Farming and Food Production

Lord Trees Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I mentioned earlier, my mother’s family had a small family farm in Wales. My uncle had to do another job because he could not make sufficient money just from the farm, so I know the tough challenges that hill farms in Wales face. Obviously, it is a devolved matter. I assure the noble Lord that I talked regularly in the past to my colleague and I very much look forward to meeting the new Plaid Cymru Minister. I will continue to work to reduce red tape in whatever way we can for farms.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Lilley (Con)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

It is the turn of the Cross Benches.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, bovine TB is one of the most serious challenges facing our cattle farmers in England, so I very much welcome the control strategy announced this morning by the Government, which makes a positive step change in the approach to that control. I have not seen the details yet, but will the Minister confirm that it will enable farmers and vets to use new antibody-based sensitivity tests to indicate which of their animals are infected, no matter what the official TB status is? Will they be able to have easier access to data from Defra and will they have the freedom to manage out infection in their herds? If these changes and others that are mentioned are followed, they should help improve animal health and welfare, reduce the stress on farmers from having to cull their cattle at regular intervals, and provide farmers with some welcome light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The noble Lord asks some pertinent questions. I am pleased that earlier today the co-designed Bovine TB Control Strategy for England was published. It has been developed and published through the TB Hub website, which, if noble Lords are interested, I urge them to look at. A steering group of the Bovine TB Partnership has been working on this for some time in order to make sure that we get the next stage of our strategy on tackling bovine TB absolutely right. We are now going to look at the detail of the steering group’s proposals carefully to see where we go next.

The noble Lord asked a number of very specific questions. My understanding is that we are looking at new tests and implementation on working with vets, but, as he asked quite detailed questions about a strategy that has only just been published—I have not yet seen the detail as yet—I will write to him with that information.

EU-UK SPS Agreement: Food-related Standards

Lord Trees Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I say, we talk regularly to farmers and other food producers. We are very aware that there will be impacts in some areas of realignment, and we are certainly looking at discussing transition periods.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

Can the Minister reassure the House that the scientific progress and eminence established in the UK on precision breeding, particularly of crops and animals, and in particular with regard to resistance to disease and environmental stressors, will be safeguarded in the current negotiations?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Clearly, we are discussing this area with the EU. One of the approaches that we have around the new technologies, whether you are talking about gene editing or novel foods, is that it is important that we are able to strengthen the UK’s credibility as an innovative regulator, bringing in these new technologies. We are very proud of our scientific community and of the work being done in these areas, and we will continue to support them to the best of our ability.

Farming Road Map

Lord Trees Excerpts

Thursday 16th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

One of the things we are actively working on at the moment is how to implement many of the recommendations that the farming profitability review by the noble Baroness, Lady Batters, suggested. We have brought some things in, and it is really important that we look at her clear, independent advice. I do not think anyone in this House would deny that she has substantial expert experience. She has made 57 recommendations; we are looking at how we can work through them, because the whole point behind her report and its recommendations is to improve farm profitability.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, the current crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has highlighted our dependence on imported fertiliser, among other things. What measures are His Majesty’s Government taking to encourage and support our farmers and our farming industry to develop a sustainable circular nitrogen economy?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The war in Iran has highlighted a number of areas where there is cause for concern in the long term. Clearly, there has been a lot of concern around the availability of fertiliser. As I mentioned earlier, it is a global market. While we do not see that there is an immediate risk in UK supply, we are looking at this very seriously. For example, Defra has asked the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board to increase the frequency of its fertiliser price reporting; that is now being published weekly to support farmers in their decision-making. We have also issued a fertiliser survey, aimed at farmers and land managers, so that we can build a better picture and get a better understanding of any direct impacts. We want to work closely with industry and farmers on how we move forward with this.

Animal Welfare Strategy: Rural Communities

Lord Trees Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Herbert of South Downs (Con)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

It is definitely the turn of the Cross Benches. Can they please make their minds up on who is asking the question?

[Lord Trees (CB)]

Given its mention in the animal welfare strategy, what progress have His Majesty’s Government made towards introducing a close season for the brown hare in England?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

That is a really important question, because this is an incredibly important issue, and I am personally very committed to doing that. We are looking for the best and earliest legislative opportunity to bring in a close season for the brown hare, and I am keen that we get that done as soon as practically possible.

Meat Labelling

Lord Trees Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

All trade deals, whether for import or export, are expected to meet the animal welfare standards that we set in this country—that is what we expect as our standards. When we move forward with the proposals in the animal welfare strategy, labelling will clearly be part of it.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, on the slaughter of sheep and goats in halal, there is another solution. There are modern methods of stunning for sheep and goats that are non-lethal but render the animals unconscious before killing; they are wholly consistent with Islamic requirements for halal certification and are supported by the Food Standards Agency. They are based on well-established practices in New Zealand, where all sheep are stunned and their meat is compliant for halal certification. What assessment have His Majesty’s Government made of the universal adoption of similar measures in the UK? They would enable, first, the export of sheepmeat and, secondly, UK consumption of sheepmeat in processed products and in public provision such as in schools and hospitals which is both from stunned animals and halal certified.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The question from the noble Lord, Lord Trees, gives me the opportunity to mention the demonstration of life protocol for sheep and goats. I know that he is a very strong proponent of this. In fact, his support was instrumental in establishing the protocol, which is based on the New Zealand model. I am glad to confirm that the Government very much support this. The demonstration of life protocol provides assurance for Muslim consumers that the stunning of sheep and goats is compatible with halal slaughter requirements. The protocol protects the welfare of the animals involved while also supporting any opportunities for trade. The Food Standards Agency oversees the monitoring and enforcement of animal welfare in slaughterhouses, and it also supports the protocol. So the Government will consider ways they can encourage halal slaughterhouses to use this protocol.

Nitrogen Reduction, Recycling and Reuse (Environment and Climate Change Committee Report)

Lord Trees Excerpts

Tuesday 6th January 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, I am pleased to say that it is a great pleasure and privilege to sit on this committee. I thank our chair for her huge amount of hard work and excellence in chairing; I also thank the clerking team, our policy analyst and Mark Sutton, our expert adviser.

There is a notable irony to the issues around nitrogen—sometimes referred to as “the nitrogen paradox”, as the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, said—in that nitrogen is an important chemical element that comprises nearly 80% of the atmosphere, is harmless and is essential for many biological functions, but too much of it in the wrong form, in the wrong place, at the wrong time is deleterious to the health of humans and the environment, is economically wasteful and exacerbates climate change. It can become a pollutant to be dealt with, yet it is a potentially valuable resource.

Although there are a number of other sources of nitrogen derivatives, I want to concentrate on agriculture, since the majority of ammonia and nitrous oxide in the air—as well as the majority of nitrate pollution in water—comes from agriculture, as my noble friend Lord Krebs pointed out. We expend time, money and much energy on capturing innocuous nitrogen from the atmosphere and then turning it into fertiliser, which we sometimes apply excessively, leading to derivative nitrogen compounds creating problems.

Nitrogen cycles are complex, and nitrogen balance sheets can be constructed to understand the sources, flows and sinks of nitrogen and its derived compounds in order to prioritise actions. That has been done by the Scottish Government but the UK Government did not accept our report’s recommendations to create a nitrogen balance sheet for England. I find it difficult to understand how a Government can then assess the most cost-effective interventions that can be advocated or supported without such a balance sheet. However, I note that His Majesty’s Government acknowledged the need to consider how the nitrogen balance sheet is working in Scotland. Have the Government reached a conclusion yet about this since the Scottish nitrogen balance sheet has been operating for some four years and a considerable amount of data is now available to assess it?

Notwithstanding that, many witnesses to our report have advocated for a circular economy approach. The Government acknowledge such an approach and that it is essential to have a holistic systems approach in order to achieve that. However, His Majesty’s Government have argued that the Circular Economy Taskforce, which will produce what I think is now called the circular economy growth plan, will address nitrogen pollution. Can the Minister tell us what progress has been made in developing approaches to include the nitrogen problem in agriculture and to develop a specific roadmap for farming, which has been promised for 2026?

There are several key challenges facing the agriculture sector to address nitrogen pollution. The first is how to reduce the excessive application of synthetic fertiliser while increasing the use of low-emission applications; as has been said, 45% of fertiliser applied to land is lost to the environment. Secondly, though, there is a need to better store, use and refine livestock waste as fertiliser. Meeting these challenges partly requires the consolidation of policy regulations regarding air and water pollutants, but I will leave that for others to discuss. The noble Lord, Lord Ashcombe, has touched upon that issue.

I want to concentrate on technical applications and solutions that could be encouraged and partly enabled by the Government and communicated to and by farmers. Precision farming methods provide a means of determining appropriate amounts of fertiliser to be applied to relevant crops and soils. An application by injection can reduce leakage to the environment. Low-emission spreading technologies are critical in this respect. Covering slurry tanks substantially reduces emissions of both nitrogen pollutants and other greenhouse gases such as methane. However, covering slurry tanks should be coupled with low-emission spreading for optimum effect.

Additionally, new design standards for livestock housing can reduce airborne pollutants, as we saw in our visit to Netherlands. We also saw there that the requirements that I have just described have been implemented successfully, which has led to a reduction in ammonia emissions by 64%.

In the UK, while funding to cover slurry tanks is available for new slurry stores, it is not available, as I understand it, for existing stores. Covering all slurry stores could bring immediate effects in reducing nitrogen and other greenhouse gas emissions. The revised Environment Improvement Plan stated that the Government would support farmers to invest in low-emission equipment and infrastructure, such as slurry covers, through capital grants. I ask the Minister what progress has been made in that respect.

A better, more circular use of nitrogen is complicated in the UK by the geography of agricultural land use in Britain, as the noble Lord, Lord Ashcombe, referred to. Fertilisers are needed particularly for arable crops in the south and east, and synthetic fertilisers are applied in large quantities there, whereas much of our manure is produced in the west of England, where the majority of livestock are, although the distribution is less marked for pigs and poultry.

Making better use of animal waste is compromised by its sheer bulk, which is mainly water, because this makes mass transport challenging and costly. In 2014 in the Netherlands, legislation was introduced to require the separation and drying of slurry. The creation of dry pelleted animal-derived fertiliser has created a new economic activity, which enables organic fertilisers to be easily and economically transported from their source to the point of need. This reduces imports of synthetic fertiliser and mitigates the insecurity in the supply volatility of international fertiliser.

It is encouraging that, in the UK in 2024, 8% of farms were concentrating and drying slurry. In our inquiry, we heard about encouraging innovative commercial developments, notably from one UK company which makes pellets from organic fertiliser and expects to produce its product at the same cost as synthetic fertiliser within a year. Use of this capital-intensive technology will require the collaboration of multiple primary sources of manure or slurry and commercial plants. The downscaling of such plants, as is being developed and looked at in the Netherlands, could make the production of pelleted organic fertiliser viable by single large enterprises or co-operatives of a few farms. What measures have the Government introduced —or are they considering introducing—to encourage these practices in the UK? They would be a game-changer in facilitating a circular economy for nitrogen.

In conclusion, a comprehensive nitrogen strategy should be an important part of farming, environmental and water strategies and should link up these entities. It is regrettable that His Majesty’s Government are not inclined to develop this. The farming road map due in 2026 will be significant in defining tactics to derive a more circular economy in the agri sector. We look forward to His Majesty’s Government’s considerations of the effectiveness of the national nitrogen balance sheet in Scotland. What are the Government doing to facilitate information, knowledge exchange and best practice to advise farmers how to reduce nitrogen pollution and to address some of the low-hanging fruit issues?

Finally, recognising the old adage “where there is muck, there is money”, with imagination, enterprise, commercial initiatives and appropriate government incentives, real progress could be made in creating an environmentally and economically successful circular economy for nitrogen in the agriculture sector.

Welfare of Domestic Animals

Lord Trees Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I said, when I came into my role as Animal Welfare Minister, I asked for a list of animal welfare legislation and consultations, and all sorts of other things that had been undertaken by the previous Government. The list was huge, so my job was to look at where I felt we could make the best improvements for animal welfare in this country. That is why I commissioned an animal welfare strategy, which looks at what makes the biggest difference to animal welfare. If the noble Baroness looks out for that strategy, which will be published very soon, she might find many things that she will want to support.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, the breeding of dogs with extreme conformations for purely fashionable reasons causes significant, and potentially lifelong, ill health. It is illegal under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) Regulations. A new initiative—the innate health assessment tool—has been lodged to help owners, breeders, trading standards officers, vets and others to avoid this practice in dogs. However, we are now increasingly seeing cats bred with conformations that are seriously deleterious to their health and that of their offspring. Will His Majesty’s Government amend the current regulations to include cats and to encourage the development of innate health assessment tools, or similar tools, to help reduce and avoid these abhorrent breeding practices in cats?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right to raise this issue. As he said, there has been quite a lot of interest and work done on dogs in this area. As a result of the concerns that have been continually and increasingly raised around the health and conformation of cats bred for sale as pets, the Government commissioned the Animal Welfare Committee to produce a report looking at the welfare implications, exactly as the noble Lord talked about. Those recommendations are now with the Government and we are carefully looking at them.

Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill

Lord Trees Excerpts

3rd reading
Friday 21st November 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Trees]

That the Bill do now pass.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, it has been a great privilege to bring forward this Bill, which seeks to prevent the illegal and low-welfare movement of pets into the UK. At Second Reading I remarked that I hoped it would be third time lucky for this Bill, and today I am thrilled to present it for its third and last reading before it makes its way on to the statute book.

It has been a privilege to play a part in advancing this legislation, which will strengthen protection for animals so dear to so many of us. However, the milestone is not mine alone, of course. The progress of the Bill has been a truly collaborative endeavour, and I express my sincere gratitude to those who have contributed to its journey. It is a particular pleasure to thank Dr Danny Chambers from the other place, because I had the pleasure and privilege of teaching him when he was a veterinary undergraduate at the University of Liverpool. You know you are getting old when your former students become MPs.

I thank the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and her team at Defra for the great work they have done in supporting the Bill. I am very grateful to fellow Peers who supported us so well at Second Reading; I am assured that the points they made then will be considered by the Government in developing the Bill further through secondary legislation. Finally, I thank various organisations, including the British Veterinary Association, the RSPCA, the Dogs Trust, Battersea and others, which have long lobbied for the measures encompassed in this legislation.

When quarantine was replaced by rabies vaccinations in 2000, there were fewer than 8,000 dogs moving non-commercially into the UK; by 2024, there were 368,000 dogs moving. Many of them were not day trippers but one-way trippers: illegally imported dogs that were poorly bred, poorly kept, unsocialised and vulnerable to ill health. In 2025, the PDSA estimated that 21,000 dogs were imported with cropped ears, a mutilation that is illegal in this country. In 2023, Cats Protection estimated that 65,000 cats had been imported, many of which had been declawed—another illegal process in the UK.

This Bill will bring these practices to an end. It closes a loophole in pet travel rules that have been exploited for profit and introduces a proportionate limit on the number of pets that can be brought in during a single non-commercial movement. It makes it harder for unscrupulous individuals to abuse the system. The Bill also grants the Government powers to introduce secondary legislation to restrict low-welfare imports, by prohibiting the import of puppies and kittens under six months of age and restricting the import of heavily pregnant animals and of pets that have been subject to mutilation, such as ear cropping in dogs and declawing in cats.

I welcome the Government’s assurances that they intend to work with stakeholders to consider appropriate exemptions to these restrictions as these regulations are further developed. I echo the Government’s words of caution that any exemptions must be extremely selective and must not allow the creation of loopholes that could be exploited.

The Bill is a testament to what we can achieve when we work together across this House. I know that noble Lords will support its passage and help us take this important step forward to ending pet smuggling and improving the welfare of pets brought into the United Kingdom. I beg to move.

[Baroness Grender (LD)]

My Lords, today we can be proud that we are a nation that truly loves our pets and legislates for them too. Dogs, cats and—yes—ferrets will be protected in the future by this new law. That is a tribute to all the vets, owners and rescue charities who have dealt with these terrible cruelties and campaigned for change.

I congratulate my Liberal Democrat colleague and vet, Dr Danny Chambers, who has made this a law so soon after becoming an MP. My heartfelt thanks also go to the noble Lord, Lord Trees, and the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, for all the work they have done to deliver this. My thanks also go to every parliamentarian—it is wonderful to see so many here today to mark this moment—who has fought for and delivered this excellent and long-overdue change in the law.

Deforestation

Lord Trees Excerpts

Wednesday 17th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

My Lords, the UK welcomes the strong focus on forests from the Brazilian presidency at COP 30, and we will continue to shape our approach for putting forests at the heart of the climate agenda at COP 30 in Brazil. We are working at pace to move forward in this area.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, it is not just forest commodities per se that are driving deforestation in, for example, Brazil and Australia; it involves the production of other agricultural commodities such as beef. Beef imports to the UK are rising while our indigenous production is falling, yet we produce 1 kilogram of beef for a fraction of the global average greenhouse emissions, without deforestation. What are we doing to support our British beef farmers? In particular, what are we doing to ensure that imported beef is not being produced from deforested land?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

We have a new Farming Minister in the other place who is very keen to support farmers. We want to ensure that farmers become profitable, and that includes beef farmers. It is important that we support our food security in this country, and that we work with farmers to help them do so. We also do not want imports that are below our own standards and that have a negative impact on the environment. It is important that we find the balance between providing sufficient choice in the food on people’s plates and supporting local food production and our own farmers.

Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Bill

Lord Trees Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 5th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, for bringing the Bill to the House.

I am sure all of us have enjoyed the TV programme “One Man and His Dog” or marvelled at the skill of sheepdogs and shepherds working with very mobile and awkward animals such as sheep, but, historically and in evolutionary terms, the main predators for hooved animals, whether they be ovine, bovine or cervine, have been and are canids, notably wolves, from which of course our domestic dog is derived, so dogs and livestock are uneasy bedfellows—or should I say “field fellows”? In fact, most human fatalities from cattle are a result of dogs alarming the cattle, which all too sadly highlights the potential dangers.

Livestock worrying and attacking is a terrible problem, particularly in sheep. Dogs not under proper control cause panic, miscarriages of pregnant animals, often horrific injuries and death. Sometimes, sadly, farmers have to shoot their own sheep, in humane acts to relieve their suffering, or shoot the responsible dogs, which is equally distressing.

The majority of these incidents involve unaccompanied dogs—I will come back to that in a minute. The National Police Chiefs’ Council recorded 1,700 incidents between 2013 and 2017, with over 900 livestock killed and over 600 injured, as well as 92 incidents when dogs were shot. Those incidents have been rising: a 2025 survey by the National Sheep Association showed that 87% of its respondent farmers reported at least one sheep worrying incident in the last 12 months. The worst such incident resulted in the death of 44 sheep. From an earlier NSA survey in 2021, we know that the financial losses from a single incident of sheep worrying and attacks can be as high as £50,000. The average cost to each survey respondent was estimated at more than £1,500 per farm per year. Finally, NFU Mutual calculates that the total cost of dog attacks on farm animals in 2024 was more than £1.8 million. In summary, these events can cause great suffering to animals and great distress to farmers, dog owners and landowners, as well as substantial financial loss.

I strongly support the measures in this Bill. Perhaps the most significant that I want to pick out are the measures in Clauses 2 and 3, which give police the power to seize and detain suspect dogs and take samples, including DNA for analysis. Given that the majority of incidents involve unaccompanied dogs, these measures, and the powers of identification inherent in DNA analysis, should substantially increase the ability of the police to identify the responsible dogs and their owners, link them to a particular incident and bring appropriate charges. It is often the case that repeat offenders cause these incidents, so these sorts of powers should help enormously to prevent such repeat offences.

I am very supportive of the measures in the Bill, without reservation—but while I welcome the Bill, legislation is but one way in which to approach this problem. Essentially this is a problem of irresponsible dog ownership or a lack of awareness and knowledge on the part of some dog owners. A great deal can be and is being done by way of information and education to the public and dog owners to reduce the incidence of the problem. The NFU, in collaboration with the Kennel Club, provides free signage for farmers and other landowners to warn the public of specific risks or dangers to livestock, their dog or themselves—and the risks of abortion pathogens such as Neospora.

Let us hope that more information and public education, together with the strengthened legislation provided in this Bill, will significantly reduce this shocking problem.