Draft Organic Products (Production and Control) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
Draft Genetically Modified Organisms (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
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The Chair
Before we begin, I remind the Committee of the social distancing regulations. Spaces available to Members are clearly marked, and unmarked spaces must not be occupied. The usual convention of Government and Opposition sides is waived on this occasion, so Members may sit anywhere. Finally, Hansard colleagues would be grateful if Members sent any speaking notes to the usual email address.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Victoria Prentis)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Organic Products (Production and Control) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020.
The Chair
With this it will be convenient to discuss the draft Genetically Modified Organisms (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020.
Victoria Prentis
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd.
I stress that the instruments before the Committee will make no changes to policy on either organic products or genetic modified organisms, which I will refer to as GMOs. The amendments are required primarily as a result of the Northern Ireland protocol and to ensure that existing legislation continues to operate as intended. As established in the protocol, European Union legislation will continue to apply to Northern Ireland after the end of this year. The existing EU exit legislation therefore needs very minor technical amendments to reflect the fact that retained EU law, whether on organics or GMOs, will be substantively applicable in Great Britain only. The changes do no more than is necessary to meet our legal obligations under the Northern Ireland protocol and will ensure that our legislation works smoothly.
The instrument on organic products will make minor amendments to our organics legislation, ensuring that it is operable at the end of this year by, for example, changing references from “UK” to “GB”. The instrument will also amend retained EU legislation to allow organic producers to continue to have a derogation to use 5% of non-organic protein feed for organic pork and poultry to the end of 2022. The EU has made the same decision to extend that derogation.
No new policy is introduced by the instrument, and our standards of organic production remain the same. The Government are strongly supportive of organic standards, many of which were developed in the UK. There is good news on organics: over the course of this year, purchasing of organics has risen by over 9%, probably as a result of people’s buying habits during the pandemic.
Under the protocol, EU law on organics will continue to have effect in Northern Ireland, so the retained EU law need apply only in GB. That means that the Northern Irish organics market will remain the same. We are working really closely with Northern Irish colleagues to prepare for the end of this year, including by setting up a Northern Ireland competent authority on organics. We remain committed to ensuring that trade between GB and NI will continue, and we will recognise the EU as having an equivalent organic regime to the UK until 2022, which should provide certainty on imports for the immediate future. We hope that the EU will reciprocate on that very shortly.
Failure to adopt the instrument would put 6,000 largely small UK organic operators at risk. The instrument relates to devolved matters and the devolved Administrations have consented.
The instrument on genetically modified organisms has the primary purpose of making technical amendments to existing EU exit legislation, which are required as a consequence of the Northern Ireland protocol. Again, there will be no changes to policy. Detailed EU legislation provides a robust framework for the approval of GMOs, in order to protect both the environment and human health. Our existing exit legislation is intended to maintain that regime at the end of the transition period.
The original statutory instrument was drafted on the basis that the arrangements would be needed throughout the UK. Now, of course, we do not need to apply them to Northern Ireland. The amendments we have made are to change references to the UK or institutions in the UK to references to GB or institutions in GB. We must also revoke amendments to Northern Irish legislation, which are no longer required because of the protocol.
In addition to the provisions already described, the instrument makes a further amendment to retained direct EU legislation relating to the traceability and labelling of GMOs. That additional amendment revokes the legislation-making power currently conferred on the Commission, as that will have no practical effect after the end of the transition period.
Failure to adopt the instrument would mean that the retained EU law would, by continuing to refer to the UK, not work smoothly in the GB space. It is also potentially confusing for Northern Ireland, as it would suggest that retained EU law applies there, when it will not.
GMO policy is devolved and will remain so. The devolved Administrations have been closely involved in the production of the instrument and gave consent. I commend the regulations to the Committee.
Victoria Prentis
I will attempt to answer some of the hon. Gentleman’s questions, but I must say that he has gone far wider than the scope of the SIs. As committed as we are to both the organic sector and to technological advances in agriculture, I do not think this is the proper forum for answering very broad, sectoral questions about our direction on either. Having said that, as he asked the questions, I will briefly touch on some of them.
We are working with stakeholders across the devolved Administrations to scope out the user needs for an electronic replacement for TRACES NT. From 1 January, while we develop the new import system, we will be using a manual system that mirrors the one recently replaced by the electronic TRACES NT system. We are continuing to communicate and issue guidance on the manual system to organic operators in the UK, and to those in third countries.
On the labelling issue, which is a wide question, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that the vote on the control bodies recognition is likely to take place at the meeting at the end of November. We wish them well with that, but we also hope that trade between the EU and UK will continue in the long term. That is why, as I said earlier, we have decided to recognise the EU’s organic standards as equivalent until the end of 2021, while we make the long-term agreements with the EU, in order to allow producers in Great Britain the continued supply of organic products and ingredients that they currently enjoy.
The derogation about feed continues to the end of 2022, so we will let the hon. Gentleman know in due course what plans we have for the end of that period. I will not tie myself to anything at this point—we have many more pressing matters to decide on before then.
We intend to consult on GMOs, and we should start that consultation towards the end of this year. I anticipate that it will take 12 weeks and that it will be a very full review, and I look forward to engaging with the evidence that emerges.
If we make substantive changes to our policy on gene editing—there is some appetite in Government for doing that, as the Prime Minister himself has said—that would require legislative change. There would be a great deal of time to go over the matters raised by the hon. Gentleman in the course of passing that legislation.
I hope members of the Committee fully understand the need for the two sets of regulations, and the need to maintain operability and consistency of our legislation at the end of the transition period. The regulations help make the retained EU organic and GMO regimes operable, and ensure that the strict regulations that are currently in place will be maintained at the end of the transition period.
I therefore commend the two instruments to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.
DRAFT GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS 2020
Resolved,
That the Committee has considered the draft Genetically Modified Organisms (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020.—(Victoria Prentis.)