Draft Livestock (Records, Identification and Movement) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

David Drew Excerpts

Tuesday 26th March 2019 General Committees

[Dr David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am delighted to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth. It is good to see the Minister in his place—I am glad he is still there and that DEFRA remains intact, unlike most other parts of the Government. We are thankful for that at least.

I give the usual caveat: that the draft regulations are one of those bits of secondary legislation that in themselves are minor, but if the Government get them wrong they shut down the country. We saw that with both BSE and foot and mouth. It is therefore not unimportant that we give the correct scrutiny.

I am intrigued by what the Commons European Statutory Instruments Committee said about the draft regulations. I slightly disagree with the Minister. To quote from the Committee’s report of 27 November, paragraph 4.5,

“The Committee disagrees with the Department’s position set out in the accompanying Explanatory Memorandum to this proposed negative statutory instrument, which states that the amendments made by this instrument are ‘minor and technical’. In the Committee’s view, this instrument makes significant amendments, and is required by law to be subject to the affirmative procedure”—

Which, of course, is why we are in Committee today. The draft regulations were seen to be of greater importance than the Government placed on them in the explanatory memorandum.

The important functions we are looking at, to go back to what the sifting Committee said, include

“determining mandatory time periods; extending time periods, derogating from obligations, and adding to criteria set out in legislation; creating obligations; and laying down rules on penalties for breaching obligations set out in legislation.”

We will start with charges. The Minister said that the Government have no intention of charging for cattle, but the draft SI—unless I am wrong—will give the mechanism by which the Government could impose charges. That is why we need to be careful about what we allow through today.

As always, I have a number of queries and questions, which relate to the nature of the disease control that we are talking about, how to report animal movements and which competent authorities are to look at how that will be done. I start with the obvious point: this will not be carried out at no cost. What are the financial implications of the transition? What authoritative body will oversee the costs of databases and new mechanisms for monitoring the movement of animals? Will it be the Rural Payments Agency or some other body?

The Lords sifting Committee was particularly critical about some of the issues. It picked up on the fact that the Government have the means to charge fees to cover the cost of identification and registration of cattle—the point is not that they will, but that they have the means to do so. I have already touched on what the Commons sifting Committee said.

Regulation 1760/2000 is amended by two different instruments because it covers two discrete areas: identification and registration of bovine animals, and the labelling of beef and beef products. These areas have been worked on separately by DEFRA. Although we are looking at one SI today, it is something of a composite because the two different areas have been brought together.

What are the timetables for these two different areas and do they coincide? Is there any flexibility in how the timetables can be operated? Again, the instrument makes it clear that this is a devolved matter. It is good that the Scottish National party is represented here; no doubt it will have something to say about the impact on Scotland.

Will there be transparency between the different Administrations? So far, England and Wales seem to do reasonably similar things; Scotland does its own thing; and Northern Ireland is completely hamstrung by the absence of an Administration—effectively, it is being administered through Whitehall. Will there be transparency in how this new arrangement will work as we move from being a member state to being an independent nation looking at our own thing?

The Government have said that no charges apply for different animals—sheep, goats and pigs. Nevertheless, there are 12 separate legislative changes in the instrument. Who will defray the costs? There is a change, and we will come to what the National Pig Association says. The Minister said this does not relate to pigs, but why not? Pigs should be covered. The NPA said that the direction of travel through the Agriculture Bill implied certain things, and yet pigs are left out of this SI. The NPA’s point is that we want to improve public health, manage microbial resistance and cope with zoonotic pathogens, but where is the incentive to ensure that that is done properly?

The Minister will be pleased to hear that I am coming to my final points. They relate to our usual questions about the database. DEFRA has revealed that the livestock traceability system will be operational from 2019. If we crash out next week, what will the interim arrangements be? The Livestock Information Service will identify and track animal movements—initially cattle, sheep, goats and pigs—using electronic IDs.

Is the database on schedule? Who is doing the work? It is replacing the AML2 movement licence system. Are we going to change the tagging system at all, or is this going to be completely capable of dealing with the tagging system? Are we going to share our information with our current friends in the EU or are we going to keep our own information and see what happens? Clearly, animal diseases do not respect territorial borders—they come and go. We are facing a real challenge at the moment with African swine fever, which is coming our way shortly. It is important to know what the mechanism will be, if and when we leave the EU, for sharing information with our current colleague states and what information we expect from that. Presumably, the Livestock Information Service will be compatible with current arrangements; otherwise, we will find all sorts of problems with how we can exchange information, which is the only way to bear down on disease. One hopes that that will be the case, otherwise there will be some attempt by other countries to use that for non-tariff barriers.

In conclusion, my biggest concern is where we are with the IT. Is the replacement system on track to be introduced this year? If not, why not? If not, what do we do in its stead, given that, presumably, we have to go back to relying on the EU to allow us to continue to use some of its systems? Although we will not be voting against the instrument, which is minor in its context, the wider ramifications are important. That is why it is here under the affirmative procedure and why we make no apologies for asking these questions.