Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill [HL]

Lord Plumb Excerpts

Tuesday 24th July 2012 Lords Chamber

I hope that I have been able to reassure noble Lords that dairy farmers are not being forgotten. Having moved away from the terms of today’s amendment to address these broader points, I reiterate that the Government are confident that the Bill as it stands already achieves implicitly what the amendment would make explicit. References to the order and the code in this Bill can already be understood to mean the order and the code as updated from time to time. I therefore ask the noble Lord, Lord Knight, to withdraw the amendment.

[Lord Plumb]

My Lords, I support the Minister’s response. I waited for her comments before I spoke because I was not sure of the exact position now. I tell the noble Lord, Lord Knight, that the negotiations did not take place on Sunday. They took place yesterday. I declare an interest: I was there—not at the negotiations but not far away—and I had a long talk with the Minister, Jim Paice, afterwards and with many of those present who are directly concerned with this issue.

Following the answer given by the Minister, I do not honestly see any need for the noble Lord’s concern or, in fact, the amendment. It would be advisable to wait for the Written Statement due tomorrow because, as my noble friend said, milk will not be left out of this package. Anyone who is appointed to a job as an adjudicator or is concerned with the grocery trade will realise that within it we have a voluntary code of practice that has virtually been agreed by all parties, and which we have been waiting for for some considerable time. Now that the code is there, the dairy trade will inevitably be not only included but prominent in the concern of any adjudicator or in any response that one might have after the appointment of an adjudicator.

I therefore feel confident that there is at the moment no need for the amendment. We should accept the statement made by the Minister here, and we look forward to the further report from the Agriculture Minister tomorrow on the whole situation of the dairy trade.

[Lord Knight of Weymouth]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her clarifications and to the noble Lord, Lord Plumb, who is never far away from where things are at on these matters and who always speaks with authority on them. I certainly have no wish to interfere with the negotiations or with the voluntary code that is being agreed. I very much applaud the negotiations and the agreements that are coming forward. Clearly, we had a job to do—to scrutinise the Bill—and there was some uncertainty I was looking to be resolved. I am surprised that the Farming Minister did not think it was appropriate to give the Bill Minister in the Lords a call regarding these things because it was fairly obvious these issues might come up today, but that is for the noble Baroness and her colleague to resolve. I think I heard her say correctly from a note that there would be a separate adjudicator if there was to be an adjudicator for the voluntary code. We would subsequently want to explore the efficiency of that arrangement and exactly how it would be drawn up and what status it would have.

We look forward to the Statement from the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, tomorrow. I respectfully ask that some consideration be given as to whether that could be an Oral Statement and not just a Written Statement, because Members of this House may have some questions they would like to be able to ask. Perhaps the noble Baroness could take that back and discuss it with the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, in their office. In the mean time, I am very happy to withdraw my amendment.