Food and Drink (Miscellaneous Amendments Relating to Food and Wine Composition, Information and Labelling) Regulations 2021

Baroness Hayman of Ullock Excerpts

Wednesday 19th May 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for arranging the very helpful briefing with her officials in advance of today’s debate. This SI is, clearly, largely about labelling, and the Minister referenced the “real world” effects on consumers that may occur. However, I draw attention to paragraph 2.3 of the Explanatory Memorandum, which shows that these “real world” effects are minor. As already raised in the other place, we are not convinced that all of these effects are necessarily minor. The changes provided for in the SI, as the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, reminded us, were originally presented as a negative instrument, which was then recommended for upgrade to the affirmative procedure by the sifting committee, as the subject matter was considered sufficiently sensitive as to need to be properly considered.

There has been a lot of discussion about honey, so I am going to consider meat labelling at this point. The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, pointed out that the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee noted that meat, excluding beef, will be labelled as “non-UK” rather than “non-EU”. While we accept that some EU-centric terms or rules may no longer be wholly appropriate after the transition period, moving towards a system where food items are labelled merely as “non-UK”, rather than “non-EU”, risks an overall decrease in the information available to consumers. The committee was quite specific on this point. It stated that

“as consumers will no longer be able to tell whether meat (excluding beef) is from the EU or not after the adjustment period, this may have the potential of reducing key information that is available at present about the origin of a product and therefore about the associated food standards.”

I support the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, about the potential impact on animal welfare. These may well be unintended consequences of the changes, but these are consequences that really need to be looked at when we consider the higher standards of production in the EU compared with many other countries. Why do the Government wish to remove this information from labels?

The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee also pointed out, as has already been mentioned, that, after the adjustment period, different requirements will apply in GB and Northern Ireland, where EU requirements will continue to apply as a result of the Northern Ireland protocol—as with so many other SIs we have debated. Defra did tell the committee, as we have heard, that further steps will be taken to continue unfettered access for NI food products to the GB market, so perhaps I can also ask the Minister, as other noble Lords have, whether she could outline what these steps will be.

On devolution, the changes relate to England, with similar provisions planned by Wales and Scotland. As it has been some time since the SI was first tabled, can the Minister provide any update on progress in the devolved Administrations?

Consultation is an area in which I am always particularly interested. I was pleased to note that this was mentioned by the Minister in her opening remarks. The Explanatory Memorandum, in paragraph 10, does make it clear that the consultation was some time ago, at the end of 2018.

I will mention briefly the changes to wine labelling. The Wine and Spirit Trade Association, as we have heard from the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, is not entirely happy, and the noble Lord, Lord German, explained in great detail the importance of the wine industry, so I will not go into any detail. Paragraph 10.7 of the Explanatory Memorandum talks about “regular contact”, so, again, perhaps I could ask the Minister for a little more information on this because, as I have just mentioned, the consultation was some time ago and it would be helpful to have an update on the kinds of discussions with industry organisations that have taken place since then.

Paragraph 12 of the Explanatory Memorandum also talks about the changes for businesses contained in the instrument. Costs were mentioned by other noble Lords and, while they may not meet the threshold that requires publication of an impact assessment, changing labelling laws undoubtedly presents logistical and financial challenges, in particular for smaller producers. So perhaps I can ask the Minister whether Defra has estimated such costs and whether she will be able to provide us with details. Clearly this is something that she may well not have at her fingertips, so I would be very grateful if she could write to me with more detail.

Finally, the new rules are quite complex—this came across in the briefing we had with officials yesterday—with the varying transitional periods and adjustments, so what support has been put in place for not just industry but trading standards? In conclusion, we do not oppose these changes, but believe that some of the potential consequences should be given greater consideration.