NERC Act 2006) to allow for new data collecting and sharing functions. This includes the running of a database to be assigned to a board established under that Act and to enable the assignment of functions relating to the means of identifying animals. It amends section 8 of the Animal Health Act 1981 (AHA 1981) to reflect advancements in animal identification technology and to provide that orders made under section 8 will bind the Crown. It disapplies in relation to England and Wales, at a later date, retained EU legislation on the identification and traceability of cattle, sheep and goats. The purpose of the section is to prepare for the introduction of a new digital and multi-species traceability service, the Livestock Information Service (LIS), based on a database of animal identification, health and movement data.
  2. Subsection (1) inserts a new section 89A into the NERC Act 2006. New subsection (1) of section 89A inserted into the NERC Act 2006 will allow the Secretary of State to assign to a board, established under the NERC Act 2006, functions related to collecting, managing and sharing certain information in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. This information is identification, movement or health data of animals. It will also allow the assignment of functions relating to the means of identifying animals such as issuing individual identification numbers to animals.
  3. New subsection (2) of section 89A inserted into the NERC Act 2006 provides that the Secretary of State should seek approval from devolved administrations before making an order which assigns to a board functions which are exercisable in relation to the territories of those administrations.
  4. New subsection (3) of section 89A inserted into the NERC Act 2006 provides that an order made assigning functions to a board must not require or authorize the disclosure or use of information that would contravene data protection legislation.
  5. New subsection (4) of section 89A inserted into the NERC Act 2006 ensures that "animals" has the same meaning as in section 8 of the AHA 1981, to ensure that the functions assigned under this act can be exercised in relation to animals that otherwise might not be covered, such as domestic pigs or equines. These amendments enable the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) to be assigned the function of managing the new Livestock Identification Service. An example of how this power could be used is to facilitate risk-based trading by enabling the AHDB to make available to buyers’ information on the health risk involved in purchasing certain animals. This could be used as a tool to combat the spread of disease.
  6. Subsection (2) amends the AHA 1981 such that in England and Wales the term "marking of animals" is replaced by "means of identifying animals", and that provision made under subsection (1) of the AHA 1981 may bind the Crown. The amendment will allow secondary legislation that will be made under powers of the AHA 1981 to encompass new developments in the technology for identifying animals. This amendment provides for new developments in the technology and methodology of identifying animals, such as the use of electronic identification. It will also enable legislation to be made covering Crown animals, such as military and police horses. Previously legislation for equines was made under the European Communities Act 1972, which will be revoked upon EU exit.
  7. Subsections (3) and (4) will, at a date to be set by the Secretary of State, disapply in relation to England and Wales the identification, traceability, and inspection provisions in retained EU legislation for cattle (parts of Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000) and sheep and goats (Council Regulation (EC) No 21/2004) respectively. These regulations will be replaced with an order made under the AHA 1981. As a consequence of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, these regulations will become retained EU law, a category of domestic law, and will be treated as if they are primary legislation. This retained EU legislation will be disapplied by commencing subsections (3) and (4) at the time an order is made under AHA 1981 amending the identification, traceability and inspection regime. These subsections avoid the need to make further primary legislation at that point.

Section 35: Red meat levy: payments between levy bodies in Great Britain

  1. The livestock industry in Great Britain operates with complex livestock movements and animals may gain economic value in more than one part of the country. Producer levies are collected at slaughterhouses, regardless of where animals spend their lives or gain value. In each part of Great Britain, the relevant levy body collects red meat levy, under a common levy collection framework set out in the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, the Red Meat Industry (Wales) Measure 2010, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Order 2008 and the Quality Meat Scotland Order 2008. "Red meat" in this context refers to meat from pigs, cattle and sheep for human consumption.
  2. An inequity in the red meat levy system was caused when significant amounts of producer levy collected at English slaughterhouses related to animals that spent all or some of their lives gaining value in Scotland and Wales. A red meat levy redistribution scheme would resolve this unfairness. The Agriculture Act enables the Secretary of State and ministers to set up a redistribution scheme allowing levy bodies to redistribute red meat levy among themselves, in some circumstances.
  3. Section 35 enables a scheme to be made for some of the red meat levy collected by a levy body in one country within Great Britain to be paid to another levy body in Great Britain. This would reflect the fact that some cattle, sheep or pigs produced in one country may be slaughtered in another country. Without the ability to make payments under a scheme the producer levy paid in respect of those animals in the country of slaughter can only be spent on activities which benefit red meat producers in that country.
  4. Subsection (1)(a) allows the establishment of a scheme so that agricultural levy boards in two or more countries in Great Britain can redistribute red meat levy between themselves.
  5. Subsection (1)(b) allows for a scheme to amend, suspend or revoke an earlier scheme, enabling an existing scheme to be updated.
  6. When the section refers to a payment, it means a payment that is made under the scheme by a levy body. Subsection (2) suggests some details that the scheme may include about the calculation method, who determines the amount of a payment within the levy body, for example, finance directors, or their delegates, as well as details about when and how the payment is made. It allows the scheme itself to specify its duration.
  7. Subsection (3) suggests that the scheme may give details about the method of calculating the payment amount and any matters relevant to that. This may include a number of relevant animals, such as those whose red meat levy has been collected by the levy body making the payment in a specific period. The animals that are relevant to the calculation may be required to have a ‘connection’ with country receiving the payment, for example, to have gained some economic value in that country.
  8. Subsection (4) requires that any payment made under the scheme is to be treated by the recipient levy body as if it were red meat levy collected by that body, for example in respect of the activities and purposes for which it can be spent.
  9. Subsection (5) allows the scheme to make further provisions beyond those in this section, including provisions that confer new functions on the levy boards if required to facilitate the implementation of the scheme.
  10. Subsection (6) imposes a new obligation on levy boards affected by such a scheme to comply with it.
  11. Subsection (7) provides that any such scheme will be made jointly by agreement between the Secretary of State, and the Scottish and Welsh Ministers. It cannot be brought into being without agreement. The scheme will be published.
  12. Subsection (8) names the red meat levy bodies for England and Scotland as the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), respectively. For Wales, the same subsection names the Red Meat Industry (Wales) Measure 2010, which provides Welsh Ministers with the power to levy its red meat industry. Welsh Ministers have currently delegated their functions to Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC).
  13. Subsection (9) defines the producer red meat levy in question by referring to the definitions in the relevant legislation that frames the activity of the levy body in each country.
  14. Overall, section 35 provides the Secretary of State, Scottish, and Welsh Ministers with the power to agree and publish a scheme to redistribute part of the producer red meat levy. Duties on levy boards under the scheme are freestanding, to sit alongside their duties under existing legislation. This section only affects the redistribution of levy; the collection of levy and the existing purposes and functions of levy boards remain subject to the existing legislation.

Section 36: Agricultural tenancies

  1. Section 36 makes provision in relation to agricultural tenancies as specified in Schedule 3.

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